Samsung YH-920 Samsung YH-920 Super Thin MP3 Hard Disk

Rating:
Summary: Great Product (PRODUCT REVISED AND FIXED!!)
Review: This has been a great product so far. With more features for $100 less (on sale at Office Depot for $200), and better battery life and support for almost all audio formats, this is a great buy. All of the earlier reviews that said it didn't work are referring to the earlier version of the YH-920. Samsung re-released this item, so now it is REVISED AND FIXED!!!! I had the same problem before until I returned it for the new product.

The product is attractive and very durable (have dropped a few times off computer desk), has many great extras such as a radio, docking station, quality carrying case, voice recorder, ability to record from things such as tv's, coputers, etc., and a remote control. The sound quality is also great and the menus are easy to navigate. Although Napster is included free for two months with the product, it requires you to enter your credit card number, which I am not willing to do for a free trial. Windows Media Player 10 works perfectly fine.

I have only found a couple of low points for this product. If you plug it into your computer, sometimes it may say rebuilding device, but it will delete all of your songs. But, you can just use the recovery utility to fix that problem. Another slight problem is the small pause between songs, maybe a 1/10 of a second, but noticable if listening to songs that lead into another.

To fix some of the other consumers problems: you can fast-forward through songs, just hold the next song button, or the last song button to rewind. You can play songs as they appear on a CD, you just have to go through the artists, then the album tabs, and your songs will appear in the correct order. It will not work if you just go through the album tab.

I strongly reccomend this product as a great alternative to the iPod (which in my opinion is overpriced and over-hyped), with more features for less money. A great buy.


Rating:
Summary: Nightmare... "I couldn't be more disappointed"
Review: I bought this a few days ago and to say the least it is a total nightmare. Took several tries to get the device recognised by windows xp sp2. Once that hurdle was cleared and the napster software and media player were made as current as possible the issues continued. While both software programs used to transfer music or sync to the player appear to work on the pc, once the device is properly disconnected, nothing shows up in the library on the player. I spent several hours on the phone with samsung support. I reloaded the firmware, reformatted and repaired the device with included utility. All to no avail. Napster support said it was a samsung issue. I am just thinking it shouldn't be this difficult. I bought my son an Ipod for xmas and I will be exchanging this item for an Ipod for me. The player looks great and it has some extras. That is why I decided to try it. In general I think Samsung makes good products. But this product isn't woth the hassle. I couldn't be more disappointed. Getting music to the Ipod was virtually effortless. It does what it is supposed to. The Samsung YH-920 doesn't. Who needs an FM radio when you've got 20 gb of you favourite music anyway? The remote is nice but pointless when the device doesn't give access to the music you try to load to it. I hate to say it because I had so much hope for the device. Stay away from this product

Rating:
Summary: Samsung 920 really rocks
Review: i got my 1st hard drive mp3 player 2 days ago (samsung 920). all my friends own an IPOD and i was not too impressed with the size and price of an IPOD specially when there are other players of the same size with better features and almost half the price. i did not want to contribute to the rising apple stocks thanx to IPOD that got apple out of a financial crisis. so i did research and decided to buy the SAMSUNG YH-920. this player really ROCKS. 1st of all this player comes with all the accessories that you have to buy seperately if you buy an IPOD (remote, case, FM tuner etc). 2nd this player comes with all the bells and whistles like FM radio, and the one i like the most is recording from FM radio. i can store data files, record my classes and still have room left for more (huge 20 gig HD space) i have always trusted SAMSUNG products and have owned several SAMSUNG cellphones. the size of this MP3 player is exactly the same as an IPOD and actually it is a little lighter than IPOD. it comes with a cradle and USB 2.0 and remains pretty organized on my desk. the reason i gave it a 4 star rating is because it come with a 2 month membership for NAPSTER which is almost a ripoff, they tell you that you can download all the music you want during the free trial but when you install napster, you actually have to pay 0.99c for a song (10.00 $ a month just to get access to all the music? i dont think so !!) the samsung 920 took me less than 10 minits to hook up and my windows media player 10 which is what i use to manage the playlists picked it up in seconds. i converted my music in variable WMA format (approx 3MB per song) very happy with the sound quality,the headsets and original leather case. highly reccomend this product to anyone considering to buy an IPOD.

