From e2529120ab1c3be293ffa16226350dc3654e58f8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Aki Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2024 21:55:15 +0100 Subject: Added this weird article about mp3 player from 200{1..4} --- review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player.html | 143 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 143 insertions(+) create mode 100644 review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player.html (limited to 'review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player.html') diff --git a/review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player.html b/review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3a01d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player.html @@ -0,0 +1,143 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + +Review of Hyundai MPF825 MP3 Player + +
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Review of Hyundai MPF825 MP3 Player

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I have something slightly different for you today. In one of my totally-not-garbage-electronics storage trash bins I +found a somewhat old MP3 Player labelled as "Hyundai" "Digital MP3 Player" "HD-MPF-825/12". I put a new battery in it, +connected headphones and turned it on. A welcome screen. Music started playing and of course it had to be a piece that +thrown me into nostalgia.

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I didn't find certain production date or any related documentation. I probably didn't dig deep enough and I'm not +very good at finding things through Wayback Machine. Model identifier, specs and files stored suggest that this device +was produced sometime between 1998 and 2002. I compared it to several models that I found manuals for and it seems close +to MP566, MP1281, MP567FM, MP755FM, MP1190R, and MP1220. Naming scheme doesn't seem consistent as MPF825 doesn't really +fit between the MP755FM and MP828 FM Sport very well functionally and especially aesthetically. Label on the device is +different, too, "MPF-825/12" despite probably fitting more as "MP825 FM" to the rest of the names I found. +

Unless they just didn't have any sense of direction. +

It has three major functions: playback, recording and FM receiver. User may play music or any of the recordings. +Music playback supports MP3 and WMA formats and LRC lyrics. Recordings are done in WAV format. Playback supports A-B +mode, pausing, seeking and volume control. FM receiver stores 30 channels that can be set between 87.5 MHz and 108.0 +Mhz. FM mode has awkward controls. +

The rest of menus are, let's say, OK. You can choose equalizer settings from presets, change playback mode (e.g., +repeat all), change screen contrast and backlight colour, choose between power saving (I assume, it's "powerset") modes, +change interface language, and change recording settings (e.g., sampling rate).

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Some other menus are as awkward as FM. The primary reason is inconsistency for what certain buttons do in what menu. +The other reasons are: intuitive actions are not a thing and other settings making fun of your choices. The best example +of this is "About" menu/page that displays version information and storage statistics.

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Storage is around 496 MiB. Advertised as "512 MB" I suppose. +

Sound quality is comparable (if not equal) to my audio card and phone. However, unlike some audiophiles I know claim +they have, I can't tell difference between 32 bit and 64 bit processors running Foobar2000. I can't run Foobar to begin +with, since I use Linux. +

As for what was stored on it. The oldest file is a voice recording seemingly from the 27th of December 2002:

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I'm not sure whether this actually is from 2002 nor do I remember the situation. I mean, I remember countless cases +in which I personally created similar sounds but not when I held this MP3 player in my hands and around the date. An +easy way to verify it would be to record new thing and check the date. +

Today is also 27th of December 2002. It's exactly 19:44:58 all day, too. +

Weirdly specific. For a moment I was thinking about disassembling it to check how exactly it is built and if there +are any obvious shortcomings in the design that could result in this. It could be a date and time related to the +lifetime of this device. Or a simple bug in the firmware. All speculations. +

There's a "SETTINGS.DAT" 492 bytes file that I assume holds selected settings. It is also marked with the same date. +I opened it with hexdump(1) trying to make sense out of it at first glance. There are some patterns to it. +Changing settings and diffing proved that it hold settings and better shows the structure than just stupidly looking at +it: + +

+> 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 00 00 00
+> 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 01 00 00
+> 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 02 00 00
+< 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 03 00 00
+> 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 04 00 00
+> 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 05 00 00
+> 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 06 00 00
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This is the difference between colours of the backlight. Don't worry, you don't really need to see them. There's also +a "auto" mode that should be called "disco". It switches colour when you press buttons: +

+< 00000020  00 b6 49 40 03 00 00 35  00 00 b7 49 40 03 00 00
+< 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 03 00 00
+< 00000150  7a 47 40 03 00 00 01 00  00 94 47 40 03 00 00 00
+< 000001c0  00 00 94 49 40 09 00 00  35 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
+> 00000020  00 b6 49 40 03 00 00 36  00 00 b7 49 40 03 00 00
+> 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 06 00 00
+> 00000150  7a 47 40 03 00 00 00 00  00 94 47 40 03 00 00 00
+> 000001c0  00 00 94 49 40 09 00 00  36 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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It was compared to red and green was last colour before I connected it to the PC. +

I did not disassembly it because it looks like I would need to or easily break certain pieces. I didn't want that. +

Graphical interfaces between MPF825 and other models from the manuals I found is similar. "About" view contains +version number but I sadly do not own any other devices from this series and can't use version to try to project it into +timeline. Even then, it would be under assumption that version incremented over selected period and not, let's say, went +down. +

Back to the content. What music did I find there? +

Most of the pieces were from 2011, 2012 and 2013. Luckily, it seems that it did not contain anything that I would +scream in pain seeing now. On contrary, to prove my beliefs, it seems I have mostly consistent and matured music taste. +Other than couple of artists and/or songs that I simply forgotten there wasn't really any surprises. I mean, there +shouldn't be. +

What's consistent is presence of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's work. In this +case it was The Human Equation. If you never +listened to anything from Arjen, do it right now. Next, Devin Townsend's Epicloud. +Some Gamma Ray and Axxis. Of course, I had to have some odd things, too. Like anime soundtracks. Tasogare Otome x +Amnesia, which surprised me, because I most likely didn't hear anything from it since 2012. I tried lyrics function on +these and it seems to work nicely, too!

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Most nostalgic ones were Spice and Wolf and Tytania. I just remembered that I have been mentoring an intern a year or +so ago and he had Holo poster visible in his work area. +

Couple of songs from Katie Melua and Norah Jones that I did not listen to since around that time, too. It seems +Loreena Mckennitt lasted the longest for me. +

That sums most of it. If won't research more and/or disassembly it, what's next? Is there anything? Yep. I want to +select some things that I listen to often now, some things that I liked from recent anime, and maybe something more. +Then put it in this little MP3 player along most of the things it already had in it. +

Then I'll hope it'll last another 10 years.

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Despite all the flaws, I think there are nice touches that we can bring back from the not so far past. +

But why 27 December 2002? What does it mean!? +

+ -- cgit v1.1