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Well i got my shiny new RM970 about an hour ago and .....

well, i really really want to say i love this player ...but ...aarrrghh ... i just cant ... and i feel sad about that.

at the moment having experienced new chips from both Actions (ATJ2606) and this rockchip (RK2706) i would say that the actions chip blows this out of the water.

why?

i know raz said that there were a few bugs and i accept that that is why i am writing this with an open mind, in the hope that things will improve with updates,

so whats the problem

build quality is not great, the two sections of the body are not actually flush and you get a slight gap and you can gently push these two pieces in and out, so they are not clipped together properly - possible problem here with dust and also top screen cover is not flush with the body so slightly protrudes ... just not very well refined

"favorites" is the players playlist function. There is only 1, in other words you can not have multiple playlists.

no video resume function and no audio bookmarking

does not recognize ID3 tags in WMA files on the play screen, but seems to catalog the ok

crashes when trying to play old rockchip videos, does not elegantly exit and have to force shutdown.

video quality ain't that good, the sample AVI file had lip sync problems!!!!
RMVB sample were ok but a little blocky

and no games (but i knew this anyway- but rockchip do say they have 16 games ofr this chip -where are they?)

the buttons are VERY small and so flush with the casing that they are quite hard to press, coupled with the fact the the case ain't joined properly, every time you press the buttons hard it pushes the pieces slightly apart!!!

it is not all doom and gloom though, the screen is nice and bright and images look superb, sound quality is very good and you can apply one of 4 images to the background. the payer look sleek and stylish

this is all for now
i know i might be being critical here and i know that this is the first implementation of the chip but i really was expecting more from both Ramos in terns of a quality product and implementation and rockchip in terms of the functionality of the chip.

Time will tell and there will be updates to this player, i just hope they are frequent and worthwhile.

i will post my full report as soon as i can and after i have had a longer play and tested more files types.

so, marks out of ten so far
4/10
i give such a low score because i intend to do a full review and want room for improvement

_________________

• Phone: Samsung Galaxy Mini / Huawei G300 (just ordered)
• Fav App: Strava, IMDB, Jewels
• Portable Audio: currently none
• Headphones PC: Brainwavz HM5

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• MP4nation webstore: Here

Maderin,

I'm sorry to see your disappointment. I feel for you. I hope things get better. Isn't the most recent update supposed to improve video?

I was thinking of getting this, but have lately been looking at the SmartQ T5. Nate finally did a review and gave it a 9.5/10! Everyone has a different way in looking at players and therefore ratings are hard to compare between users. The V2000SE was an option but the T5 just looks better for gaming, which is not high on my features list but if I'm gonna get a player, which is more important... size or games? After reading your first impressions of the RM970, I'm thinking games. If it weren't for the lack of an expansion card on the Oppo S5, I'd still be weighing my options.

Thanks for the impressions anyways. Keep the comments coming and good luck!

i have applied the update but have not really hd a chance to check it out, the update was easy to do by the way.

the reason for a low score is because it is the first impression and i will probably rate it higher later during extensive playing

i very nearly got the V2000 also, admin actually emailed me after i made a few comments on the forum and asked if i would like to swap my order over, but i declined and stuck to the Ramos - i do not necessarily regret this but i would also like to have a chinachips based machine also as they seem to be getting updated quite frequently and have an impressive track record so far - may pick up the new onda VX747 later when it comes out.

The T5 has a lot of good vibe from forum members so i think would be a good choice, i think the only real thing that puts people off is the lack of internal memory

_________________

• Phone: Samsung Galaxy Mini / Huawei G300 (just ordered)
• Fav App: Strava, IMDB, Jewels
• Portable Audio: currently none
• Headphones PC: Brainwavz HM5

-------------------------------------------------------------

• MP4nation webstore: Here

The vx747 does look nice. I just don't have any interest in a touchscreen though. And it's not that I'm not familiar with touchscreens... I work on touchscreen computers at work all day (repair work).

