Genus Vizo 1Gb Portable MP4 Player

I've been looking for a MP3 player with a reasonable amount of memory at a reasonable price for a while now. I have no need for a huge amount of memory, if I'm going out for more than a few hours I can use my husband's Creative Zen Touch, so when I saw this 1GB media player in Dixons for only £49.99 (with a free accessory pack), I had to give it more than a second glance. The product description boasted that the Vizo could not only play MP3s, but ...
...Even more impressive I was assured that it could also play video files in various formats, including MP4, MPG and DiVX. Let me tell you, I was sold and immediately got my credit card out, so that I could be the proud owner of one of these little babies.

---First Impressions---

The player comes securely rather than fancily packed in a cardboard box, which does mean that it does look rather nice when wrapped as a gift. ... more

I've been looking for a MP3 player with a reasonable amount of memory at a reasonable price for a while now. I have no need for a huge amount of memory, if I'm going out for more than a few hours I can use my husband's Creative Zen Touch, so when I saw this 1GB media player in Dixons for only £49.99 (with a free accessory pack), I had to give it more than a second glance. The product description boasted that the Vizo could not only play MP3s, but also the less commonly supported WMA and OGG music formats. Even more impressive I was assured that it could also play video files in various formats, including MP4, MPG and DiVX. Let me tell you, I was sold and immediately got my credit card out, so that I could be the proud owner of one of these little babies.

---First Impressions---

The player comes securely rather than fancily packed in a cardboard box, which does mean that it does look rather nice when wrapped as a gift. Once removed from the box, it doesn't look as fancy as say the iPod (or even the Zen) but considering what it can do, it's a very small size, at about 7cm square, and very light at only 95g (including battery). The styling is functional rather than stylish, but it does still look quite modern in it's silver coat. The colour screen takes up the majority of the front, and although it is small at 5cm x 3.5cm, it is crystal clear.

---The battery---

The battery charges remarkably quickly, taking only 2.5 hours from dead and lasts for a reasonable length of time even when viewing videos. Unlike many rechargable batteries leaving the player plugged in for extended periods doesn't seem to cause any problems, although as the actual plug does get a little warm it probably wouldn't be a good idea to leave it plugged in all night. When listening to music with the screen turned off, it lasts me all day, and when watching videos I can easily watch a 1.5 hour film and have only used half the battery power. For my needs the battery is perfectly adequate, but if I were going out for more than a few hours and wanted to watch videos, I would probably need to take the charger with me. The player is also able to run directly off the mains, which is handy for watching films while indoors and close to a wall socket, but the battery doesn't seem to charge while doing this.

---Installation/Moving files---

One of the really nice things about this player is that I didn't need to install any drivers or applications on my Windows XP system as it is completely plug and play. For those using Windows 98 there is a disc containing the drivers that you will need, but as I haven't used them I couldn't tell you how effective they are. Once plugged into the computer, via a supplied USB lead, the player is recognised as an removable drive, and transferring files is a simple matter of drag and drop. Transferring larger files does seem to take rather a long time, with it taking 6 minutes or more to transfer a 500MB file, but smaller WMA files take a matter of seconds. One little niggle that still gets me, is that the player needs to be physically switched on to be recognised by the computer.

---General Use---

On first turning on, the Vizo does seem to take a long time to power up, especially when compared to other more well known brands, but once the screen finally lights up, the joystick control responds swiftly to any movements. This joystick is rather like the ones you find on many modern mobile phones and is therefore subject to the same types of durability problems. As well as the joystick there are a number of buttons on the sides of the player, and I find these buttons rather small for my podgy fingers. The menu system is basic but completely adequate, although it does take a while to work out the best method to find the particular function I'm after.

---The Vizo as a music player---

As most formats are supported I could manage to put quite a large selection of music on the player. As the majority of my collection is already in the WMA format (which takes up less space, for the same quality as MP3), unsurprisingly it's that format that makes up the majority of the music on my player. The actual sound quality is amazing, it's hard to believe that something so small could produce such a rich sound. Although I've found the earphones are a little large and uncomfortable, they are of excellent quality, and when listening to music it's almost as if the artist was standing in front of me. It is also very easy to adjust the volume and even at an ear-splitting 100% there is no distortion, and I've listened to a huge variety of music ranging from gentle ballads to rock and been impressed every time.

Even though it sounds as if I'm completely happy with the Vizo as a music player, I'm not. It falls at a couple of hurdles, firstly there is no function that will allow me to create a play list, or shuffle my music. Not a huge problem but when I add the fact that if I've created albums it will only play the music in that particular album and not move onto the next then it can (and does) become annoying that I have to navigate from folder to folder. One other minor gripe, is that although the player is able to display photos, it won't display any album art that I may have in a music folder, again not a huge failing but still a gripe.

