My white 2GB Glacier came today, and of course, couldn't wait to check it out. I was very happy with it, as it blew away my old Nano clone in every way. Beautiful 2" screen, large enough to watch movies on, more depth of color (I think its 262k) and sharpness, and little to none of that bothersome "ghosting effect" the old CSTN screen.

ERGONOMICS:

The controls were easy to use, the battery cover not that bad (tight enough). It even had a speaker which wasn't bad, and which I found handy to test the unit without having to keep earbuds in. (The earbuds suck, though, but they look nice doing it). There is a problem with the rubber USB cover that I kept reading about... its damn hard to open, because the tab to grip it is made for people who have needles for fingers. I'm thinking that cutting the part inside the cover that goes into the usb plug might make the cover easier to open.

The menus are much nicer, the software is faster to navigate, and best of all, it remembers your place in text and movies, which the Nano clone wouldn't! And the lyric thing finally works on this unit, when it wouldn't on my Nano clone! (It comes with 2 WMA songs that have lyrics. Unfortunately, one of them is "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Ritichie. And the other one's worse). It also plays WAV files, but only via a different menu option (VOICE - PLAY).

THAT CRAZY LITTLE RUBBER THING OVER THE USB PORT:

Note: Okay, here's the trick to that. Snip off the part inside the rubber cover that protrudes from the cover and plugs into the USB jack itself. Now when yo close the cover, not only does it stay closed and keep out dust & dirt, but it opens real easy. Scissors.... is there anything they -can't- do?


TRANSFERS:

Thing is, I needed to format it before giving UXCELL feedback, because I'd heard of people here receiving 2GB Glaciers that were 2gigabits. Well that didn't work so smoothly, and when it didn't come on after, I was sure I bricked my player! (I probably just had the slider switch set to OFF). Versions of MP3 Tools that were older than the 4.09 package wouldn't format the player AT ALL. The 4.09 version gave an error at about 13% into a LOW LEVEL format. After that, things got worse. The encryption method as described in the hacked player guide did not seem to be compatible with this player, although the slider in that tab did show about 1920MB. The windows format wouldn't work, but after numerous attempts, I finally got MP3 Tools (4.09) to do a high level format.

Then I copied 3 or 4 mp3's before it crashed.... About 21MB's worth. The player played the MP3's but rebooted at the end of the last. Now I was worried I had the world's worst hacked player, with 21MB flash! After more attempts at high level formatting, I managed to fill the player with about 1.89GB of audio / video files. The process took about 1.5hrs. Of course I wasn't sure if the files really transferred okay, so I went about playing the first couple of seconds of each track.... very tedious! I didn't test them all, but I figure that I fast forwarded through at least 1GB's worth of video and audio files.

FORMATTING:

As with my other MP4's, I find you have to high level format the player with the MP3 Player Utils first before attempting a low level format. Plus, the Glacier wouldn't low level format at all with the latest version of that software.


OVERALL CONCLUSIONS:

Let me say this: If this is REALLY 2GB, then this one of the best values on the MP4 player market now. Put in one of those 1700mAh BL-4C batteries from eBay that last 35 hours, and you're laughing at the iPod sheep-bots. The only thing I'm not sure of is how fragile it is, since its all plastic case, no metal (but for the buttons). And let me say this as well: the box clearly labels it as supporting MP3 and MP4 format, when it doesn't play MP4's!!

michiganjfrog - nice review. I also had ordered a 1gb glacier from uxcell via their ebay account discounttown the day after Christmas for $47, and it came last Thursday. Yeah, the USB cover was a pain in the neck, I finally had to use a thumb tack to remove it (being careful not to scratch the finish, of course ), then I just ripped the entire cover out to avoid any more headaches. I had ordered a white one and received black, but I was so happy just to have a glacier that I didn't mind the mixup at all. It worked fine, and the battery was practically full when I turned it on (I love when they precharge mp4s!) Mine also came with "Say You, Say Me" and "Take Me To Your Heart" and the headphones that came with mine were also crap. I quickly replaced them with my own quality ones . I also had some random video that I deleted after formatting the player. Sure enough, it wasn't hacked (what a relief!)

I don't know why you had some much trouble getting songs on yours... it only took about a half an hour to fill mine with all my customized media (I sync thru Windows Media Player 11). The sound quality on the player is AMAZING - very crisp and clear. The video, though, disappointed me, because that was the main reason I BOUGHT a player with a 2" sreen. The video was not very clear when I converted through Utilities v. 4.09, and could not handle full screen 220x176 (stuttered and skipped to the extent where I could not watch the video). When I put a lower resolution it did better, but the video was still a bit blurry.

