Muvo2: The Quickening

As has been noted on Gizmodo and elsewhere, a bizarre little economy has sprung up around the 4GB Muvo2 mp3 player, which can be bought brand-new for about $200. It contains a 4GB Hitachi Compact Flash MicroDrive, which retails for $400 and up. (The same drive is used in the $250 iPod Mini.) As a result, many people are buying the 4GB Muvo2's in order to remove the Compact Flash drives for use in their digital cameras and such.

This leaves a lot of empty Muvo2 mp3 player shells floating around. If you put a new Compact Flash card in them, they're rather nice high-end mp3 players. They're small, they can play WMA (Windows Media) files (the iPod can't), the battery is easily replaceable (another iPod sore point), and they can even be used as USB 2.0 flash drives. And as Compact Flash cards continue to become cheaper, you can upgrade the player to greater storage.

The shells sell for $30 to $50 on eBay, plus another $10-$15 for shipping. You can spend anywhere from $20 to $70 on 128MB and 256MB Compact Flash cards, depending on how hard you look. (EBay and eCost are good places to find these cheap.) Of course, you could go all the way up to 1GB and 2GB cards if you want. Not all Compact Flash cards will work with the Muvo2; here's a compatibility list. Mine worked fine with a 128 MB SanDisk card.

I found the installation procedure easy and straightforward, but I'm used to upgrading my own RAM and tinkering around inside computers. If you're not the kind of person who already owns a tiny screwdriver, you may want to think twice. Eyeglass screwdrivers do not count.

It's also worth mentioning that if you shop around, you can buy a 128 MB flash mp3 player for under $100, or a 256 MB player for around $140, and you'd have a warranty, which has already been voided all to hell by the time you get your Muvo shell. I spent about $75 total for the shell and Compact Flash card; of that, about $21 was shipping fees. This is a much better deal if you already have spare CF cards lying around. On the other hand, it's an excuse to dissect and reassemble consumer electronics, and who doesn't love that?

If you decide to do this, here are a few tips:

• Don't bid on a Muvo2 shell that doesn't come with the battery. Some eBay sellers remove both the battery and the 4GB card, in which case you'd have to spend another $40 for a battery.


• Watch out for high shipping charges on eBay -- some sellers charge up to $35 just for shipping and handling. $10-$15 is the usual cost.


• When you're disassembling the player, don't put the tiny screws within reach of the cat.

Here are directions with excellent photographs for removing the original 4GB microdrive. To install a new Compact Flash card, follow the directions for taking the player apart, and then just insert the new card onto the pin structure from which the microdrive is shown being removed. Reassemble the player (hope you kept those screws away from the cat).

Before the drive will work with the new Compact Flash card, you'll need to upgrade the firmware and format the card. If you don't have a Windows PC, you won't be able to upgrade the firmware yourself. Some players are sold on eBay with the firmware already upgraded, however, in which case you can just skip down to the formatting step.

Here's what you do (adapted from the instructions I was given):

• Turn the player on. It will report that there is a media error and go into recovery mode.


• Download the most recent firmware


• Select Reload firmware from the recovery menu on the muvo. It will take a few seconds, reload the firmware, and then report a media error.


• Select Connect to PC. Now, connect the USB connector to your PC.


• Run the Firmware upgrade again, and allow it to upgrade the firmware.


• Power it down, then back up.


• When it turns on, it may report a scansearch error, or a media error, and then throw you into
  recovery mode. Select Format from the menu. It should take a few seconds to format.


• Power it off, power it back on, and you should have a working Muvo2.

And you get to be smug about it, too!