Industry guru Dave Taylor offers tech support on technical and business topics, including iPhone, iPod, Microsoft Windows, Sony PSP, cellphones, online advertising, CSS, Web design, business, Unix, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, and shell script programming.     


How do I download music / get help for my Nextar MP3 player?

I have a Nextar MA809 MP3 and Video player and want to know how to download music onto it, add my favorite movies, copy DVDs, etc. How do I find out?


Dave's Answer:

Rather than just send you a link, what I thought would be useful - because we see a lot of these sort of questions! - would be to demonstrate the steps you can take to solve this particular question yourself. This applies for any MP3 or video player, not just the Nextar line, but will prove particularly helpful if you do have an off-brand or lesser known product in your hands.

Think of this as "teach a man to fish and you'll feed them forever..." :-)

The general approach, before we start, is to find the company's web site, go to their Support area, check for downloads (in case you need a special driver of some sort or because they might have some custom music player / playlist management software), grab the documentation, and check the FAQs to see if there are any issues.

The first step is to find the Web site of the manufacturer.

In 95% of the cases, that can be done by just typing in the name of the product and company to Google. In this case, I'll just type in "nextar mp3" to Google, and see what it can find for me:

nextar google search mp3

You can see some product pics -- including their $19 MP3 player. That's quite reasonably priced! -- but more importantly, you can see the link to the Nextar Support area of their site, at www.nextar.com. Click on that and you'll see...

nextar mp3 player support page

That's pretty small, I admit, but your eye should be drawn to the center pop-up menu, which lets you specify exactly which type of MP3 player you have. Click on it and you'll see all the many options from the company:

nextar mp3 support pick model player

You are interested in the MA-809, so let's pick that one (on the list as "Widescreen MP4 Player" since it also has a big video screen).

Choose the correct player from the menu and a link will instantly appear:

nextar instruction manual ma809 english

Before we open up the PDF document to read through it, however, scroll down a bit: there's a Frequently Asked Questions area here that might just answer the question without a download being involved...

nextar how do i copy mp3 files faq

Um, not so helpful in my opinion, so let's grab that PDF file anyway and see what's inside.

Click on the PDF document link and the file will download. Depending on your configuration it might just leave it in a Downloads folder, launch a separate PDF viewer or actually show you the PDF within your Web browser.

Digging around within, there's a surprisingly short passage on how to download files onto the player, split across two pages of the document. Here's what it says:

nextar documentation how to download pdf

So there's your answer from Nextar. If that doesn't feel sufficient, then you might just plug in the player to your PC (by the way, it apparently is incompatible with all Mac systems, which is a bit of a silly move on their part as there are tens of millions of Macs in the field) then launch Windows Media Player: it knows how to work with quite a few different media players.

Hope that this visual tour of how to figure out how to work with an MP3 player with no documentation is helpful! Remember that ultimately if you can't get anywhere, don't hesitate to email the manufacturer and ask for assistance too, lots of them are quite helpful and cooperative.

If that fails, you might well consider using Google again, this time for a more specific search like "download mp3 music nextar mp809" or similar. A general rule of thumb is that if you are having a problem, other people probably are too. :-)


More Useful iPod, Sony PSP and MP3 Player Help Articles:
✔   Deleted iTunes library but still have tracks on iPod...
Hi Dave, I have been following your newsletter for awhile now. Most of your topics are way over my head but very interesting....
✔   How do I fix the time / date on my Apple iPod Touch?
I pulled my iTouch [ed note: "iPod Touch", actually] out of the drawer and when it was fully charged I realized that the...
✔   Can I remove songs from an unsync'd iPod Touch?
My son has just come home from his uncle's house with a new iPod. Very nice. Full of a wide variety of music,...
✔   Get started with iTunes Match!
I have a huge library of music, Dave, and want to be able to enjoy it on all my Apple devices, but am...
✔   Can I pre-order a music CD from the Apple iTunes Store?
I have a bunch of bands and musicians I follow faithfully and when I see that there's a new CD coming out from...

Let's stay in touch!
Sign up for my weekly AskDaveTaylor Newsletter and you'll receive even more tech and gadget help right to your inbox, along with exclusive news and industry updates. It's good stuff. I promise!
    Enter your name: and your email addr:  




Categorized: iPod, Sony PSP and MP3 Player Help   (Article 9448, Written by )
Tagged: mp3 player, mp4 player, music players, nextar
Previous: How do I have different music on different iPods?
Next: How can I create a form in Google Docs?




Reader Comments To Date:

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
Rather amazingly, there are no comments on this article yet.

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











I will never send you any unsolicited email. Ever.






Check This Out Too...

 
Look for Answers
Need Help? Ask Dave Taylor!


Follow Me on Pinterest

Find Me on Google+
ADT on G+
© 2002 - 2013 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. My lawyer says "Thanks".
"Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.