e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[LGJ]

Let My Data Play
August 13, 2002
By Dan Costa
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,464507,00.asp

The iRiver America iDP-100 digital music device ($370 street) is a great example of what happens when too many people get involved in building a piece of hardware. In this case, the music industry has supplied the excess bodies, and the result is not pretty. Although the device features some interesting technology, the overriding concern with preventing the theft of digital music produced a player that doesn't easily play.

The 5.4-ounce iDP-100 is the same size as a hockey puck, but regrettably the company also bolted on a clear plastic shell that squares off the gadget to make it look more modern—an unfortunate choice that adds bulk and weight.

The iDP-100's greatest asset is the DataPlay media it uses for storage. DataPlay is a relatively new media format backed by many music and content companies because it easily supports copy protection and digital rights management. The DataPlay discs themselves are removable optical drives that are about the size of a postage stamp. They can each store 500MB of data (250MB per side) and are priced at only $10 a pop.

Despite this sophisticated technology, however, DataPlay falls short on what digital music fans value most: flexibility. You cannot copy or convert the files that come on DataPlay discs, and the iDP-100 will only play the CKMP3, CKAAC, and CKQDX formats. You can convert your MP3s and move them to the player, but the trip is one-way.

Installing the software was a multistep process. In addition to the iDP-100 drivers, the setup CD makes you install four separate components to get the product to work. Three—DataPlay Bass Components, DataPlay File System, and Future Player—load into your system tray. Although the process went smoothly, that's a lot of software just to run one small device.

Future Player is an all-in-one media application that lets your PC play audio and video files stored locally or on DataPlay media. The app supports AIFF, AVI, MIDI, MP3, SAF, WAV, and WMA formats. Although Future Player is adequate, it falls short of RealNetworks' RealOne and Microsoft Windows Media Player. But neither RealOne nor Windows Media Player support the CK formats of DataPlay media, so you have to use Future Player with DataPlay content.

Setting up the iDP-100 to play music could be more intuitive. You can't just drag the music files on your PC and drop them, because the player will only play files converted to CKMP3 format. To load files, you need to click on the My Music button in Future Player and click Add Files, a process explained in the manual but not evident on-screen. Although the manual is helpful and easy to understand, the software itself is not. And converting files to CKMP3 slows down the transfer of songs to the device. Even over the USB connection, our transfer rates hovered around 3.5MB per minute.

Despite some noise from the read/write mechanism when loading songs, playback was clear and free of breaks. In fact, we were unable to induce a skip or cause any static during playback despite engaging in vigorous activity.

The iDP-100 offers the usual elementary audio controls including bass and treble, but also gives extra controls like one that lets you set the volume of beeps, and a much-appreciated Fade In feature that gradually increases the volume of songs to prevent sudden shocks. We were also happy to see detailed file information about our songs, including the full names, track numbers, and bit rates, on the clear monochrome display. Once the music is on the device, the iDP-100 makes a fine player. The unit comes with a 3.7-volt rechargeable Lithium ion battery that is good for about 10 hours of continuous play.

The future of the iDP-100 is completely tied to the DataPlay format. If the media does become accepted by PDA and digital camera makers and perhaps most important, by music stores, then it has a chance. Otherwise, the built-in copy protection and mediocre engineering will relegate it to the nostalgic memories of music executives.