GOODMANS GPDR1 288MB PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM -SILVER (Multi Region Capable) Best Buy

Excellent Value for Money! - 07 Apr 2006

4 out of 4 found this review helpful.

This is an excellent gadget - a masterpiece of engineering. Plays MP3, pictures AND plays/records Video - what more do you want! At £110 it is a fantastic bargain - buy it - you won't regret it!

Comes complete with lots of included "extras" - lithium/ion battery, power supply/charger, headphones, SCART adapter, AV lead, USB lead, software, and a particularly nice case with opening on right hand side so the controls can still be used.

It comes with a 256Mb MMC card and although the manual says max 512Mb, as others have said, it will also take a 1Gb SD card (I bought the Viking for £20).

Recording from TV/DVD etc. works fine, although a bit "pixelly" sometimes during fast movement on the "long play" setting - picture quality is much better on the "standard play", higher quality, setting. There is sometimes a slight lag between picture and sound on captured video, but it's not too much of a problem.

As others have said, connection to Windows XP via USB is simple, with the device appearing as another drive - easy to copy files across (in fact I have not even installed the bundled software yet!).

All in all, this gadget is "completely brilliant"! - buy it!

WOW - 29 Dec 2005

4 out of 5 found this review helpful.

Amazing i had it for xmas and all me mates had a iPod and when they saw this most of them tryed 2 take them back. It really neat system and so easy to use, and the sound is amazing when playing mp3s better than the ipod. And 1gb cards do work ignore this what people say. If you just want a mp3 player still get this as it works with real player and will sync with your music library on your pc/laptop.

Cheap & cheerfull - It does the job!! - 05 Aug 2005

8 out of 8 found this review helpful.

Well after reading some of the other reviews, I was a bit dubious about the x-pro, especially after reading it will not take any card higher than a 512mb, thankfully this happens to be false. I ordered a ScanDisc 1gb card at the same time as ordering the x-pro and I've had no problems, I've put photos, video's (mainly Avi's) and about 150 Mp3's on it so far, and it copes with it all really well. I've done some of the Av recording, which is so simple, literally plug it in and press record, it tell's you how long it's recording for, basically everything you need to know. It samples/records at 133 but I've not found out how to change that yet.

In all fairness the external speaker isn't really all that great, but I bought some decent headphones and it sounds sweet. I wish it had an easier volume control as you have to push the record button on the front and then use the wheel on the side (a bit of a pain when it's in your pocket and can't be bothered to take it out each time).

So as I got mine for £79 (through Amazon) at that price all in all I can't really fault it. You won't find a better media player for the money. It comes with everything needed, and a nice little case to keep it safe.

All in all - Job done :)

Nearly perfect - 23 Mar 2005

6 out of 6 found this review helpful.

I bought this item simply for use as a MP3 player. But apon opening the box I discovered that you could record tv and take it with you !! (Although I recomend an upgrade of the supplied memory card if you want to record any tv programs longer than 30mins.) (You are limited to a maximum of 512MB card, it won't except any higher.) watching the simpsons on my way to work now on the bus is a reality !! how cool is that ! As well as listening to my favourite tunes on the way home.

Apart from the small storage capabilities of the supplied memory card this is a really good buy. It does exactly what it says on the tin and then some. I was really surprised as to how easy it is to use. So if your buying this, get a few 512MB cards to use with it. I would really recommend it.

A few drawbacks, but excellent for the money! - 05 Feb 2005

11 out of 11 found this review helpful.

I bought this product mainly for it's video recording and playback features, and it did not disappoint in this respect! The picture quality in SP mode *far* exceeded my expectations, and even LP mode was watchable, if a little "blocky". The accompanying sound quality, however, was slightly disappointing, with lots of hiss and crackling noises. While it would be fine for watching things like the latest episode of EastEnders, it's not much use for Music videos, for example, because the sound quality is too poor.

MP3 files, however, are a different matter - the sound quality is very good, although it does struggle with high bitrate files - anything up to 256kbps is perfect, though. Annoyingly, the Goodmans doesn't support long filenames, so all your MP3 titles are truncated to the first 6 letters. This could be a major problem if you store a large collection on an SD card.

The supplied Media Converter software is easy enough to use, but Windows will just "see" the Goodmans as a removable drive, so you can copy MP3 files directly to it from Windows Exporer.

My unit was supplied with a copy of ULead VideoStudio 6 SE, but I am not sure if this is still supplied with new units.

One final note - remove the headphones from your ears before plugging them into the Goodmans if something is already playing! It sometimes plays at FULL VOLUME for a fraction of a second when you do this! Not a pleasent experience!

All-in-all, I was impressed with it. You can forgive it's few foibles when you look at the price tag!