Wolverine MVP-9060 60 GB Portable Storage and Multimedia Viewer
By: Coleman Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 20
More Information
 On: 2007-12-05
The CF receiver pins bent after light use. I also have a Dooin which is the same type of unit but without the display. I have used the Dooin for several years without a problem. When I email Customer Service Rico stated it used caused by user error. I do not understand how they could reach this decision without looking at the unit. I ask him to have Matt the owner contact me... he has not.
They do have warning about inserting the CF card. They have a bad design and they need to fix it.
This unit might be ok using SD or anything other than CF, but watch out if you need to deal with customer service.
 On: 2007-10-31
I didnt want to carry a lap top on my trip as I dont edit my photos until I return home. I wanted a photo storage device that would allow me to store and review my photos while traveling and that is exactly what I got. I downloaded my pictures on a daily basis and didnt have to worry about losing all my photos if the card failed or was corrupted. I could also share my photos with others or view them on the TV in my room. Im very pleased with my purchase.
 On: 2007-09-08
This device is a foolproff way to make your JPegs totally portable with excellent clarity. A perfect product, but battery life sucks and sound quality way behind an iPod.
 On: 2007-08-23
Bought this product primarily for photo storage so I havent yet used the other features. I used it on a trip to Alaska where I took hundreds of pictures. Instead of having to buy numerous memory cards, I was able to transfer photos to the Woverine & re-use the memory card. Then, I loaded the photos onto my computer. The Wolverine screen is easy to read & the instructions are good. Ive been a little disappointed with the battery life as I have to re-charge it frequently. However, it is a great companion for those wanting to store photos, music & videos all in one unit.
 On: 2007-04-28
This thing blows... I think they had all there workers write these reviews because it is
1. TOO big WAY big like omg you think you wont mind its not that big but no it really is WAY TOO BIG
2. It freezes... a lot
3. It is not compatible with most music download programs
4. The color is obnoxious
5. Sure it will play the music you have cds for
6. OK the picture uploading ability is cool but honestly... why not just get a bigger card for your camera? I thought I would use it a lot but its not the reality.
I definitely lost on this deal.
On: 2007-03-16
I got the 80GB version and its working out great.
Dont buy it if all you want is an MP3 player! The reviewers who did that all whine about the size and I dont think thats what this machine is about, although I loaded tons of music directly, not the proprietary tunes, but MP3s directly from the PC--just drag and drop, no strain, and they sound great with the Sony phones I use.
Where this thing shines, for my use, is the ability to download and save images directly from memory cards--works with both SD and CF cards so far and is as fast downloading the HS cards as my PC is. Awesome in the field and simple to B/U cards with a couple clicks, and even easier to xfr the files to a computer, as the Wolverine is recognized simply as an HD in XP.
I fully intend to use the mike, too. Sound quality is better than my Sansa, would be fine for lectures, and Im looking forward to getting night sounds from the jungle to accompany my slide shows. BTW, the included remote works nicely.
The battery seems to have pretty good life, downloads 12GB + many on-screen reviews between charges and is totally user replaceable--a spare with external charger is ~$20 from the mfgr. Havent tried max listening time with music.
For its size, Im not sure why they didnt just toss in an FM tuner as the other non-Apple competition did so nicely, but again that would be redundant for my photo storage focus anyway. The price is right for such a versatile, multipurpose device.
by: aniszewski On: 2007-01-16
I needed an MP3 player that would allow picture storage especially during travel. My wife takes a lot of pictures. The concept of Wolverine seemed great. No propriatory software, direct download from multiple card formats, music player, video etc. When I received it I was definitely disappointed with the size. It is a BRICK!!!!!. They do not offer any decent carrying cases that would allow easy access while walking etc and protect it at the same time, like some cases for the iPod. The only one on their accessory list is very unappealing. These are minor things. I ordered mine from Costco. It took 2 weeks to arrive and did not work. After an hour with a support representative (very good and patient) we could not make my two different computers recognize the device. They offered to send me a replacement one but I declined. I am not sure we started off on the right foot. I hope they make some adjustments in the size and software. I may give it a second chance some time in the future. For now I got a Phillips GoGear 8GB for music, radio while jogging and we will continue to use our old portable CD burner to transfer photos. By the way GoGear is great and beats comparable iPods hands down as far as both price and features.
