Goodmans GPDR40 Review

Overall Rating

Lots of functionality.
Works as a portable video player quite well.
Fortunately it's cheap or I wouldn't bother.

All a bit clunky, clumsy and slow.
Somethings just don't work too well at all.

Goodmans GPDR40
40Gb hard drive unit with screen attached, speaker mono, and microphone. Built in Lithium ion battery - 2.5 hours life, hours to recharge.

It's an example of a portable PVR, personal video recorder.

25th July 2007 - Got the Goodmans unit last week, so I've had a little time to try it out. Bought it for a decent price I think, sixty pounds.

Excuse me for rambling and not covering everything or even the important points but I'm just writing off the top of my head.

Well, when looking at all the reviews on the net it seems that this unit is rubbish (it's the same as the Mustek unit), but I couldn't stop myself as it was a shiny gadget and I went ahead and bought it anyway.

First off, it's about the size of an old style walkman, and heavy too. Feels good, made of plastic with the screen covering most of the front fascia. You've probably seen a picture of it somewhere.

The first and major problem described by net reviewers is the lip sync or lack of it after 5 minutes of video play. Well, it's audio does lose synchronisation with the picture on occasions and it is noticeable, but you can make it go a way for a short while by pausing then pressing play, not a good method for watching a film. Alternatively you can do that, then slide the "button lock" to on, that stops it going out of sync again - you need to do that anyway as you'd be pressing buttons by accident as you change hand position every once and a while (more about the key lock function later).

The unit gets hot, but mine only got as hot as I would expect a hard drive to be anyway - might be okay in winter as a hand warmer.

The goodmans truncates file names to the 8.3 format so you might have problems with identifying your sound or video files if you put a lot of similarly named files on this unit (the original file name is unchanged so you can still see them with your pc).

The supplied software to convert video files to ASF, which is the only native video format this machine plays is suppose to be diabolically slow - I haven't tried it myself as I don't have anything to convert, I haven't even installed the software onto my pc even though it says to do so a few times in the manual.

I just plug my video, dvd or telly straight into the unit and let it convert the signal on the fly.

The results have been perfectly acceptable.

Downside - I think the video playback is sometimes a bit jerky, but I'm not too sure, it's a bit hard to tell really.

Also there is a blue "unit is operating / on" LED above the screen which shines right into my eyes when the ambient light level is low, a bit irritating.

While I remember, this unit is quite heavy, it's a hard drive with a screen attached after all, and I think that it would not survive a drop to the ground. I think you would end up with a hard drive, a screen and a million bits of plastic.

I use it mainly as a video player as you can probably guess and I think it's just fine. I just plug it into a source and record overnight or whenever. It records purchased DVDs and Videos without taking any notice of the copy protection measures at all - suits me fine. I'll then be able to watch bits of tv or whatever whenever I have some down time.

I've put about 20 video items onto it, including direct tv record using the built in timer, what a palaver, but I know what to do now so it should be easier next time. Also put on DVD.

Members' Comments onvincent0's Review

• vincent0 on 6th Aug 2007

  6 August 2007
  Not sure what happened to my review. I lost over half of it.
  
  The unit is fine. It's going strong and seems to work quite happily. I can't fault it for the price. The lip synch problem doesn't appear as I us the button lock when watching it.
  
  Sound is loud enough.
  
  It's incredibly slow when copying or renaming files, 15 minutes to rename, so long that it looks like it's crashed. I tried to copy a 800Mb file had to leave it to the work away overnight as it was time for bed. So don't do any of this stuff without the mains supply or you'll run out of power.
  
  Bye for now.

• vincent0 on 10th Aug 2007

  [10th August 2007 - Well, I lost more than half my review last time, not sure what happened. I decided not to try and replicate what I wrote. I've just tidied it up a bit and added a few comments here and there.]
  
  
  Update - The unit is working just fine for video. I haven't bothered with the mp3, voice record, external hard drive or jpeg picture functions since trying them out when I first received the unit.
  
  As an out and out personal video player this unit is fine. I've found a case in the house that fits it and gives it plenty of protection which is something that is really needed or it will get scratched and scuffed quite quickly.
  
  I've learnt that if I want to change the names of the video files to something easy to recognise I should do it via a PC - all very convenient for me.
  
  When I need to leave a programme before the end, I press menu, this shows me how far in hours and minutes I'm into the programme. I can then jump straight to that time when I come back later using the "jump to time" function.
  
  Battery seems fine, get about, up to, three hours out of it I think.
  
  The Volume through my headphones seems fine, not too quiet as other reviews have mentioned, although I do use my own cheapo headphones (£1), more expensive ones work fine too.
  
  I still haven't used the conversion software as I don't need it and still haven't any files to convert.
  
  I've put many more video files onto it now, maybe up to 40.
  I haven't noticed the jerky picture recently so I guess it's not there or only happens very occasionally.
  The blue LED is still irritating in some situations.
  
  I've upgraded my opinion of the unit to six or seven points bearing in mind the cost and how I've become more familiar in using it to my best advantage.

• vincent0 on 7th Sep 2007

  7th Sept 2007:
  Still happy with the unit. I've moved many TV recordings over to it via direct record in real time, a bit of a nuisance that but it works fine.
  
  It would be nice if it had a quick way of changing the background light level as sometimes it's too bright in a darker environment and I can't be bothered to re-adjust it via the options menu.

• vincent0 on 3rd Oct 2007

  Tuesday 3rd October 2007
  
  Well, the unit broke down last week.
  It wouldn't receive power from the mains power supply. This meant it would charge or work from the mains.
  
  I tried a few times to get it to work but gave up in the end, resigned to the fact that its broken. I was able to charge it through the USB port though, but it wasn't too convenient and the manual keeps on saying that it doesn't so I guess there might be a problem with the Li-ion battery management.
  
  Anyway, tried it again over the weekend for some reason, and it worked. And seems to be okay now.
  
  I think I left the PSU plugged in too long previously. Maybe it overheated or something, the PSU that is.

• vincent0 on 22nd Sep 2008

  23 Sept 2008 - Unit going strong, no more problems with the power. Might get an archos unit as a replacement when this eventually dies or is killed in an accident as the archos seem much much better, but much much more expensive.
  
  I saw it refuse to copy a dvd recently. It came up with a message about copyright material, but it continued when I pressed the record button a few more times. It hasn't done it since (I'm only copying my own dvds by-the-way).
  Regards

• vincent0 on 30th May 2009

  30 May 2009 - It's still going strong. I still use it to record and playback video and haven't had any of the previously mentioned problems with it.
  
  The battery seems fine and holds its power as well as ever.
  Regards.