Creative Labs NOMAD MuVo 64 MB MP3 Player

Creative MuVo is a unique, ultra-compact MP3 player offering fantastic audio quality and data storage capability. It is based on a finger-sized 64MB MuVo Memory module, which can store data files or around 15 MP3 tracks and has a built-in USB plug for direct connection without cables. The memory module fits into a custom battery pack to form the Creative MuVo player, which is about the size of a cigarette lighter and gives up to 12 hours of continuous play on just one battery. It also features a socket for stereo earbuds.

Combining a high-quality 64 MB MP3 player with a compact USB hard drive, Creative Labs has created MuVo, a logical step in hybrid portable devices.

MuVo is compact (about the size of a cigarette lighter) and lightweight, and it stores images, Web pages, and other documents, in addition to your MP3 files.

Installation is a breeze. Simply plug the MuVo into a spare USB port and your PC recognizes it as a mass storage device. No drivers are needed, although the unit does ship with some drivers and a special formatting tool. Transferring files to the unit is as easy as the installation: Just drag and drop files into the player and you're set to go. Once you've transferred data or MP3 files, remove the MuVo from your computer and slide it onto the battery pack. One AAA battery will net you up to 12 hours of power.

One problem we found was that because the unit doesn't ship with a cradle or USB port extension cable, we had to go around to the back of our computer every time we wanted to insert or remove the device. This isn't a problem if you have a USB hub or are using the MuVo on a laptop.

Although slightly more expensive than a mass storage device of comparable size, the MuVo is ideal for those wanting a compact, versatile MP3 player. --Martin Snelling, Amazon.co.uk

1 Really Nice To Have
This has been working great for me. The headphones aren't the best so it sounds a whole lot better with good ones. Once the USB stick has been formatted on a Windows machine, files (audio or other) are easily transferred using a Mac in OSX. Having the removable USB stick to transfer files between computers is a huge bonus.

2 Awww...c'mon...alive and still kicking
I received this device as a Christmas present last year. It was my first and I didn't have a clue about MP3. I have not had a problem with this device at all. Things I liked: Easy to understand. I downloaded through Window Media-never an issue. Small and durable. I have dropped this device a million times. Great sound-----if you use other headphones than provided. Only took a AA battery. Things I wished would happen: better headphones a display ability to change the order of songs in transfer Otherwise, I have had no issues. I will be purchasing this item for my 14 year old daughter.

3 How to get it working again!
True, this little guy freezes from time to time when you forget to dismount it properly (NOT creatives fault!). It's pretty easy to reformat if you people who say it's 'broken' used LINUX and not windows! Simple as that guys - no need to bother with with wasting your money on repair costs. Unbelievable.

4 Just what you need, but not much more than that.
It doesnt have a display, which was my only concern. Once I got it though, I found that I could careless. Im to busy listening to music and forwarding and rewinding tracks are just a button push away.
Synch went great with windows media player 10 (xpsp2 also installed).
No problems what so ever, I went from taking it out of the package to walking out my door listening to music within about 20-30 minutes. MOst that time was spent realizing I had to "synch" not burn onto the Nomad.(im a goof).
I used it all night and worked great. Only draw back that the earbuds wont stay in my ears.
Could be just me but I ordered some new headphones anyway so not a problem for me.
Bottome line, if what you want is a dependable MP3 player to strap on and listen to music, this player does just that without breaking your bank account.

5 Small and Dependabe
I use this to listen to audible books exclusively. It is very dependable with easy controls and not a lot to go wrong. I had an old rio that was very fussy. I am much pleased with the battery life and simplicity of this player.

6 muvo
has no random function, short battery life. however; it is small compact and very easy to use... reccomend to all

7 Poor battery life
2.5 stars really. Not a bad player but there are better ones out there. The 128Mb gives a reasonable no. of songs but recording at low res makes for disappointing playback. Using alkaline batteries this unit has no where near the 12 hours it claims. It is a handy USB drive however and that part of it has helped me out in many urgent work situations.

8 Awesome!
I got this item for my birthday and it is great! It holds plenty of songs! I don't know how I ever lived without it.

9 Not the most reliable player
I love my MuVo, I've had it for over a year. I got it from a friend who said it was suffering from the same problems as most reviews here list. Creative Support was no help, so I installed everything from Creative's site, used their music organization software to reformat the player, and it's worked fine ever since. I've been moving files on and off on a daily basis, used it with 5 different computers with not one problem since. This thing gets beat around in my pocket with my keys, I've dropped it, washed it, pulled it out of the computer without stopping it properly, got it dirty, almost every way I could possibly break it, and no problems yet. However, judging from the reviews here the quality of these players is very inconsistant, either they'll break after a couple months or keep going forever... Also, Creative desperatly needs to work on its Customer Service. I haven't found any problems with the playlist restarting when I turn it off or unplug it from the battery. It does restart when you format the player, but I would think that's expected. Sometimes when you skip through tracks, the player will cut off the first half-second or so, but it's not a huge problem. I also think the A-B repeat function is pretty useless, a random play button would be a much better idea. I'm impressed with the durability of this little player, but it seems I am in the minority. As to the storage, 128megs is about 4 1/2 hours at WMA 64k, which is what Creative's software converts MP3s to with its "SmartFit" program. The battery life isn't exceptional, the battery lasts about 2 hours at most with standard Duracells. Using higher capacity batteries may get you better results. Overall, a good player if you can get one that works well, so I'd reccomend getting a little more reliable player.

10 Don't Sweat It!!!!
I like the portability and relatively cheap cost. However, I have gone through 3 Nomads MuVo's. The failure is that as soon as these things get damp with a little sweat or rain they don't work period. I tried using suran wrap so that I could hold onto it while running, but that did little good. Not for use by athlete/runners.

11 Great MP3 Player
I've had mine (64mb version) for about 2 years, and haven't had a single problem with it. It's very small (I quit smoking years ago, but if memory serves, it's a little smaller than a bic lighter), but because of it's size, you obviously can't sort, or view file names.

Loading the software was easy, and glitch free, and there isn't any complicated interface to work with; you just plug it in to the usb port, and drag/drop your files on to the hard drive icon that shows up after it's been plugged in.

It does exactly what it says it does, nothing more, nothing less.

12 Nothin' but love.
I bought this player when it first came out a bit more than a year ago. I took it with me on a 4 month trip to Nepal and Tibet. I dropped it, sat on it, dropped it some more, and the little trooper never gave it. It doesn't have any shuffle feature, and the memory could be bigger, but this is one hell of a resilient little bugger. The only reason I don?t have it is that I gave to a Nepali guy as a thank you gift for letting me stay with his family for 5 weeks. I just bought one of the new 256mb models with a screen. We'll see. It'll take a good showing to beat the usage I got outta the last one.

13 Serves a niche...
I use mp3 exclusively for audio books and text to speech stuff. Therefore the lack of a "resume" or infinite pause for that matter, make this unit inconvenient at times. Also, they need to get the hint: NOBODY LIKES YOUR EARBUD DESIGN. I don't want to swap earwax with someone and share a set of assymetrical earbuds, so JUST STOP. The first thing I did when I unpacked the unit was to plug in my RCA earbuds in its place. MUCH better. Next was to put a keychain clip on the unit. (I took the twisting one from a cheap keychain laser and it works great.)

The big improvement of this player over my old one is the fact I don't have to burn a CD to listen to a quick web download, VERY NICE. Also, it is small enought that you can wear it for hours and forget you have it on. The lack of an LCD screen is not really a problem, becauseI figured it was new and they would add them to later models. The unit also seems pretty rugged.