On: 2006-12-05
I ordered the 60 GB Wolverine MVP player after several months of shopping. I wanted a portable unit that I could download my CF cards too while shooting, take audio notes on, and play music on. The MVP is perfect! So far, my battery seems to last for about seven hours of music play, and I can show hundreds of photos to people very easily. Ive played with the audio recording function, and the built-in microphone seems to perform well for my needs. The only thing I havent used this for is to watch any kind of video yet, mostly because I dont do a lot in that medium.
On: 2006-09-13
If you are thinking about getting an IPOD or other multi-media player, think again. I have had my MVP for almost two months. Other than being somewhat large, Im more than impressed. I was looking for a player than could hold my entire CD and DVD collection, that could connect to my home stereo and replace my bulky multi-disc player. This unit was the ticket. After looking at the minimal amount of storage that the others offered, as well as the multitude of other accessories for their players, I went with the Wolverine. It sounds amazing and its very easy to use. Equally important to the player, is the customer service. In all my years in the banking business, Im always impressed by amazing customer service. This company takes it to a new level. I had a problem with my player due to a virus traveling to the external drive. I sent them the player, they transferred all my files and sent me a new player immmediately, no questions asked. (2) of my co-workers just purchased IPODs and are kicking themselves, due to versatility of the Wolverine MVP. I have it hooked to my Denon receiver and have given my multi-disc player to my daughters.
Go Wolverine MVP, you cant miss !
On: 2006-08-16
This is an awesome product by Wolverine. Very easy to use. Plug and play in real sense! I could just copy DAT file from my VCD and played it on my TV. No conversions required!
Sound, video quality is great. And support to 7 types of memory cards is a blessing!!
You have to get this one for sure!!
Thanks Wolverine!
On: 2006-08-01
Its time... I own the 120 GB version of this and Ive had it for about 2 months now. I absolutely love it.
- I would never buy an ipod now.
pros - replaceable/upgradeable battery (very unlike an ipod)
- almost every accessory you could want included except a car charger
- drag and drop files, thats right folks you can even take files off of this bad boy
- plug and play, backwards compatible with win98se
- supports so many data cards
- the portable case/speaker that comes with it actually sounds really good despite it being in mono/ and I still havent changed my 2 AAA batteries (aprox. 30hrs so far)
cons- it is kinda big
- its red
- if you make a playlist of every song... mine is 9000 songs it sucks the life out of the battery to load it and is extremely slow (my biggest problem with it)
- the 1/8 inch audio jack is kinda crackly.. it doesnt like alot of movement.. then again its too big to take on a jog.
- it doesnt do laundry
Its funny but now that I look at the pros and cons and ipod is exactly the opposite in that respect. But I would never buy an ipod for the reason that as soon as the battery is dead. so is the ipod. Engineering geniuses!!
I would buy this even as just an mp3 player, but it does so much more which makes it soooo valuable.
On: 2006-07-15
When I decided I wanted an mp3 player, I did quite a bit of research because for as much as they all cost, I wanted it to work exactly the way I wanted. I wanted video support and at least 60 gigs of space. I wanted to be able to easily transfer any kind of file from computer to computer. I wanted to use this as a backup/storage device as much as listening to it; so if the hard drive on my PC crashes I can still have my mp3 collection that I can upload back on to a new HD. According to all the reviews Ive read the Wolverine seemed to be more dependable and have fewer annoyances.
Reasons why I did NOT go with the following brands: (I did not actually own any of these, just did a lot of reading up)
Ipod:
- Have to use iTunes to manage your collection and transfer songs; have to convert all mp3s to m4as.
- Have to BUY QuickTime Pro just to convert movies to watch on the iPod, or buy the videos off iTunes (which you cant share with others)
- Everyone says the first time you wipe the screen to clean it you see a million tiny scratches.
- Quite a few complaints about the system failing after a few months or a year.
- Bad technical support reported.
- No AC Power adapter included which you need to recharge it.
- Not to mention, this is more expensive than all the other brands already.
- Battery can only be recharged so many times and you cannot replace it yourself, you have to send it into Apple, pay shipping costs and labor costs for them doing the work, instead of simply being able to buy your own battery and put it in yourself.
