Panasonic SV-SD300

It would be one of the best units on the market if only it would play mp3 files without having to go through the idiocy of having to jukebox it.

Waste of space,time and technology.

Long live Open Systems!

After purchasing numerous SD cards, I tried 4 different SD cards from different manufacturers of varying sizes - all failed to be recognised, even after contacting Panasonic UK, reloading Jukebox V5, reformatting cards with specially downloaded s/w from Panasonic. This is without doubt the most useless piece of electronic equipment ever manufactured - do not touch it unless it's a gift for your most dire enemy!

The Panasonic SV-SD300 MP3 player is an SD based Audio Player. It does not have any internal memory or hard disk for storing tracks, but instead uses an SD card (not supplied) to store the music on. The advantage of this is that you can add more memory by buying relatively cheap SD cards. The player will take SD cards up to 2Gb in size. It is now possible to get SD cards up to 4Gb, and no doubt in future even bigger SD cards will be available, but the maximum size supported by the player is 2Gb. By having multiple cards, the capacity is effectively unlimited.

The player looks good. The combination of silver and white works well, it's also small, thin and light. With no hard disk to add weight and put a large drain on the battery, the player is extremely light.

Once I'd charged the battery (3 hour charge time), I first tried to use the SD card, which was already loaded with MP3 files. It was not able to see any of the tracks. The Panasonic player implements Digital Rights Management (DRM), but the way that this is implemented means that you are not able to play MP3 files without first converting them to a Panasonic format.

The DRM implementation and accompanying software ties this player to Windows only.

I installed the supplied software on Windows XP. The software is "SD-Jukebox Version 5.0 Light Edition". The software requirements are Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional. The System Requirements were fully met (and exceeded). However, in some small print it says "Even if the system requirements mentioned are fulfilled, some personal computers can not be used. This software cannot be used on a Macintosh. Operating is not guaranteed when used on Windows Operating Systems except those above. Operation on an upgraded OS is not guaranteed. Operation on a OS other than the one pre-installed is not guaranteed. Multi-boot environment is not supported. Only available when the user is logged in as the system administrator. This software may not run properly on user build computers. This software can not be used on a 64-bit OS. [sic] system requirements are not guaranteed in the case that any other application runs. Depending upon your computer system, you may experience problems such as being unable to record or use recoded music data."

Reading this is quite scary. The purchase was of a hardware player, which doesn't work without the supplied software, which has got a long list of circumstances where this might not work.

If the software doesn't run then the expensive hardware player is completely useless, as you can't load music onto the SD card without it.

Not only all this, but all music that it loads is digitally encrypted, and if you upgrade your operating system, processor, hard disk or other hardware, then any music you have loaded into the software may not play anymore. If that is the only place you have that music, then you could lose all your legitimate music.

If you do use the SD-Jukebox player then don't rely on it for storing your music files, because with the restrictions imposed by the DRM, you could end up with unplayable music files.

I hadn't noticed the bit about multi-boot, and although I do have a multi-boot machine, I can't see why that should really effect installing the application, as it just means having a different boot loader. I have not had any Windows XP compatible software that has not installed on the computer before.

Installing the Panasonic SD-Jukebox Player software on Windows XP was a big mistake. It completely messed up my PC causing Blue Screens of Death (BSOD), and even preventing the OS from booting.

I tried to find some support information for Panasonic, but the only detail I found was a reference to the Japanese Panasonic Web Site. I therefore booted into safe mode and uninstalled the software. I contacted my supplier who gave me a UK phone number for Panasonic Support: 01344 853501. I phoned this number, and the person said that there is no new version of the software, but after going off and speaking to someone else they said that they are aware of the music familiar option causing blue screens, and advised I turned that off. I thought I would give this a try, and so I tried reinstalling the software, which crashed during the install leaving my Windows PC in a mess. The computer would boot up sometimes, but not others. I tried a rollback, and tried disabling startup services, but still the computer was unstable. I did eventually manage to get my Windows XP computer working again by booting into safe mode and installing the software, then immediately removing the software before rebooting. I never did get to try turning off the "Music Familiar" feature, but I wasn't going to risk ruining my entire Windows and application setup for this unstable software.

I believe I have been able to rescue my Windows XP setup, although I did think I was going to have to reinstall the entire operating system.

Even if I did manage to get the software running, its DRM implementation is very wasteful of disk space, and inconvenient. I keep all my files as MP3 files on my computer. If I wanted to have these available for the SD player then they need to be imported into the SD Jukebox software. As this won't use native MP3 files (they have to be imported first), then it means that there would have to be two copies of the songs on the computer using twice as much disk space.

These software problems are a real shame, as I really liked the look, feel and sound (I managed to transfer one song to the player before the blue screens started) of the player. Even if the software does run on your setup, the implementation of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) code means that this is a wasteful application.

The biggest problem is that if your player outlives the life of your computer, or you install some software that does not run alongside the SD Jukebox software, or you upgrade your computer and end up with a computer for which it doesn't work e.g. "some personal computers cannot be used", or "in the case that any other application runs", then the player will become little more than a stylish paperweight.

I am returning the player to my supplier, and based on my experiences I would not recommend this player.