"If Panasonic made mp4 players...."

[dust2dust]

Surely they'd have to be a LITTLE bit more sexy than THIS piece of crap :

http://www1.uk.shopping.com/xPO-Panasonic-SV-MP710

It mystifies me that a company with the expertise and might of Panasonic has failed to enter the PMP market. I for one would be queueing outside the shop at midnight with an inane grin on my stupid face in front of crowds of whooping, paid 'real genuine people' just like a certain other PMP manufacturer beginning with the letter A has a habit of giving you a chance to do every year.

[CrowdAds]

[synaesthetic]

I dunno, this is pretty sexy looking.

Panasonic makes DAPs, just they stay in Japan, usually.

[The DarkSide]

That is DAMN SEXY actually,..........................

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by dust2dust

http://www1.uk.shopping.com/xPO-Panasonic-SV-MP710

That player has been around since at least 2004. I wonder why it's still listed on that store site? Must be a bug and not actually for sale. I mean, it has 256 whopping MBs of storage space!

Panasonic seems to have given up on the international MP3 player market in the meantime (Japan-only for now, AFAIK), but they released some more modern looking players some years ago in the EU/US:

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2008/3/panasonic-dsnap-sv-sd870n.jpg

That one looks really nifty, despite the counterintuitive touch-controls. I heard it should have a really good amp section, just like some Sony or Kenwood players.

[The DarkSide]

JVC had a nice Japan only player or 2, and I believe they use microSD cards for storage. The devices we're limited in the codecs used on them, but SQ was rumored to be quite good.

I believe there were also a few different models of the "Alneo" as it was called. Looked really promising to me, and again, never made it to the USA/Canada/EU.

[Living In Lies]

JVC has a nice player? I thought they were a walmart-style company (sells everything), idk, shows what I know. I kinda love that SD-SV100V though, it's just a cool looking device.

[Danneq]

Originally Posted by Living In Lies

JVC has a nice player? I thought they were a walmart-style company (sells everything), idk, shows what I know. I kinda love that SD-SV100V though, it's just a cool looking device.

In Japan, where I live during 2010, Victor are quite popular (JVC stands for Japan Victor Company). Perhaps not when it comes to DAP:s thought, since the majority of mp3 players I see here in the Tokyo area are iPod nano and classic...

If I understand correctly, JVC entered the mp3 player market in 2005 with the XA HD-500 - a 6GB microdrive DAP with a supposedly very good SQ. They also released some lower capacity DAP:s (1 & 2 GB) which I do not know the name of.

Here's a review from 2005

Another one


Later they have released flash based DAP:s, the main series now being the Alneo XA V series with capacities being 2, 4 and 8 GB.


I have not heard any of these, but before I go back to Sweden in December I will try to get hold of a XA HD-500. I like it that it has got a cradle with line out and a wireless remote included. Too bad that it cannot play lossless including wav...

Kenwood is another Japanese company that has released pretty good mp3 players. Since coming to Japan, I have bought a Kenwood HD20GA7 which is a hdd based DAP released in 2005. It sounds very nice and I wonder why it has been so difficult to get hold of outside of Japan...
In 2007 Kenwood also released HD30GB9 (30GB) and HD10GB7 (10GB) and then in 2008 HD60GD9 (60GB) before switching to flash based players. Apparently the HDD players sound better than the flash based players but still the flash based ones sound very good.

People living outside of Japan might be able to find stuff here. The prices seem a bit high, though, and the XA V80 series is sold out...


EDIT: There is this thread in this very sub-forum about the XA V80.