Cowon iAudio X5:
- Maximum number of files allowed is 10,000. Why make a hard drive that can hold 15,000 songs and limit the number to 10,000? I dont get it. This was my only complaint about this product and I would have seriously considered buying this if it wasnt for that limit.
Creative Nomad Zen Xtra:
- Seems to be Discontinued...
- Headphone Jack seems to easily break according to reviews
- Unit seems to easily break
- No Video
Toshiba Gigabeat MEG F60S: (MES60VK wasnt out yet, but looks pretty decent)
- No Video
- Mp3s must be converted to ".SAT" format and cannot be put back on the computer or on a different computer. Sorry, next brand...
iRiver:
- biggest one is 40gig. What a shame. My music collection is 45 gigs and I want some extra space for videos.
Reasons why I like the WOLVERINE MVP-9060 over other players
- Plug-and-play & Drag-and-drop. Plug it into a rear USB Port and drag and drop your files just like moving them from one folder to another on the computer. Done. No converting, no software to install, and they transfer pretty quickly. One thing is, the base folders must be organized like \\Data, \\Media, \\Backup, and \\System; and \\Media is further divided into \\Music, \\Photos, \\Videos, and \\Voice. But its quite self-explanatory and not really a limitation or annoyance.
- AC power adapter included.
- Replaceable battery.
- Audio and Video Jacks included. I didnt even know this at the time but you can hook it straight up to your stereo system and play it through the speakers, and also hook up the screen to your TV while choosing songs and such. (also to watch videos and view pictures) If Im not mistaken, if you wanted to do this with an iPod you have to buy an entire stereo system just for the iPod that is another $300. Along with buying Quicktime, and a AC Power adapter, youre getting all these features on a Wolverine for $350 and the same features on an iPod would cost you $750, not to mention all your songs, videos and stereo system is all converted to Apple mode and isnt compatible with anything else. No thanks!
- For people like me who have massive music collections and want their ENTIRE music collection on their player, they have great hard drive capacities. This unit is available in 60, 80, 100, and 120 gig hard drives. Twice as big as any other company offers. If I had too much money that I knew what to do with I probably would have got the 120 gig one.
- The 7-in-1 data card reader is very nice. I dont need to worry about my usb-camera cable or installing the camera software to get my photos on a pc.
Cons with the WOLVERINE
- Bulky compared to other Mp3 players, but still is a good size I think. I used to put a portable CD player in my pocket and this is slightly more than half the size. I have big pockets.
- Filenames only display the first 30 characters. This was the main issue for me but I got around it. My files were originally all in one folder named like this: "Artist - Album - Track # - Song Title," so almost all the titles would be cut off in the middle of the album name, sometimes even on the artist name. However, I organized my collection into separate folders for each artist, and if the album names were long, then separate folders for each album. Its much easier to find stuff on my computer now, and on the wolverine too because I couldnt imagine scrolling through 10-15 thousand songs in the same folder, it would take an hour to find what you wanted.
- When you put it on "random" it only plays the current folder. To get around this IcemanJ loads every single song into Winamp, shuffles the playlist, takes only the first 100 or 500 songs and saves the playlist IN THE ROOT \\MUSIC FOLDER and then COPIES it to the root music folder of the Wolverine. You CANT save it straight to the wolverine because the m3u file will write full filename paths to the music on your computer and it is _most likely_ not in folders called \\Media\\Music unless you specifically set it up like that. You can do this many times for a different random playlist every day, and delete the old ones when you get more in your collection. It is very simple.
- Temporary playlists are kind of weird. You dont want to have everything in the same folder because it will always "pre-load" everything in the folder when you play one song in it and that is unnecessary and probably wasting the battery. You can go to "play in background" and add songs in order when the current one finishes but it still has to finish the folder for the first song you added. So you have to skip to the newest song you added, but only after the first song. Not that big of a deal. Im just picky.
- (Edit, July 30) Took me a month to figure out how to pause a song (simply press the joystick in while listening)
- The FPS for the video is noticeably slower than a TV or Computer screens FPS. And some of my videos dont take up the whole screen, it looks like they could be proportionally enlarged. Oh well.
- It displays ID3 Tags, but only ID3v2 so if your mp3 has ID3v1 it wont display.
