First Portable Media Centers Hit Store Shelves

An anonymous reader writes "After months of speculation and hype, the first Portable Media Center based on Microsoft's 'Windows Mobile software for Portable Media Centers' has finally hit store shelves. The Zen Portable Media Center, from Creative Labs, is now available at Best Buy and Fry's Electronics, priced under $500. That money basically buys a 3.8-inch color LCD screen, ultra-fast USB 2.0 port to transfer video, music, and digital photos from your PC, and an internal 20 GB hard drive."

Comments

Hmm...

[robslimo]

What manner of DRM has been built in?

Re:I have one, I'm impressed.

[FlipmodePlaya]

What dissapoints me is that it only holds 20B. Larger models are definitely needed. 20GB will fit my music collection just fine, but when I start putting movies on it I'm going to need a bit more. Hell, there are people who buy 80GB players _just_ for music.

Hmmm

[Auckerman]

I honestly don't understand the reasoning behind these products. These are marketed and designed for use from the point of view people WANT to carry movies and photos around with them. Sucessful portable devices don't get in the way when they are not being AND are so simple to intereact with that one doesn't think about using them.

These look like little more than toys for people who buy things because they are new. Novelty, nothing less, especially at that price, useability, and size.

more formats

[Coneasfast]

I would have preferred something that would support more formats, such as xvid, ogg vorbis, etc.

divx would be nice too, but there would be a licensing issue.

Ugh! It runs Windows!

[FunWithHeadlines]

All right, all right, I know, of course it does...consider the source. But it's so overkill for a device like this (not to mention that unnecessary complexity introduces bug situations and security vulnerabilities). Look at the iPod. Did Apple port a stripped down OS X for it, or even a Darwin framework? No, of course not. It's an entertainment device, so it gets its own custom OS that fits just right. It's the same philosophy that Palm has with its handhelds -- don't overload it with junk, just provide what you need and no more.

Microsoft always wants to extend Windows even into areas where it does not belong. A handheld running Windows? What on earth for? Now this too? No thanks. Give me a Palm, give me an iPod, give me a simple tool that works well and elegantly.

Huge Problem - No Tuner

[BRock97]

Here's my beef; you will need an external PC to get any sort of video what so ever.

I would have thought it would be as simple as:

• Hook up device to cable
• Schedule recording
• Watch

Instead, you have to:

• Hook up your computer to cable
• Go to your PC and schedule a show
• Once it is done, have the software crunch the video to be transfered to the device
• Hook up the device to the computer
• Transfer the video over to the device
• Watch

How much more would it have cost to include a tuner with the unit?! Based on a post above, the unit can do video compression. So, until that happens, I am not too interested in the device as there are too many hurdles to jump to get out the door.

Re:Can't wait for Apple's

[Anonymous Writer]

My cousin has a powerbook and he hooks it up to the tv all the time, so I'm assuming the powerbook can do the same. Anyone can verify?

Powerbooks have S-Video ports built in. A short cable is included that turns the S-Video into an RCA port.

Re:I have one, I'm impressed.

[LinuxHam]

You do realize that there's absolutely no way you'll get through 80GB of music OR video on a single battery charge?

You do realize that people don't load each day's music selection into their iPods as part of their morning rituals, don't you? Why do you think you have to watch/listen to your entire collection in a single charge?? Plug it in when you get home at night, unplug and take it with you in the morning. Listen to whatever subset of your collection you want during the day.