In order to recover the use of the unit, you may have to run SCANDISK and defrag every once in awhile. Slightly annoying, but at least you don't have to use the crummy software that comes with it. Just treat it like a portable USB device and drag and drop your files, or the VERY useful "send to E:" via right mouse click command.

All in all, I like this product, but hopefully the newer models will address this one's shortcomings.

(Did I mention that NO ONE LIKES THE EARBUDS???.)

Thanks.

14 Nice while it lasted
I guess I should consider myself lucky as I got a good year out of my muvo. As I read the reviews of this player I realize I am SOL because, like many of the other reviewers, mine won't power up anymore. Save your money folks. I have a bunch of creative products but this is product isn't worth the aggrevation. I can only hope they got better with the newer models. I guess being an "early adopter" I should expect a clunker every now and then.

15 Not worth the trouble
In theory, it's a great unit, and should get 5 stars, but it has so many problems, it gets 1.

- the sound quality is terrible
- the software is painful to use
- it constantly stops working, and you need to spend ages fiddling with the software to jump start it again
- there is no "resume" mode (eg. half way through listening to 20 tracks, or worse, an audio book, no way to resume where you left off without finding it manually)

The form factor is sweet but the implementation couldn't be worse. Avoid it.

16 broke in 6 months and had a terrible time with support
well, I bought the Muvo in late 2002 for my son.
within 3 months, problem occurred. We managed to use
it and repair it (reformat, download new drivers)
for another 3 months. But, eventually, it just can't
even be power on.
Called Creative Lab support, they said it's exceeded the
3-month limited warranty. In the hope that they will
find the problem and their
conscience, I sent them the broken device and 20 dollars
examination fee.
The result came back "It can't be powered on. If you

want to replace it, please pay an extra 75 dollars".
I was mad as hell.
In a fury, I canceled my 20 dollars Credit card
bill -- and they didn't contest that. But I still missed
the 9 dollars I spent on Fedex shipping. And I missed
the $150 floppy drive that I could have kept myself (I learned
that I may be able to use the broken MP3 player as a
floppy drive by reading the reviews on this website).

I will never buy anything from Creative Lab.

17 PIECE OF TRASH - DO NOT BUY
I bought this unit and used it for about 2 hours for use while running and working in the yard. Shortly thereafter, I broke my ankle and was unable to work in the yard or run, so had no use for it. 6 months after recovery, I plugged it into my USB port and it froze my computer. I tried again and same thing. I contacted Creative and they had me try some things to no avail. Creative Labs wants me to cover shipping and a minimum of $20 in "assessment" costs + whatever costs to repair it. UNBELIEVABLE. This is a product known to have major issues and yet they want me to pay to fix it. UNBELIEVABLE. I will never buy a Creative Labs product ever again. Be smart, avoid their trash.

18 It just stopped working
This is the most compact and convenient MP3 player. It runs on one AAA battery. It's truly dummy proof. You don't even need to install a driver...just plug it into a usb port then click and drag your music into the drive and you're in business. You can even use it as an removable drive to transport any type of files (media, documents, etc).

Having said all these positive things, here comes the BUT. I loved this little guy, but it broke after only 2 weeks. I bought it 1 1/2 years ago for about $120. I didn't drop it or drown it. It just stopped working. I guess I shouldn't have disregarded all the other reviewers' caveats. I traded it in for the 128MB RipFlash MP3 player/voice recorder. Although in retrospect, commuters like me who spend at least 2hrs daily on the subway should think in terms of GBs and not MBs. Perhaps it's time for an upgrade.

19 They tend to die early
Got my Nomad Muvoabout 5 months ago and now its dead and out of warranty. (3 months limited warranty)
The unit performed alright while it worked however.
Avoid if you want something that lasts.

20 Please read this review, it IS helpful
Well, first of all if I could rate this 4 1/2 stars I would, mainly cuz its not perfect. I ogt this for a Christmas present a few years ago and its worked great. For of all, I would curse all of you people who gave this less than 4 stars but I'm going tyo qoute what my mother once told me, "Saying negative things never helps, it just makes the envirment more negative, and hardly ever fixes anything." So, that being said I'm not going to be nasty because what some of you did I might have done as well if my brother hadn't told me what was wrong. My only real problem was I woke up one morning and it just, didn't work so I moped a while thinkling it was broken until I asked my brother if he knew how to fix it. Appernetly there is a System.dat file in the mp3 player that if you delete (or don't delete, I'm not sure which) it will cause your mp3 player not to turn on. So I went and did what mny brother told me (which was to delete the Sytem.dat file) and HALLELUJAH it worked again. So if it won't turn on and you think its broken, look at the maual, do a web search and if all of that doesn't help, try what I did, (especially if you think itrs broken and were going to return it anyway). SO for all of you out there who returned thers all you can do is think, " (...)WHY DIDN'T I TRY THAT?" So, here are the pros and cons:

Pros:
Lightwieght
Stores bout 36 songs( which is nice for such a small player)
Small
Cheap
Durable

Cons:
Bad earphones
Have to hold the on/off button for 3 sec. to turn on or off
And without my brother I would be Mp3 playerless and sad to know it wasn't really broken if I had returned it.

Overall:
My first Mp3 player and a nice one. Reliable and nice for going to the gym jogging, or mowing the lawn (which is when I use it the most). (...) 1/2 (THATS FOUR AND A HALF STARS) oNCE AGAIN FROM UPYOURARSE.

21 Mine broke after 6 months of use
After half a year, mine doesn't play music anymore, but the USB drive still works. And I've treated it well, it was never banged around. Appears to have a quality problem... avoid it...

22 Good value, but has some issues :
I have my 128mb Muvo for over a year. Here are some things to know about it:

1. Song playing order is set according to the order they were transferred to the muvo.
(And if a song is deleted, the next song copied to muvo will take it's place.) So the only way to set the song order to your liking is to copy the songs one at a time after formating.
2. The sound using the original headphones absolutely sucks! you must get headphones which emphasize bass. I recommend "Sennheiser MX400" which makes my muvo sound superb!
3. Muvo uses a hidden file called: SETTINGS.DAT
If it gets deleted (for instance by regular Windows formatting, instead of using the supplied formatting software) the device won't work! (I keep a copy of this file on my pc, and put a copy of it back on my muvo when ever I need too... but you can also restore the file using the supplied formatting software.)
So if all of the sudden your muvo buttons don't have any effect, now you know why....
4. File transfer is slow (USB1). It takes over 10 minutes to have your muvo filled up with 30 songs.

Still it's my favorite player do to it's size, versatility and great sound.
Bottom line -
Once you know what to expect, and you get to know your muvo - it's a very nice device!

23 A good MP3 player
I bougth my Muvo MP3 Player a few months after it came out and still own and use it. It's pretty durable, I've dropped it several times and it still works. I use it everday to listen to music as well as transfer files. It's also very easy to use. You just drag and drop the songs that you want, and it's played in order that you copied it, even though it list it alphabetically. My only complaint is that it doesn't have a lock function as well as having to start from the beginning when you stop playing it.

24 poor quality
I loved my 128 nomad muvo mp3 player with armband for running with some of my favorite songs without the hassle of radio station commercials. The problem is it broke after only 9 months of very light useage!Creative labs needs to improve the product quality. My muvo will not turn on,but the memory module is good!I would not recommend this unit.

