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Zephyron

Telcast T29 Brief Review

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Introduction

 

First and foremost, apologies to Sabian for putting this review up late. I just came back from Malaysia after quite a long break from Cameron Highlands to Kuala Lumpur (paiseh n.n;) and hence this review has been sitting in my drive for ages XP

 

Hmm, back on track, I managed to get a 4GB Black Telcast T29 unit off Sabian's hands, firmware v1.05 installed, since he wanted me to do a review for this very well placed flash memory/price ratio player.

 

This would be my first review of a DAP of any kind though, so pardon me if its lacking in any aspect. There'll be quite a number of things I'll be leaving out as well since the only thing I had when doing the review was the player unit itself, and its protective pouch n.n;

 

Also, apologies for the lack of pictures. I make a sorry excuse for a photographer, and won't wanna shame myself in front of the other guys who are good in photography here XP

 

Also, I need to remind everyone that I can be quite a b*stard when I'm doing stress test procedures, be it audio or video playback...

 

But all in all, hope you'll enjoy reading this review :)

 

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Specifications

 

General characteristics

* Capacity: 1GB , 2GB & 4GB flash memory

*v1.05 firmware installed

 

Audio-related specs

* Claimed supports for MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, Flac.

* Playlisting supported.

* Multi-language Supported. ID3 tags, Filename Supported

* SN Ratio: >90dB

 

Video-related specs

* Movie playback, supports AVI format (XviD) @ 16fps.

 

Data Transfer/Management

 

Data transfer done on the Telcast T29 is done via the standard UMS transfer methods.

 

In layman terms, plug it in the USB port using the connecting mini-USB cable, and transfer away.

 

File transfer speeds to the Telcast T29 s pretty respectable as well.

Batch transferring around 2.2GB worth of music files took about almost 7 minutes total. According to my calculations, this means that the T29 averages out on approximately, a 5.15MB per second file upload transfer speed.

 

Downloading is a whole lot faster though, with 5 minutes spent in transferring Sabian's original 3.2GB worth of music files in about ~ 7 mins 40 sec if I timed it right (around 6.95MB download rate).

 

These rates are somehow much better than the claimed rates that Telcast specified at 4MB upload and 4MB download rates over at their official website apparently. Of course, this can only be a good thing IMO :)

 

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Navigation

 

I have heard complaints about the Telcast T29's navi system with regard to its older firmware, but I'm unable to say anything about that since the players I had with me was a unit that was pre-installed with the v1.05 firmware.

 

Navigation's as basic as most UMS based players go. The music folders in the T29 are arranged in the classic file/folder navigation format.

 

One enters the file tree navi structure by holding down the 'Record' button (strange, only 2 buttons that is Record and Play, I'd prefer that they added a 3rd 'Menu' button ala. iAudio style), and navigation’s a breeze from there. Pressing left and right (or down) on the thumb-stick leaves or enters a folder respectively, and pressing up or down selects the preferred folder or music files for user selection.

 

By pressing down the thumb-stick during the audio playback screen, the user would call up a slew of sound enhancement options, right down from customizable EQ to other custom sound enhancements, all of which are not my cup of tea, but I guess the average Joe would be happy with them.

 

Oh, one thing I must mention is that the Navi Interface BG is very cool! It pulsates and glows/fade red in the black BG as time lapses as you navigate the player on when music plays!

 

One thing I have a problem with about the navigation is is to access other options (e.g. Movies, pictures) or just simply exiting the music player application itself. Apparently, I don't think there's any way to do this unless the music has looped once around the entire folder, or when you navigate to the first song on the list again (be it be rewinding or fast forwarding).

 

Screen

 

The screen for the T29 is 220x176 in resolution spreading 2 inches across diagonally, and is capable of displaying 18-bit colour RGB.

 

The screen for the player is pretty decent in size, but the screen resolution leaves something to be desired when playing back movies or viewing pictures IMO (Its just me I think, I'm an illustrator and 2D CG artist after all... XP).