So far, what Ive read has been pretty accurate, and I think the pros outweigh the cons on this unit compared to other brands. Im satisfied.
Happy Hunting,
IcemanJ
On: 2006-04-29
There are many things I like about the player: nice sound, easy control,
sturdy unit, many formats, HUGE storage, voice recording, easy recharge, etc.
There are a few things I dont like:
- The ferrari red color very distracting;
- Size: way too big comparing to other 2-digit GB devices;
- Windows XP wont remove the device;
- No resume-play function. If I power off the unit in the middle of playing, when I power it back on it shows the whole playlist again. I have to manually find where I left off.
For 3-4 hundred dollars I really expect it to be better. IPod misses a few things as well. I just havent found the perfect mp3 player yet.
On: 2006-04-23
Cons:
- a little heavier and thicker than I might have thought. Ive tried to excerise with it in my pocket and it just got in the way.
- earphone cord is too short.
- The mp3 playlist plays only the songs within a certain folder. So I had to take all 1500 songs, previously well-grouped in folder by artist, add the artists names to the files, and put them all into one folder. A bit of a pain, but now everythings fine.
- Despite having 60GB, my player cant save mp3 playlists so it has to reload all 1500 songs every time.
- Although it advertises that it plays AVIs, Ive never been able to get it to play them. I had to convert everything into DIVX format, which meant I had to buy the DIVX converter.
- The joystick is a little touchy and tends to jump several times in one touch. It takes a little while to acquire the finness.
PROS:
- I like the fact that it looks so different from the IPOD. Its still clean looking, and I actually like the chrome.
- Its cheaper than an IPOD!
- I used in on a trip to Peru where I needed to download photos I had taken. Taking the chip and inserting it into the MVP was VERY easy!
- Theres a built-in mic for memo or voice recording.
- It seems rather sturdy for what it is. Ive droppped it several times and it seems quite hearty
- Interface is easy to use.
- More video formats than IPOD
- it comes with its own external speaker, although sound quality is not great.
I would still recommend this over an IPOD. Its a little bulky and you have to transfer AVIs to DIVX, but it does everything quite well.
On: 2006-03-13
Not the prettiest MP3 player, but it looks better in real life than it does in the pictures.
I had bought the IPOD 60gb first.
I wanted to watch video I had already.
Was not allowed.
I wanted to give my friend some music I had on my IPOD.
Was not allowed.
Would like to go travelling for the weekend in the desert. But the battery dies after about 8 hours.
Not good.
When you open the box it says "Do not steal music"
First of all.. I dont want my MP3 player telling me what to do or dictating my habits.
I took the IPOD Back and bought this instead.
Its really great, have had it for a few months now and not had a problem. Theres not software, so you just plug it into any computer and you can use it.
I can take it to a friends house and give a friend all my music, or take all his.
The video is great, and the package includes cables so you can hook it up to a Tv and watch the video from this player on the TV. You can look at your photos this way too.
Its really easy to use and figure out and I just tried out taking the memory card from my camera and inserting into this and that is pretty cool too.
The battery is detachable so when it runs out you can charge it up or buy another one to have on rotation.
The package comes with a carry case which doubles up as a speaker, have not tried this yet, and it comes with all the cables you would need and even a remote control.
The remote control did not work.
This is a really good player, easy to use also. Didnt need to read the manual to figure out the controls. Very user friendly.. could not be happier with this.
On: 2006-03-11
Just so you will know, I tried this product out for about an hour with a company representative patiently answering all of my questions and guiding me through its many functions. He even explained some of the designers philosophy.
The MVP has got to be the most feature-laden MP3 player ever conceived. Indeed, it is a video player, an MP3 player, an external hard drive, a repository for digital pictures, a digital voice recorder, a mini boombox, and an ebook reader (of sorts). Put all of this in a garish red package ("Ferrari" red, I was informed by the product rep.), and you could have a Swiss Army knife for the digital guerilla.
In theory, you can use it to play most popular (compressed) video formats, such as MPEG-4 (but not H-264).
You can also copy over almost all non-protected audio formats (pretty much everything except FLAC, Apple Lossless, and RealOne formats). AAC and WMA together on one player at last!!