Radio is good, but when recording from radio there is an annoying clicking sound that makes it a bother to listen to your recorded files.

Picture quality is good... hmm... can't think of anything else to review about the player right now, when I think of more I'll add it.

Overall, ya gotta admit this is a pretty darn good player don't you? Overall I'd give it an 9/10 (minus one point for the disappointing video quality).

The specs listed for your player showed this

128x96 pixels 2" LCD TFT 65K Color display

Is not a "2 player 224X176?? What are the sizes of the movie samples that came with the player?

Dave

avionik99 - the glacier is most definitely not 128x96 pixels, and I also don't think it's 65k either (more like 262k or something). I think that's just a generic specification that uxcell puts for every mp4 player because they don't feel like writing a whole new set for every mp4 they list. The pixel dimension is around 220x176

My player has 9.0.48 (not a Glacier). It was hacked. I had no problem using the disk tools to fix it.

If the player is hacked, any "ghost" files on the drive will be zero in size and will not have any id3 tags.

If you have a lot of files on the player, use windows to search it for *.*
That will give you a list of all files and folders on the player.
Then change the view to Details. Then click on the size tab to sort by size.
If you see files that are 0 in size and you know they shouldn't be, then you have a problem.

If you are using usb 1.1, it could take an hour to transfer 2GB of files.

You may want to try http://www.mympxplayer.org/wanted-hacked-chip-recovery-testers-vt1864.html method. Here is a link to the newest version of program http://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk-6.5.win.zip

I would keep beating on it. You don't want to send it back to Uxcell if you don't have to. That will be another long wait.

michiganjfrog,

In reply to:

"Versions of MP3 Tools that were older than the 4.09 package wouldn't format the player AT ALL."

So you've tried all versions? I would recommend ver 3.68 as that seems to be the most stable one of them all. If you are still unsuccessful in formatting, try disconnecting your player (not during formatting of course) and plug it into a different USB port instead. If you get errors, can you let me know what type of errors they are?

I will also ask UXcell and see what version of the format tool they recommend for formatting the player.


"..guess I can't go back to 9.0.43 if it was advantageous of me to do so?"

Definately don't try to put a different firwmare version onto your player. Chances are you definately get a 'dead' player.


"..supporting MP3 and MP4 format, when it doesn't play MP4's"

In theory it does. However, a lot of the manufacturers omit the fact that it needs converting.

AVIONIK99: The two samples that came with the player (a car advert called Koenigsegg and a Madonna
impersonator) were 208 x 176. I second what Princessanne said, UXCELL don't seem to put much concern into the accuracy of their specs. I just read here that TFT displays are 262k, so the 65k spec may also be wrong on UXCELL's site. The colors are certainly much more richer and detailed than on my 65k nano clone's CSTN screen.

PRINCESSANNE: I have loaded an AMV movie to the device that was made for my Nano clone (128 x 96). (The excellent documentary, "The Corporation"). The picture was most excellent on the Glacier. Keep in mind, documentaries don't have fast moving action, so they're perfect for these non-mp4 playing MP4 players.
I'm soon going to experiment with other videos to see, but so far, I like what I see re: video quality.

Perhaps I might see occasional stuttering, which doesn't even come close to the annoyance of the ghosting on the nano clones (its just like a noticeable but quick pause in the action). So I'm finding it hard not to give it top marks, especially because its the ONLY d/a/v (digital audio video) player I know that has an easily replaceable battery.

JCTOAD: Not only do I not want to send to UXCELL for the wait, but I dont want to pay to ship it to Hong Kong for somethat that would be their mistake! But I dont think it is hacked, in the end, thanks to your tips and information. I mean if the space really wasn't there, I doubt it would be able to play the mp3 or amv at all. I don't know if the hack can fool Windows at file level, but Windows shows no 0 byte files, and although I had a strange "format error" on one mp3 file, all others I tried played fine (even if I haven't tried every single file on the drive).

I just found a neat new better way to check for file validity. With the player loaded, I can click on any of the files on the unit and play it through windows, which makes playing random files at random spots within the file much easier. I've pretty much confirmed by this that there must be over a gig of flash and more likely the 2 gigs promised. Still wish I could low level format the player though!

I did get a USB message saying "this device can perform faster" (that the device was usb 2.0 but that my port was 1.1). The port is at the front of the computer. I guess that would explain why the transfers took as long as they did. But I have a new computer, so it should be usb 2.0. Haven't tried it yet on any of the usb jacks in the back.