Insignia™ - Pilot 4GB* Video MP3 Player with Bluetooth Technology - Black

I own the previous Insignia Bluetooth player. It is also the Bluetooth version and I love it. But it does have some issues. The memory expansion was Micro SD and they Max out at 2 Gigs. Not really a problem but once you get a little space, you want more! So I upgraded to this new model because it offers a lot more! This new one solves the memory problem. Especially since it uses standard SD memory you can update it with an 8Gig SD. The Bluetooth is fantastic. I have the Jabra 620 headphones and I can listen to and control the player from buttons on the headphones without any wires. I can even have the player on the patio table while I mow the lawn and it works GREAT! I bought this 4 Gig unit because I didn't want to wait for the 8G one. It is cheaper to add the memory and 12 Gigs is plenty. But as we all know, eventually there will be a 16 Gig SD chip to add. I agree that this player far out-performs the IPod and at a much lower cost. I do like the new ITouch but I realized that if you want to adjust the volume on the ITouch, then you have to pick it up and use both hands to manipulate the controls. This is hard to do with one hand, especially if it is in your pocket! For me this a deal breaker. With the Insignia player, I can control the volume with my hand in my pocket without looking at it. Try that with the ITouch! Another issue I had with my older Insignia unit is that it didn't have video out so you had to watch it on the small screen. Even the smallest Apple IPodkin has video out. Well read on! The one surprise that NO ONE has mentioned is that this new version has VIDEO OUT ability. This is a fantastic addition. Just don't expect it to look very good you your 42" Flat Panel. The videos are still compressed to 320 x 240 and thats about VHS quality. It still looks pertty good on a smaller 15 or 17 inch video monitor. The conversion utility lets you setup several movies to convert at a time and converts quickly on a fast PC. I was confused when Best Buy discontinued the older unit. The reviews were all great and it sold quickly in the stores. So why did they can it? Because they had something better to offer and THIS IS IT! Don't get too hung up on whether to buy the 4 or 8 Gig model. With the standard memory slot, you will be able to add as much as you want for less that the difference in cost. Oh, and one more thing, the battery life is INCREDIBLE!!!!

This is my second MP3 Player. My first was a Garmin which did so much more. The insignia Pilot is quite the unit! The sound quality is very good! Loading songs such as wma, Mp3 songs is so easy! Even a old man like me can do it! I bought this model for the larger screen so I could read what I was doing on the screen. I guess younger people this will not be an issue! The quality of the screen, and vids I believe is excellent. I was comparing it to the Creative Labs Zen, but the screen size if so much bigger, but this unit is also more expensive. The battery lasts a long time and I can put in a 9 hour day at work and it still has a charge! It has not picked up any static from being operated around lawn equipment nor in my boat fishing! The rotating dial which you move around to each function lights up! Pretty cool like led type blue when ever moved. So far is working very well. Also it has a SD expansion card slot which works with my Digital camera that I use, so I can switch them back and forth. I bought my daughter the 2 mb insignia and going to give that to her for her birthday coming up! It is last years model but comparing them, Insignia has really made some changes as far as their graphics etc. So comparing it to last years model, it appears more refined and good for someone picky like myself. I have not used the bluetooth or wireless head phones yet! I have used it to play on my bluetooth Pioneer Supertuner in my motorhome. It is cool to be sitting in my lawn chair playing my tunes off my outside motorhome supertuner! The neg! For the price you would think they would give you a nice protective case! Last years model came with at least a plastic case! So to say my daughter is getting one with her Insignia. I would hate to scratch the nice screen or get a dent in it! We will see! If you want a good MP3 player with a good FM receiver, plays vids, show photo's at anytime with class and style! THIS UNIT IS IT!

