An Honest Review of the SMPK2083 2GB Sylvania Video MP3 Player

This is the second of 3 reviews of these small Video/MP3 Players. I will review the third model in the near future. For this review I will compare the Sylvania SMPK2083 2GB model with the Memorex 4GB Video/MP3 Player MMP8640 model reviewed in the last blog post.

I paid approximately $20 at Fred Meyer for this model. Note: Fred Meyer may have quit carrying this model since I bought it last month just like they did the Memorex MMP8640 I reviewed last time. And I need to remind people that Fred Meyer is not paying me in any way to write these reviews since many of the products come from their store. And price information is not a recommendation to go out and buy the product either. It is just here for your information.

After the problems I had with the Memorex MMP8640 Video MP3 Player, I decided to buy this Sylvania SMPK2083 2 GB model because of its low price. This player, like the Memorex I bought before, I had done little research before I bought it.

Let me start out with some of the positives about the Sylvania SMPK2083 2GB model.

Small size, lightweight.
This model is available in six colors.
Doesn't require regular batteries. Just recharge the rechargable battery by plugging into a USB Port on your computer for a couple of hours.
Built in Voice Recorder.
Has a text viewer mode where you can read .txt files uploaded to it which the Memorex model didn't have.
Can store video.
Can store hundreds of photos.
Can store hundreds of songs.

Possibly the best feature of the Sylvania SMPK2083 model which I was surprised to find (which the Memorex model didn't have and this is not even listed anywhere on the outside of the Sylvania MP3 player's package!) is it games feature. Games include a Tetris-like game, a simple sliding puzzle, a simple Sudoku game, and a simple little snake game where you guide a snake around and try to get things on the screen.

Now for the negatives on this Sylvania model and unfortunately like the Memorex there are several negatives.

There is no FM radio on this model like the Memorex MMP8640.

Does not come with any preloaded songs which the Memorex MMP8640 did. This means you will have to put music onto the player before you hear any music on the Sylvania.

Since this is only a 2GB model and the Memorex model was 4GB, the Sylvania has only half of the storage of the Memorex. In addition there is no expansion feature on the Sylvania like the 2GB mini SD card feature on the Memorex player.

Album artwork is not available on the Sylvania at all. Sylvania's manual shows an option for lyrics where the player displays lyrics by pressing a button but this feature is worthless because you have to find .lrc files on the internet which are hard to find and they have to be encoded in a certain way. I even tried uploading the lyrics files to the mp3 player in the way mentioned in the Sylvania manual and the feature did not work for me at all. I kept getting kicked out to the main menu because that was assigned the same keypress unfortunately. So don't even try buying the SMPK2083 model with the intention of using this for displaying lyrics. You will be totally disappointed.

On a brighter note, unlike the Memorex model the Sylvania model can shut down or be sent to the next song in just a few seconds and does not make any noise when you jump between songs with the next chapter button. Also unlike the Memorex model, I had no problems with the Sylvania model losing memory or files or becoming messed up to the point where it needed to be reformatted or reset.

The video you put on here will likely have to be converted and the program takes a little while to convert video on your PC to a format compatible with the MP3 Player. The video is small since this device only has a 1.5" screen. Which means if you want to see names on the credits of a show or subtitles you probably will have a hard time if not impossible time making them out.

So if you want a cheap MP3 player to play short video clips without writing on the video, and plays songs without album art, and have the ability to read short texts and play a few small games and you don't need a MP3 player with a radio and don't mind that the player is limited to 2GB in size this might be a good option.

But for many people this would be a product I would not recommend due to Sylvania's manual which is confusing and practically illegible in some spots and their lack of technical support for this model. Stay tuned I will be reviewing another one of these video MP3 players soon.