25 Does its job, but sure is flimsy...
I bought this thing used. Thus far, it's working fine.

But, be warned that every thing about this Muvo is flimsy from the buttons, the casing, and even the battery cover. So if you're likely to drop things, DON'T GET IT. There is no 'lock button' and the pause button easily gets set off by slight pressure - even by the wrinkle of your jeans. I find this to be the most annoying thing.

Also annoying is the fact that once the player is shut off and then on again, the playlist resets to the first song.

I would not buy thing this at the retail cost. There aren't enough options and it can hardly be called a quality piece of equipment. Plus, there are far better options out there for less money.

If you happened to get it for cheap and are just looking for something to bring to the gym or listen to while jogging in the park, it'll do fine.

26 undependable
I was disapointed in the quality and controls. The USB connection worked great, It did not need any drivers or installation to work under XP, but the unit stopped working after a few months and had to be sent back to Creative for repairs. the repairs cost as much as a new player so why bother.

27 Great -- While it Works
This is a great product while it works. It is compact, reliable, and easy to use (just drag your music files to the player as if it were a removable disk drive).

But beware: it WILL fail. I had three and all failed completely within a year -- one within two months. Once your player fails you are pretty much out of luck. Creative support is almost non-existent; but if you can track it down you will have to pay $20 to have them "look at it" and ultimately nearly $80 to replace it. In this product's defense, it could be pointed out that many MP3 players have a limited lifetime (e.g. even the iPod's batteries run down within a couple years and are costly or impossible to replace) so it could be argued that product failure is not in itself a reason to avoid this product (that's why it doesn't get just one star). But the MuVo just doesn't last long enough to be worth the price: two months of 128 Mb of music for $90 (or 64 Mb for $80) just doesn't compare with a year or more of many gigabytes for a couple hundred (even the overpriced Porsche of players, the iPod mini can he had for $250).

28 Great -- While it Works
This is a great product while it works. It is compact, reliable, and easy to use (just drag your music files to the player as if it were a removable disk drive).

29 A little too expensive for the features
A friend gave me this as a gift, which I'm glad she did because I'm not sure if I'd want to pay for it

The good things about the player is that it's very simplistic. It only has two pieces to it, so you don't have to worry abot a bunch of cables or anything. You slide out the flash drive, plug it into your USB port, and start copying files to it directly from Windows Explorer, which recognizes it as an additional hard drive. The player will hold around 15-18 mp3 songs encoded at 128kbps. This is plenty for someone like me who only runs for 20-30 minutes. It's also nice to have a flash drive that I can easily transfer files with. I have not experienced any effect of the player cutting off the first second of each song like another reviewer said. Every song starts right up at the beginning.

The cons: AT first, I couldn't do anything with this device until I formatted it. Windows would recognize it, but not let me remove or copy any files to it. I tried it on several computers and could only listen to the songs already on it until I found the format software, but it works great now. The player doesn't have an LCD screen, so you can't see what song is playing, although this isn't really a problem with only 64mb of storage space. Another problem, is that it didn't come with the armband. You have to order it seperately from Creative. For a portable MP3 player designed to be used with exercise, this is ridiculous. For the price they should have thrown it in, or at least put a belt clip on it. I have to wear shorts with pockets in them to carry it with me when I run. I also have to hold the headphone cord to keep it from flapping around. The armband would have prevented all this. The player does come with some earphones that suck and a neck loop that is great if you run in the woods or at night where no one can see what an idiot you look like.

The player also features a "loop" button that allows you to start recording a point in one of your songs, press a button, and it will loop the section you recorded over and over. I have no idea what the point of this was, or why they wasted time with it. As far as I can tell, it is completely useless.

My biggest complaint is the battery life. It holds one AAA battery. This is nice for the compact size, but I would have rather it been slightly larger and held tow batteries. I like my music up pretty loud, and my battery is dead after 45-60 minutes. That is unacceptable. I've seen reviews that say the battery life lasts 12 hours at 60% volume. I have never seen that. I have to buy batteries in bulk just to be able to use it. What's more, the Muvo will actually drain amps from your battery when it's turned off. For the life of me I can't figure out why. It's a flash drive, so there should be zero reason it needs to keep power up. It is not very significant, but if you put a brand new battery in and don't turn it on at all, in about two months the battery will be dead from the drain. WMA files also consume more battery usage than mp3 files.

The player also has a skip button that lets you skip tracks and fast forward, but it can act flaky on WMA files, and instead of seeking through a song, just skip right to the beginning. There is also no repeat feature. After the last song, you have to hit play again to restart it. No random song feature either.

Although this player is pretty much outdated now, it would be a decent player. I like the basic design and the controls are easy to use. It's just not worth the current price, and it has too many flaws to use for serious athletes.

30 I posted in October about this one
well I did try a few things and the thing seems to be working again after I had given up on it. I downloaded the latest firmware from the website and also reformatted it. Now its working again so I'm crossing my fingers to see how long this one will last again.

31 Finally an MP3 player that is easy to use
I tried two other players before I purchased this one. The first one (Rio Sport 64MB) did not sound very good and the software it came with was bad. The second one I tried was the Philips/Nike. This one was way too complicated. You had to go to the Philips website and download software to load the correct drivers for it to work. After doing that it still didn't work. I finally bought The Nomad Muvo 128. It does not need software or a cable. All I did was use Windows Media Player to copy music from my CDs, create a playlist, plug in the Nomad to my usb port and transfer the playlist. It was so simple. I was able to get about 2 hours of music onto the player. I did not have to do any type of conversion to mp3 files. The sound is good too. I have only had it for a few days. So far so good.

32 Broken
Like many of the reviews, mine is broken too. I received the player as a gift from my fiance and loved to use it when I was running. Unfortunately for me, the device mysteriously stopped working after about a month. Since I received it for Christmas and don't run much in the winter months, the warranty expired by the time I realized it was faulty.

I wanted to see if there was anything I could do and decided to call the manufacturer. I could only find a long distance number for technical support, and when I called I was also told that it wasn't working properly because I did something wrong when installing the software - even though I had been using the device successfully for a month. Then, I was told I could send it back to them for repair for $50.00 - a brand new one doesn't cost much more than that.

I would suggest that if you are considering buying this product, reconsider.

33 1 Week and not running
I got this Nomad for free. After 1 week (3 uses), and the thing will not turn on (the play button). Now, what I have is a USB storage device (NO MP3 player). If you received 2 weeks use out of the player consider yourself lucky.

34 It's Ok
I got this MP3 Player as a birthday present. When I received it, I really knew almost nothing about MP3 players. I was delighted. Of course, I read the manual, (Which by the way, is not very clear at all) and I saw that it said that the light would blink red if the battery was low. Well, apparently, my version of the player was a little different. It would just shut off when it felt like it. Changing the battery would do the trick, but it would only work for a very very limited time, and then you would have to change the battery again. I got quite sick of this, so I spoke to my Dad about it. He sent it in to the company and they sent me a new one. This one does the same thing. I was confused, but apparently, I just didn't get a quality MP3 player. I would also prefer to have a little more space on the stick, because it doesn't fit many songs. About 20 if you search for smaller sized files. If you are looking for a reasonably OK MP3 player, but are on a tight budget, I would reccomend this one, but if you are ok to go a little higher on the price scale, you should definately try something different.

35 Ideal for the Gym -- and a great deal, given the price!
This inexpensive device is perfect in its simplicity. I have had mine for 2 years with no problems at all (and so has my dad!). It's perfect for the gym but I also use it for transporting work files e.g. MS Word, Powerpoint, etc (they just need to be stored in a subdirectory). For this low price I'd be surprised to find a better MP3 player/ USB storage device.

