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Windows Media Center makes it very easy to record and watch television that you might not otherwise have time for. The Samsung YH-999 GS enables you to transfer videos, music and photos from a PC's hard disk to its own, so you can watch them on the move or plug the device into another TV in the house.
The YH-999 is one of the smallest portable media players we've seen but has a screen large enough to watch video quite clearly. At 230g it's light enough to carry around and the 20Gb hard disk offers plenty of space.
The interface is identical to a Media Center PC and there's a green Windows button to launch a simple menu. The directional pad and OK button are well positioned and there is a back button for reversing through the menus. Each type of media can be sorted and searched for in various ways. For example, music can be sorted by album, artist or genre.
The YH-999 synchronises with Windows Media Player and is simple to use, especially if you have version 10. You can set Windows Media Center to automatically transfer new material to the player, or drag and drop files yourself. It uses USB 2, which means transfer speeds are fast.
Playback was very good, especially in video, but this does depend on the quality of the source file. The sound from the internal speakers was disappointing and sounded tinny. The supplied headphones were better but, as with most portable players, we'd recommend investing in a decent set.
You can output video to a TV using the supplied composite cable adapter but there is no infrared remote control, which means everything has to be operated from the player itself or the inline remote control.
It is expensive and there's no way of recording directly into the YH-999, which is a prominent feature of other portable players. However, the menu system is extremely intuitive and it works well with Media Player 10.
Contact:
Samsung 01952 287628
www.samsung.co.uk
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