Telefunken TMP-888 mp3/4/5 media player (review)
by subacati
About two weeks ago, I had a slight problem. I had just found a source of ebooks. But the rules of the prison where I work does not allow me to have my cellphone with me inside the prison, and using my netbook during the day shift is impractical.
Thus I suddenly had a need for a pocketable device that was not a cellphone!
That's when I saw an advert fold-out in the local newspaper from GAME Discount store. …
This Telefunken mp3/mp4 player was advertised for only R699.
Now the advert didn't mention anything about it being able to display text files or pdf's, but I took a chance that a touch-screen device may actually have this function and went to the store to see. :up:.
As I had suspected, it did have an ebook function. The small cardboard 'pricetag' listed this amongst its other functions even though the newspaper ad neglectede to mention it. :happy:.
They could have lost a sale had I not gone to check for myself! :rolleyes:.
Of course, I couldn't help noticing how much they tried to make it look like an iPhone. Even the menu screen as an iPhone look to it! :lol:. And, of course, they made is as non-functional as an iPhone as well! :rolleyes:.
Now you may also notice that it's an mp3/4/5 player! :left:. Now I know that mp3 is an audio codec and container package, and I know that mp4 is an audio and video container package, but what is mp5? :confused:.
Well it seems that mp5 is a new buzz word which vaguely means that it can play some other video codecs and formats like avi or wmv without having to convert them to a special mobile format! :rolleyes:.
So basically, it doesn't really mean anything! :irked:.
Anyway, I discovered that it's very fussy about which mp4 video's it will play. It won't play some of my mp4 files. Others it plays, but it won't play the sound track. If I extract the sound track, it can play it seperately though, so it's not a codec problem. It just doesn't cover the full mp4 specification.
It also has a PAL video line output (erroneouslly labelled 'TV-OUT'). It has both PAL50 and PAL60 settings, as well as NTSCM setting in it's menu. Don't ask what those are, because only the PAL50 option is available with this one's firmware.
The mp3 option will also display lyrics if a suitable lyrics file is available. The lyrics file is a standard text file with file extention .lrc
I think this might actually be some recognised standard, but even if it's not it's fairly easy to make your own if you know the lyrics and the one sample song provide includes a .lrc file to serve as an example. :up:.
The 'ebook function' is a basic text file reader. It reads file with .txt and .lrc extentions but it baulks if you don't specifically add an suitable extension to the file name.
One Quibble I have is that it doesn't display letters like 'ç','é' and 'ê' and just leaves a blank space. Unless you switch to another language that is. :rolleyes:. So, again, it's not a matter of it not having the character set to handle these letters, it simply chooses not to display them when the user interface is set to English! :irked:.
Considering how often such letters crop up in the English language, and especially since this seems to be a uniquely South African model from a German Manufacturer who's motto is 'Born Perfectionists', this is an unforgivable oversight! :irked:. (I would have forgiven them if it was either an American product or a product specifically intended for the American market)
Overall, the device serves the one speciffic perpose that I bought it for. But I wouldn't recommend it as an mp3/mp4 player. It has no built-in speaker at all and must be used with earphones, and the touchscreen is very awkward to work with! It is also not a scratch resistant surface which is kinda silly for a resistive touch-screen. :rolleyes:.
I give this device two stars out of five and a noddy badge for trying to be an iPhone. (and almost succeeding! :up:)
:star::star:.
P.S: I almost forgot to mention, the 'User Guide' is only 3cm by 3cm square with 2mm high letters. So you will need a jeweller's eye-glass to read it unless you have exceptionall eyes! :up:.
subacati 
hahaha. Well, as long as it keeps you company at work, I guess it's worth the price? And how much is R699? Is that repees? I don't know S. African money. I downloaded several books and haven't read a single one yet. Something about reading them over a computer…..I need a Kindle, but doubt I'll ever see one. They are too pricey. So, have you finished any books since you bought your Telefunken?BTW—that brand is familiar to me. When we were stationed in France, most of the electronics in the PX were by Telefunken. Back then it had a very good reputation. Don't know about now because I haven't seen anything Telefunken in years.Hope the thing works out for you.
Aadil, there are so many products marketed in Indonesia and They have srange brands and strange operational program. But at least yoouo can use it to listen to music, to read your ebook even you need a special glasses… ha ha ha but you know there is cellphone brand which duplicate the model of blackberry… ha ha ha
Wow. What a piece of poop. At least it works for reading text files, as you say. Was it a good price considering that's its sole purpose?
If it is cheap and serves its purpose, then :yes:
Well, the 'R' stands for 'Rand'. (ZAR) That's about US$100 at the moment. :up:.The price is a bit high because I could get a cellphone with the same basic features for half that. But the no-cellphone rule at work makes this worthwhile. :up:.Telefunken is a German brand originally. But based on this device, it seems to have gone fully chinese. This particular device seems to be marketed only in South Africa and Australia though. It might be marketed under a different model or brand name in other countries but I have been unable to verify that. :up:.It was a compromise from the begining for me since I could have just used my cellphone had that been allowed.I get about 3 to 4 hours reading on this vs 6 to 8 hours on my cellphone but that's not suprising considering it's size. :lol:.
Oh, that's not too bad then really.
Anonymous writes:Great to hear that it was usefull to you.I was going to buy the same product 2weeks ago but now after reading these comments I'm having second thoughts. I wanted to buy it since I was looking for an mp4 player. but now I dont see the use of spending R899 on the product anymore.
I'm certain there must be better mp4 players out there. :up:.
Well I hope you get your moneys worth. :up: Can't say I blame you if it's soul purpose is to keep yourself occupied for a few hours. 🙂
Virtually any N Series Nokia would have been better were it not for the 'no cellphone' rule. :up:.
leonie writes:i am gowing to bay one but is it realy crap??
Originally posted by anonymous:
That depends on what you want it for. :left:(or on how low your expectations are! :p).It's a cheap attempt to cash-in on iPhone popularity. With a cheap iPhone-clone GUI. If I had my way, I'd rather have used my Nokia instead! :rolleyes:.
frustrated?!@#$% writes:just got the telefunken tmp 888w and am very impressed except for one thing , i am unable to get movies to play on it, even after encoding the formats. however all the music videos work perfectly with the same encoding . its just the movies that wont play . any ideas are welcome. please help . angry wife will kill me if i dont get it working
Covert to .wmv with Mobile Media Converter.It's cross platform and can be installed on almost any system. :up:.Telefunken seems to favour Microsoft's formats. :awww:.