David Tom

i thought i would put this up to help people who are thinking of buying the CDJ400s
It a story of good and bad,
The good: well they are great little dj cd players for the money, they feel good and have basicly the same layout as the top of the range CDJ1000s, the on board effects are great, very easy to use and they sound very good, also the new addition of a usb slot is very useful, you can plug memory sticks and even an ipods in to the slot and it works well

Now the bad: i have owned 2 of these units for 10 months, the first six months i have to say were trouble free,no problems, after that though they started freezing, first it was once in a while then it become more frequent, now at this prestent time they are freezing up everytime i use them, i get about 45mins use before it happens,

As a professional Dj i find this totaly unaceptable, any dj will tell you that a cd deck freezing up on you in a club or during a radio show is no laughing matter, makes you look a bit of a fool,

I believe a pioneer software update would fix this problem, but until they issue one I cant recommend these decks as they are just not reliable enough at the moment, my advice is go for the CDJ 800

a big (little) surprise

this replaced my 2 year old sony mp3/atrac cd player, and boy what a difference. The first thing you notice is the size. While not quite in the ipod league, it's as small as the size of a cd will let it be, and about as thick as a cd in its case. The supplied earbuds are surprisingly good, but are already in a drawer I'm afraid. The remote is superb, backlit and intuitive to use, comes with a little drawstring bag, emblazoned with Sony logo's, but it's all you need as once it's in your pocket the remote is all you need. Too many features to list, most pretty usefull too, all in all , excellent until I finally go for the hard drive option.

Much less expensive alternative to an ipod with loads of extras!

O.k so I'm writing the review I needed while I was looking at this product. I will start by saying that this product really is very good for all that it has. The instruction booklet that comes with it is translated from Chinese so hard at times to work out what they are trying to tell you and it's not in order so I will do my best to explain some things here. The battery lasts about 4 hours total, if playing continuously. I feel that it is a bit shorter than some mp3 players, not sure.(That's why it only gets 4 stars from me instead of 5). If you use it daily then charging it back up using the charger that comes with over night (do this when you get the player for the first time, before trying to use it) or the USB cable (2.0) via your computer while sat in the office at work would also sort it.
The usb cable attaches from the player to the computer and allows the fast transfer of files. I put a shortcut link of the E drive onto the desktop for faster access, though your computer does give you a prompt of what you want to do. The cable also inserts into the plug charger also.

