Creative Lab's Nomad Muvo2 4GB - Hitting the Mark Right Below Massive Storage
by Andrew Ku on May 25, 2004 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Nomad Muvo2 4GB - An Inside Look (continued)
As already mentioned, the 37 x 12 mm LCD screen is mounted on a separate riser, which interfaces with the main IC board. One might think that it could be embedded onto the board, and thus, cut down on the MP3 player's width. However, directly south of the LCD riser lays a riser for the two controls buttons and the storage device.
Click to enlarge.
In this case of the Muvo2 4GB, the storage device is a Hitachi 4GB MicroDrive. The other current Muvo2 players use CompactFlash cards, which explains why they only hit the high of 1.5GB. (NAND technology is still limited by low yields at high capacities.)
Click to enlarge.
In theory, anyone with enough tack can manually swap a lower capacity card on a CompactFlash based Muvo2 to something like a 4GB MicroDrive, or vice versa. This seems to be what some people are doing, and we even found some people selling modified Muvo2 MP3 players on eBay.
Aside from the warranty issues relating to modding a Muvo2, we could caution anyone to be extra careful when taking apart the player. Five points of circuitry are oddly interconnected via the electro-conductive tape that protects both sides of the board. Two of the points are visible in the picture above (the small window in the electro-conductive tape on the board would be what we are referring to). There is a small tab of the electro-conductive material of the tape that is soldered to the board. We ended up soldering and taping the points down to maintain connectivity.
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melgross - Sunday, May 30, 2004 - link
I wonder what the percentage of people are using this for what it was designed for vs. the drive camera angle. Creative probable doesn't care, as long as they sell, but...nigham - Sunday, May 30, 2004 - link
one thing i noticed with the Muvo NX - my current MP3 player - it DOES NOT recognize files that start with odd characters '[', '_' and such to be music files. caused me a huge heartache when i first bought it coz all my files are organized as "[Artist] Song Name"!!nigham - Sunday, May 30, 2004 - link
does this play .ogg format? i sorely need a player that plays ogg (since all my music is in that format) - and as of now, i believe only iRiver supports it.Lurks - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link
Deleting posts? Nice...MrEgo - Thursday, May 27, 2004 - link
Ok, I admit I hardly know a thing about MP3 players. That being said, I am looking for a good MP3 player to listen to while I exercise. So basically, here's my requirements:1. Cannot skip while I run or bike.
2. Able to upload songs from my computer onto the player.
3. Able to delete/add files freely without buying memory cards.
Would the player that was just reviewed support my needs? If so or if not, does anyone have any other suggestions for other players that may be cheaper that would suit my needs?
wassup4u2 - Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - link
What formats does it support? MP3, obviously, but how about .wma or .ogg?Foxbat121 - Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - link
Correction: Type II CF rather than Type IIIFoxbat121 - Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - link
Micro Drive is type III CF compatible which means you can used it as Type II CF cards. And I think we're talking about Muvo2 4GB here not 1.5GB.nightowl - Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - link
I thought the Muvo2 1.5GB used a microdrive and not flash memory. Everything I have read says that it and the Rio Nitrus use a microdrive instead of flash memory.Foxbat121 - Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - link
Most people bought Muvo2 just for the internal CF sized microdrive. You will find a lot of Muvo2's on sale on eBay without the microdrive. The MD alone costs $500 retail. ANd it works with most digital cameras that accept CF II cards. iPod has the same micro drive but is specifically modified so that it won't work inside a camera.It's hard to find anywhere that has Muvo2 in stock. Most places sold out in a few hours.