How to spot fake memory cards and How to choose an MP3 player

How to tell the
difference between an original memory card to a fake one




The global phenomenon of fake memory card is growing and
spreading more than

ever.



This is a big issue in the memory cards industry as its
getting harder and

harder to tell which one is the fake one.



With this guide I hope to help a little to those who'd want
to be able to know

how to tell the difference.

Why is this important
for the buyer:



1. The quality of the card is low- you don't get what you
paid for.



2.No warranty- if the card fails, it's your problem.



3.Fake cards sometimes are divided in a wrong way which
makes it more probable

to fail



4.The market of the fake cards causes the raise in the
prices of the real cards

How can you tell which
one is fake:



To date there's no software that can tell the difference. As
a consumer you

should check the card- the way it looks and its performance
to know if its fake

or not.

The best way to get a real card is to buy it
from a reliable source.

Things to notice in
order to tell what is fake:

Original vs. fake

The fake card won't always have the notch,
which is really easy to spot:

The front of the card does not match

Pay attention to the light red color and the fact that the
real one does'nt have

the TM sign next to the CF rhombus

There is no serial number on the fake one

The fake package doesn't have a hologram:

 

Pay attention to the low quality of printing and that fact
that the text is

leaning sideways









This is yet another example for the low quality of printing
and the fact that

the numbers are not in the middle

 

Look at the wrong spelling- Sorry corporation:

 

Look at the guides, the purchased item was Ultra II and
not flash memory

card, look also at the different design .

 

Check the preformance of the card.



You can use Sisoft Sandra to check the performance (in the
picture the fake card

is showed in a green line)

 

How to choose an MP3 Player

In the last few years the music players changed in a drastic way. The big players that we used to use got replaced by small gadgets easy to carry and lightweight that provides us with hours of entertainment.
The leading brand players have an excellent audio quality so if you're into that it's advisable to get a known brand player and not a no name player.

This guide will hopefully help you a little to choose better and to fit the player to your purpose.

1. Fitting the player to the needs of the user
The players are divided to 2 groups, flash players and hard drive players.
Flash Players:
The information is stored on a built in flash memory or on a card. The advantages of this type of player are that it's lightweight, shockproof and consumes low electricity.
Those kinds of features make it ideal for those who engage in sports.
Hard drive players:
Very similar to a hard drive in a computer, the hard drive in the player allows you to store big sizes of digital information. Players like that are for people who need a lot of storage room.
These players are more sensitive to shocks and they are more expensive than the flash players.

2. Sound quality
The sound quality is a very important factor when choosing an mp3 player. The mp3 player can be impressive on the outside but it won't be worth at all if it won't provide the sound quality we are looking for.
Most of the big companies like Cowon and iRiver provide you with an excellent sound quality and that's why its recommended to buy a player from the well known companies.
Sampling quality:
One of the most important things that affect the sound is the bit rate, the bit rate is measured with Kbps and when that rate is higher than the file will be more similar to the original and the sound quality would be higher.
Also when the file has more quality than it takes more storage on the mp3 player.
It's important to choose a player that supports a few bitrates (128, 160, 192, 256, 320) and at least 128kbps. Also it is recommended that the player will support VBR a thing that helps make the files smaller. This how on the loud parts it will take more memory but on the softer parts it takes less memory.

Signal to noise ratio: This shows the sound quality, and it measures by dB, a good ratio is between 80 to 90 dB and when the ratio is higher than the sound is more crisp and clean.
Harmonic distortion: most of the times when you use high volume or wrong use of the equalizer than the sound will get dissertated. Harmonic distortion is between 0.001 and 0.01 is considered good and you shouldn't get something that is more than that.

Sound volume: Measured in mWATT, you should choose an mp3 player that is at least 15 mWATTS, if you are going to listen to the mp3 player in loud places than you should go with a higher sound.

Equalizer: Most of the Mp3 players offer an option to change and improve the sound with the equalizer. The equalizer offers a few presets'. A good equalizer offers a large scale of presets and allows the user to put in his own presets.

Headphones: Most of the mp3 players come with headphones, it's important to know that sometimes with a pair of good headphones you can improve the sound quality of the simplest mp3 player.

3. Storage capacity
The players today have memory that ranges from a few hundreds mega bytes and goes to more than 100 GB.
Lets say the average song takes 3 minutes and that takes 3MB, on 5GB player you can store between 1000-2000 songs, depends on their quality. Most of the companies refer to the 128Kbps bit rate.
In most cases when the player has a bigger memory it's also bigger, some of the flash players include an expansion slot.

4. Supporting Formats:
In the digital world there are many formats to save sound files, some of the formats are standard in all the mp3 players but others will only be a part of certain companies. When your player supports a wide variety of formats than it'll be easier for you to get music without converting it first.

MP3: The most common version of compressed audio files
MPEG4: An advanced format for audio and video.
WAV/WAVE- Uncompressed audio format and that's why it takes more space
WMA: Considered as an MP3 format in most players
AIFF: High quality audio format, very similar to WAV.
AAC: Compressed audio format, very similar to mp3 but offers a better quality.
OGG: Compressed audio format, very high quality.
FLAC: Compressed audio format that is half the size of the original file and it's quality is almost as the original file. This format exists only in the Cowon iAudio players and Rio.

5. User interface
Buttons: There's a wide variety of buttons and touch screens, in the end it's up to the user and what his preference is.
Menus: Good Mp3 players offer a wide variety of menus and a better navigation system, erasing files directly from the player, creating playlists etc.
Screen: Most of the screens have an LCD that is between 0.5-2.5in, the newer ones like the iRiver clix have an OLED screen.
Voice recorder: You should check the quality of the recording and what is the optimal distance, also if you have a variety of recording qualities than you can rec