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Overview
The Muzio JM-200 has an interesting and unique shape with the big volume control wheel. The aluminum die casting body gives it a high quality feel. Shiny metal finishing optimizes the look. The 2 color OLED display (blue and yellow) is very clear and bright. The two colors are actually fixed to certain areas on the screen. One text line on top is yellow the rest is blue, also when displaying graphics. The player that I received from Jungsoft is pearl white and features 256MB. I was interested in the SRS and TrueBass Sound effects to see if this small player makes a difference in listening to music. I am actually most impressed by the TrueBass feature, techno and trance sounds amazing with this setting. I have the feeling that my headphones vibrate from the deep bass the Muzio produces. SRS is also nice and gives volume to the sound. TrueBass and SRS are selected like Equalizer settings. I cannot select a equalizer setting and SRS or Truebass at the same time. Not sure if that would make sense anyway. The JM-200 comes with necklace, headset, belt bag, audio cable, USB cable and Software CD.
I usually do not care about the software that comes with music players. In this case I played with it because it lets me customize the animations and personalize the screen-saver. Similar to the EraTech EMP-Z2 where I could upload color images to personalize the player. This is also a great feature for companies to brand those music players. Below more details and a video showing the customized animations on the Muzio JM-200.

Usage
The Muzio JM-200 features a very common joystick and action button interface. The only unique thing is the volume control via the big wheel. Some actions are hidden behind 2 seconds button hold, which are not my favorite. I had to consult the quick guide booklet to find out about them. Like changing the equalizer setting is behind holding the record button for 2 seconds, then I can switch between the different modes. After I short while I got the hang of it and using the Muzio JM-200 was no problem. To access the main menu I have to push and hold the joystick for 2 seconds. The menu features nice and clean graphic icons. With the joystick I can choose between them and pushing it down selects a item. The font is very clear and text is easy to read on the OLED display. I already mentioned above the SRS and TrueBass features and what great sound this small player can produce. It is supporting WMA, MP3 and OGG as music file formats.
To get the OGG support I had to upgrade to the latest firmware (103K) that the Jungsoft firmware server shows in the list. There is still an issue though, with that firmware i could play OGG but WMA stopped to work. MP3 files where still play able. I converted back to the 103E, where I could play WMAs again. The FM tuner works great too. The auto-scan quickly sets up the available channels receptions is very clear. The last feature I would like to highlight is the ability to plug in two headsets in the Muzio JM-200. This is great for couples to listen together with one player. The second headset plugs in the Line-In plug. Very nice and thought-through feature. I did not play around with the USB host feature where I could connect another USB device without having to have a PC in between. The battery is supposed to hold for 15hours.

 

3 action buttons: record, mode and play/pause/power. More Muzio-200 photos.

Main Menu with icons. More Muzio-200 photos. Play menu with title display and more. A battery indicator is also shown. More Muzio-200 photos.

Customizing Screen Saver and other Animations Besides the Player the Software shows also very good quality. I saw several music players in the past where the software was average to be nice. Usually its also not necessary to use it. The Muzio Manager has as mentioned above an editor to customize the animations and screensaver that the Muzio JM-200 supports. There are six animations that can be customized. Two intros, two power-offs and two screen savers. On the left you see the source images with the size of 128x65pixels I used to create a demo of a customized intro animation. The editor automatically loads all images (gifs, jpgs and bmps) it finds in the folder I select and creates a movie. It also converts them to 2 color graphics automatically if the images are in color. The editor allows me to choose up to 500ms delay between each frame. A movie can have a maximum of 60 frames. Watch the video to see the animation on the player.   Video of the Animation playing on the Muzio JM-200 (mpeg files) small (250kb)       large (1,6MB)

The Muzio Manager Software provides features to manage music files, create and change animations and update the firmware. More Muzio-200 photos. Animation source images

Conclusion
If you are looking for a small flash based Music player that has a powerful feature set then the Muzio JM-200 is a great option. The unique big volume wheel makes it a unique looking Gadget. The ability to customize the animations has a nice touch. The OLED display is extremely crisp and clear. The two headset support is pretty unique too. I did not see another music player support this. The Muzio JM-200 is another great music player from Korea. I hope somebody brings it to the market soon.

How to Buy
Jungsoft is looking for distributors and OEMs for this player, especially in the USA. For Europe the JM-200 have been shipped to distributors like Mediamarkt and Promarkt in Germany. They should show up by the end of the month in those stores. Both stores carry the previous Muzio MP3 Player. The Muzio is on sale in Korea on MPNavi. The 256MB version sells there for 214,200won (~$185).
 As soon as the Muzio JM-200 is on the US market, I will update the review. If you are faster and see the Muzio JM-200 on sale somewhere please email us. In the meantime check out the iPod sale on Amazon.com.

Bundled VGN-U50/U70 Accessories

• headset
• neck strap
• usb plug for direct connect (USB host function)
• usb cable
• audio cable
• belt bag
• CD
   

Specifications