I rebel against paying hundreds for an iPod - so I've tried out a few ultra-cheapie mp3 players. One I liked despite its laughable crappiness is the Emprex which I got from the equally laughable Fry's / Outpost. Basically if it works and keeps working and you got it cheap - you made out. But I wouldn't bother again imagining that I'd get a rebate from a Fry's / Outpost deal, or that if something didn't keep working, I should do anything other than throw it away. So anyway - the Emprex has an SD card slot - yay! For $15 I got a huge capacity mp3 player basically unlimited so far as swapping SD cards.

But this guide is about an MP4 player for $30 after rebate, from Tiger Direct. It's got quite a color screen, plays videos and does a lot of stuff beyond mp3. Here I will focus just on what you need to know to keep you from tossing this little gem into the ocean because you couldn't figure out how to make it play a song and do your bidding:

Leave power switch on side ON all the time unless you have it in your pocket and want to prevent it turning on by accident or something.

Turn on by pressing the play button 1 or 2 times. (the top button, right below the word ONYX)

Turn off by holding down the play button.

If the unit freezes or locks up when you are using it, they say turn the power button on the side to OFF for 10 seconds then back on, and power up by pressing the play button.

On the main menu, use the right / left arrow buttons to select the Music option if not already selected.

Then press the "M" button (round one in the middle) to get to the Music.

Use the right and left arrow keys to pick the song to play.

Press play to play a song. Press play again to pause the song.

Hold play down for 3 seconds to stop that song. If you hold down more than 3 seconds it will say Continue holding to Power Off ... just release the button and it won't power off.

To adjust volume, you need to be playing a song, then hold the VOL key down for a second or two - watch for the volume slider to appear in the lower part of the screen, then release the VOL key. Use the right and left arrow keys to make the adjustment. Press VOL key again when done adjusting the volume.


To change songs or scroll through a vertical list of all the songs, press M while in the Music mode. You get a white screen with a vertical list. Use the right and left arrow keys to scroll down or up the list. Press Play when you are on something you want to hear. Or if you just want to get out of that list, press VOL.

To just skip the current song or go one-by-one through the song list, use the right and left arrow keys in the music playing mode.

Fast Forward or Rewind while playing a song: HOLD down the right or left arrow keys.

To change the repeat mode:

Stop anything that is playing. Press the VOL button and watch for a tiny icon at the very top of the display to change:
Normal, Repeat 1, Repeat ALL, Shuffle ALL, Preview. See if you can guess what each of the weird icons means :).

Weird feature - you can repeat just a small portion or something - or large I guess - by marking a cut in point A with VOL while the song plays, then a cut out point B by the next press of VOL. Finally you can cancel the A-B repeat section by pressing VOL a third time. The main experience of this "feature" is where people accidentally activate it while trying to get to volume adjustment and then get frustrated and can't get out of it. So remember - to adjust volume - hold DOWN on VOL - until you get the slider on the screen.

When the music is paused or stop - if you hold down VOL it will start recording from the MICrophone. Press M to stop the recording.

Exit back to main menu: Press and hold M.