Vosonic VP8360

#1 Renato

Regarding VP8360 prices: from $299 without HDD to $469 with 120G HDD

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.765/.f

FYI, this site is the main Vosonic dealer.

11:02 am - Monday, May 15, 2006

#2 Anthony

Awesome device, I really recommend it.

2:49 pm - Monday, May 15, 2006

#3 Jerry

FOR MACINTOSH USERS....
One major problem when removing and formatting new devices, Mac users must use OS9 since OSX (10+) FAT32 is incompatible.

To me this is a major pain in the butt, I mean, who even has a Mac with OS9 on it?

12:25 am - Tuesday, May 16, 2006

#4 Freeheel

I use a PowerBook G4 running 10.4.6 and have no problems with connecting this device. Not sure what Jerry means.

3:28 am - Thursday, May 18, 2006

#5 Ian

Looks very impressive, especially with the user replacable harddrive. Is anyone aware if you can copy images from one card to another?
I would like to be able to copy images off a CF card and move them to my PDA's SD card before emailing them when on location.
Can't tell if 2 flash cards can be inserted at the same time.
The 100Gb version is listed on a UK site for £320.
http://www.thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk/product_details.php?id=2003

12:47 pm - Friday, May 19, 2006

#6 Renato

There are 2 memory slots, one for CFs and one for SD/MS/MMC. Any copy can be done between the two slots and HDD, in any combination and direction.
The device manual is available on Vosonic site. Plenty of info there...

1:12 pm - Friday, May 19, 2006

#7 Ian

Has anyone tried one out yet and got a real review?
Looks fantastic for the travelling photographer.
http://www.polarKAT.com

7:26 am - Tuesday, May 23, 2006

#8 davidy

I have bought one of these instead of the Epson Px000.

The price starts at $299 for the box - the manual shows how easy it is to add your own 2.5" drive. This is much cheaper than the Epson.

It has lots more features than the Epson too. Some are
Recording in mpeg4-aac in PSP resolution, TV resolution, QVGA-normal, QVGA-fine, VGA-fine.
Audio recording
FM tuner
etc

It is much faster in operation than the Epson.

I'm glad I waited rather than wasting money on the Epson Px000.

10:39 am - Tuesday, May 23, 2006

#9 Freeheel

Ian-I've started my online blog/review on the Vosonic 8360. It's not fully complete, but you can find it at: http://www.joshbrankman.com/page1/files/category-6.html

12:57 pm - Tuesday, May 23, 2006

#10 davidy

This has the same guts as the earlier announced Picture Porter Elite (PPE) but more affordable with the option of putting in your own 2.5" HDD. The PPE has better software from Ulead instead of Magix for the Vosonic. Well the innards of this device has more than challenged the Epson Px000 in my case.
http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/digital_foci_picture_porter_elite/
http://www.digitalfoci.com/picture_porter_elite.html

Both appear to OEM the MMV 3.6 (Multi Media Viewer)
http://www.mmv-club.com/english/mmv3x_spec.php
The mmv 3.5 has been done by vosonic as VP8350 and also by Premier as DP-3520. Haven't seen any MMV in the stores for a long time.

1:47 am - Thursday, May 25, 2006

#11 Karim

I am looking to purchase one ... Has anybody compared it with an iPod 60Gb? Everybody keeps telling me to buy an iPod instead. I need a device to support my Digital SLR camera

11:52 pm - Monday, May 29, 2006

#12 Freeheel

If you're seriously talking about using the device for storing photos while out in the field, I would not advise using the iPod. While a great digital music and video device, the transfer times using the card readers and/or camera connectors are far to slow to be practicle. In fact, I think the iPod uses half its battery on a 1GB transfer alone and takes about 20 or more minutes!

The 8360 is designed to transfer these files faster with smaller battery drain.

1:45 am - Tuesday, May 30, 2006

#13 sandrac

To answer Karim - What format do you shoot in? If it's exclusively JPG, the iPod would work fine, though probably not the best for viewing files. If you shoot RAW, the iPod doesn't support it.

I was comparing the iPod to the VP8360 and that was something I seriously took into consideration.