---The Vizo as a photo viewer---

Although it can't take pictures (it's a player not a camera), my Vizo does make a handy little photo viewer. I have several pictures stored on it, and it's a very nice way of not only showing friends my latest pictures, but also a good form of portable storage. As it's plug and plug it's so easy to allow friends to make their own copies. The player claims to be able to recognise JPEGs of up to 6MP, but as my camera only takes up to 4MP I've not been able to test this. What I can say is that the pictures I have transferred are exceptionally well displayed, they look clear and bright with no distortion, and are displayed in a very nice slideshow where I can adjust the time between pictures displaying. Even better, when using the leads supplied in my free accessory pack (only in Dixons) I can also display these pictures on a television screen.

---The Vizo as a video player---

Even though it's a fantastic music player, it's as a video player that this really excels. It truly is multi-format. The actual manual tells me that it will play AVI, DiVX, MP4, MPG and MPG2 files and let me tell you it really does play them all. Even better it also plays Xvid files and also plays both the NTSC and PAL formats and it recognises AC3 sound (surround sound). I'm used to having to convert files to play on different DVD players, but with this I don't have to do anything other than transfer the file and play it.

The actual specs claim that you could store up to three full-size movies on the player, but I would say that this is not really realistic. I tried a lower quality file and was quite frankly disappointed with the results. However, when using a file-size of approximately 700MB for a film (or 350MB for an episode), which is near DVD quality the results are fantastic. Although the screen is small, the picture is wonderfully crisp, and the audio simply fantastic. Up until I got this player I would watch TV episodes on my computer, and this player was a revelation, the depth of the audio was amazing, and it was almost like being part of the action. As with any video player, the quality of output is directly linked to the quality of the file you use, but due to the small screen even a poorer quality file will look better on this than it would on even a portable television. There is also the ability to zoom in, and it's very easy to make a Widescreen presentation completely fill the screen without any distortion, which is another feature I like.

As with the photo viewer option, you can connect the player up to a television to watch your video on the larger screen, and this is again a very handy option. There is now no need for me to convert to (and waste a) DVD to watch an episode of my favourite program at my friends house. I could also see several less legal uses for this that I won't go into here.

Once more I'm not completely satisfied with the video function, although you can skip forwards/backwards in 30 second intervals, there is no real fast forward function. Although I find that the viewable angle is quite small, I don't find that my eyes hurt even after watching a complete film. It would also have be nice for there to be a way of saving my position in a film, but I suppose I really couldn't have everything exactly as I'd like it.

---The Vizo as a voice/radio recorder---

As well as being able to listen to and view files you've transferred, you can also use the Vizo as a voice recorder, or if you have the line-in cable you can even record off the radio. Although this could be a handy function to have, I'm going to be honest here and say I've never actually used it, so I can't really tell you how well it performs at these tasks.

---The Vizo as portable storage---

Along with all the playable formats, as long as you have room you can store any file on the Vizo and transfer it to another computer. So although you wouldn't be able to view them, you could store text documents or anything else that you could think of. Due to the plug and play transfer between computers is simply a piece of cake.

---Durability---

As this uses flash memory rather than a hard drive it's far more durable than say a iPod. Even with large movements it doesn't skip, and even the screen appears very robust. Obviously it's still not a good idea to get it wet or throw it around, but with the free case I received it is well protected and has survived the occasional bump.

---Manufacturer's Support---

The supplied manual was easy to understand and explained all the major functions, but the actual player is so intuitive that even that manual is not really needed. There is also the ability to update the player's firmware, now this does seem like a good idea, and hopefully the manufacturer will realise updates as new file formats arrive.

---How can it really store?---

I just thought I'd this section so that you'll have an idea of what I manage to store on the player. At this precise moment I have a full-length DVD quality film, three music albums and a number of pictures. As deleting the files is as easy as transferring them, I tend to delete the film after watching it and then replace it with either another film or a couple of TV episodes. If I was only storing music I could fill it with approximately 650 64kbs WMA files (at approx 1.5MB per track, good quality), which is more than I would ever actually need.

---Price and Availability---

As I stated at the beginning of the review I purchased my player from Dixons for £49.99 and this came with an accessory pack that included a leather case and all the leads I would need to connect to a television. As far as I can tell this offer is only available on the High Street, and other retailers (eg Argos) still seem to be asking the full price of £149.99, with out the accessories.

---Final Words---

If someone had described this player to me ten years ago, I would have simply laughed at them. It's amazing just how much technology has been squeezed into this tiny player, and it really is an all in one device that is actually cheaper than many equivalent MP3 players. My advice would be to get yourself to Dixons as soon as possible and see if you can pick one up at the bargain price, for at under £50 how could I say it's anything other than value for money. While it's not nearly as good value for money at the standard price, I would still say it's a nice piece of kit, and much more adaptable than any basic MP3 player. In actual fact, I loved this so much that I've bought another for one of my children. 

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