I saw this little 8gb touchscreen player on sale at Walgreens.com for $89 and had to have a look. The Hip Street Portable Multimedia Player arrived a few days later, and it turns out to be quite a value for the features it includes. The package included a media convertor on mini CD, manual, AC charger, USB cable, lanyard, earbuds, and the player with stylus. 
Feature are abundant. The Hip Street includes: - Touch Screen Interface
- 8gb internal memory.
- Music: MP3, WMA
-- A to B repeat
-- Lyrics display
- Videos: AVI
- Pictures: JPG
- Text: TXT
- FM radio, FM recording
- (High quality) Voice Recording
- File Browser, with on-board delete option.
- Sleep (power off) timer
- EQ: Normal, 3D, Rock, Pop, Classic, Bass, Jazz, and one USER defined setting.
- Built-in loud Speaker
- Comes with stylus that stores in edge of device, uses finger or stylus.
- Screen 2.8" diagonal, 2.25" x 1.625", 320 x 240 pixels
- Body 3.625" x 2.125" x 3/8" thick.
- Includes earplugs, USB cable, Wall charger, Wrist strap long enough to wear as a necklace, small install CD (with AVIconverter program), instructions in two languages, stylus, player.
- T-flash card slot
- firmware upgradeable, (but not recommeded if product is functioning normally
- firmware upgradeable, (but not recommeded if product is functioning normally
- No driver needed under win 2000/XP/ME/Vista
My first impressions: - FM radio sound quality was average.
- Music sounded fine using good headphones. Throw away the included earbuds.
- Interface doesn't take good advantage of direct touch, instead using on-screen arrows to move you up and down in menus. It feels like the interface from a non- touchscreen player was ported over, with little consideration for making the interface more efficient using direct touch input.
- Memory slot takes microSD and will read up to 8gb cards. For $36 you can add an 8gb card to have a 16gb player for $125.
- The included software does a good job of coverting movies to play on the Hip Street. Every major format including DVD VOB files can be converted to the AVI format required by the Hip Street.
- No external volume control, but on-screen controls are always visible.
- Shiny, aluminum alloy, brushed chrome finish is fingerprint magnet.
- Very light weight.
- Very impressed with the features it has.
Not the best sounding, but an amazingly feature-laden device for $90.
Amazingly compact. Here it is next to the Samsung P2. Just as thin. Lighter. Conclusion? This is an amazing value for a media player with these features and capacity. Although no awards will be won for the interface or the sound quality, both are competent and will match whatever an iPod Nano can produce. This Hip Street player is almost the same size as a Nano, half the price, with more features. The built-in speaker isn't of great quality, but does let you listen without headphones. I don't recommend it for music, but it's perfectly acceptable for spoken podcasts or audiobooks.
4D
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Hi there . .. do you know if this player is capable of playing while it's charging? Ie: hooked up to a car charger?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Scott
Yes, it will play when charging. I've just tested it with an AC adapter. In OFF position it shows the battery animation, but when ON it runs as usual.
ReplyDeletei listen to both music and video shud i buy it
ReplyDeleteIf you can find one, it's not a horrible buy. There are better players available now for about the same price. Try Target.com or Amazon.com for the Latte Espresso, Search my blog for it. I've left photos and review.
ReplyDelete4D
so you said its not the best sounding, is it like horrible
ReplyDeleteI've only got one player I would consider horrible, and that's only when using it's FM radio. The best sounding players get between 95 and 99 for a score for audio, and the worst range down to 85 or so. Out of 100 possible, 85 is a B, and a B is still a decent score. It helps every player if you use better headphones than what they include.
ReplyDelete4D
okay that's good cause im thinking about buying this mp3
ReplyDeletecan you change the back ground colour on this thing
ReplyDeleteGreat information thanks for getting this out there for people like me to read.Lots of good information found right there. Interesting to see how much all those big blogs are making.Thanks for sharing, really cool site....
ReplyDeletemultimedia
my screan says loading everytime i turn it on even when i charge it? is it broken?
ReplyDeleteIt may be. Usually a device tried to rebuild it's media database when turned on. If something in there is corrupt, that may cause an error that the device can't work out of. Plug it into your PC and delete all the content, then see if it will boot up properly when disconnected. If it does, then slowly re-load media onto it. Check it periodically. If the problem reappears, the last thing you put on it may be the problem.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps.
4D
Does anyone have the owners manual for this. Bought it of a friend. he can't find the manual.
ReplyDeleteHow do you reset it? i have a problem with it playing on both speakers external and on the ear buds together they sound horrible, how do i get it to only play on the buds?
ReplyDeleteThere doesn't appear to be a reset hole on the Hip-Street. Make sure your headphone cable plug is fully inserted. The toggle between speaker and headphone is often a mechanical switch in the headphone jack. If you can't get it to shut off the speaker that switch may have broken or be bent inside the jack.
ReplyDelete4D
how long does the battery last for? let's say, if you played music from when it's fully charged until it dies.
ReplyDeleteIt should be good for a day of listening before needing a charge. I haven't done any official tests though. After reviewing mine it's been in a box. Pulled it out dead to the world. Looks like it may recover as it has revived when hooked to my PC.
ReplyDelete4D
Mine won't turn on, what to i do?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Plug it in to charge. If it doesn't recover then the battery may have expired. If that's the case the it'll be time to look for another player.
ReplyDelete4D
hello anyone there can you help me,i buy a hip street mp3.i want to put a music video on it but its not work.i play one of my video and its said it error.why???
ReplyDeleteAnonymous?: Errors usually come from incompatible file formats. With videos it could be the audio component or the video component of the file that isn't playable on the Hip Street. Try using the media convertor that came with the Hip Street to convert it. If that doesn't work you'll need to find your music video from another source and hope it'll play.
ReplyDelete4D
hi there. I have a 16gb hipstreet mp3 player with a camera and it stopped working. It is stuck on the loading page and won't read on my PC. Can you hepl?
ReplyDeleteSorry, Anonymous. I'm am not tech support for any device I've reviewed. Some devices can be reset by holding down the power button for a 10-count or so. I've given away my HipStreet player so can't inspect it, but it may have a small reset hole as well. Typically a pin or unfolded paper clip can be inserted to reset a device.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps.
4D
Great! It sounds good. Thanks for sharing..
ReplyDeletetableta