36 Great for running!
This player is great for size and ease of use! Its' design is simplistic and lightweight. No cables or mess when transferring music. I use it for running and it's even gotten wet! (Rains alot here in Hawaii) However, it does not playback all the songs I have uploaded to it. It randomly skips over the same certain songs every time I play it. And the play is not continuous. It will stop at the same points every time. I simply have to push "play" again for it to work but this gets annoying. So if you don't care about these things and you want a lightweight, durable and simple unit, then this one is for you. I don't mind its imperfections and so I'm pretty happy with it.

37 Creative Lab Products Not Worth Any Serious Money!
I am a tech person and have owned 4 MP3 players. I still have two of them including this door stop. As with everything Creative Labs has produced since the sound blaster sound cards, they can't get it right and eventually other companies enter the field and push them out. Now to the player. It worked for 4 months with a few formats and installations but it would constantly corrupt the music files. Eventually I had the same problem most users have with the player - the on button wouldn't work. I paid too much for this 128 mb player and will never buy another Creative Lab product if it costs over $20. I still need a smaller player so I am looking at CNET recommendations and will probably go with the RIO NITRUS. Don't waste your money on this player.

38 not worth the money
I've had this player for under four months, used it sparingly, and never abused it - but since the play button broke (a comment I've seen several times), it's just a storage device that won't play MP3's at all, and that's not why I bought it. And when you stop the player, it starts back up at the first track - the batteries never seemed to last nearly as long as advertized either. Just spend some more money and get something that won't break on you.

39 Great but One Thing
I love this little machine that fits perfectly into my hand. I would recoment it to anyone if you just want to pick up and listen to music. The sound quality is great and the earbud headphones that come with it are decent quality. My only complain is the lack of and LCD screen to see what song is playing. The installation is easy and I love how it slides out and plugs into the usb without carying another cord.
4 Stars becuase of Missing LCD Screen.

40 Very good player
It works very well, it is very user friendly and the size is very important on this one. The only con that I found is the space since 64MB is not that much but you can still record a whole cd there and listed to it while running (very helpful) or in the car. It also takes a lot of battery if you are listening to it with the volume very high. The sound quality is very good, of course depending of the MP3 that you have.

41 Do NOT Buy this!!!!!
I loved the portability of this player. I didn't need a lot of extras, just something to listen to while running. I have never dropped mine. I have used it for about a total of 10 to 15 hours. It has sooo many bugs. It is very "moody". Sometimes it works good, sometimes you have to reformat it to get it to work again. Not a very "plug and play" set up. Very high maintanence. I'm all about bargains, but this is a waste of money. I am very into tech stuff. I have some very high-tech toys and cameras, and stuff, so it's not tlike I don't know how to work these things. But now it's just passed it's 3 month Warantee and it's totally broke. I've been on the line with the Creative Technical support (nice peopple) multiple times now and they said it's broken. And since it's more than 3 months old (5 months), I have to pay them $20 (twenty) just for them to tell me what's broken. That doesn't include what I would have to pay to fix it. I only paid $65 (sixty-five) for it brand new. So its been a total waste of $$$. PLEASE! Do yourself a favor...Find another model for a little bit more and enjoy having a nice and easy-to-use, reliable player. This has a good concept but is very "buggy".

42 A gamble
I bought this product about a year ago and it has worked fantastically. I mostly use it for running, and often put it in my pocket. I have used and abused this gadget and it still keeps on going. I have washed it and dried it 3 times by accident, gotten sand in it once, sweated on it, I don't know how many times, and several times even dropped it on the asphalt and kicked it! In fact I had such good luck that I ordered another one just like it so i could alternate tunes.
BIG MISTAKE.
The second one i bought, I left in it's packaging for a while, finally took it out, and plugged it into my computer (WIN 98). It crashed my computer! 4 Times! So I took it to work (WIN2K) where i was able to put my mp3 files on it, no problem. According to the computer, the memory stick had no problems or malfunctions. When I plugged it into the battery case - it would not turn on. I tested the battery case with the old one -- worked fine. I have never gotten this second one to work. Perhaps it is the buttons. Talk about a waste of money. I am hoping I can get a replacement from the manufacturer...

43 Does the Job I Bought it For
I bought the Nomad Muvo MP3 Player because I wanted a small, inexpensive player that could store enough music to get me through a ride on the Metro, an afternoon running errands or walking to class. In addition, I liked that it required no extra cables or software. The player has worked brilliantly in the first 6 months of use. The sound quality is pretty nice and the player could not be easier to use.

I have not experienced any of the problems commonly described in the reviews, and I suspect that those users probably treated the player with less care than I do. It is a very lightweight piece of equipment, and is therefore very damageable. Keep it in your pocket and you'll be fine -- but don't expect it to be able to handle heavy damage or drops.

The only complaint is the battery life. It sucks down a single AAA battery relatively quickly. The solution to this is a pack of rechargeable AAA batteries.

44 maybe I'm just lucky (knock wood)
I've had my MuVo about 6 months, and so far so good. I think the design is very clever and efficient, but I agree with those who say the buttons feel flimsy and cheap. I mostly use it when running and on long-haul plane travel, and it has stood up well so far. It's pretty good on battery use, too. I haven't tried it with WMA files yet, only music MP3s and various files as a USB drive.

45 Stay away from Creative Labs!
This MP3 player broke after four months of light use; Creative Labs customer support consumed a great deal of time and energy and finally failed to stand behind their product. I will never again purchase anything made by Creative Labs.

46 Good little gadget
I've had this unit for over 6 months now and it works great. The only problem is having to copy songs 1 at a time to create the playlist order you want. But this is so simple, it isn't even worth bitching about. It works great with Windows98. No problems here.

Creative might want to come out with an armband instead of a neckstrap for us runners/walkers. I love it.

47 Play stop working
I guess I do not need to repeat the story, this product is a defect product and creative lab should recall it for sure. But again they are just bunch of crooks and I doubt they will dot hat

48 Peice of garbage!
I had this thing for a week. After about 5 uses, the red light indicating there were no files stored on the storage device would stay on even when I verified that I had music in the player. It's extremely easy to use but it feels almost flimsy like a cheaply made product, if you know what I mean. I wouldn't recommend this thing to my worst enemy. It's an absolute don't buy!!

49 Definitely Do not buy it!!!
It is so easy to break!!!

50 Stay Away From This One
I will reiterate what so many others have and I hope Creative Labs will read this: I purchased this unit 3 weeks ago at CompUSa. After one week the play button stopped working so I took it back to
CompUsa and they replaced it with another one. Guess What? It stopped working too after only a week of playing it. This thing is a piece of crap. I'm left with a glorified floppy unit and not an MP3 player

51 It was nice while it lasted...
I loved this for it's very small size, reasonably good sound, easy drag-n-drop interface, and ability to use it as a USB hard drive.

But, like so many other Muvos before it, this one went belly-up after about 4 months. It won't power on, my computer won't recognize it in order to format it, and even the magical hard-reset procedure which has resurrected it several times already during its short life couldn't bring it back to life.

So, it's into the trash with the dead Muvo, and on to search for a better MP3 player. I'd avoid this one if I were you!

52 Bad Quality Product
I will reiterate what so many others have and I hope Creative Labs will read this: I purchased this unit 3 weeks ago at CompUSa. After one week the play button stopped working so I took it back to
CompUsa and they replaced it with another one. Guess What? It stopped working too after only a week of playing it. This thing is a piece of crap. I'm left with a glorified floppy unit and not an MP3 player.

