Review: Innovative Genica Portable MP3 CD Player Plays MP3s Burned to CDR/CDRW

PRODUCT: MP3 CD Player
DESCRIPTION: Portable MP3 CD Player
MANUFACTURER: Genica
RETAIL COST: $99.99 (street price)
CONCLUSIONS: Superb value; built-in recharger (NiCad only); supports voice recording (500 seconds); 50-second anti-skip feature; battery level indicator; plays standard audio CDs; five graphic equalizer presets; earbud headphones included; flimsy buttons; doesn't remember settings after power off; doesn't support long file names.

When I first heard of MP3 players, I wanted one. But I couldn't justify the exorbitant cost ($200-$300), especially considering the unit only holds a half hour or so of music. Players have dropped in price, but still only hold about an album's worth of songs. For more music you've either got to be near your computer to download more MP3s, or you've got to pay for multiple expensive SmartMedia memory cards ($75 for 32MB).

Then along comes Genica with a brilliantly simple idea: take a standard portable CD player and make it play MP3 files from a CD-ROM disc!

The process is simple: burn a batch of MP3 files onto CDR or CDRW media in ISO 9660 format. A single disc can hold about 160 songs, or eleven hours of music! When you pop the disc into the player, it sorts and queues up the MP3s (it skips any non-MP3 files it finds). All the standard CD functions are available for MP3s: fast forward, reverse, track skip, random, and program mode. There's even a superfast track advance so you don't have to press "Next" 140 times to get to track 140!

If you store your MP3s in folders, the player can play all the songs in one folder before moving to the next --- handy since the device doesn't support playlists (just burn your CD with your playlist songs in a single folder).

The Genica MP3 player isn't quite as compact as a digital MP3 player, but it's slightly smaller than my regular portable CD player. Since it has moving parts and is subject to skipping, it includes a 50-second anti-skip buffer -- fine for anything except constant bumping. Plus, unlike a 100% digtial MP3 player, this plays regular audio CDs. Overall, sound quality was excellent, though of course much of that depends on your MP3 encoding software.

The unit includes some unique features: it has a built-in charger for recharging NiCad batteries and a recording mode: plug in a microphone and record up to 500 seconds (eight minutes) of dictation.

I wasn't wildly impressed with the player's construction -- buttons are made of a rather cheesy metal-colored plastic and seem flimsy. Overall the unit is similar to most inexpensive ($50 range) portable CD players. I also didn't like that the player doesn't remember settings (like random mode) after you turn it off.

I had a bit of trouble with it playing my CDs. Originally it would only play the first song in each folder. Turns out I needed to change some settings in Toast: record as ISO 9660 Level 1 (which means no long file names), turn off Apple Extensions, and turn on Append Version Numbers. If you can, use CDRW media for your first try, just to make sure you've got the right settings.

This player may not fit everyone; it requires you have access to a CD burner, it is larger and more cumbersome than a tiny Rio, and two AA batteries last only a few hours. But those are sacrifices I'm willing to make since I potentially can carry my entire music collection (hundreds of CDs) on a couple dozen fifty cent discs!

This is obviously a first-generation player (you can't see the track title on the LCD screen and it doesn't support Variable Bit Rate MP3s), but overall I am very pleased, especially considering the very reasonable cost ($99.99 via The Computer Geeks).