Virgin Electronics VM-500 5 GB MP3/WMA Player with FM Tuner

• Portable MP3/WMA player with 5 GB storage space (stores up to 1,200 songs or 80 CDs of music)
• Virgin DJ function plays your most recent additions, top 20 "most played" by genre, or "least played" selections
• Built-in equalizer for customizing sound by genre (rock, pop, jazz, etc.) or output (headphones or portable speakers)
• Built-in FM tuner for radio playback; bundled music management software requires Windows XP or 2000
• Dual headphone jacks for 2-person listening; measures 2.23 x 3.78 x 0.62 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 3.1 ounces

I was so excited to get this MP3 player, but have had several problems with it. It keeps freezing up on me which once caused it to overheat and then I LOST all the songs I had painstakingly put on it. I have used it two times since I purchased it at the beginning of January 2006. I did not have a hard time putting the music on, it is just time consuming. When it works, it works well.

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Well, it's small, has reasonable battery life and sound quality, and it's low-priced. And it often works correctly for me. But it has some major disadvantages:

1. Virgin Electronics is defunct, so there is no tech support for their products, and no updates of any kind will be offered. And this thing could USE some updates...

2. It doesn't support playlists. It has some kind of stupid "DJ" function that you'll find mostly useless.

3. The FM radio is also useless. For the first few seconds it's used, while the backlight is on, it sounds fine. Then, when the backlight turns off, a continuous, very noticeable hiss overlays the audio.

4. You can't just copy files to it you have to sync it through Media Player or some other software. It's very picky, and sometimes the synced songs don't play correctly. Other software often doesn't work with it.

True, it's a 5GB player for a low price, but in the end you'll find yourself just that much farther, financially, from something you would have really liked.

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Ok.... I bought one of these as a refurb thinking that it was a great bargain... hey 5GB for less than $100 what a deal. Once you get the hang of loading and working with the Windows Media Player its not a big deal to load. Unfortunately after it begins locking up and not recognizing songs (which requires a drive reformat and reinstallation of the songs) you get really good at it. Had it for about 4 months before it stopped even recognizing the HD and no longer worked at all. I thought maybe the reason was that I had bought a refurb so a new one had to be better... right?

So I stupidly bought a brand new one.. again less than $100. This one has now begun the lock up and reload problem within 2 months of reciept and I just recently got the "not recognizing the HD" message. I am in hopes of getting it to work but for right now its just an expensive paperweight. I am 0/2 with these players so I don't believe that they are worth the shipping it takes to send them back. Beware of this product!

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I bought two,one for me,one for my son. He is so disappointed, and I'm very upset. I'm happy I only opened one. I guess you really have to be computer saavy to use this thing. The instructions are useless, the software didn't upload, and I have Windows XP so I know that wasn't the issue. Unless you are a computer whiz, save your money. I wanted one for the both of us. Guess, my son will only have one because now I have to go find a more expensive and user friendly one.

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This is the worst pice of electronics I ever bought. Started falling apart after few days only. Battery life is a joke.

Software that comes with it is totally unfriendly and even if you manage to install that thing on your computer it won't work with OS prior to XP. You will find that out after you're done installing it. Mediocre performance. Don't waste your money on this one.