I never needed this drive, for that matter, I never needed an Apple Ipod either. I have a high end Pocket PC that plays Mpeg4 movies and MP3 songs in high quality digital stereophonic surround sound, apart from all my personal work I can do with this gadget. The Toshiba e740 with its two slots for external memory cards is really good value for money. But then, this is not a review on Toshiba e740 Pocket PC, I have posted that many moons ago.
Then, why did I opt for the MPD-AP20U? To tell you the truth, I didn’t opt for it, this was a gift I received, and courtesy demands that I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Being a gadget-freak my philosophy, at least in the case of gadgets, is “the more the better”. Soon, I found out that this was no ordinary gift horse, but a prime racehorse that doesn’t need to be looked at in the mouth.
I was mighty impressed with its looks, but then, every new piece looks really good to the eye, especially, if one is getting it for free. But, I don’t trust any gadget until I give it the works and find out for myself just how good (or bad) it is. I needn’t have bothered at all.
Here are my impressions:
The Sony MPD-AP20U looks like any ordinary CD Discman at first sight, but it is much more than that. It is a serious piece of hardware. In reality, it is a portable CD READ-WRITE/DVD READ Drive with Sony’s ‘Power Burn’ feature. It also doubles up as an ordinary portable CD/DVD Player with an additional MP3 feature. Oh well, it also plays WAV files. Wonder what it doesn’t play!
It comes with a 24X-read/write and 10X-rewrite capability in respect of CDs, and an 8X read capability for DVD-ROMs. This is serious competition to all the external CD-Writers which though do the job, cannot be carried around as personal DVD Player.
The MPD-AP20U has a slot for Sony’s Memory Stick. So, the user can store data or audio/video on the Memory Stick as well as play from it. Now, that’s pretty handy considering the fact that we now have 1GB/2GB memory sticks available in the market at reasonable cost.
The ‘MPD’ comes with a cute looking wired remote that has a one-line backlit display. Almost all the required functions to operate the player have been provided on the small 4-inch by ½ inch cylindrical remote.
It comes with a built-in capacious rechargeable battery that is sufficient for most jobs. In addition to that Sony provides an external battery option that also doubles up as a cradle for connecting to a USB Port of a PC. This comes with the box and there is no need to buy it separately. Sensible thinking on the part of Sony.
The MPD-AP20U, being a DVD Player, comes with high quality niobium ear-bud phones that bring out the most delicate sounds to life. Apart from the crystal clear sound quality they are easy on the ears. What I noticed was, these tiny earphones generated good bass.
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For those people who rely more on technical specifications to make up their minds, here is all the data they need taken from the manufacturer’s online site.
Technical Data: Courtesy Sony Corporation:
Type: External/portable DVD/CD-RW combo drive
Installation: Horizontal placement optimal
Interface: USB 2.0/1.1
Access time: 160 ms typical (CD-ROM media)
Supported media: DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, CD Text, Video CD, CD-DA, CD Extra, CD-R, CD-RW
Additional media: Memory Stick Reader/Writer (Purple Stick)
Write methods: Track-at-once, Disk-at-once, Session-at-once, Fixed packet writing
Write speed: CD-R Write: 4X, 8X, 8~24X Z-CLV max., CD-RW Write: 4X, 8X, 10X max., Memory Stick: 1.5MB/s
Read speed: CD-ROM Read: 24X max., DVD-ROM Read: 8X max., Memory Stick: 2.45MB/s
Sustained Data Transfer Rate: 600 kb/s Mode 1 (4X, CD-R/RW read/write max.), 1, 200kB/s Mode 1 (8X, CD-R/RW read/write max.), 3, 600 kb/s Mode 1 (24x CD-R write), 10, 800 kb/s UDF/ISO9660/Joliet (8x max. DVD-ROM read)
Burst transfer rate: 480MB/s max.
Buffer memory: 8 MB
Power supply: +10V DC
Power consumption: Approx. 10W (charging, approx. 7.5W)
Batteries: Internal rechargeable; AC/DC cradle: 8 AA (not included)
Battery life: Up to 10 hours (MP3 continuous playback), Up to 4 hours (CD-DA continuous playback), Up to 1.5 hours (DVD video continuous playback), Up to 9 full hours CD-R or 7 hours CD-RW (discs can be recorded on a single full battery)
Included software: PC: B’s Recorder Gold, B’s Clip, PhotoBase, PhotoStudio, Retrospect Express, MusicMatch Jukebox, Cyberlink PowerDVD software; Macintosh: B’s Recorder Gold, PhotoBase, PhotoStudio, Retrospect Express
System requirements: Windows: Pentium II 233 MHz or faster, 32MB of RAM, Hard Disk Drive with 1.2 MB sustained transfer rate or faster, Direct-X supported sound card, Installed USB 1.1 or 2.0 port, Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, or XP Home and Professional; Macintosh Power Macintosh G3, Power Macintosh G4, iMac DV, or iBook Computer running Mac OS 9.2.2 or higher
In the box: DVD/CD drive, Docking Cradle for longer battery life and recharging capability, 3 foot USB cable, AC Power Adapter
Width: 5.37 inches
Height: .87 inches
Depth: 6.26 inches
Weight: 12.36 ounces (including internal battery)
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Always trust Sony to come up with innovative ideas that don’t remain just ideas, they actually work. Having said that, I’d like to add tongue in cheek that their idea of sticking to their guns in the case of their proprietary Memory Stick was not a great one when the entire world was looking for a universal standard memory card.
To the person who likes carrying large files, be it audio, video, or data files and at the same time use it as a CD/DVD Audio/Video player, this is a nice buy. The ‘nice buy’ becomes a ‘great buy’ when this player can be used as an external drive to a PC where you can even burn CDs.
Of course, you need to get used to operating this beauty a bit before you can explore the immense possibilities it promises.
It pays to have this ‘Allrounder’ in your side.
Mbfarookh.