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More on the Portable Media Center

Posted by michael on from the convergence dept.

ptorrone writes "The Portable Media Center is officially shipping today, along with announcements of more TV Tuner and recording hardware. The NYTimes covers some of this and Engadget has an in-depth review with photos, screenshots, videos and how to convert DVDs to play on these devices."

88 comments

  1. Kinda small but they will sell by erick99 · · Score: 2, Informative
    I can see how folks would take these in their cars, on trips, to the office, etc. Even at around $500 they will probably sell pretty well. They aren't that much more than a portable DVD player. I don't think I could look at that little screen for an entire movie though. Perhaps a younger set of eyes could handle it. The screen is quite sharp, though. But, a tad small for me for any kind of extended viewing.

    Cheers,

    Erick

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
    1. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by themoodykid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, it's nice that there is a TV-Out on the thing so you could use it when traveling to watch things you've saved, say, on your hotel TV. Other than that, though, is there a real need for this? And even then, why not watch what's on the hotel TV?

      I can understand portable music players. Ever since the original Walkman, portable music has been big. However, portable TVs never really caught on. Yes, this is a bit more than a portable TV, but the use is similar. You sit down and watch a video--and you can't do something else at the same time. On the other hand, listening to music, you can be doing something else, like going for a walk at the same time.

      Does anybody see the appeal of these things other than the geekiness factor?

    2. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Nos. · · Score: 2

      No, its just not something I can really see a lot of use for. Now if you could add in GPS, and wireless Internet and actually have a wireless infrastructure in place, sure, this would be a really handy little device. But for now, no. I just can see a good reason for spending this much money. I'd rather spend a bit more and put a real DVD system in the mini-van for the kids or what have you.

    3. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by skiflyer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Long train commutes. I work in Chicago, and mercifully live blocks from the office, but many of my office mates travel an hour plus on train. If they could combine this with their Tivo's I can imagine it getting alot of play.

      Also, if they can host USB on these to offload your camera pics that'd be a nice feature (like the iRiver iHP300 series audio players).

      But I think the big one here is for the commuters that don't read newspapers or books.

    4. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by zonker · · Score: 1, Interesting

      neat, but pricey. kinda annoying that you can't play a dvd disc on it, as you aren't going to always have access to a pc to rip it. it'll be interesting to see if and how these translate from the bleeding edge buyers to everyday folks...

      --

      Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

    5. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Judg3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Definately!
      Although I'm in Minneapolis now, for over a year I lived in Kenosha, WI and took the metra into Chicago - an hour and 45 minute ride each way. This thing would have been nice to have. Then again my laptop did the job quite well to.

      (I went from a 20 minute commute from the NW side of Chicago to almost 2 hours - all because I was in love hehe)

      --
      Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
    6. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Informative

      Even at around $500 they will probably sell pretty well. They aren't that much more than a portable DVD player.

      A portable DVD player can be bought for $250.

      For $400 I bought a PIIIm 800MHz laptop with the earliest Mobility Radeon chip. Granted, it only got three to four hours of battery life, I prefer it to any dedicated portable media player. Still, I can use it for task, not just media. At 5

    7. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      oops, I hit the wrong button, I'll continue...

      The laptop is 5lb and is bigger than the portable media players, that's still what I consider to be acceptable. The laptop is used but it is still going pretty strong.

    8. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Anonymous+Writer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Does anybody see the appeal of these things other than the geekiness factor?

      The two biggest things people download off the net are MP3s and porn. The iPod lets people bring around their MP3 colections. This thing will let them bring around their porn collections. Not out of the house, but into the bathroom or in bed :P

    9. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Keeper · · Score: 1

      A cheap, bottom of the line portable dvd player can be bought for $250. The decent ones sell for around $400.

      Your $400 laptop makes a poor media device. Aside from the battery life, you have weight and size concerns, which have a huge influence on the practicality.

      If you want a computer that you occasionally watch movies on, great -- get the laptop. If all you want to do is listen to mp3's and watch movies on a long plane trip, the PMC is a better solution.

    10. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by value_added · · Score: 1

      Off-topic, but I did the exact same thing when I lived in Chicago. Different, girl, of course.

      IIRC, nearly everyone travelling along the north line trains was reading Barron's. Can't imagine those same cheap-haircut-Brooks Brothers-suited-wing-tip-wearing passengers using a portable media device, unless the media somehow involved bond prices or pork belly prices.

