6. The Rapsody N35

The shiny front panel of the Rapsody N35 is touch sensitive

The Rapsody N35 is a small but striking player measuring, in at 9.75" (W) x 1.75" (H) x 9.5" (D) - roughly double the size of the Mvix. Undoubtedly, the first thing that you will notice about the Rapsody is the complete absence of buttons on the player itself. The front panel is made of smooth, reflective, black plastic which surprisingly turned out to be touch sensitive. Most of the little red lights on the player can be used just as you would use a standard set of buttons.

Unfortunately, after its novelty wore off, I found the touch panel to be fairly un-responsive and confusing to use. The panel often failed to register my commands and I was constantly wondering if I had succeeded in making the player understand what I wanted it to do. I also found that the size and placement of the indicator lights made the front panel look a bit messy and asymmetric, depending on which ones were lit up. All in all however, playing with the touch panel was fun and users will generally just use the remote, so its quirks were not a deal breaker.

Cooling

The Rapsody N35 is passively cooled, which is good news for users who are looking for completely silent multimedia equipment. The Sigma processor, which is the biggest heat generator on the main board, is located in an open area inside the player with plenty of room to breathe so there is no need for an active cooling solution

NDAS

Though it contains the same USB host controller as the Mvix, the Rapsody does not use a USB connection to transfer files from your computer. In fact, its dedicated Ximeta network direct attached storage (NDAS) controller chip handles all of the file transfers between the computer and the Rapsody. NDAS storage drives receive a drive letter and show up as a physical drive on your computer; they can be accessed directly by any computer on your network that has been set up to do so. NDAS devices have a unique device-specific code (similar to a MAC address). The code must be entered on each computer on the network before they are able to access the NDAS. It can also reportedly perform up to 6 times faster than standard network attached storage.

Remote

The Rapsody's remote was classy looking and functional with metallic accents and responsive buttons. The remote is not backlit, which is unfortunate, but the lighter colored buttons glow in the dark. Unfortunately, glow in the dark buttons are not an ideal solution as the effect will fade quickly without a light source to keep it charged. The remote is comfortable to use and its buttons are well labeled, with adequate spacing between them.

The Rapsody remote