THE Shiro VJ does everything you would expect from an MP3 player - efficiently, if not with cutting-edge style.

It plays music files, video clips and photo slideshows and reads text files.

A voice recorder and an FM radio completes the feature list.

The player is so slim, it fits comfortably in the wallet.

The VJ is simple to operate: You scroll through icons on the 2.4-inch LCD screen by pressing directional arrow buttons on both sides of the device. The up and down arrows also double as volume controls.

There is 2GB of flash memory onboard but that is barely enough if you have hundreds of MP3 or WMA songs and dozens of video files.

A microSD card slot means you can carry around more songs and movies.

At default settings, the battery lasted just 13 hours playing MP3 songs.

I found the music playback somewhat flat and uninspiring - it lacks adequate bass and presence - when heard through the supplied earbuds.

Changing the equaliser modes did not improve things.

However, less fussy listeners may have less quarrel with the VJ's audio performance.

Shiro has loaded two programs, AVI Converter and MediaCoder, into the VJ to help users convert movie files into the correct formats.

The gizmo handles video adequately but I would have preferred a larger screen for watching long videos.

I like it that the VJ can be loaded with content - just drag and drop - in both Windows XP as well as Mac OS X, so there is no need for specialised software.

It was also plain sailing dragging songs from the iTunes software into the VJ.

Final say

For the price, the Shiro VJ is a decent multi-tasking multimedia player and recorder.

By Billy Teo, a freelance writer

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 12 November 2008.

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