    11. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 1
      Long train commutes. I work in Chicago, and mercifully live blocks from the office, but many of my office mates travel an hour plus on train. If they could combine this with their Tivo's I can imagine it getting alot of play

      I doubt they are interested in such devices. If they were, they would already be using the ones from Archos, which have the Tivo-like capabilities, better features in general, and are in pretty much every way superior to this Microsoft/Creative stuff, and have been out for quite a while.

      Microsoft and Creative need to learn from Apple. Apple's iPod did well because it did two things different than the previous devices. First, it integrated very well with iTunes. Second, it was smaller and lighter. Other than on those two factors, the iPod is not better than an Archos. (Yes, iPod fans, the Archos has a UI every bit as intuitive as the iPod, and in many ways superior...and if you don't like that interface, there is Rockbox).

      It was by being better on those two key points (integration and size/weight) that Apple was able to come into a market that already had several players and do well.

      Microsoft/Creative seem to be coming into a market with several players and offering one that is near the bottom of the pack in features. All they have going for them is a bigger marketing budget...which may be enough, sadly.

    12. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by accelleron · · Score: 1

      [quote=zonker]kinda annoying that you can't play a dvd disc on it[/quote]

      Interesting point, although I believe the reasoning behind it is the size restriction [with a dvd reader, it'd be the size of a small laptop

      --
      Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
    13. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by EastCoaster · · Score: 1

      It seems that most of the time Microsoft crams too many options into thier new gadgets. Now it seems as if this "iPod Killer" is dumbed down by it's lack of features. I would like to see a remote and video in added.

    14. Re:Kinda small but they will sell by timts · · Score: 1

      when cheap laptops are priced at $500 as well? no way they can sell.

  2. iPod functionality in a convenient laptop size by vijayiyer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, maybe it is more functional than an iPod, but once it doesn't fit comfortably in my pocket, why not just use a laptop?

    1. Re:iPod functionality in a convenient laptop size by Keeper · · Score: 1

      Size, weight, price, ease of use, and battery life come to mind ...

    2. Re:iPod functionality in a convenient laptop size by Rew190 · · Score: 1

      It's still smaller than a laptop and is specifically designed to be a media player. That's all that matters, really.

  3. No thanks by antikarma · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Screen resolution: 320x240 pixels

    No thanks. Give me a cheap laptop or tablet with XGA.

    1. Re:No thanks by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Informative

      Screen resolution: 320x240 pixels

      No thanks. Give me a cheap laptop or tablet with XGA.

      I agree. I had bought a used PIIIm laptop with a 14" screen, weighing 5lb with an SXGA+ native resolution. It is a a handy little portable media device that can be used to surf the net, play videos, make drawings, write code, etc.

      Before I sold it to buy this one, I had paid about $400 or so for a used PIIIm 14" XGA laptop which did all this for nearly the cost of the smaller portable video player.

      All this out of a device I bought purely for wireless networking.

  4. If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by The+Lost+Supertone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If Apple found a way to make a portable video iPod branded whatever... it'd probably sell but it would by far be the least profitable model. They'd have to have a huge mark up to cover the costs of just having the thing. But the only company I would ever buy one of these from is Apple.. why? Because they're not making one! Why aren't they making one? Because it's a bad idea! OK take it in the car with you, most people who want this sort of thing will have built in TVs in their cars now. The rest of us... buy a bloody laptop and a car adapter. For double the cost you can do a ton more. If this was a portable computer and priced this way with tons of features including music, light graphic manipulation etc it'd be worth it. But a solitary device for video and music, it's a dumb idea, it's not useful enough to regularly use. I'm sure the market for these is there, I just don't think it's big, or the people in it are all that bright.

    1. Re:If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by antikarma · · Score: 2, Informative

      You didn't get the memo?

    2. Re:If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by Opticalsky · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Apple isn't like most companies out there, they aren't ones to jump into a brand new idea and try to make money off of it, they wait for the market to mature, and apparently this market is brand new. The reason which I believe Apple is successful on some of their products is how they will read what customers want on these new devices and such, and make their own unique version of it. Apple didn't jump into the mp3 scene right away, they waited for the market to mature before introducing the iPod. So therefore you really can't say this is a bad idea, because there are some people out there willing to purchase something like this.

