This player is missing some extras, but it won't cost you an bunch.
Written: Jul 31 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Jukebox-style navigation; decent interface; eight-minute skip protection.
Cons: Glitchy software, no remote, carrying case, or FM radio.
The Bottom Line: This player is missing some extras, but it won't cost you an arm and a leg.
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| tam82083's Full Review: TDK MOJO Personal CD Player |
Until now, MP3 CD players have shared a disadvantage in the area of navigation, when compared to flash memory or hard drive-based MP3 players. Dealing with 150 songs per CD is no easy task, especially when you consider that the track information comes from ID3 tags, which force other MP3 CD players to scan the entire disc before playing it. The TDK Mojo CD-MP3 Digital Jukebox solves this problem with a combination of software and smarts, but it lacks the extras that would make it a top-flight player.
Problem solved
A problem that's specific to MP3 CD players is that the ID3 tags that contain information about songs are embedded at the end of each track on the CD. This means that the MP3 CD player normally has to scan through the contents of the entire CD to load the songs' artist/title information. The Mojo, however, comes with TDK's Navitrack software for renaming your files so that the artist, song title, and genre are all shown in the filename (for example: Let It Be-Beatles-Rock.mp3). Once you burn an MP3 CD entirely in this format, the Mojo can load the song information into its memory from the filenames, rather than using those harder-to-scan ID3 tags. Then, the Mojo plays songs not only by directory but also by artist or genre, no matter where the songs by that artist or from that genre are located on your disc.
The software that converts names, however, isn't perfect. First, there's only a Windows version, so Mac users will have to rename their files by hand if they want to take advantage of the name-recognition feature that separates the Mojo--and its more polished sibling--from other MP3 CD players.
Works fine but few extras
The Mojo has a great design, with nine easily identifiable buttons on the front panel. I must say, however, that Ie miss a remote control such as the one used by the iRiver. The buttons include standard features such as equalization (four presets), Repeat and Random modes, a bass boost, and more. Best of all is the eight-minute antiskip protection. The Mojo never hiccupped a single time--antiskip protection doesn't get better than that.
There were a few glitches with the player itself. Sometimes two versions of files appeared on the player when there was really only one, and the first version of the file played nothing but silence. It sometimes took a few tries to load a CD and recognized some names inconsistently. For example, in Artist mode, 12 Stevie Wonder songs showed up as a group, but 1 song got orphaned by itself.
Despite these minor problems, the Mojo is a good deal. While TDK still prices it at $120. If you need extras such as an FM radio, a remote, and a carrying case, go with iRiver.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 119
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Epinions.com ID:
tam82083
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Member: Jeff Tam
Location: Temple City, CA, USA
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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