As a Linux user (Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon), I'm happy to report that the Pilot works well with the many free software that comes with Linux. This is important since the software that comes with the Pilot is incompatible with Linux. To manage music, I use Easytag with ID3 settings set to version 2.3 to fix incorrect tags (artist name, cover art, etc.), and I use Amarok to transfer and arrange my music. Keep in mind that for now Ubuntu will only recognize the Pilot in UMS mode (drag and drop file transfer) as opposed to MTP mode (requires a media manager to transfer files), but Amarok can be configured to connect to the Pilot in UMS mode anyway. I prefer to use Amarok instead of drag and drop since Amarok by default automatically organizes music files into folders depending on artist and album. I also download songs from Amazon since Amazon sells high quality, drm-free mp3's (245 kb/s vs the usual 128). As good as Rhapsody's unlimited download plan is, I'm still turned off by drm's. - For videos, I use Iriverter to format most videos into playable form for the Pilot. Any videos that Iriverter can't format I use VLC Media Player's wizard to transcode into formats that Iriverter can then transcode. - The only thing that can't be done under Linux as far as I know is creating playlists, which isn't too much trouble for me since I browse by tags or folders anyway. Also, I have only been able to get the Pilot to display album art for mp3 files, not ogg files. - As far as the Pilot's hardware and functions go, they're pretty above average. The large screen is gorgeous but videos often go out of sync with audio, and due to the usually good 262k color display capability, the Pilot has trouble properly rendering different but subtle variations of the same color. This is only significant in scenes where there are a lot of shadows such as outdoor night scenes. - Sound is good with the stock earphones, but I'm no audiophile. I can vouch for Insignia's own bluetooth headphones, though, and I'm thoroughly impressed by the warm basses, the fullness of the reverb, and the relatively distortion-free highs. However, I don't know how well the Pilot can drive demanding headphones such as Bose or Sennheisser. Lastly, there is also a VERY low but noticeable static hiss in the background during quiet music segments, and bluetooth really sucks the life out of the batteries. - Overall, I'm in love with the Pilot, even though it isn't the top in its class. Creative's Zen, Sandisk's View, and Cowon's D2 have similar functions such as sdhc card expandability (micro for the View), and both reportedly deliver superior sound and video. However, the Zen doesn't fully integrate memory cards and is an MTP device while the View and D2 carry hefty pricetag (plus the View is huge for a flash-based player). When it comes to price, features, and quality, the Pilot can't be beat.

My last MP3 player (Sansa e260 4GB) was stolen, so I wanted to pick out something a bit better. First the good: This player has exceeded my expectations in a few ways. The video playback is awesome and easy to copy DVD video with the included software. It was also a snap to copy some of my pictures to the Pilot. The Pilot also plays a few more formats than other players I've used. I am 100% anti-DRM and this player plays all files I use, flawlessly displaying the MP3 tags and album art. There are a couple of deal-killers, however. First of all, when looking for tracks to add to the Now Playing list, I would have liked to be able to look at an artist and choose which songs by that artist I wanted to add (I have several full albums from artists). However, the Pilot only allow you to add EVERY track by a given artist or album. Granted, you can switch to the "Track" view to choose individual tracks, but this displays all tracks by all artists on the player.... there is no way to see a list of tracks by a specific artist. I've also noticed a very annoying "bug" while viewing videos. If you watch half of a video and then use the player to do something else, the video resumes where you left off the next time you play it. I love that part. However, if you want to start the video over, you need to manually rewind the entire thing. Pressing the "Skip Back" button does not return to the beginning of the current video as it does for music, it goes to the previous video in the playlist. This should be easily fixed with a firmware update, however. Also a negative for this player is the confusing and somewhat cumbersome way that it handles certain basic features as playlist shuffling and repeating. You need to press the "Rating" button to load a popup that offers "Audio Options." Once there, you can easily change the shuffle/repeat options. However, this seems like a few too many button presses for such basic options to me. Also, when you choose to shuffle a playlist, it does just that: it simply rearranges the items in the playlist. Instead of randomly choosing another song from the playlist, it will rearrange the list. When you view the current playlist, all the tracks are in a random order, not alphabetized, thus making it difficult to skip to a specific track. Overall, this player has exceeded my expectations in almost every way. The few problems I have with it should be easy to fix with a firmware update, so I don't count them too heavily against it. I would definitely (and do) recommend it for anyone that is interested in a high-performance, high-feature audio player.