1:16 pm - Tuesday, June 6, 2006

#14 Thierry

I have a vp8360 since yesterday, I use an Imac with last OSX version, and when I copy raw or jpg files FROM the Imac TO the vp8360 (as a backup function), I have extra files appearing on the vp8360, with the same name as the transfered files with an extra "." at the beginning and with much smaller size (some Ko or hundreds of ko) I supposed this correspond to "image icons" on OSX, but is there a way to avoid creating these files on the vp8360... (disk space and lot of useless files when browsing)
Regards
Thierry

8:59 pm - Thursday, June 15, 2006

#15 Richard

Re: 10. "The mmv 3.5 has been done by vosonic as VP8350 and also by Premier as DP-3520. Haven't seen any MMV in the stores for a long time."

The Premier Pmp DP-3520 is currently being sold in the UK at a price of £249.99 inc. VAT (Uk sales tax) at Jessops.com
http://tinyurl.com/nxto9

By comparison, here's a very good deal (price) available in the UK for the 'Vivitar' (model 'DMD-P20') branded version of the same.
£119.98 inc VAT (UK sales tax)
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/109613

I phoned Vivitar UK to ask a few 'technical' questions, but they weren't able to give sensible answers and said "we're only the distribution centre and the only information we have is as our web page" at...
http://www.vivitar.co.uk/products/dmd/dmd/

(I ordered mine today from eBuyer and it looks like they're going fast!)

2:49 pm - Friday, July 21, 2006

#16 adam

Can you help? I just got the VP8360 from Singapore (Sing$560 with 60gb samsung hdd).

When I insert the sandisk extreme 2gb cf card, it says 'partition not found'. I have formatted in camera (canon 30D), using disk utility on my mac, and this doens't help. I've also tried formatting using the VP8360, but I get an 'error formatting disk' error. The device seems to work fine when connected to the make - ive been able to transfer the files from the cf to the relavant folder/desktop etc, but it just doesn't want to read the card in the 'stand alone' mode.

Also, I tried connecting the cf card to a pc, and reformatted the card to fat32 (it seemed that the 30d was formatting to fat16) but that still hasn't solved the problem.

Thanks for any help

11:30 am - Monday, July 24, 2006

#17 adam

the previous post should read 'when connected to the mac' - not 'make'. sorry for the type-o

11:33 am - Monday, July 24, 2006

#18 Renato

I think the message is related to the device HDD, not to the CF.
Was the internal HDD ever formated?
Are you able to see it's contents and handle files/folders on them ?
Are you aware the internal HDD can be formatted only FAT and no Mac FS or NTFS ?
Vosonic provide for older device a dedicate format utility. Did you check the accompaining CD or Vosonic site for such utility ?

Regards

11:41 am - Monday, July 24, 2006

#19 adam

Hi Renato - thanks for your reply. The hdd was formatted by the guy in the shop, and the hd icon shows as being FAT32 so as far as I can tell, this should all be ok.

I think the 'partition not found' message is referring to the cf card, because it only comes up when you insert the card, and then the cf card icon shows up (a little hard drive icon with 'uhf' letters above it) and it shows as containing 0MB, even though there are 3 8MB photos on it.

I forgot to mention that I have also upgraded to the latest firmware (OA-1.2.5)

11:51 am - Monday, July 24, 2006

#20 adam

ok, for some unknown reason, after disconnecting from mac, and turning device off then on with the card inserted, it has detected it. It states that the cf card is FAT16. I don't know why it is now detecting it.

Anyway, next problem... I select 'menu', then 'full backup', then 'yes'. I then get an 'ATA DRQ timeout!' message. I go 'ok' and it gives a summary, then asks if i want to open the back folder. I go 'yes' and it says 'path does not exist'.

I have also tried just 'photo backup' and I get a message saying 'Not DCF format'.

To be honest, it seems as though it's behaving a little iratically. I just took out the cf card, pluged it in again, tried the 'full back up', and it appeared to work without giving any warnings. But after checking the backup folder as prompted, no images have been saved there.

arrrrr!

12:40 pm - Monday, July 24, 2006

#21 adam

have been trying since, and mostly the device just says 'partition not found', and occassionally, without doing anything except taking and and putting back in the cf card, it will read it ok, but doesn't save anything properly - although a couple of times it has successfully saved one of the images.

Surely there is some genius out there with the answer...? I've emailed volsonic but haven't yet heard back.

7:31 am - Tuesday, July 25, 2006

#22 davidy

Join the forum at the source rather than Vosonic. The developers there are very responsive.

http://www.mmv-club.com/english/forums.php

10:51 am - Wednesday, July 26, 2006

#23 davidy

oops

http://www.mmv-club.com/english/forum.php

3:09 am - Thursday, July 27, 2006

#24 adam

Thanks davidy.