The most important part is the mp3 player. I got the 4GB version and it does seem to have space for it. I have put as much as 4GB onto the player with no problems. For those who have windows XP it's very easy. Works on the same basis as the folders on your computer. It says you can put up to 9 folders on it with subfolders within them. I have not put that many but the 6 or 7 that I have have worked no problem. Simply open up your music folder window, open the E drive window then click and drag as many as you want in one go. Either individual files or the whole folder (which is quicker). Note the any file can be stored on the player as it acts as a removable disc.(4GB worth). Once you have moved the files over then click on the M button on the player to go into the main menu. The M button on the player basically acts as a enter/affirmative button. You must use this button when you want to select anything.
So you get a screen with a pair of headphones for the music. Click on the M button, it will go into a root menu, from here you will see your other folders/songs that you have loaded on to the player. Use the backwards and forwards buttons to scroll through the folders. When you want to play a song from a folder press the M button. This will enter the folder and will give you more subfolders if you have them in there or songs, they will have been copied onto the player in the same order as you had them in your folders)
To choose a song scroll down the list and press the M button to choose the song. Note you may fall fowl of clicking the play button to try and choose a song from the menu but this just takes you back to the start or the last song you had been playing, it can be frustrating. Once you get the hang of pressing the M button each time it will get alot quicker. Once you have the song you want come up, press the M button from the folder menu it then comes up with the song. ( a graphic equaliser will be showing also with 0:00:00 showing time played of the song) Now press the play/pause button and your song will play. In this mode it will play right through your music folder without you having to select them etc. If you want to be more selective, that's when this player loses the plot a bit. It will scroll through the songs when in play mode using the backwards/forwards arrows. It may take a while if the song you are looking for is at the end of your list. I personally organised the folder first by clicking on the 'view files in name order' on your computer. That way you will know that they will be in alphabetical order. Or you could really individualy organise each song to where you want it. Note, if you have itunes, you can highlight any/all the songs from a particular playlist and click right mouse button and drag them to the E drive window to copy them onto your player. I recommend putting them into an empty folder that is already on the player then they will be in the order you want exactly!
The sound is pretty good, there is a hum when changing inbetween songs but otherwise its crystal clear when on play mode. There is a repeat function when in play mode with Normal,Repeat one,Folder,Repeat Folder,Repeat all,Shuffle. So you can repeat just one song or the whole folder or all folders. Shuffle will just shuffle the folder you are currently in, if that's got a lot of songs then it will mix the lot up! There are other modes you can go into while in play mode, equaliser, tempo rate and replay. Equaliser speaks for itself, I choose to keep mine on the DBB for extra bass. The tempo rate is pretty cool to make the songs faster or slower. Very good if you are a dance teacher and use the player to hook into your stereo system (easily done with an adapter with two output sockets (L&R speakers) or just to mess around with I guess. The replay (I have not got into that yet) is I think to replay a particular set of songs A to B. You will have to figure that one out.
The headphones that come with the player are too short and the jack that you plug into the player is 2.5mm (english ones are 3.5mm) so they send you an adapter so you can plug that into the player and then your own headphones. I did have a problem with the first adapter making a noise when it was in the player ( when it swivelled around as it would do, if you were walking etc but the people/person at Tecknet sent me another with no charge or fuss).

The next screen you get is movies, here you can play any movies in a AMV format. So you do need to get hold of a AMV converting tool. I think they are available out there on the internet free. Then you can change AVI, MPG, WMV etc to AMV. Then as before click and drag the file into a separate folder and when you click on the M button while on the movies screen it will go into the folder for movies it recognises and then click M again to select the movie you want and when it comes up like the mp3s with equaliser and 0:00:00 etc click play to see movie/ video clip. Image is small but good quality from the stuff I have played on there, also sound. If you really wanted, with a 4GB memory you could put a few movies on there when travelling etc. It is small though 1.8" But hey, it's a cool extra.

Next comes Record function, voice record that is, or any other sound I guess. Click on the screen with record on, M button, then it will initialise (start up) and will come to a screen with a picture of a mic, 0:00:00 with the type of record format you are using ACT or VOR. These can be ACT fine or long and VOR fine or long. You can get to this menu when in the record screen (with the mic etc) by clicking M and it will give you a choice of folder menu for previous recordings (to edit etc) or REC menu to choose type of record format. Have a play with it and you will see the better quality is fine. The format you use is maybe individual choice, very cool extra though, cool for lectures etc, not tried it on lectures but picks up voice very well and anyone else's, hmmm, james bond espionage comes to mind.
Anyway, to hear what you have recorded you have to go to the next main screen called voice (with a speaker phone) click M and it will enter the menu giving you a choice of files you have recorded. Note if you have no files it will say 'disk empty' (this goes the same for other folders that are empty too). As before click on the file you want to listen to (M button) and click play. It can record hours and hours of voice etc.
Next comes FM radio (picture of a portable stereo) click M into main screen Picture of a radio with 87.0 MHz and search bar. To search through the available radio channels click backwards/forwards buttons, or press and hold for automatic search. Remember that it is not digital, do it somewhere you normally get good reception for optimum function. When you have found a station press and hold play/pause button to store. The spec. says you can store 20 channels. I have 10 stored with no problem and perhaps if I travel somewhere else I would want to store the radio channels there. See how you go. Note, the radio will crackle etc if you are traveling, in a poor reception area, or high buildings/hills etc. If you are sat still or walking not to great a distance then it is pretty good. Some stations will give better reception than others. Again a cool feature that comes with it. Oh there is a Japanese channel option, but I think that might be for the originally intended market.