As far as internal memory on the T5 goes... no big deal, you can get an 8GB Transcend SD on Amazon for around $41 after s&h.

As i said in another forum,rockchip this time wasted his chance to stay as chip leader for budget mp3 player.They didn't bring enough innovation,and will slowly lose their leadership.
The ingenic solution is much more powerful and versatile than this.I am sure their firmware are too hard to develop like it was for the old generation so will take ages to see all the things they announced(wifi,gps,tv out,etc),and i am sure most of them will never come.

EDIT
As an ex-developer point of view,the hardware is also less powerful.
If i remember well they use 2 chips a dsp and a cpu,whose total mhz is 400mhz(like 200mhz dsp and 200 mhz cpu).This is worse than a 400mhz cpu,because dsp usually aren't easily programmable,and thus you must rely on what they can offer,limiting video capabilities.
For example if a certain video codec require a math function that isn't offered by the dsp,this will have to be done by the cpu that is only 200mhz.This also makes any function harder to develop.
Let's see what these 2708 and 2710 have to say.

i am inclined to agree.
Just look how long it took to start making the 2608 into a decent chip and even that was not as successful as it should have been

RAmos seem to be making a big deal of this player so i hope that they look after it and get someone to do the updates as soon as possible. I find it a real faux par that they leave out such a simple but long demanded function of being able to at least resume a movie from where it finished. At least the actions chip allowed you to create as many bookmarks as you wanted in both music files and video files. But it does not seem that the action chip will really take off either.

Chinachips really seem to have caught the imagination of the player manufacturers. If only it could do album art aswell (or can it?)

_________________

• Phone: Samsung Galaxy Mini / Huawei G300 (just ordered)
• Fav App: Strava, IMDB, Jewels
• Portable Audio: currently none
• Headphones PC: Brainwavz HM5

-------------------------------------------------------------

• MP4nation webstore: Here

From what i understand the firmware of the ingening are based on linux,they surely used some open source software for each codec and function,there is no way they could add such many codec otherwise in so little time(like it happened for the v2000 and co. that was discovered using some open source emulator inside).I was amazed to see the flash support inside was really flash 7! and not some flash lite.So i think album art and many other features will come soon.
From what i saw in the resource they gave us to translate into italian,there will be a gba emulator.

Aww i just ordered the Ramos RM970 as my frist player from this site, i hope its really not as bad as you make it seem...

opinions are of course a very personal thing, i understand that, so please just look at my comments as my point of view.

This is a nice player, dont get me wrong, it has a great screen and very good movie playback and also great sound quality, but it seems to be lagging behind the new kids on the block, like the v2000, v2000se etc, and i expected more - but again, these are my personal expectations and yours maybe different.

NOTE
this player can manage your music and catalog it by artist, album and title, but the most annoying thing about this is that it order all the songs ALPHABETICALLY, or in other words, not by track number - this really annoys me badly as i listen to alot of audio books and soundtracks which need to be played in order.

This for me is really a major balls up by rockchip

the only way i can get an album to play in order is to copy it to the player in a separate folder, making sure i organise the files on the pc first in track order, then go to the music section and browse the directory list and find the folder and open music from there, this make a com plete mockery of the music catalog function - in fact it may as well not be there

if you really think you have made a mistake then maybe you could exchange it before it gets sent, but i am sure, if this player matches your original requirements that you will be happy with it all the same

_________________

• Phone: Samsung Galaxy Mini / Huawei G300 (just ordered)
• Fav App: Strava, IMDB, Jewels
• Portable Audio: currently none
• Headphones PC: Brainwavz HM5

-------------------------------------------------------------

• MP4nation webstore: Here

yeah i've been translating some of the Chinese forums and seems the general consensus is that the issues are with the firmware and not the chip, so just hang in, hopefully a new firmware will be out soon.

Chances are it will be a few firmware updates before you see most of the problems fixed.