Carlsbad DMC releases the market's first 100GB MP3 player

October 22, 2004

Just when you thought that 60GB would be the maximum MP3 players would go before moving on to video, California-based Digital Mind (DMC) Carlsbad has released the first 100GB digital music player to its Xclef 500 series.

This player features a rather lengthy >20 hour Lithium-ion battery which means getting stuck in silence would no longer be an issue for lengthy journeys. For playback, it supports MP3, WMA & ASF, OGG Vorbis and Wave audio codec's. For recording, it supports MP3 recording up to 320kbps from line-in, built-in mic, optical-in and FM Radio. Other features include USB 2.0 support, mass storage device (drive letter), Mac & Windows compatible and FM Radio.

As the player uses a standard 2.5" HDD, its dimensions are a little larger than the iPod at 5" x 3.2" x 0.8" (12.7 x 8.1 x 2 cm) with a weight of 9oz (255g). The player comes in sizes of No HDD, 40GB, 60GB, 80GB and 100GB costing $149, $249, $299, $349 and $449 respectively. The player with No HDD allows the user to pop in any standard 2.5" IDE HDD.

Carlsbad, California-based Digital Mind (DMC) this week announced an update to its Xclef 500, a Mac- and PC-compatible digital music player that the company claims is the first to offer 100GB of storage capacity.

The Xclef 500 connects using a USB 2.0 interface and also accepts input from a built-in mic, line-in audio connector, and S/PDIF optical mini plug.

It features 20+ hour battery life using a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and supports built-in MP3 encoding, voice recording, FM radio, recording capability, and more.

It's recognized as a mass storage device by the host Mac or PC, and supports MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, and ASF audio file formats. AAC--including those Digital Rights Management (DRM)-protected files purchased through the ITunes Music Store--is not supported.

Read the full article here.

I doubt many users would have a music collection of over 20GB unless they store their music in uncompressed Wave format. Then again, the extra space would make the player a handy portable HDD either for PC backup or to carry huge files about rather than use a separate USB hard drive.

The DIY version must be the first HDD based MP3 player I came across that does not rely on a proprietary hard drive. This way if the user already has an existing USB 2.5" hard drive or an unused laptop, they could simply get the basic DIY player and use their own drive instead making this a budget well-featured player.

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Source: PC World - MP3 Players