53 Excellent until it broke
I'd just like to mirror the comments of many other reviewers. I like my MuVo quite a lot, but after three months of use the Volume Down button has stuck semi-permanently making it very difficult to change tracks.

If it were a reliable product it would be excellent.

Dennis

54 Don't buy
It was great until it broke 3 months in.... doesn't play anymore... I am not impressed....

55 poor quality
My MuVo worked great until about four months in. After the 90-day warranty expired, the "play" button stopped working - and I'd only been using it once in awhile. The company wouldn't do anything about it, so now I'm stuck with what's become a $100 floppy disk. Save your money on this one.

56 a piece of junk and BAD customer service
I bought 3 of these gizmos and 2 broke, yes BROKE within the first 4 months. The company WILL NOT support the product at all after the 90 day warranty period. They refused to even look at the defective product that they created without charging you 20 bucks on the credit card. After that they said it was defective and I owed them another 55 bucks for a new one.
HELLO. You made this evil gadget. Replace it! Save your money.

Think IPOD

57 Good Idea; Poor Design
KISS Design, tiny form factor, and USB thumbdisk functionality - sounds great in theory. The MuVo, however, falls far short in its implementation and Creative has compounded its failure by failing to recall and replace this device and delivering abysmal customer support.

I, and apparently nearly half of the purchasers of this device, experienced frequent failure of the MuVo within a few play hours of use. There are reformatting and the more drastic Recovery utilities to fix the problem. Sometimes they work. Often they do not. After three replacements and near-zero assist from Creative, COMPUSA cut me off, leaving me with my fourth and final MuVo. Creative has offered to repair or replace for an additional $20. In common trade speak, this is called "chiseling."

There are other issues - clipping of the tracks on the front and back end, and the complete inability to sequence tracks, other than by copying them one.... at.... a... time. Quite tedious. All these could be overlooked, if the MuVo just worked.

Which it doesn't.

Run - don't walk - away from this product. Maybe even all Creative products, altogether. Despite its excellent track record with the impressive SoundBlaster line of products, the MuVo may herald a new era of shoddy worksmanship, evasive customer service, and chiseling tactices for Creative.

My idea of recreation does not include 90 minute hold times only to be told to cough up a couple more sawbucks just to get what I paid for in the first place.

58 Not Worth it.
I got this as my first mp3 player, and yes, I'll admit that it worked beautifuly for the first two weeks, however, with me changing my playlist daily - it didn't work beautifuly for long.

It was the second week that the volume buttons began sticking, so I couldn't move the volume up and down. I went to the store, thinking it was a default one, and exchanged it for a new one (thank god I didn't have to pay), and the pattern repeated.

I kept using it with stuck volume buttons, but another two weeks later the playback button started to stick and stopped playing at all, in other words, these things have a lifespan of about 2 weeks, it's cheaper in the end to get a more expensive one.

59 Piece of Unadulterated Crap
This thing is built like a piece of junk. When it works, it works. But mostly it just sits there next to my computer collecting dust and my frustration. The folks at Creative Labs don't give a damn about you - but they'll welcome your hard-earned cash. Here's a question for the intuitive among you: Why is the warranty a scan 90 days? Hmmm.... Suckers!

60 not good
I didn't like this MP3 player at all. It worked wll until 3 months later. I was shocked! Don't get this if u don't want to waste money.

61 warning: the amazon.com three-star rating is misleading!
Before you consider buying this product, click "all customer reviews" and then click "one star reviews only" and READ them. of the 126 reviews for this product, 53 are one-star reviews, most of which tell the same story: this product is fabulous for three months, three weeks, or (in many cases) three days, but then it stops working altogether -- and the offers of help from the folks at Creative Labs are mostly ineffectual or mere delusions. My experience: It stopped working after four days. You wouldn't know this from the three-star rating (obviously an average of the high marks that folks give the product when it doesn't break and the low marks given by the rest of us) -- or from the "spotlight reviews" that amazon.com posts...

62 A fantastic little gadget!...
I was out to purchase an MP3 player for my workouts and decided upon this tiny device. I have had mine for about two months now and I can honestly say I'm completely satisfied. I have read a few of the other reviews in which there were various complaints of "it stopped working". I put mine through a few hours of use everyday (which includes a daily routine of deleting the previous day's tunes and creating a fresh line up) and haven't had a single problem. It's also the easy thing in the world to operate and work with, many people who are familiar with USB ports won't need to read the instructions at all, with Windows XP you just treat it like a folder and simply 'drag n' drop'. I will say (as a nother reviewer did) if you're really picky about your music and really want some thumping then go with the Koss Plug ear buds. THe only reason I won't give this five stars is because I had to purchase the armband/clip separately. Overall a big thumbs up!

63 Heed the Warnings
This was the most disappointing purchase I have made in a long time...I should have paid attention to the reviews here and elsewhere.

This player started failing the first night I had it - would stop playing even though it appeared it was still going. I changed the batteries, reformatted and ensured it wasn't corrupted MP3's but no such luck. Half of the pages on Creative's support web site were non-existant and since there was virtually no documentation with the product I was stuck. And very unhappy.

When it was working the sound quality was pretty lousy, too, despite the programmable EQ. I was a bit surprised as I had once thought that Creative was the leader in portable digital audio.

I would highly recommend the iRiver 1FP-380T, which is what I replaced this piece with. For LESS money you get way better quality, durability, stability, upgradability and overall product satisfaction.

64 Early failure of function controls
Well. I have had mine no more than two weeks. The "Forward" skip and volume "Down" controls went out. Device sounds great but it looks like they did'nt have good quality control in assembly. I suspect it is based in the circuit board as two totally seperate functions went down. I cannot imagine two of those little bubble switches going down at the same time so that rules that out. It definitly appears like a bad common conductor on the circuit board that both switches are connected to. Find your goof up Creative.
HINT: If you remove the USB half from the battery pack it will reduce the volume level back to a resonable startup level.

65 Early failure of function controls
Well. I have had mine no more than two weeks. The "Forward" skip and volume "Down" controls went out. Device sounds great but it looks like they did'nt have good quality control in assembly. I suspect it is based in the circuit board as two totally seperate functions went down. I cannot imagine two of those little bubble switches going down at the same time so that rules that out. It definitly appears like a bad common conductor on the circuit board that both switches are connected to. Find your goof up Creative.
HINT: If you remove the USB half from the battery pack it will reduce the volume level back to a resonable startup level.

66 Early failure of function controls
Well. I have had mine no more than two weeks. The "Forward" skip and volume "Down" controls went out. Device sounds great but it looks like they did'nt have good quality control in assembly. I suspect it is based in the circuit board as two totally seperate functions went down. I cannot imagine two of those little bubble switches going down at the same time so that rules that out. It definitly appears like a bad common conductor on the circuit board that both switches are connected to. Find your goof up Creative.
HINT: If you remove the USB half from the battery pack it will reduce the volume level back to a resonable startup level.

67 Early failure of function controls
Well. I have had mine no more than two weeks. The "Forward" skip and volume "Down" controls went out. Device sounds great but it looks like they did'nt have good quality control in assembly. I suspect it is based in the circuit board as two totally seperate functions went down. I cannot imagine two of those little bubble switches going down at the same time so that rules that out. It definitly appears like a bad common conductor on the circuit board that both switches are connected to. Find your goof up Creative.
HINT: If you remove the USB half from the battery pack it will reduce the volume level back to a resonable startup level.

