3. Why A 20 GB Hard Drive?

The hard drive on the Jukebox 3 takes up a lot of this little box only 3.5 cm thick. It is a 2.5" Fujitsu like the ones usually found on laptop PCs, a 20 GB MHR2020AT model. It runs at 4200 rpm, so consumption is fairly low (2.30 Watts when running), as is noise pollution. Note too that its weight (99 grams) is just one-third of the total weight of the Jukebox 3.

This capacity and the ability to store any kind of file and not just sound make the Jukebox 3 a true mobile 20 GB hard drive, and with an IEEE1394 connector to boot. The only trouble is that it is not recognized as a logical unit in Windows. In this state, the only means of accessing files is to use PlayCenter 3.0 software (for sound files only), or else "File Manager," a little utility which comes on the CD and serves to transfer any file format in any direction. So it's all rather tiresome, and we strongly advise you to use the "Notmad Explorer" program explained further on in this article.

But now back to more technical matters. If we suppose that a typical track lasts four minutes and is recorded in MP3 at 128 kbps, then the storage capacity of the Jukebox 3 is 5000 tracks. This means a continuous playtime of just over 330 hours; in other words, it's quite a substantial music library. Note that if files are encoded at a lower rate, the number on the hard drive is set at 8000 by the manufacturer. It should be remembered that the Jukebox 3 has a library of all the tracks on the hard drive, so the more files there are, the harder it is to manage the library, which will take a long time to rebuild if the device is reset.

A 20 GB hard drive on an MP3 player may seem a bit over the top, but you soon realize that it is actually a real boon here. Not only can you carry around the equivalent of 300 CD Audios, but also any file, such as a DivX-compressed film.