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Installation
While I tested this player in both a Window XP and Windows Vista
environment, primary testing was done with Vista. Despite all the
issues with Vista and the fact that not many want to jump right into it just
yet, I still strongly think any new product release should support this new
operating system. With that said, tests were done to determine whether
or not it was fully capable of running in such an environment.
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**click to enlarge** |
First and foremost, I'm pleased to say that while both the packaging and
specs do not clearly state full support for Windows Vista and WMP 11, the
player does indeed work flawlessly with both right out of the box. In
Vista, it is quickly recognized without drivers and installs as a mass
storage device, meaning that you can transfer songs and/or pictures in an
explorer-like fashion as well as use it just like a flash drive and store
other unsupported files. The player can easily be setup to
sync your music library using WMP 11, eliminating the need to install their
bundled software.
Bundled Software
Despite the fact that you can take full advantage of the YP-K3 without the
need for their third-party software, it is important to at least give you an
idea of how their bundled software looks and functions.
The
player comes bundled with Samsung's Media Studio 5. Let's have a brief
look...
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**click to enlarge** |
The
GUI is quite impressive and the software, for the most part, is quite
user-friendly. It consists of five main menus. The first will
allow you to browse and transfer your music over to the player itself.
You do have a split view, showing the contents on the device itself and can
manage both.
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**click to enlarge** |
The
second menu is the online store where you can purchase music similar to ITunes or Urge services. The third is the "My
Album" menu that basically will allow you to create your own playlists.
Most will make use of this menu because unfortunately, the YP-K3 does not
support on-the-fly playlists.
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**click to enlarge** |
The
fourth main menu will basically allow you to rip and manage your music CD's.
You can automatically rip and transfer them over to the player from here.
Finally, the last menu will basically give you additional access to the
content of the player itself.
After extensive testing, I found their software to be quite buggy in many
areas. For example, I encountered a number of issues transferring
files over to the player itself. With this player, it is best to stick
with WMP for file management.
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