The HD200 is a 5gb device and as such finds itself in the midst of the battle for bulk of MP3 player sales, perhaps one of it's big selling points is its multi codec support with the HD200 able to play MP3, WMA, OGG and ASF files. Playing MP3 files encoded at 192kbits the audio qualities of the MPIO seem good enough and are possibly better than the Ipod Mini, bass is punchy and the delivery of both pop and Jazz is clear and free from hiss or electronic noise or distortion. OGG Vorbis tracks were also very well handled by the HD200 with a 128kbit encoded file sounding excellent.

There are a number of ways to fiddle with the sound using SRS WOW and 3D sound, these electronic witchcraft modules really make us shiver and are probably the best way to mess up your MP3 player to the point where you think it sounds terrible and want to send it back. It's a bit like a perfectly good ford fiesta with bolt on neon lights and furry dice and we do wish MPIO would lay off these toys and perhaps reduce the price by another £10 instead.

Talking of toys the MPIO HD200 has an FM tuner and Dictaphone capability plus also direct MP3 encoding to keep you busy and as a USB 2.0 device it can also act as a USB hard drive to store files when hooked to a PC or Mac. Build quality seems ok on the 80 x 62 x 14mm unit which is controlled by a rocker wheel and series of buttons on the side and at 55 grams it isn't too bad to carry.

Driving the MPIO is not an easy task, despite its clear backlit 6 line display and icon based navigation system it proves to be a bit of a beast to get around, you can refer to the manual but that won't help you and support of the MPIO range in the UK is shaky to say the least.

MPIO rate the HD200 at 14hrs of replay from a single charge but we failed to get more than 10 during our time with the unit and encoding uses a lot of juice. Perhaps the biggest omission is the lack of DRM support which precludes the use of music downloaded from many online stores, which is strange seeing as it has plug in support for real player and ITunes.

On further investigation there was due to be a DRM firmware patch in November 2004, but we can't find any sign of it online, so for now our comments stand and that pretty much sums up the MPIO HD200, it has a lot going for it but it's poor instructions and lack of support are worrying.

If you can risk being able to drive the HD200 (we managed to get it sussed after a few hours of playing) and you either rip all your MP3 tracks or download from non copyright protected sources then the quality sound and multi codec support may be enough for you to consider buying the MPIO. But for us it would need to be cheaper than the £169 price tag.

More MP3 players between 1gb and 10gb -

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