 

Its mostly fine for navigating menu's and such though.

 

If I were to nitpick something else about the screen though, is the way its lit.

 

IIRC, when viewed at a 4:3 horizontal perpendicular viewing angle, the screen colours have a white coloured tinge to them and dark spots seems slightly off pitch. I'm guessing that this has something to do with the way the screen is lit, since several handphones suffer from this problem as well.

 

However, when viewed at a 3:4 vertical perpendicular viewing angle, it has no such problem.

 

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Audio Quality

 

For a very well priced player, the T29 also performs rather well here.

This is a link to summarize the technical playback capabilities of the player: http://www.geocities.com/zephyron_mkii/Tel...-T29-Result.htm

Player 16 Ohm playback statistics: http://www.geocities.com/zephyron_mkii/Tel...16-Ohm-Load.htm

Player 60 Ohm playback statistics: http://www.geocities.com/zephyron_mkii/Tel...60-Ohm-Load.htm

Player high impedance playback statistics: http://www.geocities.com/zephyron_mkii/Tel...20-Ohm-Load.htm

 

The main 'CPU' of the T29 is the Telechips 77x series, the same core processors that form the muscle bulk for the newer iAudio players from the iAudio U3, iAudio 6 and others. The codec that runs on the T29 is the Wolfson 8750 audio codec, which is a decent codec also used in the iPod line of players in the past.

 

The player is also rated with a decent headphone jack output prowess at 40mW total output (20mW/ch), and performs with a respectable stability under low impedance loads (which stresses up the headphone jack's output considerably). The output graph remains fairly stable throughout the entire frequency spectrum, with barely signs of bass roll offs present.

 

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As to regard with the falloff on the left @ 16 Ohms, that's -1.74dB on the 40Hz scale, so don't complain, you WON'T hear it, I guarantee.

 

Oh, and I need to mention... this player is LOUD! I'm very certain that its volume when at 20/40 is comparable to my iAudio U3 at vol 26/40 (my healthy listening of the iAudio U3 is at 20/40 with all music normalized to 89dB using ReplayGain).

 

However, the T29 is not without its short comings. Despite its pretty powerful output, I'd say that the headphone jack is another one of those scenarios where its an obvious 'item in the chain'.

 

Sound playback in general is kind of lacking in terms of refinement, BG hiss is obvious with my pair of Shure E4G and not even the extra added 200 Ohm resistor mod I have could help in completely getting rid of the hiss.

 

Also, when one's ears are sharp enough, one can probably pickup that there’s a slight hence of roughness in audio playback, which I think originates from a somewhat concentrated and condensed output somewhere in the 7-8kHz region, accompanied with a slight bit of audible digital fuzz.

 

Those were the main differences I perceive between the iAudio U3 and Telcast T29.

 

Audio Playback.

 

Yep, I felt the need for a dedicated section to this.

 

I'm not sure as with regard to other firmwares, but I believe at the time it was out, v1.05 should be the most refined of all the firmwares out at the time.

 

I'll just summarize this with the different file formats I've used.

 

MP3:

- Most CBR files 160kbps and below play just fine.

- High bitrate VBR files (V0, V1, V2 and V3) and have their head and/or tail ends truncated

- Player may crash (!!!) when fast forwarding through high bitrate CBR or VBR files

 

Ogg Vorbis:

- No truncation problems noted, but my Vorbis library is fairly small, so someone else might have better say on this.

 

WMA:

- Not tested, I don't have WMA files with me

 

FLAC:

- Truncation maybe as severe as up to 3 seconds on head and tail ends of the music.

- Crashes the player quite easily when both fast forwarding or rewinding through FLAC files.

Note: In short, I won't recommend playing FLAC playback on this player at all.

 

WAV:

- Supports up to the first 3-4 seconds 16-bit 1411kbps WAV files, irregardless to the length of the file.

