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Digitalway MPIO FL100 256MB Review

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  1. Ian Bell •  January 28, 2004
    Rating: 3.5/5

    I had a chance to use this player very briefly and there were a couple things I did not like. First of all the arm band was not very functional and often covered the controls. And there is a real lack of bass no matter what setting you have it on in the equalizer menu.

    On the up-side the inclusion of a media card capabilities is fantasic and really expands the longevity for this player. I only wish they decided to use a USB 2.0 connection. Even with 256MB it takes a while to transfer songs over USB 1.1.

    Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  2. Edgar Camacho •  February 3, 2004
    Rating: 4.5/5

    I’ve had this little sucker for over a year now (256 meg version) and I love it. It has its little quircks, but I mainly bought it for use when running or working out and it has never failed me. I bought an SD/MMC 256M card for it and brought the total memory up to 512M, which holds about 40 or so songs (VBR LAME alt-preset extreme). For those looking for a good flash based player that is small and light, look now further. I would go for the 512M version now though.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  3. Andrew •  March 5, 2004
    Rating: 5/5

    This thing looks “PIMP”, the software is drag and drop and, with a good pair of headphones, it sounds GREAT. The headphones that come with it lack bass. The ONLY complaint that I have about it (and believe me, I’m picky) is that whoever wrote the user’s manual needs to learn English. It’s actually written with an accent. Definitely the worst translation job I have ever seen. Someone should have edited it.

    Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  4. unsatisfie •  April 5, 2004
    Rating: 0.5/5

    I have not been able to use this since the day I got it, and i can’t get a hold of the company to get it fixed. The software constantly locks up and will not allow me to stop the data transfer…..I tried the “fix” on the website, and it still does not work…..if I had the receipt this little thing would have been gone long ago.

    Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  5. Jdog •  April 16, 2004
    Rating: 0.5/5

    The software for this player sucks.

    When I tried deleting files, it deleted them but seemed to stay resident on the flash memory, so now I have 20 Mb of unusable space.

    The plug-in for Windows Media player doesn’t work well either.

    The screen is too tiny as well.

    It looks cool and shiny, but thats about it.

    Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  6. jogsalot •  April 26, 2004
    Rating: 4.5/5

    I’ve had this since Christmas and it is used A LOT! I use it to listen to audio books while I’m jogging and I love it. SOOOOOOOOO much better than trying to run with a cassette or CD player.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  7. wc •  May 1, 2004
    Rating: 3.5/5

    I’ve had my MPIO for about 1 year. Don’t have any other mp3 to compare it with, but it beats the heck out of every walkman I’ve ever owned. The only complaint I have is that the volume could be louder.

    Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  8. Mike •  May 10, 2004
    Rating: 4.5/5

    In my opinion, this is a great little addition for all the “techies” out there that likes quality. I bought this mp3 player and had it up and running in less then it took to install the software. I found speed of transfer of mp3s onto the unit was decent. Wasn’t blazing fast, but at the same time, wasn’t 33.6kbs slow. I think anyone who is out doing research on this unit, take my advice, this is the one. For those that rated it below 2, I think they need to upgrade their computer. I’ve used it with my 1.5 centrino and 2400+ desktop, both worked without any problems.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  9. Benny •  July 20, 2004
    Rating: 2.5/5

    Worked fine with no memory card (128 MB version). Totally crashed with 512 MB sandisk card! Tried everything! Firmvare upgrade ++. Still fucked up. BUY SOMETHING ELSE!

    Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  10. Marcus •  July 31, 2004
    Rating: 4.5/5

    This is one great MP3 player. One of the best I have seen around. Its very compact and sleek looking. Easy to use. I was set up in no more than 5 minutes using my i-book and i-tunes. I recommend this to anyone. I am very picky when it comes to my electronics and this one does it for me. The 256mb one stores around 40 to 50 songs depending on the file size and I can also add a memory card. What more could I ask for. Good job on this little machine.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  11. engineer •  August 25, 2004
    Rating: 4/5

    My 128Meg version works with 512Meg SD PQI card. Firmware ver. 1.33. Autoplay function not works on mp3s from card. I improved microphone quality by enlarging a bit mic hole (dissasembling is very precise job).

    Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  12. Kingfish •  September 15, 2004
    Rating: 2.5/5

    This is a great little player but WARNING: DOES NOT WORK WITH WINDOWS XP SP2! When SP2 is installed, MPIO Manager software will not transfer files or format and locks up frequently. I have e-mailed MPIO several times about this and finally got a confirmation that it is not compatible and there are no plans to make it work with SP2. So if you own a FL100 or are thinking of buying one, either choose to install Windows XP SP2 and toss this player in a drawer or stick with SP1 and continue to use this player. SP1 = 9 rating. SP2 failure = 5 rating.

    Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  13. Kevin •  September 22, 2004
    Rating: 4.5/5

    I loved this Mp3 player, I got it for my 15th birthday recently. And my only complaint is the software which can be annoying at times. I really love the expansion port, I wouldn’t have room for all my songs without it ::laughs:: this is a good buy, go for it.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  14. Rubbertje •  September 29, 2004
    Rating: 4.5/5

    We would be greatly sorry for the trouble with MPIO products on the XP SP2.

    Currently the MPIO product is not compatible with XP SP2.

    We will release the new manager version and new driver soon.

    We have completed tests on several PC’s with new driver and the manager.

    Once again, we apologize any inconvenience you may encounter due to MPIO compatibility problems.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  15. Nick •  October 2, 2004
    Rating: 4/5

    I just bought this 2ndhand off a friend for a decent price… my first Flash player coming from a MP3CD player. I was really concerned about going a ‘step back’ in terms of storage space, but im getting used to it.

    I tried it with my WindowsXP Pro SP2 machine, and it works with MPIO’s software, but not dBPowerAmp’s Sveda software. I will try it on my XPPro SP2 laptop later to confirm.

    Good sound quality, nice interface. Quality is quite solid, except for the volume rocker which i find has some wiggle room.

    The headphone port delivers plenty of juice. I keep it at 20-25 (max is 40) with my Koss PortaPros. Good stuff.

    Battery life is less than i wanted (my Mp3CD player got much more life. Then again, it used 2x AA batteries, this just uses a single AAA). Ive used it three days and its down to one bar left.

    Recommended!

    Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  16. PappaG •  October 14, 2004
    Rating: 5/5

    Although the LF100 can’t write to a 512 MB SD card, I was able to use a seperate card reader to write the files to the card and then was able to play the card on the LF100 unit. The unit boots as usual and detects the extra MB above and beyond the external 256 MB maximum (ie. 617 MB: 128 MB Internal + 489 MB External); the loss in MB is due to FAT partitioning/LF100 architecture and will happen regardless if a 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 or 512 MB SD card is used). As per the card reader, I used a Lexar Media Jump Drive Trio, which is USB portable and is about the same size as the LF100. However, any SD card reader should work. Other benefits to using a SD card reader are as follows: – Saves LF100 Battery Life (Copy with the reader) – Quicker Copying times (USB 2.0 vs USB 1.x) – Can !!!UPLOAD!!! to computer and Download to LF100 – No drivers are needed to copy files (Use any USB computer)

    Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  17. Liz •  October 28, 2004
    Rating: 2.5/5

    Sorry about that last one, I accidentally hit enter. Anyways, I have a lways loved my FL100 (128) untill now. I have easily been able to store 40+ songs ( you dont need a 256 to do that, just put in wma files and it will take up a lot less space. But recently, I guess I must have dropped it but anyways, everything was cleared, my songs stations and settings except for the fact that it said I had used all of my space. So now, I can’t put anything on it :(

    Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  18. j Laguna •  November 25, 2004
    Rating: 4/5

    This little device has Fm, voice recorder, expansion slot. The only problem is the device has to be turned on when transferring music files. Therefore, it might drain the battery after a while. Other than this, it’s a

    10/10. You might also consider ebay for good price.

    Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  19. Nick •  January 12, 2005
    Rating: 0.5/5

    I feel bad for giving it a 1, its a pretty awesome little thing, but what is the point if there is no support! I tried to contact them numerously over different media…its just pointles they dont give a sh*t. Call their support line its not even working. Email them, I bet you wont get an answer. Especially if they know that u have to rma. I even offered to pay to fix the damn thing, cuz I did drop it, but no answer… At least its still working for me (although i had to fix it twice myself, no support) but the screen is cracked and I cant see anything, replacement is nowhere to be found. There are better alternatives.

    Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  20. rem •  January 18, 2005
    Rating: 4/5

    i like it works

    only bad thing is that u gotta update software often

    Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  21. Craig •  January 22, 2005
    Rating: 2/5

    The unit itself is okay but the software is horrible. I wouldn’t buy this again. Spend a little more and buy a mainstream brand or go all out an buy an i-pod mini

    Rating: 4 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  22. joe •  January 30, 2005
    Rating: 4.5/5

    The MP10 is a great mp3 player. it produces great sound and is relatively simple to opporate. The only problem I have is one that I think goes for all mp3 players… I have been looking for an adapter that creates a way to connect the mp3 player to a cd player much like you can runn a portible cd player through a cassette player. If there is such a thing let me know.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  23. Juan Velez •  February 1, 2005
    Rating: 5/5

    I found the Mp10 to be an extremely good sound device, I’ve had it for a year and haven’t had any problems. I never even installed the software, I’ve used it with my Window media player and was pretty self explanatory. I’m the only one of my friends with this brand, and have to tell you I’m the only one that hasn’t had any problems. To the people having problems, you might want to take a look at the user error factor. thanks again, and keep up the good qualty. ps. I’ve actually talked serevar friends into puchasing this product.

    Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  24. mke •  March 1, 2005
    Rating: 2/5

    the device crashes very often while down loading songs

    Rating: 4 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  25. Oli •  April 11, 2005
    Rating: 4.5/5

    I have XP SP2 and MPIO Manager 1.8

    It works most of the time but I found that drag and drop

    from the explorer works great (in case u get the USB error). I got the 512MB version

    with additional 512 card = 1gig total and no probs.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  26. Rob •  July 7, 2005
    Rating: 1.5/5

    This is a great player, but none of the “legit” mp3 sites support it, making it useless. Rhapsody claims to support it, but does not. Customer support is horrid, sent an email over a month ago asking for help finding an online mp3 source…still no response

    Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  27. Andres •  July 24, 2005
    Rating: 1/5

    The device has a good sound, but the software is awfull and what is worst is the technical support: it does not exist. I bought it last year and everytime I try to download music I have to spend hours before it does its job. Most of the time it locks my PC and I have to start it over. I asked for help in their web page two months ago and nobody bothered to reply. Advice: don’t buy it!

    Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  28. eddie •  August 3, 2005
    Rating: 1.5/5

    the sound quality on the mpio is great and the radio reception i get in my area is pretty decent, but i personal hate the software. It constant freezes my computer and takes for ever to download music on to it. But one question i need to know is that can the mpio take a sd memmory card bigger then 512mb? like 1 or 2 gb?

    Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  29. Simon •  September 21, 2005
    Rating: 1.5/5

    Actully i got it 4 month ago. I have WinXP with SP2 and i cannot intall any of the program. They are telling my a weird error and i could never put 1 mp3 on it. Someone got a program to make it work without install this mpio thing? Thx

    Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  30. John •  February 18, 2006
    Rating: 4.5/5

    but it gets the job done. I have had my FL100 for over 2 years and use it everywhere. The software is crap and I never used it. RealPlayer 10 supports it but that would even freeze up at times. So now I just take the SD card out and drag and drop using windows explorer. The internal memory would always fail as well, once I got a 1GB card I never needed the internal 128mb. Make sure you format your SD card in FAT and not FAT32. Other wise it will not read it. Another great feature is it allows you to group your music in folders to make navigating to songs easier. One problem I have is that it sometimes does not read my SD card saying there are no files. I have to then take the battery out and restart. Also another great feature is the headphone jack is input/output. My car only has a tape player and I can plug in the cassette player I used to use for my portable CD player and listen to this in my car. Good battery life also with AAA. Armband it great.

    Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  31. Ricardo G •  July 10, 2006
    Rating: 1.5/5

    I lost the software and am unable to install any new music onto the player. Ive tried downloading music directly from my windows media player onto the mp3 and I cannot figure it out. Anyone have any advice???

    Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  32. Terence •  January 18, 2007
    Rating: 3.5/5

    I am most happy about it accepting my DigiFilm 1GB SD Card. Superb value. I bought mine at US$6.5 (yes six dollars and fifty cents) from a used stuff stall. Sound is good, but bass is weaker than expected.

    Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  33. Leo •  September 4, 2007
    Rating: 1/5

    MPIO Manager 2 Software is bad.

    Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  34. Arpi Kupelian •  December 18, 2007
    Rating: 1.5/5

    Love the design, layout, and look; but after owning the player a couple of years the software just stopped working with the player. Reinstalled millions of times; no difference.

    Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

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