Now that MP3 players are ubiquitous, what’s next? It’s time for portable media players (PMP) that combine music, images, and video into one compact device. That means hours of entertainment for that plane trip cross-country or that ridiculously long morning train ride to work. Forget about carrying the baby pictures in your wallet or purse; a PMP has gigabytes to store thousands of photos.
It all sounds wonderful on paper, but there are pitfalls to consider. Though there are other formats in audio and imaging, MP3s and JPGs cover most of the bases. However, portable video is an entirely different animal. WMV, DivX, XviD, MPEG4, and MPEG2 are just some of the codecs you’ll run into. But it gets worse. Not all AVIs are created equal. XviD is a version of MPEG4, and a WMV that plays on one device won’t necessarily play on another. Get ready for codec hell.
The Roundup
If you’re still reading, you’ve made the decision that running the codec gauntlet is worth the reward of having hours of entertainment at your fingertips. Which is best? I took four PMPs for a test and here’s what I found.
Creative Zen Portable Media Center ($499.99)
iRiver PMC-120 ($499.99)
Both the Creative Zen and iRiver PMC-120 run on Microsoft's Portable Media Center (PMC) operating system and synchronize with Microsoft Windows Media Player 10. That's a simple combination for anybody entering the world of portable multimedia. With the cleanest and most intuitive user interface of the bunch, the PMC covers the basics in imaging, music, and video. For Microsoft Media Center PC users, you can take recorded television shows on the road with little effort. Of the two PMCs in the roundup, I prefer the aesthetics and button layout of the Zen. Despite its slightly bulkier form and fingerprint prone finish, the Zen offers longer playing power and a series of optional accessories like remote controls that edges out the PMC-120.
The Good: Windows Media Player isn’t the most user-friendly media management application, but it takes care of the heavy lifting, automatically converting whatever needs it. Images, for example, are automatically downsized to 320 by 240, the ideal resolution for the device. It sure beats the X2’s nonexistent management suite.
The most intensive conversion happens with video where everything gets converted into WMV format. That's a travesty to some, but for me the knowledge that it would play without issue on the PMC was justification enough. My MPEG-2 and XviD content all converted, with my only issue being 16:9 video being squished into 4:3. Of course, I needed to find an MPEG-2 and XviD codec first. After that, if it plays in Windows Media Player, it'll probably be able to convert it.
The Bad: The PMC platform is merely a player and doesn’t have any recording capability like the X2 MEGA View or Archos PMA400. That raises the question: Where do you get video other than your home movies? You’ll need a computer with a television capture capability, TiVoToGo, or use unofficial means to get your favorite television shows onto your PMC. I suppose you could use sites like CinemaNow and choose from a pathetic selection of PMC capable movies. Barring that, the PMC is little more than a really big MP3 player and image viewer.
X2 MEGA View 566 ($449.95)
The MEGA View 566 won’t win any beauty contests with its industrial design or Commodore 64-like menu graphics. When it comes to bang for the buck, it's a completely different story. It displays photos, plays music and video just like the competition, but you’ll find support for more formats (DivX, WMV, GIF, Motion JPEG, etc.) in pretty much every category. But that’s just the beginning. There’s a voice recorder and an FM tuner with recording capabilities. Avid digital camera users will appreciate the SD/MMC slot that lets you empty your memory card to the hard drive. You’ll even get a second battery and remote control. The MEGA View is definitely feature packed.
The Good: The MEGA View supports direct line-in for recording from any video source be it a camcorder or cable box. There’s no scheduled recording or anything fancy, just a timer to record from 30 to 180 minutes. Three hours of high quality video works out to 2 GB on the hard drive. You won’t be able to record from protected DVDs, but I suppose that’s expected to keep the MPAA from getting their knickers in a twist.
XviD fans like myself will love the native support for the format. XviD is a popular codec used for sharing television shows over the Internet and my collection of various bit rates played without issue. The MEGA View supports DivX VOD (Video-on-Demand) for rented content.
The Bad: The MEGA View's Achilles heel is a complete lack of management software. Actually, there’s pretty much no software at all included. While it’s convenient to simply drag and drop items, it also raises a boatload of problems with video. Is everything encoded correctly for the device? Some WMVs played just fine while others didn’t. While playing perfectly fine on my desktop, DivX video files, encoded using the trial version of Dr. DivX (the only software included and it only works for 15 days), were out of sync with the audio. Without any management software to ensure compatibility you might find yourself chained to a computer for hours on end.
There are other quirks, too, like no playlist support for your expansive music collection. But my biggest complaint is the display. Every single pixel is clearly defined, making video and images appear like you’re looking through a screen door.