For anyone following this - I've tested two other cf cards in my vosonic, and they both work perfectly. So it seems the problem lies with my 2gb sandisk extremeIII cf card (which works perfectly in camera / downloading from camera to mac)

At first I thought it was becuase the camera was formating it as fat16, and not fat32, both other cards I tested also listed on the vosonic as fat16 yet downloaded fine. Infact, I couldn't believe how quickly it downloaded - much faster than usb2.

7:12 am - Thursday, July 27, 2006

#25 Raj

I think extreme III might not be supported
only extreme II


R

3:49 pm - Friday, July 28, 2006

#26 goth

Just a genaral question doe sit matter what spped HD 4200,5400,7200 rpm is fitted in the device ?

Ive been putting off buying one till i know what spec HD to get, any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Goth

4:04 pm - Tuesday, August 1, 2006

#27 Conax

I had purchased a 20Gb portable hard drive a few years ago, which was later not working any more for some reason.

Today got my VP8360
- for half the price than before
- but with loads more features
- and much more responsive
- and 4x HDD capacity
- and transfer in much less time
- and even read RAW files
- and battery lasts a lot longer

Really pleased with it so far.

12:56 pm - Friday, August 4, 2006

#28 Pat Schubert

I just received my 8360 because it looked like Mac OS X could use it. After reading your comments, it looks like I might be out of luck unless one of you can explain what I should be doing. I'm new to mac and still work with PC in CT and Mac in Maine.
Thanks :>)

7:19 pm - Thursday, August 10, 2006

#29 sam kimmins

I'm using a vosonic 8360 for photo storage and it's excellent - fast, reliable, great review quality.

However, I also want to use it as an MP3 and find it cumbersome. The only way I can find to dwnload music is to take the files direct from my Mac, and I end up with a bunch of folders and subfolders which i need to search through (like in windows explorer) each time I want to change a track. It there a software platform that I can download, which allows me to use the vosonic like an ipod, and browse music more effectively?

8:16 am - Wednesday, August 23, 2006

#30 CrashNBurn

I've been using vp8360 for a few weeks now, so far so good.

Sam, I created playlists in windows media player for the MP3s that I have in 8360. that way I can easily change playlists.

As a photo backup utility, it's great. I have a dSLR shooting in raw but I only have 2 1gbs thus the 8360 is really a big help especially when I'm out shooting and I don't want or can't carry a laptop.

As a video recorder, I tried recording some of my dvd movies directly to the device. I found out in that the recorded movie past 2mins will be choppy. The recorded movie is not great but decent to keep you entertained during a long trip or a boring afternoon outside.

As an MP3 player, i'd say it's good. the included headphones was actually good. The player runs for hours which is great.

3:11 pm - Saturday, August 26, 2006

#31 deepbluesin

It doesnt seem to work with the MAC Book Pro...

I think i just wasted some good money on this stupid thing.

1:43 pm - Friday, September 1, 2006

#32 Renato

You mean the MAC Book Pro, I guess...

1:50 pm - Friday, September 1, 2006

#33 david

deepblue,

Does usb only detect the sd or cf card slot? Report to the developers at http://www.mmv-club.com/english/forum.php

3:43 pm - Friday, September 1, 2006

#34 Guillaume

Hi, what does everybody think about Jessop's Premier Pmp DP-3520 20GB Portable Media Player? How does it compare to teh Vosonic VP8360 performance wise? Both look very similar and are about the same price £229ish. I am thinking about getting one but I am not sure if there is a compelling argument for going for one rather than the other. Any advice is welcome.

2:25 pm - Tuesday, September 12, 2006

#35 Richard

#34.

The (Jessop's) Premier Pmp DP-3520 is a 'Premier' branded version of the MMV 3.5

(The MMV 3.5 is also sold a 'Vivitar' brand, model DMD-P20, at eBuyer....
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/109613 )

The Vosonic VP8360 is the 'Vosonic' branded version of the MMV 3.6

See here....
http://www.mmv-club.com/english/mmv3x_spec.php

and #15.

2:05 am - Wednesday, September 13, 2006

#36 Guillaume

#35
Thanks Richard! Do you have experience with downloading images from a Digital camera into the MMV 3.5? Is the download rate fast enough or would you recommend another product? I am looking at downloading batches of pictures of 1Gb each time.

7:35 am - Thursday, September 14, 2006

#37 John

Can anyone tell me how to convert VOB files to AVI, preferably through freeware that doesn't leave a watermark?