68 Broken within 3 months
if you go to cnet.com and search on MuVo there are many accounts of them breaking within the first 3 months. Mine was no exception.

it still will hold data, but won't play mp3's any longer. It's great when it works, but the quality of workmanship is extremely poor.

69 It's Going Back
I didn't buy this from Amazon. It was a delayed "impulse" purchase from a local store a few days ago. After getting it home, I became curious about product reviews and checked with Amazon...user experiences were a bit scary, to say the least. Creative's scant 90 day parts/labor warranty only added to the insecurity. However, the player worked, sound was beautiful, so I tried to convince myself that everything would be all right.

That was Monday evening. As of Friday morning, the player was totally dead. Pressing/holding the power button did nothing, even after inserting a new AAA battery...in fact, I tried TWO brand new batteries, with the same result each time.

The memory module still functions--I inserted it into my computer's USB port and all is well. I didn't buy it as flash memory for my computer, however. I bought it as a portable Mp3 unit--and that's totally dead.

My faith in Creative Labs is shaken--from other user's comments, from my own unhappy experience with this product, and from the pathetic excuse for a warranty--and Creative even wants you to pay to ship the product back to them during the warranty period. Forget it, this item is being returned to the place of purchase within 24 hours. There are better choices, from better companies, with better warranties.

Buyer beware!

70 skip this player
I had a nightmare experience with this player. When I turned the volume up it skipped like crazy. I visited the Creative website and could find no explanation of why it was doing this, so I loaded their updated software, which didn't fix it, so I downloaded their firmware, still no luck. Creative has no 800# so what do I do - support a company that doesn't have a real customer service department to solve a problem that they can't explain? And get this, Creative sent me a confused email guessing that my source was the problem without even explaining why that would cause the problem and not offering a possible fix or any king of solution. Well, no 800#, so I sent the player back, and I'm buying an MPIO player.

71 I Gave It Two Stars Because I Got It for Free
I received this MP3 player as a freebie throw-in with my Dell computer. If I had actually paid any money for it, let alone the actual sales price, I would have returned this zero-star performer in a flash.

The only upside to it is its design simplicity: part of the unit detaches, plugs into any USB port, and is then recognized as a portable drive. From there, you just move files into/out of the player just like any other drive. No additional software installs, setup, etc. - true plug and play.

Unfortunately, the cons are much more numerous. The most disappointing aspect is the sound, from the ill-fitting earbuds that deliver the thinnest of tones to the playback unit that chops off the first millisecond of every track. That latter fact really makes this unit completely unacceptable. Also, the lack of any LCD display coupled with buttons that are small and difficult to use make control a constant problem as well. Capacity is so-so - I've had to lop tracks off of many albums that I've attempted to load. Lastly, the packaged unit doesn't come with any armband - it's available as a separate accessory, which seems excessive for the price.

This player is fine only if you can find one for dirt cheap and are looking for an option to use when you're mowing the lawn or any other dirty activity where you'd be reluctant to bring your "real" MP3.

72 Great mp3 player
I received this product 7 months ago and it still hasn't failed on me. It got messed up once when I tried to format the drive manually. You have to use the formatter that came with the CD (which you can also download from the Creative website).

I wouldn't recommend using this product with an Apple computer, unless you have a backup PC. Mac OS puts hidden files on the drive that caused it to play only the first song. You can remove those hidden files with a PC. Also, make sure you eject the drive before removing it from the USB port, that's why I had to reformat the drive. You could probably use the mp3 player with Linux. But if you have to format the drive in Linux, you're out of luck.

I can usually store about 2.5 to 3 albums on the mp3 player. The sound quality is great, even with cheap headphones. I can usually get it to play for 8 to 12 hours. Plus, it's so tiny!

73 Good sound, short battery life
This device has great sound, especially with decent headphones, but is a case study in falsity in advertising, since the only other way to explain the company's claim that the battery lasts up to 12 hours is to assume that they rounded up to the nearest multiple of 12. Also note that there's no window, and songs added without reformatting will, as an inviolable rule, never end up where you want them. But it is really small... just make sure you pack a few extra batteries.

74 Neat little package overall
A good idea! 128MB lets you play about 25 - 30 songs with standard mp3 encoding. Transferring songs is so simple thanks to the built-in USB! The data storage it provides is a great feature too. Decent sound though the earphones could do with a little more bass. It is understandable that there is no battery-hogging display but some additional features like bass, treble and random play controls are missed. Battery life (1 AAA) is good though it would have been awesome if it had been rechargeable. Quirky performer - sometimes it stops functioning and you have to run the format utility from your PC. Otherwise I have been very happy with it.

Pros:
Ease of use, Compact size and weight, sound clarity, Can be used as a data storage device too

Cons:
Lack of features like random play, bass/treble controls. Quirky!

75 5 Big Stars!!!
I brought the Zen Juke Box 20 GB and loved it. I wanted something to excerise with without worrying about dropping it. I brought the 128 MB Movo. It was the perfect size. The strap around the neck is helpful but I ordered the arm band for more fexabilty. I had a little trouble with the software, but with the help of Creative Labs support it was a brezze. I can delete and copy about 35 songs. The sound is outstanding, the size is perfect. I never have to burn CDs again! Perfect for travel or excerise. Buy it, you won't be sorry.

76 Great Idea. . .
too bad it doesn't work. I love the look & size of this MP3 player -- no more Fischer Price look of my Intel (which ALWAYS worked -- for like 2 years). Unfortunately, I was never able to get the necessary software to install properly, the help I received from Creative was so long & complicated ("uninstall all firewall & anti-virus software" -- yeah, right -- "do 100 hundred things & then remember to reinstall everything we had you uninstall"). I just gave up.

I don't care how much they drop the price -- don't buy it. Hopefully, they'll keep working on it & create a tiny player that works.

One more con: even if you can get it to work -- it has no ability to remember where it was shut off. So, your book, you playlist, etc. restarts everytime you turn it on.

77 the mp3 does not work after two months
I bought this for friend. Only after 2 months, the MP3 player does not work. Now it can only be used as flash memory.

78 Weak useless player
This was so~o not worth the money. Before I puchased my player, I read every single review that was written. Majority of them said that dropping it will cause damages so I was EXTREMLY careful about not dropping and I never did. But right after the damn warrenty runs out, it stopped working all together and I tried reformatting 100x. Not to mention within the time that I did use it, it would turn on at the slightest touch and at other times, i would have to crunch the buttons to play. The bottom line. DONT BUY THIS. ITS TOO WEAK ESP. IF YOU PLAN TO ADD/REMOVE MUSIC EVERYDAY. IT CANT HANDLE IT.

Now, I simply use it to transport music files from my pc to mac. I just wished I didnt pay $... (i bought the 128mb) for a disk I could have bought for much cheaper. Also, its just too plain and has no options.

Plus: small size
Negs: battery life, no belt clip, not many options, WAY TOO SENSITIVE

79 It quits working really soon for no reason!
I read a few reviews like this before, but then also read some positive ones, so though I'd go ahead and buy it. I got in February and it stopped working in May for no reason - never dropped it or anything. Wrote to Creative Labs, but got no reply from them at all whatsoever. You'd think if the product is so simple, it'd be hard to break, yet it only worked for three months! Do not get this - you could waste your money like me!