Rating:
Summary: Great Value for Money
Review: I got this device for $235 and so far I am quite happy with it.
The device came with a remote (no LCD) and a case, Two things that I would have bought seperately for any other player on the market.
I wanted a player with FM radio (which works great) and it is less bulky then the Zen Touch or Iriver H320.
Just to clarify a couple of things said about this palyer. You can fast forward and rewind a song (press and hold >>| or |<<) and you don't Have to use Napster.
I use windows media player but this seems a little slow and un-intuitive compared to something like Ipod +itunes.
Is it better than an Ipod ? Maybe not. But it offers better value for money than the overpriced and overhyped Ipod.
The main con with this player compared to its rivals is the Battery life. At 10 hours (more like 5-6 in the realworld use) it works well for me but but others may not be satisfied with this.
To summarise
Pros
- Value for money (Remote, case and cradle)
- Good sound quality and volume
- Good looks and compact design
- Plays wma's and Mp3's without conversion
- Easy to use menu system

Cons
- Napster software
- Average Battery Life

Rating:
Summary: It started messing up before I even had it a week...
Review: I hadn't even had this player for a week (I got it for Christmas) before it started messing up. The player itself works fine, it's the software that's required to use it that I have a problem with. Twice now, within three days, all the songs I had loaded onto the player were erased, and I still don't know why. The first time I had 515 songs on it, and the second time 147 because I hadn't had the chance to load them all back onto it. DO NOT install Napster. The whole program is horrible and will do nothing but cause headaches. I tried to use the two free months the player comes with, and whenever I tried to load the downloaded songs onto the player, it would ask me to either pay for them or enter the promo code in. When I entered the code, it told me it had already been redeemed and said I should send in a form to customer service if this was incorrect. I ripped and synched all of my music with Windows Media Player, which is highly overrated as a software program. While it worked more easily than Napster, it still caused a lot of trouble, and half the time it wouldn't recognize my player. However, the player works nicely and just how it's supposed to once you get music onto it. But right now I have no music on it since it just got erased; I spent many hours putting my entire CD collection on this thing just to have it all erased. I plan to try again and hopefully the music won't get erased again. If it does, I may consider returning this player in favor of another. It may have just been problems with my computer that made these things happen, so I would still recommend that anyone who is considering this player doesn't rule it out. Just make sure you stay away from Napster.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Quality MP3 Player with Great Features!
Review: I think some of the other reviewers must have been paid by Ipod to write bad reviews as I just got my Samsung YH-920 a few days ago and I am very impressed! I debated on whether to get an Ipod or the Samsung. Samsung products are usually excellent and this is no exception. The player is very well made and I believe the quality and ease of use are up to par with the Ipod. I actually thought it was easier to navigate the YH-920 than the Ipod as I found on my friends Ipods that the touch wheel was so sensitive. The Samsung is much easier to navigate and the extra features are really cool. The FM radio is very good and it is fun to be able to record on the fly. I did not have any problem installing the player as I followed the instructions. I did however find the Napster software totally useless with very little functionality unless you plan on only downloading their music. Use windows media player 9.0 or higher and you will have much better luck organizing you mp3's. Napster had the crapiest MP3 id tag labeling I have ever seen! Windows media player works much better for importing you current MP3's.

Overall what a great machine. It took me about 15 minutes to figure it all out and now it is SO easy to use. It comes with all the accessories you could want and again the record option is so simple and the quality is decent.

I had a SSI Neo Jukebox for the last four years and loved it, this player is definitely a step up and a great replacement. All the snooty Ipod users out there can be ignorant of what they are missing! This is an EXCELLENT MP3 player and sets the bar for player to come. Well done Samsung...ditch Napster, they are crampin your style.

