Reviews
R
ockford’s Mobile Digital Media
Player (DMP-1) and home
Digital Media Streamer (DMS-
1) allow you to rip your entire CD
collection, store it on your PC, and
then listen to it anywhere in your
home—and on the road.
The DMP-1 consists of four parts: A
removable controller faceplate with a
large LED display, a removable 20GB
hard drive that can store up to 4,000
songs, a hard-drive housing , and
SimpleCenter , the proprietary software
that drives the system.
Installing the system is similar to
installing a CD-changer. If you opt
for professional installation, it will
cost around $200 in parts and labor.
Whatever the case, make sure the
DMP-1 is connected to your car’s
sound system via direct input rather
than an FM-modulator, which will
generate inferior sound quality. You
can also install an optional wireless
adapter ($50), which will let you auto-
matically update the unit with new
music when your car is parked within
Wi-Fi range, like in your garage.
Your ripped music is transferred
from your PC to the DMP-1 hard
drive via USB 2.0. Once done, insert
the drive into the DMP-1 housing
installed in our car, and off you go.
We love the drive’s rugged construc-
tion, which is meant to handle
the bumps and bounces of regular
transport. Heat,however, is another matter.
We mounted the housing
in the trunk of a black
sedan that resides in lovely
Rocklin, CA—known for its
brutally hot summers—and
found that if we left the car
in direct sunlight for more
than an hour or two without
removing the drive, it rou-
tinely overheated and refused to
play. Ideally—and the product litera-
ture states this—you should mount
the housing in the car’s air-condi-
tioned interior, but we’re concerned
it might still have problems inside the
car on a hot day —at least until the AC
cools everything down.
We found the DMP-1’s controller
to feel a bit flimsy, and it didn’t fit as
snugly as we’d like in its mounting
bracket. Furthermore, the controls are
small and crowded together, which
can make it awkward to use while
driving. This is a cardinal sin in a
device meant primarily for use in a car!
The SimpleCenter software gives
you an easy way to transfer songs
and playlists to the DMP-1. You can
even use it to rip your CDs in either
WMA or MP3 format, although the
ripping options are anemic compared
with most other audio software. We
tested loads of music, and everything
we threw at it—Metallica, U2, Led
Zeppelin, The Who, Yanni—soundedstellar at high bitrates.
Unfortunately, the software has a
few bugs that bog things down, such
as failing to update via the built-in
update options, and failing to flag bad
rips (due to dirty or scratched media),
which can result in some ear-assailing
belches in the car.
Omnifi’s DMS-1 is a single device
that performs exactly like the DMP-1,
for use in the home.
While certainly annoying, the
unwieldy interface and assorted
minor flaws of
the DMP-1 aren’t
bad enough to
make us go back
to the alterna-
tive. Goodbye,
CD-changer, we
won’t miss you!
— STEVE KLETTOmnifi Digital Media Player
Enjoy your music digitally at home—and on the road!
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Rugged and able to store a ton of songs. Makes
CDs in the car passé.IN THE FAST LANESTUCK IN THE MUD
Heat sensitive, small controls, software bugs.
$350, http://www.omnifimedia.comMA XIMUMPCVERDICT 7
stellar at high bitrates.transport. Heat,The DMP-1
mobile digital-
audio system
consists of
a hard drive
housing (top
image), a 20GB
drive (middle
image), and
a faceplate
(lower-left
image).tinely overheated and refused to
play. Ideally—and the product litera-Omnifi Digital Media Player
The DMP-1
mobile mobile digital-digital-106 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2004