10:58 am - Thursday, September 14, 2006

#38 Renato

http://tinyurl.com/yrut68

11:23 am - Thursday, September 14, 2006

#39 Raj

Hi

The devise rocks

Went on a trip
Each charge gave me 5 downloads of 2 GB each (1.8 gb to be exact) and 7 1 GB Cf cards I managed to download, before it needed to be charged,

(The juice dint die, I just charged as I could find power)

With 3 charges I downloaded a total of 45 GB of data total during my trip

Temp was often times, approx 10 degrees cent,
Worked great in the cold

fr me the big advantage is I could review my images , shot in raw format , ( dint do much reviewing in the field, just looked over a few images to make sure they were downloaded ok ,

What I would luv to be able to do though, is name the images as they get downloaded, any idea how that can be done.

Is agr8 piece of equipment I say !

Cheers

Rajat

12:39 pm - Thursday, September 14, 2006

#40 Richard

#36

Hi Guillaume,

"Do you have experience with downloading images from a Digital camera into the MMV 3.5?"

YES, I bought it for that purpose around 6 weeks ago. I'm off on a 2 week holiday at the weekend and don't want to run out of storage!

"Is the download rate fast enough or would you recommend another product?
I am looking at downloading batches of pictures of 1Gb each time."

YES, it's fast enough for me, although I've not needed to measure the time!
I just plug in my 1Gb Compact Flash card (as used with my Minolta 7D) and copy/transfer the photos (JPEG & RAW format) to the MMV 3.5 (Vivitar DMD-P20).

8:56 pm - Thursday, September 14, 2006

#41 HeinzM

I am owner of the Vosonic VP 8360.
I have problemes when I connect this device with the television device.
I can see the saved movies on the display of VP8360.
If I connect this whith TV, I can see the directory of the saved movies, than I press the joystick on the saved movies, the TV is black, I can hear the sound of the movie.
If I press the joystick on a recorded movie-vrec001.mp4 , I can see the whole movie,ok.
Do you this problem and what do you prefer for a converter software?
Thanks

6:05 pm - Sunday, September 17, 2006

#42 Ta

I impressed the product but I got a very bad experience with Import agency in Thailand. What should I do?

5:33 pm - Thursday, October 12, 2006

#43 syaman

I use the Vosonic VP8360 with my Macbook and Mac mini. It definitely works with OS X machines. Just be sure to format the hard drive in the Vosonic as FAT32. There's no need to install any Mac drivers - it is automatically mounted as a USB mass storage device.

11:31 pm - Saturday, March 17, 2007

#44 P

I am going to be travelling for an extended period and don't want to lug around a laptop. I am looking at either buying the VP8360 or VP8390 with 120g plus a spare 120g HD. Can anyone offer info on the differences between these 2 devices and which device is the preferred. I am also comparing these to the Epson P5000. Also as this device can have the HD exchanged is it safe to assume all the data remains stored on the HD after its been removed from the device. I am looking for mass portable storage.....

All information appreciated.

Thanks, P.

6:01 am - Wednesday, July 25, 2007

#45 Renato

I would download the device manual from Vosonic site to be sure hdd is user replaceable, and how easy is that operation.
Also, HDD type is important, I would avoid 1.8" models.
I own the 3320 model and very pleased with it. HDD and even Li-Ion battery are both standard and user replaceable with just 4 screws. Figure they provide even the scredriver for the operation !

6:19 am - Wednesday, July 25, 2007

#46 P

Thanks Renato, I have read the user guide and I know the HDD is user replaceable (and includes the screw driver) but no where does it mention if the data on the HDD will be lost if it is removed. Any further info would be appreciated.

Also I have just noticed that this machine will only accept CF cards I/II. This would suggest that Cards III/IV are not compatible. This seems strange as the II cards appear to have beeen superseded by the III/IV already and another member early mentions having difficulties with an Extreme III. Does anyone have anything to add to this. It seems strange to have this expensive equipment that is not compatible with the newer cards.....or am I just being silly and misunderstanding?

6:42 am - Thursday, July 26, 2007

#47 Renato

The data is definitely NOT lost, I changed 3 HDDs until now.
There are only two types of CF, I and II, and this refers to phisical size, not speed or other marketing gimmics. Extreme III is onla a Sandisk/Lexar label, CF type III does not exists.

7:30 am - Thursday, July 26, 2007

#48 P

Thanks for clearing up the answers to my questions. I really appreciate your assistance with these matters Renato.

