Haier Theatre Touchscreen MP3 Player. My Review.

Web Site: Haier Theatre.

Haier finally enters the touchscreen player competition with this sleek HV3A-4G Theatre player. I picked mine up from Target.com. This $99 4gb player appears well made. It has a curved back that fits comfortably in my hand. The chrome frame is interrupted with the USB port on the bottom edge and the headphone jack on the left side near the bottom. The small power slide switch is just behind the chrome on the top edge. There are no other external controls. The hardware seems like a good package, although the UI doesn't take complete advantage of the hardware. Read on to find out if this is one I'll be keeping.

Features include a G-Sensor/Accelerometer. Shake to shuffle. Photos will rotate with screen.
FM radio with recording.
Plays subscription music online services.
Display: 3" Capacitive touch screen, 400x240 (WQVGA).
Weight: 2.6 ounces ~ 75 grams. Dimensions: 3.5" tall, 2.125" wide, .5" thick.

Music: The Theatre will play MP3, WMA (not lossless), AAC, WAV and OGG. Rated for 12 Hours of Audio Playback on a single charge. One sample file is included. The image above shows the music player screen. Cover art will display if it is included in the audio file. You can see and change your position in a song. To change volume you have to tap the second icon from the left on the bottom row, then hit a + or - to raise or lower the volume. Not very efficient. Nicely though the song name, album, artist, bit-rate, and play mode are displayed. A-B marking is also thrown in.

You can sort music by directory list (folder), favorites, artist, genre, album or look though all music. The music app is complete. The only lossless format supported is WAV, but otherwise this makes the Theatre a good player for your music collection. I give Music an A-.

Movies: The user manual and web site state you can watch AVI videos. I've gotten AVI and WMV (not listed in the manual) to play. I have a feeling the user manual doesn't have all the info about this player listed. The Theatre is rated for 3.5 Hours of playback time on a full battery charge.

Photos: Displays JPEG (JPG) image files. Four 400 x 240 pixel photos were included. The G-sensor will rotate photos if you turn the device, but only 90 degrees one direction. You can manually rotate images in 90 degree steps clockwise or counter-clockwise. No zoom function that I could find. You can slide-show the collection, and change the delay between each to 2, 5, or 10 seconds. No fancy transitions. Just your basic photo frame function. Photos get a C from me.

Documents: Reads simple TXT files. You can change the font color and text size. The text options screen wasn't very responsive to touch. You can also have the pages auto-flip, and change the delay between page flips. Again, a very basic text display app. I'll give it a C too.

FM Radio: Nothing unusual about the FM radio on the Theatre. Your frequency is displayed both graphically on a slider bar and in large numbers above. You can advance stations by auto-found presets or manually. You'll need the headphone cable inserted as it serves as antenna, and your reception will vary depending on the length, position, and quality of that cable. I experienced more static than I usually get with similar devices. No RDS. I'll rate FM on the Theater a B.

FM Recording: The FM app has a little red button to initiate recording. It doesn't begin instantly, so be sure to tap the button BEFORE what you want to record has started. Recorded radio is saved as a stereo WAV file.

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Voice Recording: Your voice will record to a WAV file. Again there is a delay after touching the record button before recording starts. The Theatre also clips the end of your recording after you've pressed STOP. Be sure and pad both the beginning and end with 5 seconds of silence or so if you want your speech completely saved. The failure to start and end quickly seriously cripples this feature on the Theatre. Voice Recording gets a C-. \

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Extras: Haier threw in a simple silicone case for the Theatre. A Nice touch but the Theatre looks far better without it. Extra apps include a stopwatch and calendar. Nothing amazing, but nice to have should you need either.

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Summary: I like the Theatre for a first attempt from Haier. It won't compete with the Samsung P2 or P3, Cowon S9 or J3, Sony X1000 series, or the iriver SPINN. It is priced on the high side for most 4gb touchscreen players. Add another $25 and you could get the 8gb Samsung P3, a far superior player. The two nagging complaints I'll register about the Theatre are volume control and the main menu. There are no external volume control buttons. There is no way to pause/mute/volume control music outside the music app. Within the app you have to tap an icon first to bring up volume + and - buttons, and have to tediously increase or decrease volume one step at a time. The main menu only shows one app at a time. You have to first slide left or right until you find the app you want, then slide that icon down to enter it. Very inefficient! I appreciate the fresh attempt at a user interface, but not at the cost of efficiency. Haier's Theatre media player rates a "Don't bother" from me.

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4D