Overall Performance

Playback

Despite the issues I do have with this player, it is categorized as a PVR and it truly does in impress in this level.  While the LCD itself is not what I would consider high quality, video playback and recording is excellent.  Many years back, before some decent video capture hardware hit the market, I used to run a website providing a variety of music videos and was an active member in IRC serving a variety of rare  music videos.  With that said, I do have an extensive collection on discs encoded in VCD quality/format.  Encoding these videos to Divx and playing them on the MPM-201 was quite a pleasure.  Video playback is excellent, and there is no delay or sync issues at all.  Overall, videos playback very smoothly on the MPM-201, regardless of the source or quality. 

Recording Quality

Recording quality is excellent.  I would like to emphasize on that, as it is where it truly impressed me the most.  The only issue with it though is the TV Tuner.  While it was a nice attempt to offer something not found in other products in its class, the Tuner does not work well, even when hooking it up to a high quality cable feed.   I was only able to get a few channels to look good.  However, plug the dock into an A/V source and you'll be seriously impressed with the video quality.  To prove this, I have taken the liberty of providing two video clips...one during the recording session and one of the actual recording on the unit itself.  For the sample recording, I captured video from my HDTV via the A/V outputs and recorded UFC in HD quality.

Note:  You will need both the Macromedia flash player and proper Divx codecs installed to view both of these clips.

First, the vid during the actual capture of the video...

video clip

**click to play**

Finally, in order to show you how good the recorded video really is, you can view the actual captured file here.

Battery Life

Unfortunately, nothing impressive in this category.  The specs do state a 3hrs for video and 6hrs for audio.  When playing a combination of both, I was only able to get 5hrs from a full charge with the battery properly conditioned.

Conclusions

The NHJ MPM-201 was quite an interesting product to review as I wanted to personally find out just what a sub $200 PVR can indeed offer.  While this unit is not perfect by any means, it does function very well as a video recorder and playback of all videos, regardless of quality, was flawless.  The major issues with this unit are the GUI and music playback.  If you plan on purchasing this product to handle all your media files, I would not recommend it.  However, if you you already have an MP3 player that you can't seem to part with but would like an inexpensive portable video player/recorder with excellent playback, this is certainly the product for you.  Unfortunately, at its price level, there were compromises to quality.  While the unit itself feels sturdy, the LCD itself is not of high quality and has very limited viewing angles.  Also, the major issue I do have with the product is in regards to the bundled software.  While they include an easy to use utility to convert your video files, it is trialware, and they do not include a key to register your software.  This is seriously a bad move on their part, and those who are quite familiar with video editing will look elsewhere for some excellent freeware apps capable of converting your videos for proper playback on this device. 

Despite the issues I have with it, no other product on the market can offer this kind of functionality under $200.  With that said, it makes an excellent last minute gift idea for gadget lovers or even an excellent choice to keep those kids entertained during long trips or stays this holiday season.

The NHJ MPM-201 sells for only $219 at Geeks.com.  However, they occasionally bring this player down to only $189.  Keep an eye on Geeks.com for sale prices on a variety of products, including the NHJ MPM-201.

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