80 MUVo MP3 noplayer
This has been a big disappointment after all the good reviews I read before buying last year. It skips, blips off if touched while walking or jogging. I had the replacement cotract so took it back and got another one and does the same thing. I may have had only 2 workouts over the last year that it made it through without one of the above problems. If there was a 0 star, that's what I would give it. I would not recommend it to anyone.

81 Simple to use, but limited functionality and too expensive.
It is really a cosumer product, but too expensive for only 128 MB.

82 Okay
This, is an okay, basic MP3 Player. I found that this product has amazing sound quality, and easy accesibility. On the other hand, this unit can only store about 15-20 songs. I think that this is an okay buy, but if you have the money, go for something bigger. I had to pick and choose which songs I want on it. It has a fast transfer rate, but if you have a big audio collection, this is not the Mp3 Player for you.

83 don't buy this MP3 player unless your stupid
I bought this MP3 player thinking that it would be convenient and also double as a hard disk to move files from home to work and vise versa. Since I have had the machine I have had to completely reformat it over a half dozen times (within 2 months). Currently it is not working at all. This machine has been extremely unreliable. Often I would go on a trip and it would simple not work- one then needs the CD and a computer to reformat the device before it can work again. and , after you reformat it, you have to re-install all the songs you had on there before. When it does work every time you shut it off and restart it you have to go from the beginning to get back to where you were. I thought small size and lack of features would mean hassle free use. Nothing is further from the truth. I am only upset now because I cannot find the receipt to return this junk. Please, do yourself a favor and get something else.

84 get the firmware!
I've had my muvo for 3 months and 21 days. I've not used it too much but I think the battery life is pants, I've listened for a max 4 hours and I'm on to my 3rd longlife battery :(

I've had the same experiences of those who had it lock up / not work. I thought it was a bit dodgey to use the play button to turn it off as well as on...

I've just been to the nomad website - not the creative one, as this has the firmware update and the new format program. read the instructions, it the most barking setup for upgrading the firmware I've ever seen. anyhow, it's working now and I'll only know if it works after a few days use :)

fingers crossed. anyone want to bet on it ?

I'm not buying creative EVER again. put off for life

written by a thirty something IT network manager with disposable cash that's not going their way

85 MuVo Improves My Day Considerably
The Creative MuVo is an ultra-compact digital music player that will allow music enthusiasts to easily transfer MP3s, WMA files, or regular data files from place to place with a USB connector, and can hold up to two hours of music.

This device, designed with ease of use in mind, weighs less than an ounce, and is only slightly larger than your average butane lighter. Thankfully, the MuVo will play for up to 12 hours on a single AAA battery. No special drivers or cords are needed to operate it.

The MuVo comes with a set of bud headphones, and a lanyard if you want to carry it around your neck, or under your shirt, but I would recommend to Creative that they also package it with an adjustable velcro strap or clip-on case -- since almost everyone I sell a MuVo to intends to use it while jogging or running.

Since I also see people buying these two at a time (his and hers, sister/sister, roommates, etc.) I'd suggest to Creative that they might want to include some color stickers in the package to keep arguments down and help people more readily distinguish between the two.

The MuVo has a unique two piece design made of molded plastic. The light gray piece featured in the graphic above is essentially the memory stick (where files are stored), with a headphone jack on its right side, and a USB connector on its left (concealed by dark blue plastic on bottom left of graphic). The silver track and power controls are on the front of this gray piece, and the silver volume and loop buttons are on the bottom of this gray piece. The power button has a bright phosphorus green LED that can even be seen through a white tee shirt, if you were to wear the MuVo under your shirt as I sometimes do.

The larger blue piece, of the two-piece MuVo, is simply a receptacle for the gray piece -- and also holds the battery compartment. You can snap the two pieces together by pushing the gray memory stick into the socket of the blue grooved handpiece along a sliding track.

MuVo has a silver eyelet mount on its upper right corner -- ostensibly for people that may want to carry it on a keychain or hang it from a lanyard. After some short length of time I found it too easy to scratch, so I no longer carry it on my keychain as I did for awhile.

Be careful when removing the memory stick from its plugged-in state, especially when you are still attached to a computer. Make sure you have properly exited any open programs, as if you were to remove the stick memory abruptly it is possible to damage the flash memory.

Since I have both a PC and a Mac, I am happy to report that the MuVo can be operated off of either platform. On my PC I use my RealOne subscription to rip and convert files from CD to MP3 for use on the MuVo; and on the Mac I use iTunes to rip and convert files from CD to MP3 for use on the MuVo.

On either platform, after ripping and conversion, all you have to do is drag and drop the songfiles onto the device. A music file is a music file is a music file. Songs will usually play anywhere, no matter what your equipment.

Not only is the MuVo good for music, but it's great for carrying photos to another persons printer or computer, carrying a spreadsheet from work to home or vice versa, or toting a print job to a graphics company for output on their large-scale image setter.

Working off of my 9500X PC laptop, I can usually store two CDs of MP3 music on the MuVo. For some unknown reason, when working off my Mac with iTunes, I can only store one CD of MP3 music on it. I think maybe I'll need to read up on file-compression schemes unless somebody else out there has any ideas. I generally don't like the WMA format, but the file sizes are supposed to be more economical for storage and theoretically I should be able to fit more music on the MuVo when I'm using it in conjunction with the other computer in my home, so I think I will have to experiment with it a little more and get back with you later on this specific facet.

You may enjoy the MuVo much more if you have a cable broadband internet connection such as Comcast, a RealOne subscription, or access to either EZ CD Creator (PC), MusicMatch (PC), iTunes (MAC) software, or Limewire Pro (MAC).

I've been able to load pretty much anything I've tried to onto the MuVo, with the exception of a few tracks off of the George Harrison album Brainwashed, that, for whatever reason, just would not copy over correctly. I bought this MuVo a few months back, and although I now consider this MP3 player to be high priced for what it does, I am still basically happy with my purchase.

WHAT'S ON MY MUVO RIGHT NOW?

HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH
New Self-Titled Album, Their Fifth Studio Release

Track 1
Deeper Side
I found a reason to dig deep down
There's a part of you that, that I ain't found
It's in your deeper side
Instead of wondering what I should do
I tried to learn a couple of things about you
From your deeper side...

SOUNDS GREAT! (130/1,228)

Pros: Automatic Shutoff, Ease of Use, Small and Simple

Cons: No Way to Program Tracks, Only Plays in Order Songs Were Loaded

86 Broke after 4 months
The player was great for the first 4 months, then it just stopped working. It wouldn't play and my computer would no longer recognize it when connected by USB. I used it running with general workout wear and tear. The warranty is only 3 Months. I would not recommend it until the product becomes more reliable.

87 Small but very unreliable
Just like what the other people have posted. This product is very unrealiable. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Then it got to the point where you're unable to turn in off(I have to remove the batteries to power it off). And then one day it just stop playing. And the warranty just expired last month.

There are other products out there; don't waste your money on this. I'm currently back to my old Compaq Ipaq; Still deciding whether I should get iRiver or Digitalway.

88 Awesome, but I always wear out my batteries!
This is THE answer for anyone tired of bigger CD players, or MP3 players. It comes w/ a necklace but I found that annoying. You can buy the armband as a better feature, but I find
it fits nicely in my back pocket, or in my waitband while running, riding my bike, or going to the gym.

In fact I use it so much, I always have to carry extra batteries, 'cause I run it too long!

I wish they'd make a 256mb so I can pack in more songs!

89 Awesome, but I always wear out my batteries!
This is THE answer for anyone tired of bigger CD players, or MP3 players. It comes w/ a necklace but I found that annoying. You can buy the armband as a better feature, but I find
it fits nicely in my back pocket, or in my waitband while running, riding my bike, or going to the gym.