Cheers, P.

1:32 am - Friday, July 27, 2007

#49 rebshee

Does this support Fuji S5 Raw? I bought this device thinking it did...but says cannot create a folder when I try and do a backup.

7:53 pm - Friday, August 10, 2007

#50 Alfie

Now we all know that Nikon is "special" - can anyone confirm that the VP8360 can process Nikon's RAW NEF format.

Thanks

7:11 am - Thursday, August 16, 2007

#51 Renato

Process? This is a storage device, for raw processing you must use a PC...
If you mean to extract the embedded thumbnail to display on the LCD, yes, this is possible because is standard for any RAW, Nikon has nothing special.

8:00 am - Thursday, August 16, 2007

#52 kobold

This thing is almost perfect (no GPS). My advice: get the HDD w/ the best shock resistance you can. I already dropped mine a few times (concrete, stone...) while it was turned on and it still works! Anyway, I was wondering about the use of radio.ini, thanks for any info!

2:22 pm - Wednesday, October 10, 2007

#53 Stephen

Its photo storage capabilities and support for raw camera images are great. The user interface is great. Although the screen is low resolution, it is pleasant to look at. The device feels solid enough and some of the extras like radio are fantastic.

However, although I did buy this device with photo storage as the primary purpose, I travel interstate weekly and expected it would be suitable to use in hotels to watch my digital TV recordings. Aside from the low video output resolution which is OK as I knew this before I purchased it, the video playback performance of this device is almost unusable.

I've tried several settings for video transformation as per the specifications. In near all cases, the output is choppy and fairly well unusable. i.e. THE DEVICE WILL NOT ADEQUATLEY PLAY TO ITS SPECIFICATIONS. It can't even play back its own recordings without video and audio being out of sync!!

If you're looking for a portable multimedia player, don't even consider one of these devices!!! I spent another 60 bucks Australian on eBay for a cheap portable movie player and popped a spare hard disk in. Both support for common movie formats/settings and output quality is far superior. It pretty well plays whatever you put on it.

Compared to other companies, Vosonic has been making devices similar to this for a long time now. If the dirt cheap Chinese devices that are available for next to nothing can provide a quality video playback experience so should Vosonic's devices. Come on Vonsonic, you categorise this device as a portable multimedia player. Spend some money on one of the cheap devices out there and compare it's multimedia capabilities to yours. With some luck you'll be embarrassed and decide to do something.

I find this situation very disappointing. Let’s hope some effort is placed on rectifying the situation and some firmware arrives that will at least provide an acceptable level of quality for the specs it states are supported.

6:31 am - Saturday, November 17, 2007

#54 Chris Quarmby

MMV firmware updates can now be found at:
http://www.mmv-club.com/firmware/

12:20 pm - Thursday, November 22, 2007

#55 D. Saunders

So here it is March 2008. I am looking for product to carry & download files to from Nikon D100 D200. There are so many to research - I am overwhelmed and have been reading a lot online to differentiate between them all. There's Wolverine, Epson, Archos, Picture Porter, Jobo . . .

For those of you that have used several different types or are knowledgeable about these type units - any new feedback you can give about the Vosonic VP8360 now that you've been using it awhile?

5:36 pm - Thursday, March 20, 2008

#56 Renato

Wolverine are almost all Vosonic rebranded.
Epson and Archos are too expensive and too much for simple data storage.
Jobo is the only who has some new innovative products worth a look.

5:44 pm - Thursday, March 20, 2008

#57 D. Saunders

Thanks, Renato, for your feedback. I will take a look at the Jobo.

Are you stil happy with your Vosonic unit?

This all came up because I have the opportunity to buy a Vosonic at good price and have a photo shoot coming up for which I realize it's time to get something like this.

8:48 pm - Thursday, March 20, 2008

#58 whirinaki

How can I play the movies I have on the vp 8360 on tv? please

5:10 am - Monday, December 8, 2008

#59 willem ouwerkerk

anyone who owns a vosonic 3320 and would care to send me a copy, digital or otherwise, of the manual?

thanks a lot on beforehand

willem

2:45 pm - Wednesday, July 21, 2010

#60 david baker

I have had a Vosonic 8360 for several years now and has been brilliant.Ihadnt used it recently and when I did the battery was flat recharged it ,music still there but no pictures ,message says pictures path doesnt exist .Help.

6:28 pm - Monday, July 25, 2011