Next screen is Photo, picture of a photo. Here you can view your photos that you have put onto the player same way as everything else. To view click M then once into the file menu click on play to view. There is a mode for auto or manual viewing. Not bad quality, guess it depends on the original photo file the bigger the file/quality etc the better it looks on the photo viewer. Note that the bigger the size memory of the photo the longer it takes to load on the screen of the photo viewer. Enjoy it.

The next screen is the setup, it has a cog on it. Here you can set the clock,(not sure why, do not use it, not sure even where it comes up) LCD set is for screen brightness etc. Language, there are loads of them. A power/sleep off time so you can set it to switch off after so many minutes in tens of mins. Note that pressing and holding play button will switch off/on the unit/player then at the top there is an on/off button, click this to off if you are not going to be using it for a while. I think it saves battery. Replay mode, not sure what that's about, Online mode again have not explored this, memory info gives you the amount of space on the drive of your player. It comes up with a total out of 4000mb (1000mb = 1 GB) on mine it seems to have a clitch as it comes up for a split second only. Not too bothered as you can always look to see how much memory you have on there when you have the E drive window open on your computer just press control and A to highlight all the files then while they are still highlighted right click mouse and choose properties, on the properties this will show how much memory is on the E drive/player. There is also firmware upgrade, it's says in the rather dodgy English instructions that come with it that you can upgrade, but it is not needed for the correct functioning of the player. It also says that it could cause the player not to work if you do upgrade and it does not work well with the player, so my advice is leave that well alone. I believe that the player does not need any upgrade to work well.

The next screen is the e-book, I have not looked into this much, when I did load a note pad ebook it worked well enough though as the screen is so small it takes a bit of time to read and scroll, so not my fav. of additions but hey how many are there comapared to some mp3 players!

The last screen is games with cards showing. There is only one game called Russia block, also known as Tetris style game. Fun enough if your bored with the music, video, ebook, photos and radio! ;-0

The FM tansmitter (an optional extra) is a load of rubbish so just get the player by itself.

I hope I have given you a bit of help with this, it's taken me long enough to do! I wanted to help people with doubts about this player as I did while I was looking. I hope you enjoy it and have fun with it. Cheers.

p.s feel free to post any questions on the reviews of this player and I will try to help. Stellan.

It's NOT an Ipod....and that can only be good

When i first saw this, I thought"that looks a bit familiar", but took a look at the price and realised it wasn't what I first thought it was. But reading through the tech specs, i realised it had all the marks of a great lil gadget, so I ordered one.

When it arrived, I was instantly blown away. The thing is so small (about the size of an odeon cinema ticket) but is crammed full of features. It has an MP3 player, as youd expect, but rather than an MP4 player (as it is branded on the back of the unit) it plays AMV files. Luckily though, it comes with an encoder, which converts just about any video file you can chuck at it, into AMV files for viewing on the player. Other features include an FM radio, photo viewer, Tetris type game, voice recorder AND can read ebooks!
The screen size, approx 1 3/4 inches by 1 1/2 inches , may sound small to some, but it really isnt a problem for viewing videos or checking which track you're playing on the mp3 player.

I seriously recommend getting one of these, maybe you'll start a new trend among people who cant afford proper Ipods, preach the gospel of this, and be the new technical messiah! (And dont forget who told you about it!)

Great capacity - but watch your pc hard drive

Had this for a couple of months and it's great - bought it mainly for holidays. I found quite by accident when running defrag that files I thought I'd deleted after burning my disc were still around - I've only burnt two discs so far, but managed to free up about 1GB of hard disc space when I found the files! They went into c:documents and settingsall usersapplication datasony corporation .......!!
The files are either *.omg or *.rdb - hope this is useful.