I paid $208 (that included shipping) which is a heck of lot cheaper than an Ipod and I got so much more player and accessories.


Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Player Once You Learn How To Use It
Review: I've had this Samsung player for about a week now, and the more I use it, the more I like it. Hardware wise, this player is solid. 20 gigs of space, an FM tuner, a voice recorder and and line in are all excellent features in an MP3 player in this price range. The major concerns in previous reviews with missing features are actually easily overcome. To fast foward through a song, hold the >>| button. To select an entire artist to play, hold the select button until an option to add the entire artist to the playlist pops up. To address the issue of albums playing in alphabetical order instead of track order, either make a playlist in napster or number the filenames of the mp3s as 01-artist-track.mp3 .

Audio quality is very good, with the only issue being volume. While its certainly enough for basic headphones or earbuds, if you use a high end pair of headphones, you'll need a preamp to get decent volume.

Navigating in the player is very easy as well, with songs categorized by artist, album, genre, and song title. My only complaint would be that when navigating by track name it would include the artist in the list.

My only major issues involve not the player, but its usage of napster 2.0 to transfer songs. While windows media player 10 can be used, you cannot transfer playlists. Napster 2.0 is as of this writing still buggy. It will crash if you change tag info in the library while transfering songs. Deleting songs takes an excessive amount of time. In addition, I found songs transfered faster in windows media player than in napster 2.0. If the software issue is dealt with, the player is easily as good as an Ipod.

Rating:
Summary: Surprised!
Review: My mother bought this equipment as a present for me after hearing I wanted an IPOD, I was absolutely dissapointed after reading all the reviews I have seen here. I tried to return it but the store in NY were she bought it did not accept it back (complete thieves- just around Pensylvania Hotel in Manhattan).
Well I am no genius with computers, I have an average computer, I have low speed internet, I am not registered in Napster I do not own a bast collection of music, I have never owned an MP3 player before, and I did not encounter any of the difficulties the other guys found with this equipment. The installation was easy, the sync was easy and the sound is great. Have not use it very much but until now I find it a very very good buy. I will continue using it and let you all know (another thing, play it safe and buy it in a large store - amazon - best by - c city, etc)

Rating:
Summary: Lots of features but still falls just short
Review: Samsung apparently listened to everyone who said the iPod was missing recording capabilities and FM Radio. They therefore came up with a device fairly similar in look and feel to the iPod and added those features as well as including some of the items people craved (recharging cradle, carrying case, and remote). At a cheaper price than the iPod it is very competitive.

It lacks, however, in the interface. More precisely, when choosing a band or genre it is not possible to choose the entire band or genre. The device requires that you choose an album. Of course you could make a playlist along these lines but why should you have to when the metadata is already there? Additionally, the randomization does not store a list of the played songs. What this means is that the same song can play twice in a row or within a very short period of time. Nor is it possible to go back to a song you just heard if you wish to immediately hear it again.

This is not to say its a difficult interface to use. I would offer it is actually easier to use than the iPod. With simple up, down, left, right arrows one does not have to continually move one's thumb to get to the desired item.

Other complaints include a short battery life, an LCD that is not always easy to read, an inability to scroll to the right on a song's name (in case it is really long), a lack of date and time, and the ability to only play up to 160 kKhz MP3 or WMA files (wav, flac, ogg, aac, and MP3 of greater quality are not playable on the device without first converting).

The device gives all of the basic features one might desire but nothing more. Samsung did tap into a market hungry for features and gadgets and made a device easy for them to use but failed to address some of the desires of people wanting to truly play their music in a modern fashion that essentially ignores albums.

Rating:
Summary: WASTE OF MONEY
Review: The manual instructions r poor and it took me forever to get my damn computer to recognise the player. Apparently this mp3 player can store 5,000 songs however once I got 250 songs on it, what happened was that if I upload an album the device will delete another album. What the f---?! Avoid this player at all costs and exercise your right 2 demand a refund! I sure did.