I've have the Insignia Pilot for about 2 weeks. I've have really enjoyed it. Loading Music and Photos onto the player was a breeze. Video was easy as well once it was converted to a format that the player could handle. I am impressed with the quality of the video playback. I have watched several movies and have only seen digital artifacts a few times. This was on scenes with large areas of one shaded color. I have noticed that if I go to the menu and then return to a movie, the audio might be out of sync, ya know, like a Godzilla movie. I found that turning the player off and restarting takes care of this. The size of the screen was fine, but don't expect to see super fine details. Music playback was easy with all of the various options: shuffle, repeat, by artist or album or all. Loading and using Play lists was not too bad, although if you are not familiar with these, there will be a bit of a learning curve. I ended up quadrupling some tracks and had to delete and start again, but I've now got it right and I am pleased with convenience of Play lists. Sound quality from the provided ear buds is quite good, better than the ones I got with my Sony CD Walkman. The EQ presets and custom EQ work well. I have used the Bluetooth in the store with the Sony CMT-BX5BT (I am picking up one today). The streaming music with A2DP was great. Sound quality was very good and the range was as indicated in the literature. The AVRCP works perfectly and changing tracks was a breeze. I can really appreciate the convenience of having a music library that can be connected wirelessly to Bluetooth enabled stereo systems and speakers. The feature set at this price point is outstanding. I am enjoying the Insignia Pilot and do not hesitate to recommend it.

This player is just the right size for music, audio books and viewing pictures. Great interface and very easy to use. The scroll wheel makes it fast and easy to get from one item to another. Real easy to get used to. Video is ok but kinda small after using a 4 inch screen, but acceptable. Its a breez to load music, video and pictures. The FM radio works great. Fits very well in the hand. Using the player with regular head phones or buds you can get lots of music time but using insignia bluetooth head phones the time drops to about 5 to 6 hours tops. I would recommend this player for everyday listing use but bluetooth eats up the battery time.

Alright, I ran out of room in the "Pros" category, so I'll finish up here. First off, I am completely, 100% serious when I state "Best purchase I've made". Quite honestly, this thing does it all. To call it simply an "MP3 player" is a HUGE understatement. This thing plays videos with one of the BEST portable resolutions ever, plays a ton of songs, transfers both of them to and from the device simply and easily (quite foolproof, even if you don't know what you're doing)... and a whole bunch of other positive things. The convenient portable size/weight make it extremely efficient to carry around. The standard-size SD card slot allows you to expand the already large memory. The picture capability is great as an alternative to the "wallet picture accordion". The included video conversion program makes it so there is no guessing with "how do I convert to a compatible format". There's a convenient rating toggle on the top, and the intuitive button layout and function is brilliant. Plus, one of the greatest things that isn't mentioned in the description (AFAIK, I could be wrong) - This thing allows you to view stock .txt files, made with Notepad or a program that saves in that format. This means you can look at a speech or notes easily - it's really awesome. There are only a few complaints I have- One is with the headphones: they just aren't up to snuff, compared to the rest of the unit. However, I'm almost positive everyone has a spare pair of headphones lying about, and it's not hard to find a pair you like on the cheap (I got my current ones for 5 bucks). Second, the wheel can grate at times; a quick spin while the unit is off fixes this. Finally, the price may seem high, which was a slight problem for me, but it's definitely worth it - especially compared with other comparable units (usually selling at $200+ dollars). And for those that think that an off-brand (and by off-brand, I mean non-Apple, non-Microsoft, etc.) will not work, completely strike that notion. Insignia is not an off brand, and the unit's so good, it wouldn't matter if it were. I would ABSOLUTELY suggest this to a friend... I even did a week after I got it.

This is my second Insignia player and I've had a couple of minor problems, but nothing I could fix. The controls are great and the player really is easy to use. The size really is good proportion to the screen. The wheel control makes navagation a breeze. The sound quality really is good, but just don't use the headphones that come with the player. The headphones that come with it really don't do the player justice. I replaced them the day I bought the player since I learned from previous experience in owning two other Insignia players. Replace the headphones and you'll be impressed. Battery life on the other hand needs work. Under normal operation operating with a set of wired earplugs, battery life is about normal, but I purchased a set of Insignia Bluetooth headphones to pair with my player. What I learned was that using the bluetooth headset drained my battery at a serious rate. I wasn't aware of that and Insignia didn't make that point clear. I experimented and found that I have just over 5 hours of battery time when using the bluetooth headset and have just under 10 hours if using as set of decent earbuds. That's a significant drain and needs to be pointed out in the manual. Still, it's a cool thing to have wireless headphones and a player that lets you do that. I rated this high because it really is a good bargain even with the few short falls. I still prefer it over an Ipod anyday.