You can move pictures right from your digital cameras CompactFlash, SD, MemoryStick or whatever, and view them (with zoom and rotate available). The MVP will even display photos shot in most cameras RAW format. You can selectively erase photos on the camera medium card; files can be copied in both directions using the MVP.
The unit comes with a remote control that can be used not just for playback but for presentations when the unit is hooked up to an external monitor or projector. Not only can audio, still pictures and videos be diplayed, but so can text files.
No special software is needed to transfer files either from camera cards or your computer. In fact, your computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux) will just see the MVP as an external hard drive.
While bearing some resemblance to the Swiss Army knife in red form and metaphorical function, the MVP lacks one basic element that its red Helvetic cousin possesses (OK, besides a toothpick). That is ease-of-use.
I found the MVPs user interface frustrating. No doubt one could get used to using it, but I could not in a hour and I usually catch on to such things quickly. I was never able to successfully get the song or video I wanted on the thing. The controls consist of three buttons, one dial (the volume dial doubles as a zoom for pictures), and a vexing "joystick" like navigator that is intended to control the scrolling through pictures and files, but which simply makes me think of how elegant the iPod interface is in contrast. In addition, the "menu" and "escape" buttons ("back" would have been a nicer, less engineery name for the latter) are located in such a way that it was difficult to touch them without shifting the unit in my hand. This pretty much means that I ended up using BOTH hands to use the unit often.
Rummaging through file folders or a similar heirarchical filing system is more frustrating when in a hurry than the multiple playlist system on an iPod.
For me, the user interface provided enough frustration that I passed on the MVP, despite a hefty discount that was offered at the time of my hands-on demo.
However, the video and audio playback both seemed quite good, and the ability to use the MVP as a camera storage device without any add-ons certainly makes it unique. The company representative who gave me my demo said that they intended the MVP to be something of a substitute for those who would need to take a computer with them on a weekend getaway or vacation. It does seem ideal for that. While it is a bit bulky for pocket carrying, and certainly is not as inconspicuous as other MP3 players, the MVP seems like a good personal entertainment companion for the person who can get used to the user interface.
On: 2006-02-21
I saw this media player by accident while looking into an ipod. I was having a hard time deciding between the ipod and a Creative Zen Vision (the big one) because both had many negative reviews online.
While at my local Frys I see it there. I asked the guys there about it and nobody could tell me about it. So I called my brother to look up some user reviews online and they were all positive.
This was enough for me to buy it and take it home. I wasnt planning on opening it until I researched it myself. After finding nothing but positive reviews, I took a chance and opened the package.
This thing is awesome!
I dont own an Ipod, but can give you some differences between them after researching both.
With this media player you do not need special software like Itunes. It is read like an external hard drive on your system because it is an external hard drive. If you have Windows XP or Mac OS 10.1 you dont even need to install drivers. This was a big plus for me. I dont like idea of having extra software on my computer.
You can drag and drop files straight onto the player. You can even add non-media files like text files, etc.
The device supports 7 media cards as well. Ipod does not. You can take pictures on your digital camera and pop your card right in to either view or download. To get photos on Ipod, you need to add them through Itunes.
The MVP9060 even supports many Windows video formats as well as quicktime .mov files. With an ipod, youll need to buy quicktime pro to convert videos to a usable format that Ipod can read.
The package was also complete with everything I need to get going. It comes with an ac power adapter. With Ipod, you have to charge through usb or buy an additional ac power charger. It comes with the wiring needed to view videos and photos on your TV. You have to buy those separate for Ipod as well.
The only bad thing I have to say is that the color was not a good choice. On the box it looks like a cheap "made in China" toy. Dont let that fool you, it is a wonderful player.
Its also a little bulky, but I couldnt care less. Good luck to you in finding a perfect media player.
On: 2006-02-21
This unit is a very good buy for the price. It gives you the option to play music, videos, and view pictures. The compatability of the picture viewer is pretty complete. It handles many of the different RAW formats as well as all the standard image formats. When viewing the pictures you can see the EXIF data at the bottom of the image (or turn it off if you wish).
The interface is very simplistic. It has 7 options at the main menu, Music, Pictures, Video (these three take you into the respective directories on the Hard Disk), Backup which gives you the options for copying data from a data card, Options, Audio Record (from the built in mic, or input on side), and the Wolverine (which directly browses the Hard Disk). When you put in a storage disk an 8th option shows up that allows you to browse that disk just as you do the Hard Disk.
