Transcend T.sonic 840 4 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

• 4 GB capacity for about 1000 songs
• 30 hours of music playback on fully charged battery
• 1.8-inch TFT LCD screen with 176 x 220 pixel resolution
• Plays MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM10, and WAV audio formats; MTV video format (convert using included software); JPG and BMP image files
• 2-year limited warranty

A short review and basic how-to on the Transcend T.sonic 840 4G player. Good and bad points, plus update suggestions.

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I ALMOST got a bigger iPod, but I didn't feel like spending so much on it. I recently got an 8G card for my camera made by the same company and was super cheap but good. There was an advertisement in the package for their other products, including this mp3 player. I decided to look this up, looked great but had no reviews. I had to search the web like crazy to find a review. All I found was positive, but I didn't find much.

In any case, this thing is GREAT! The sound is great, it's small, pretty user friendly, and it's way cheap for what it does. I only bought it to play songs (for the most part), so that's all I've tested out. I have it connected to a pretty cheap set of travel speakers right now, and it's still great. I am so incredibly impressed so far!

And I do have an iPod shuffle already, but I just use it to run. The sound on this thing is MUCH better than the shuffle.

If I could give it more than 5 stars to factor in the value, I would!

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I consider the deal I got on this MP3 player a pretty good one. I purchased it from one of the Amazon Gold Deals the other day and saved $26 on it. I would not pay full price for this thing.

It plays mp3s so I have yet to figure out if I can get some of my iTunes music on it but I mainly use this to listen to lectures and podcasts and such, which are usually in mp3 format, so it works for me.

It has an FM radio which is nice if you need a portable FM radioit works well and has good reception.

The voice recorder works nice as well.

Converting videos to the format that's compatible takes quite a while but the quality ends up being just finethough the screen is very small.

The controls are fine but not very handy.

This would be a good gift for a child or someone like me who just wants to listen to something while driving and doesn't want a $100 iPod.

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The Transcend T Sonic 840 4 GB Video MP3 Player (Black) is fully loaded with features in an all metal, compact body. Combined with an attractive mirrored finish, this power packed dynamo offers a brilliant multi-line display via a 1.8" high resolution LCD/TFT screen. The image quality is quite vivid and well framed without distortion. Coming out of the box, I would highly recommend immediate laminate protection to keep the front of the device free of scratches.

Navigation is primarily through the on board 3 phase wheel control which easily allows access from one function to the other. As with all MP3 systems and depending totally on the area of reception, the FM radio has been kind of hit and miss. With the help of the customizable equalizer, music downloads are surprisingly crisp.

The T Sonic 840 brings a lot of bang for the buck with these key features;

FM Recorder

Video Player (.mtv)

E Book Reader (txt.)

Digital Voice Recorder

Customizable Equalizer

Preset 20 Station FM Tuner

Photo Album (jpg/bmp format)

Karaoke Style Lyrics Display

Real Time Clock (Displays local & world time)

Music Player (MP3,WMA,WAV,WMA-DRM10) formats

13 Language User Support (For Song/Artist Display)

Whether you're a Linux, Mac OS X, or Windows user, this device is compatible to all three operating systems. For music service subscribers, its a no go with Napster but operates with some hiccups included with Rhapsody. While it does download music files in their entirety, one glaring issue that keeps the Tsonic 840 from receiving a 5 star rating is that it does not download play lists.

The sweetest feature is the voice-activated recorder. It gets high marks on the Cool Meter for it will automatically begin recording when it registers a sound and pause itself when it can't detect noise. In a quiet space it is one gem of a feature.

Powered by a rechargeable Li-ion battery, non stop music play logged in at a little over 20 hours. So much for the 30 hour lifespan. Accessories include the industry standard but comfortable earphones, neck lanyard, mini USB type A cable, zip string carrying bag and software CD.

Overall, the Transcend T Sonic 840 4GB MP3 Player is a cornucopia of features that value conscious shoppers will find hard to resist. However, with its inability to format and deliver playlists its three stars at best.

The Transcend T.sonic 840 is an adequate MP3 player, and a decent FM radio tuner. The other functions on the device are pretty much a waste of time and space.

The first thing I did when I turned it on was to start the radio, because I hadn't loaded any files on it yet. It immediately popped up a message requesting me to plug in the headphones. Weird... so I checked the device and the manual, and found that in fact this device does not have a speaker.

Okay, I'm not going to get really great sound out of something like this. But my Zen Stone has a speaker, and I do use it. (Mostly for audio books where sound quality isn't that critical.) So I was disappointed to find that I had to use headphones with the T.sonic.

Once I had the ear buds in (and I really dislike ear buds, but didn't want to spend time digging for headphones), the radio sound was quite adequate. I loaded some MP3 files onto the device, and again the sound was quite good for a device of this type. Navigation through folders was pretty easy.

I really wanted to see how video would look on a screen this small. Then I got another unpleasant surprise. In order to play a video on the device, you have to convert it to their proprietary "MTV" format. Ugh. So I installed their conversion utility and ripped a DVD to my hard drive. I converted one of the VOB files from the DVD and copied it to the T.sonic. The video was pretty blocky, but better than I expected. But... there was no sound. I tried the MP3 and radio to make sure the ear buds were plugged in right, then back to the video. No sound.

So I converted the DVD into a couple of file formats that the T.sonic said it supported and tried to convert them to the MTV format. Whatever format I tried, it popped up a window saying that the import had failed, and that I needed to go find and install some video codecs first.

Okay, that's pretty bad software design. If a conversion programs needs codecs in order to work, I expect it to come with those installed. Better yet, I expect a device that claims to be a video player to be able to use some of the common mobile video formats without an additional conversion.

Overall, this is a pretty disappointing device. I'll probably keep it as an MP3 player, because it has more storage and a better interface than the Zen Stone. But they would have done better to have left the video and other features off. They're just too much trouble for a barely acceptable picture on a tiny screen.