Note: WAV support on this thing is disastrous as far as I'm concerned, but no one in their right mind would want to have WAV files as their music playback file anyway XP

 

Other playback notes:

-No gapless support.

-Single folder support per playback session ONLY. This is one flaw that seriously cripples the convenience factor of the player especially when you have your songs stored on multiple folders. Not even the 'Play All' menu in the options section helps, as everything's over once one folder is done...

 

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Video Playback

 

Video playback on a limited capacity player isn't much to begin with on any kind of flash based DAP out there IMO, and the Telcast T29 is no exception.

 

It supports Xvid encoded videos, and supports playback up to 16fps.

 

While the supplied demo videos on the player are by no means bad (Ice Age and FFVII:DoC), they lack action to bring out the stress test needed for any kind of heavy action on a screen (nope, the Ice Age one isn't fast enough IMO).

 

I uploaded some speed run videos on several Rockman ZX boss fight videos and a speed run on a stage from the GBA game Sonic Advance 3 (Sonic the Hedgehog series), both of which require a lot of camera panning and a good sense of speed to keep up. Its no surprise that the screen of the T29 couldn't keep up with the action going on without the feel of stutters taking place.

 

Tested videos:

Test 1 (animation, Namco X Capcom intro):

Test 2 (gaming, Rockman Zx boss fight):

Test 3 (gaming, Sonic Advance 3 Speed Run):

 

Battery Efficiency

 

IIRC, the claimed battery life for the T29 is about 16 hours.

 

According to my tests at a library full of VBR MP3 files with the volume set at 20/40, the T29 managed to pull off a battery life slightly longer than that at full charge.

 

With a library mixed with MP3, Ogg and FLAC however, the battery life shortens to about 13-14 hours, which isn't bad at all IMO.

 

Battery charging is done by plugging the player to a USB wall-charger or by connecting it to the computers' USB port (I believe it charges when connected, unable to confirm this).

 

Additional features

 

FM Radio:

Standard equipment that comes with most DAPs nowadays, for people who wish to tune in to the news or when they get bored of their own music.

Radio reception quality is average at best, and is slightly lower in strength as compared to that of the iAudio U3.

 

Games:

The unit itself comes with Tetris and Go, but I did not test it. Portable Tetris does sound fun however o_O

 

E-Book:

Not a bad feature, but the execution was flawed at some points.

When trying to open a standard notepad text document or opening up Telcast's own given text file on multiple occasions, things got somewhat screwy and garbled text accompanied parts of the Engish text. Things are even worse on the Chinese text based Telcast text file though, where multiple pages of gibberish show up without fail.

 

Picture viewer:

The picture viewer suffers from the same screen problem as the Video Playback section mentioned.

Users would probably just want to view images that are laid out in the Portrait format as opposed to the landscape format here in my opinion.

 

Synced lyrics:

Not tested

 

Recording:

Not tested

 

Dictionary:

This feature came off as a surprise to me, but it is flawed by the same problem that plagues the Text and ID3/Nametag support. A lot of garbled text gets thrown in the mixture.

Granted, its quite an interesting thing to include in a DAP, but they should just do away with it. Its totally unnecessary IMO.

 

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Conclusion

 

The Telcast T29 is a very well placed price/storage Flash based MP3 player, at US$125 for 4GB

 

I see quite a bit of potential in this player, but the first thing that Telcast needs to do with the player is to improve its extremely buggy firmware.

All the rants you've seen me done above are nothing short of something lacking in the firmware.

 

If these problems are solved:

- Full MP3 format support (without jitters, truncations etc)

- Full FLAC support

- Full WAV support (?)

- Corrected text character display

 

Then it'd be a solid player to boot and give other players a VERY good run for their money for sure.

 

Well, Merry X'mas to all, and hope you enjoyed this little, unprofessional review that I did :)

Edited by Zephyron

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It's long, but very well written and organised. Keep up the great work, Zephyron. :D

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