Buy cheap mp3 player

Ever buy a product with a defensively optimistic attitude: "It may not be much good, but at least it's cheap"? Pick up the Hauppauge MediaMVP, though, and we guarantee you'll be happy, because there is no long-term downside—it's cheap and good. This capable, wired-Ethernet media player has a too-good-to-be-true street price of $100, and the only flaws we could find were a few features yet to be implemented and a clunky remote. We're confident that Hauppauge, a longtime maker of TV tuner cards, has the resources to make good on its IOUs.

The MediaMVP is a small, round-edged plastic case that sits horizontally on your stereo receiver or vertically on an included stand. The remote is cluttered with 34 buttons, though several don't do anything for the current version of the MediaMVP. A PC application lets the device access media files over an Ethernet connection.

The MediaMVP plays MP3 audio, displays photos, and streams MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 videos. It has composite and S-Video jacks, wired Ethernet, and analog audio (RCA jacks), but no digital output. Hauppauge plans updates, including support for WMA files, DivX video, Internet radio, and a printed manual, which should put it on a par with most other media hubs.

Setup was fast and easy using the quick-install card and common sense. The TV display makes good use of screen real estate, showing the artist, album, current song, and next six songs, but not album art or elapsed song time. Music can accompany a photo slideshow, but you must begin playing music or an MP3 playlist and then start your slideshow. Minor annoyances abound: a screen saver that kicks in after a minute, and remote buttons that do something unexpected—Skip, for example, jumps down six lines rather than skipping to the next track.

Because the MediaMVP uses wired Ethernet, music, photo, and video playback was smooth. Switching modes is a bit slow, because there are no dedicated buttons. Instead, you press Go to open the main menu, then use arrow keys and the OK button.

Other products priced anywhere near $100 lack video and photo display, or in some cases don't even have a display, relying instead on voice synthesis or simple beeps. We'd buy the MediaMVP in a second, but that doesn't make it our Editors' Choice: Too many features are still short-term IOUs. We bet Hauppauge will soon add the missing functions (WMA support in particular) and fix the quirks in the interface and remote.

Copyright ?? 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.