In fact I use it so much, I always have to carry extra batteries, 'cause I run it too long!

I wish they'd make a 256mb so I can pack in more songs!

90 This unit is built to last
Like many reviewers at this site, my unit locked up after a few months of use. It basically stopped playing music in the middle of a song. The red light stayed on and all the buttons failed to function. The standard repairs (new battery, reformat)didn't work. As a final effort prior to trashing the unit, I sent an email to Creative Labs. I emailed them at about 8 AM on a SUNDAY morning and I received a response in about four hours. They told me to download the newest utilities and reformat the unit twice. I did so and the unit started working again. It's been fine ever since.

I've also found that premiun brand alkaline batteries give twice the play hours of the cheaper store brands.

For sound quality try converting your music CDs to WMA files created with Microsoft Media Player 9. They sound much better then MP3s. Not all MP3 players are able to play WMA files, but the MuVo can. I would also recommend upgrading to better head phones.

This unit doesn't have all the feature the other units have, but it has all the features you need to hear quality music from a ultra tiny player.

91 Works for only a few months!!
It seems that most of the glowing reviews for this product are from people who have only had their Muvo's for a couple of weeks. I loved ours too - while it worked - but we also experienced the same thing I've recently read in these reviews.
About 3 days after the 3 month warranty expired the thing just died. I emailed technical assistance and they guided me through the recovery process. It worked for another 3 months, and then - after pushing the pause button - wouldn't play again. We tried the same recovery exercise, emailed tech help again, and their final suggestion was that it must be defective & to send it back with $$$ to put towards 'repair or replacement'. I don't know about you, but when I've already spent $$$ only 6 months before, I'd rather not sink more money into a defective product, or a company that won't do the right thing. Bottom line - it's great at first, but spend your money for something that's great and lasts for a while!

92 So easy to use and tiny to boot!
After seeing this reviewed several times on TechTV, I purchased this mp3 player as my first one ever. It's extremely easy to use and figure out, even for beginners. The music transfers over quickly and you can use both MP3 & WMA formats. I love it's ability to hold files, photos and more as well. It never skips or freezes and it's small enough to fit in your palm. It uses a AAA battery so it doesn't weigh much at all. The only down side that I can see are the size of the ear buds (they are too big for my ears and fall out often) but those are easily replaced. You do have to hold down the play button for a few seconds to power it on and off, but I am pretty sure that feature was added so that it doesn't get turned on by accident (say, in your purse or pocket) and run down the batteries. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it and have had no problems.

93 Not bad
My first experience with MP3, and I can't say it's been the best. Download is a bit cumbersome, and the control keys are hard to get used to. Also, don't seem to get more than a couple of hours from the battery. I'm going to try another manufacturer.

94 Do NOT buy this! For many, it fails out of the box...
I received the MuVo 128 for Christmas. It worked great until just after the 90-day warranty expired. The power/play button locked up and would not power off. After pressing each of the buttons to try to unfreeze it, I finally had to resort to pulling the memory stick/player out of its battery case. After numerous emails to Creative's tech support and following their instructions, it still does not work. When I asked to escalate the trouble ticket, they chose to ignore me and closed the ticket. I replied to let them know how dissatisfied I was and that if someone didn't contact me by June 1, 2003 that I would begin contacting consumer watchdog reporters. No response. Currently, I preparing documentation and compiling negative customer reviews...to submit to a reporter who has contacted me. PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME ON THIS PRODUCT! ...

95 Survived the laudry!!!
I have a love-hate relationship with this product. It has failed for me maybe twice but always worked again after reformatting the drive. Once it quit after I put some files into a folder instead of just putting it on the drive (I don't recommend doing that) and the other time it failed I dropped it from about 1.5 ft. Today I left it in my pants that I washed and I thought for sure it was ruined. AMAZINGLY it still works great.
Great sound. Small enough to fit in the back of my mountain bike jersey when biking. Great design and ease of use. A little unreliable. Very pleased but not quite 5 stars.

96 Don't bother to read specifications..it's not correct
Woow, so out of specification. Nothing is right
about this product. Yes, the sound quality is good
but ony when the battery is full, otherwise you usually
get static noise nothing else. THe only advantage
of it is being small and ability to be used as a usb
drive. I'd only recomend you to think twice, nope ten
times buying before this product, it smells trouble
it is trouble. A good example of a bad product causing
a company it's brand name..no more creative for me.

97 Not bad not good..but I wouldn't buy it if i had known
Sound Quality: Really awesome until it stops working for no apparent reason. Also if the batteries are not new, sometimes it just produces gibberish sounds whenever it wants.
Design : Not bad, but no lcd, no id3 tags, nothing visual
Reliability: not reliable at all..i was very impressed with it but after 3 weeks it just started to produce some scratchy sounds during wma playback. MP3 playback is better.
Cost: A little expensive compared to rivals.
Overall: There are better alternatives....just stay away for safety. But if you are going to take a risk, it really has an awesome sound quality.

98 Piece of Junk
This player stopped working right after the 3 months warrenty expires. I have not used it more than 10 times since I bought it. I used to believe Creative Labs was a reputable company. I cannot believe they sales this kind of junk.

99 Piece of Junk
I bought this MP3 player as a graduation gift for my sister. We opened it and plugged it into the USB port and the computer deteched it fine. We then copied the MP3s to the memory and that's when the problems came up. Some kind of memory corruption occurred and the Muvo was in Recovery Mode. No problem I thought, I'm a Computer Engineer and I can figure it out. I went onto Creative Labs website, downloaded the latest drivers, performmed all the formatting instructions and the problem was still not fixed. The LED was not even lighting up meaning that there was a major hardware/communication problem going on. After fiddling all night on different operating systems I finally gave up. Creative Labs Tech support was pretty useful, they told me to return the item. I guess I should have known on an item with a warranty of 3 months- what a joke, a device that costs over [$$$] with a 3 month warranty. My particular Muvo could have been a dud, but after reading all the other reviews I doubt it is more than coincidence. Stay away from this thing, it still has tons of issues.

100 Built For Those Who Want It
Don't discredit this incredible MP3 player!

When I got mine for my birthday in April, of course it broke on the fourth time turning it on...just expect to wait two weeks instead of one for this player, (one week for the original, one for the replacement) and make sure to test it like crazy. leave it on through the nights, continually transfer music files (and any other files) on and off of it, and make sure that it breaks within your warranty, because it will break.

You may not understand why I'm supporting a flaky product, but let me tell you that it's a REALLY GOOD flaky product. On the second or third try you will get a PERFECT Muvo, you just have to be patient, and believe me, it's worth it. Besides, the customer service is excellent anyway, so don't worry about slow email responses or mailing fees. just accept it as part of the process for this little treasure.

This thing has INCREDIBLE sound (especially if its hooked up with Koss "The Plug" earphones, then it REALLY rocks), a simple user interface (the less buttons, the less things to break), and a really cool way to transfer files. Throw away the CD that comes with this...any modern PC recognizes it as a removable device in which you can simply drag and drop files window to window. And by the way, there are no cords--that little white piece slides out and plugs right in to the back of your computer...incredibly simple.

Overall, this light-weight, high-quality, totally cool MP3 player goes only to those who deserve such a product, after all good things come to those who wait. Think of the extra weeks as a test, and only those who pass it get the benefits, just don't forget those Koss plugs!

P.S. This MP3 player is really, really, cool...trust me.