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Interface & Features
Now, I really do love the GUI on this player. It is extremely easy to
use and has the same high-tech look that compliments the hardware itself very well. Like many of
the MP3 player reviews I have done, taking decent shots of the interface can
prove quite challenging. With that said, I whipped out my tripod,
enabled macro mode and did the best I can with the images you'll see below.
Please note that the camera tends to reveal (in great detail) the actual
pixels on the screen itself. These images are only to guide you
through the interface and not a good presentation of its screen quality.
The LCD certainly looks great in person.
The
entire interface basically consists of five menu options. These include
Music, Pictures, Radio, Recordings and Settings. Let's go through each
of these in detail...
Music Menu
You
can browse through your music collection by Artist, Albums or Genres.
If you enable the album art feature, the album art will show both when
browsing through each album or on the now playing menu.
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Now, while the Philips GoGear HDD6330 seriously lacks some playback
features, its "on-the-go" playlist support works well and
much better than than any of the Ipods. You can easily add a track to a the on-the-go playlist by
accessing the menu and can even clear out the list and start a new one.
Keep in mind that unlike the Ipod, you can browse and add music to the
playlist while actually listening to a tune already on the list. This
is what I personally use most often and it is quite nice to see Philips
implemented this feature quite well. About the only thing it does lack
though is the ability to sort tracks on the playlist...something the Rio
Karma was able to do. Also, it will allow you to easily rate
your music tracks. However, the player will only give you the option
to play 4 and 5 star music if the software is installed. I found this
out the hard way. At first, I neglected to install their software and
while I was able to rate music on the player itself, I did not have the
options shown on the screenshot to your left until the software was installed
and the player was connected and re-synced. Unfortunately though, there isn't much
else it does offer and if your a Karma user, you'll will certainly miss some of the
excellent playlist features! Regardless, my main concern was how it
handles on-the-go playlists and fortunately, it handles them in a fairly
similar fashion to both Rio and Creative players.
Pictures Menu
Despite the fact that I find this feature completely useless in DAP players,
the GoGear HDD6330 does offer full picture viewing support. You can
view thumbnails or full screen images. Now, comparing it to the
recently reviewed Ipod Nano, I can say that viewing pictures on the
Philips is much more pleasant. This is due to the larger, high quality
screen. Also, this feature proved quite useful when paired with one of
three docking options. More on that later though...
Radio Menu
The
GoGear HDD6330 features an FM Tuner with up to 20 presets. The tuner
reception is excellent and the best I've heard on an MP3 player.
There is an auto tune option as well as the ability to record directly from
radio.
Recordings Menu
The
recordings menu will give you the option of making a voice recording, record
from a Line-in source or record directly from the radio. The Mic works
very well and one of the best I've used on a DAP player. It will
record in WAV format which will allow you to easily transfer them to your PC
and convert to MP3 or any other format you may prefer. I tested this
feature with both voice and radio recordings, both of which sounded pretty
damn good considering how small the mic is.
Settings Menu
The
Settings Menu basically allows you to customize both appearance and sound.
You can choose from one of many supported languages, set the player to
shuffle or repeat mode, and also make changes to sound settings. SRS
WOW is available and does enhance the sound of your music fairly well.
You can also choose from many presets or choose customize, which will launch
an equalizer for manual adjustments to sound quality.
The
built-in FM tuner can be set to work in the US, Europe or Asia. There
is also a sleep timer that can be set as low as 15 minutes and as high as 2
hours. The information screen will give you some details as to its
remaining capacity, firmware version and links to the Philips support sites.
Finally, I would like to cover one feature many may find a real treat. The HDD6330
interface does support skins. The player ships with only two skins but
the availability of additional skins will greatly depend on the questionable
support from Philips. Based on users who have owned some of their
previous MP3 players, the support is quite poor. Personally, the
darker default skin looks fantastic but for those who do not prefer dark
themes, there is one other light theme that will please those who are used
to Ipods.
Unfortunately, this player does not offer support for lyrics.
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