I found that this unit can also open text files and view them.
Play lists are limited, but do work. It allows you to use WinAmp Play lists (maybe others, but I only tried WinAmp), although I have not found a way to create or edit a playlist on the unit itself.
For playing MP3s your only option is to view them in the same format as you would on the computer, folder by folder. The Random play function only plays THAT folder or playlist random, not ALL available. The filename also is limited to about 30 characters, and does not scroll. If your filename is longer then that you will have to play it to find out what it is. If the CDDB data is stored in the MP3 then the unit appears to show it at the bottom of the play screen (Group, Album, Song name). Across the top it shows an Graphic EQ. There is an EQ with built in presets, but I have found that most of them just sound off, I may be a bit more of a purist.
Power managment is very well done. When playing MP3s the unit will read the MP3 into memory then spin down the hard disk. It also appears to read in the first few seconds of the next song to allow to smooth transition into the next song. The display also turns itself off after X seconds and can be reactivated with any key stroke. You can lock the keys with a MENU, Lock Keys option, and unlock with two key presses. They also use a REMOVABLE battery that is similar to those used in digital cameras. Great for carrying a replacment.
Audio is pretty good, and gives good overall responce to highs and lows. I have not had too many problems with something sounding tinny or bassey.
The carrying case, if you can call it that, is HUGE. It over doubles the size of the unit. The whole top half of the clam shell case is the electronics for the speaker and a small 2in diamater speaker. This speaker is not bad for what you get. It has minimal lows (but what can you expect from a 2in speaker) and sounds ok for carrying around.
The unit is also plug and play compatable with Windows ME, 2000 sp3, and XP. When you plug it in the unit is not usable from the player at all, it is only a storage device at that point. Plugged in you see the Hard Disk and the 4 card slots. No extra software needed, very, very nice.
Photo Viewer - JPEG/TIFF/BMP/RAW(Most Brands of camera)
Video formats - MPEG/MPEG-4/DivX-5.x
Audio formats - MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV, M3U Playlist
On: 2006-01-08
I recently brought the 60GB version from J and R. It is more bulky than the average MP3 player or the video IPOD. However, it is more elegant than the pictures reveal. It is somewhat garish with its red color and the size and dimensions are big so that is impractical if one wants to carry it in the pocket. On the other hand it works beautifully with Windows, does not need itunes and has the drag and drop functionality when connected to the PC. In addition, you can delete and organize files without the computer. I have been listening to the MP3 player in my car nd it plays beautifully. The shuffle function works well. There are several different folders that lets one organize pictures and videos. I also downloaded all the pictures from my camera using the SD card slot. The display is wide and resolution is good. Overall, excellent and works well!
On: 2005-12-18
The Wolverine MVP is a fascinating piece of technology.... rougher around the edges then the video iPod, the current benchmark for Personal Video Players, but still very useful. It is a USB 2.0 device which functions as 60/100gb hard drive, mp3 player and video player. It has a lot of functions which I wont get into there, but will highlight my personal reaction.
PRO: (1) uses a 2.5 drive, which means it is probably upgradable, (2) it uses a user replacable digital camera battery which means that battery life is not a problem (I priced them at $5 for generics on eBay, (3) the built-in flash memory card slots work really well and are the best thing about this product.
CONS: (1) the unit is largish but understandable given the drive and slots, (2) the finish is bright red shiny plastic, a bit garnish, but cool in a retro way, (3) the unit locked up a couple of times apparently because of mp3 file format, but I couldnt quite figure it out, (4) same problem with video file formats, wont show some files, but I didnt have it long enought to figure it out.
CONCLUSION: The interface will scare off those used to the iPods, but it is quite similar to that on the Archos, gMini personal video players. So if you like the styling and the plastic finish, the screen is decent, although not as good as the video iPod. I didnt keep the unit, because I have an iPod for digital camera files and dont need the video functionality. The video output was quite good when hooked up to a screen, although there were artifacts when the scene had a lot of motion.
TIP FOR iTunes OSX users: I used the program SyncTunes to transfer over my mp3 files from my iTunes collection. The playlist didnt make it but the file structure was preserved.
|
|
