Upon reading a product evaluation I wrote of a stand-alone tabletop DAISY and audio book player, a representative of Shinano Kenshi wrote asking for an evaluation of the PLEXTALK PTN2.
First Look
The PLEXTALK PTN2 is roughly 9 inches by 7 inches and about one inch high, giving it a footprint very much like the digital talking book player distributed by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). The PLEXTALK PTN2 has 27 buttons (or keys) on the top face of the unit, an external speaker grille in the upper right corner, roughly 2 by 3 inches, and a connector for an AC adapter on the back. On the left edge are slots for a secure digital (SD) card and a USB port in addition to a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the front edge is a slot for standard CDs; the battery compartment is on the bottom, along with rubber feet for stability. There is no carrying handle; the unit can run on either AC current or battery power.
In the box with the unit is an AC adapter, user's guide on DAISY CD, and a snap-on cover with holes exposing only the basic, essential keys. (More about that below.)
Initial Test Drive
After taking the unit out of the box, it's fairly easy to test it immediately. As is always wise when using any product for the first time, plug it in and press the "Power" button. Anyone familiar with other PLEXTALK products will recognize the charming chimes indicating that the unit is working on the issued command. It immediately chimes once, announces "Please wait" in a clear female voice, and then repeats the PLEXTALK chiming waiting sound for about ten seconds before announcing whatever media is detected onboard. The inclusion of the user's guide on DAISY CD offers a perfect opportunity for acquainting oneself with the product.
The sound quality of the PLEXTALK PTN2 is outstanding. Even this writer with a hearing impairment can hear it loud and clear from across the room. The synthetic voices for text-to-speech are the familiar Samantha and Tom and are sufficiently distinct. When playing music or an audio book, the sound quality is excellent.
Those 27 Keys
At the bottom of the unit is the familiar "Play/Pause" key in the middle with arrow-shaped "Rewind" and "Fast Forward" keys to either side. Directly above this trio is the 12-key telephone-style keypad used frequently for navigation, menu selections, and other functions. In a column to the left of these buttons are four distinctly-shaped keys: the "Menu," "Bookshelf," "Go To" (heading, page, etc.), and "Bookmark" keys. Directly above the telephone-style keypad are three control columns: "Tone," "Volume," and "Speed." Although the user's guide counts these as three buttons, I count them as six since each has an up and down control with a distinct split between them. On the right-hand side of the machine is an "Information" key, a "Sleep" key, the "Power" button, an "Eject" for CDs, and a close pair of title keys ("Previous" and "Next"), which are used when navigating from one media type to another or one folder to another within a given media source. Again, these appear to be two buttons although the user's guide refers to them as one.
When first powered on, the PTN2 remembers the last content played and announces that content's source. If that is the material you wish to hear, you can simply press "Play." The "2" and "8" keys will give you information regarding the mark-up available (levels 1, 2, and 3, for instance), and the "4" and "6" keys are used to move backward and forward accordingly. The "Go To" key, depending on the type of content played, allows you to move by heading, page, or percentage within a given file. The "Bookshelf" key is used to rotate among CD, SD card, and USB thumb drive, all of which can be onboard at any given time. Navigating among the various media sources can also be done using the "Title" key on the right. The "Bookmark" key can be used to set up to 10,000 bookmarks. There is, however, no voice or highlight bookmark feature available but, instead, only numbered bookmarks, the numbers for which can either be user defined by entering a number from the keypad or automatically set by the PTN2. Once bookmarks have been set, however, you can access a bookmark list, navigating through your bookmarks with the "4" and "6" keys or by entering the number of a specifically desired bookmark to move directly to it.
The Mask
The PTN2 comes with a snap-on cover called a mask that is molded to fit securely over the face of the unit with pieces that grip the sides. When the mask is in place, only a few of the unit's keys are available to the user. These include the three keys at the bottom ("Rewind," "Play/Pause," and "Fast Forward"), the five keys at the right ("Power," "Sleep," "Eject," "Information," and "Title"), and the "Tone" and "Volume" controls at the top. One question that immediately arose is why "Tone" and "Volume," but not "Speed," controls have been selected as the most essential to have available to a user with more limited technical ability. That small caveat aside, this may be a useful feature in some situations, such as for teaching or when the unit is used by children or those with limited tactile sensitivity.
What Can It Play?
The PTN2 can play a wonderful array of file types and formats: DAISY, .TXT, .DOC, HTML, and a variety of audio formats, including WAV, MP3, and OGG. If a file contains both DAISY text and audio, the PTN2 will only recognize one or the other.
I loaded the unit with content of every type (a CD, an SD card, and a USB thumb drive all at once) and found the results both impressive and puzzling. While the unit was able to navigate among all three sources, representing a wide array of format types, some content was inaccessible. On the USB drive, for example, there was a folder of audio files and a folder of text files played perfectly. A third folder, however, containing both audio and text files of the same content, revealed only the text. If I hadn't known the audio files were there, I would not have been able to discover them. You can work around this problem by removing the text files from the folder or by placing the audio files in a separate folder, but the initial roadblock is bewildering. Other PLEXTALK products share this particular quirk of requiring all content to be placed in its own folder, and in this instance, even if the content is the same but is represented in more than one format, each must have a folder of its own.
Quirks aside, it warrants mentioning that included in the smorgasbord of content loaded for the above experiment were books drawn from three of the most popular sources for readers who are blind or visually impaired (Bookshare, NLS BARD, and Audible.com), and the PLEXTALK PTN2 played all of them beautifully.
A Few Special Features
The PLEXTALK PTN2 does a few things that competing products do not, and it does them very well. First, as mentioned above, the PLEXTALK plays audiobooks and other materials downloadable from Audible.com. Secondly, although it has no other recording capabilities, the PLEXTALK can backup an audio CD, including commercially available CDs, to an SD card. The process is a simple one but does take some time. To back up a CD with approximately 50 minutes of recording, for example, the process took about 25 minutes. The procedure is completely simple (press the "9" key to begin and "8" to confirm), and the PLEXTALK chiming sounds continue throughout the process to let you know something is actually happening. When finished, the unit announces that the backup is complete. When CDs are copied in this manner, they are placed on the SD card in a folder entitled "PLEXTALK Backup," which is created by the unit itself.
On a more random note, the PTN2 does have time and date announcement features, a sleep timer, and an automatic shut-off after 15 minutes when operating on battery. While none of these are likely to be deal breakers for many customers, they are convenient features that warrant mentioning.
Conclusions
The PTN2 is a compact unit with fabulous sound quality that will meet most listening needs of customers who are blind or low vision. It plays content from CD, SD, and USB sources and can play a wide variety of formats from the most popularly used content sources. In addition to music and audio books, it offers clear text-to-speech capabilities and is, thus, able to play plain text, Word, and HTML documents.
It does not have wireless or recording functionality other than the ability to back up a CD to an SD card.
Product Information
Product: PLEXTALK PTN2
Price: $375
Available from: available from a variety of dealers, including IRTI, Active Forever, Maxi-Aids, and others.
