Home > Consumer Reviews > Memorex MPD8505CP Personal CD/MP3 Player with 45 Seconds of Anti-Skip Protection

Ok, I have been testing this over and over with CDRWs, and found a system that works fairly well. Well enough for me anyway. First off, let me point out some things. I *think* it only has enough memory for 200 songs. It WILL NOT recognize the rest. It may be that it only has enough memory for X number of characters in the filenames, thus when the limit is reached, the rest won't play. I'm not sure which. If this is true, it has come out to about 200 songs each time. The CD will have the rest on it, but it won't play them. To compensate for this, you can either: encode at a higher bitrate (don't exceed 192. You won't be able to fit any more of course, but you'll have better quality), or you can combine songs. If you are encoding your own albums, you can set it to encode more than one song in the same track. Remember, you won't have the ID3 tags for the second song. You might think that you'd be able to write in the ID3 tag "track 1 name/track 2 name," but it only displays 30 characters, including dashes and spaces. If you can fit it, good for you, but you won't be able to skip directly to that track of course. To scroll through the folders, stop the CD so it's at the "main screen" ("Welcome MP3") and then press the "display" button (second button on the left). You can then press the "+" and "-" to move through the folders. Pressing "display" again will move the cursor down to the song listings. You can scroll through the songs on each album this way (once you get to the end it will automatically go to the next album). Pressing display again will return to the main screen. Don't ask me about the "search" feature, I've heard it doesn't work, and even if it does, it's probably more trouble than it's worth.

WHEN ENCODING YOUR SONGS: For each album, artist, etc. make a folder. I have a folder for each band, and then folders for each of their albums inside those. Name the folder "1 AlbumName," "2 NextAlbumName," etc. Of course, if you have more than 9 albums for each artist, you'll want "01," "02," etc. This way, you can have your albums in the order you want them (it alphabetizes EVERYTHING). You will never see the band folders, but it will put them in the order you want them on the CD. Next, title your songs "01 SongTitle," "02 NextSongTitle," etc. Don't put dashes in between. You *can*, but when you are scrolling through songs/albums, it only displays the first SIX characters of the name. That is including the number (assuming you are doing it the way I am explaining). It ignores spaces, so it doesn't matter if you use them. When you are actually PLAYING the song, it displays artist, album, and song title. That is read off of the ID3 tags, so make SURE you have those correct. People have posted problems they have had, but I haven't had much trouble with it. I think it's a good price for an mp3 player. They are so new, you can't expect much better. The interface is annoying and confusing (and doesn't work very well), but right now at this price, you can't beat it. If you have any questions, comments, or info, email me at obscure-mind@excite.com

I've had mine for about a month now and this is what I've found. The sound quality is very good, especially with the bass boost on. Every MP3 CD I have burned so far, whether it be a collection of songs from Napster, personally burned albums to CD (using either Audio Catalyst or Music Match) or some mixture of both seem to have skips or pops in them. I have used 128kbs for my speed as suggested by most reviews on here. I have also tried burning in both joliet or ISO9660 with similar results using either Just Burn or Adaptec. I usually listen on the bus, so I thought that most of this was caused by movement, but I have heard the same types of things lying still listening in my bedroom. These MP3s play flawlessly on my PC. That said, for ..., you can't beat having 150 to 200 songs on one CD at a time, and it includes the car adapter. Battery life is acceptable, probably around 6 or 7 hours with alkaline and about 4 with new rechargable NiCad. Audio CDs play flawlessly, including audio copies. I am sure that the RIO is a better unit, but it is A LOT more money and for those of us on a tight budget, the Memorex is more than acceptable if you could but up with the pops and skips in just about each song (I can, many people can't).

Yes the mp3 decoding does help a lot. I've used at least 3 cds worth of tracks and have yet to use half the memory of a cd - meaning long playing times, so having a cd player that does run MP3's as well as it did was very nice. Plus, it doesn't drain batteries as fast as some players do, so you can continue to enjoy your large collection of music in one sitting without carrying around a spare sac of new batteries - just in case. But what did cut down on my playing it time was skipping. Sitting down or moving, new or old cd... skip or anti-skip protection it really does skip A LOT. After a while I get really aggrevated. So for the functionality it does very well... but for the quality, I'd have to say it's gotten me to the point of not wanting to put up with the constant skipping for the amount of Mp3s I have on there.

This thing has a quite good anti-skip protection (45 seconds) and is quite handy if you have a CD burner. Although you can't play MP3's without burning them on CD, it's still a great product. You don't see any equally priced Sony CD players that have MP3 ability or anywhere near as much anti-skip time. Even if you use a jack-hammer you don't get many skips.

This is a good buy!

I should have known when I bought a MP3/CD player from a manufacturer of audiocassettes for (dollar amount) it would be kinda chincy, well that's what it is. Don't get me wrong, for the price, you can't find a MP3/CD player that has more features and accessories, but don't expect quality workmanship. I bought the Memorex for a trip to Vegas so I could have music in my room while I was there and if it survived that, I would use it in the gym, so I was not expecting anything amazing. My biggest problems with this unit is that even sitting still it skips on the smallest smudge or scratch on your CD's. I do have to say that the ESP works well if the unit is being jolted but small imperfections on a CD can make it skip like a 10-year-old girl. One of my favorite things about the CD player is the title, artist and album listing on the screen. When you put a CD of MP3's in, the title and artist scroll on the screen. It's a little hard to read and it's not back lit, but what do ya want!?! It cost (dollar amount)!!! I also love the song title/artist search feature. When you have over 150 MP3's on a CD and you are looking for Viva Las Vegas at 3am after a hard day of drinks, gambling and drinking (did I mention drinking?), it's a little hard to remember track numbers, so this can be very handy. Memorex was also kind enough to include a car kit, cassette adaptor & cigarette lighter power adaptor (the power adaptor is HUGE, so watch out if your lighter is in a tight spot) and a home power plug. Everything a boy could want! So basically if you want a really cheap MP3/CP player that will last about six months this is the one for you, but if you are looking for one to last you a long time (year +) look elsewhere.