    3. Re:If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by melkorainur · · Score: 1
      > regularly use. I'm sure the market for these is there, I just don't think it's big, or the people in it are all that bright.

      I disagree. If there was a portable video plus PDA device that had a good 20/30 hour lifespan, then I'd buy it. I say plus PDA because if it's got enough CPU to play video, it's bound to have enough to do all the other stuff. I use public transportation and fly around a lot. You want something hand sized that you can pull out while you're at the station waiting, or on your flight, or in the train/bus/ornithopter/rickshaw/whatever. I can see myself plugging this device into a sync station where it pulls in The Daily Show, Leno, miscellaneous video clips from several RSS feeds and stores them in ultra tiny format. It'd do this automatically. I wake up, pick it up, walk to the bus station listening to my daily morning selected audio streams, and it'd be timed so that by the time, i sit down, i'd hit a button and it'd start playing the morning video news. hit the 15 minute button and it picks the next unwatched under 15 minute video clip. gosh, i wanna build this. i can. just need capital. pxa 270 + good battery tech plus uclinux + some optimized vid libs. yeah, i can do this. you wanna give some dough to do it, mail me then.

      Anyway, back to it. Yeah, I think the market for this exists. Anyone who has downtime, ie: time spent waiting for something AND you can not need to give your attention to, could use something like this. So, that's the basis for my disagreement. [Also, was your "people in it are all that bright" a flamebait?]

    4. Re:If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by Frankie70 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Apple didn't jump into the mp3 scene right away, they waited for the market to mature before introducing the iPod

      So what other products of Apple did you see this in? i.e. the waiting for the market to mature thing.

      Other than the IPod?

  5. I understand now! by tuxter · · Score: 2, Funny

    10. Release buggy media centre
    20. Fuck the concept up totally
    30. promise "updates" and "Fixes"
    40. release shoddy bugfixes and overpriced adapters/tuners etc.
    50. profit
    60. goto 20

    1. Re:I understand now! by MisterLawyer · · Score: 1

      What? You lost me after "centre." Oh, look... shiny ad banner...

    2. Re:I understand now! by piquadratCH · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nah, Creative stops usually at 30

  6. These have been out forever. How is this new? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I don't understand how this is even making news.. Archos and iRiver have had their little multimedia players that work just like this, if not better for well over a year now. They've been sitting on the shelves at Best Buy and every other major store ..

    Come on already.. Whats next, Creative Labs will make a digital camera and it'll be big news because it'll be the first one ever?

    1. Re:These have been out forever. How is this new? by gruntled · · Score: 1

      This is new because of the digital rights managment built in to the Creative Labs product. The idea is that content developers will release specialized versions of their products for devices like this because the property owners can be "assured" that their wares will not be redistributed. This relieves the user of the need to understand how to reconstitute media into a form that will run on the device. It will be interesting to see whether this approach is successful, but I see a real chicken and egg problem here: IP owners won't create specialized content for a small market and consumers won't buy crippled devices without content available.

  7. Man double-tee-eff by maelstrom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is Microsoft paying you to whore this device? How about some stories on MythTV or something. Go back to your roots /.

    This is getting tired.

    --
    The more you know, the less you understand.
    1. Re:Man double-tee-eff by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      I agree. /. is getting worse and worse as time goes by. I wonder what effect their decline is having on subscription revenues?

    2. Re:Man double-tee-eff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps if MythTV had released a version since May, it would get more coverage...

    3. Re:Man double-tee-eff by kfg · · Score: 1

      Is Microsoft paying you to whore this device?

      Why pay when after a couple of beers they'll give it away for free?

      KFG

    4. Re:Man double-tee-eff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *Glares at text:
      "TV shows can be bought for $10 to $15." Oh Gee Thanks! Only $10-15 to buy a 22-minute show? Excuse me but the makers of the shows have already made tons of profit and I think that price is at least 500% to high. What's worse is the fact that it comes with a license that will probably disappear when you copy it back to your computer after a virus/reformat/etc. I really like the part where they say that if you buy it for your PC for only $.99 you can buy it for this handheld too. Where are these people so I can violate their rights as much as they are trying to violating mine (they are doing a darn good job at setting a precedent here so I urge you all to not buy this)? I have the right to back up data and I may use the backup as long as both copies are not being used at the same time. Microsoft go to virtual hell and take all the other sleazes with you.

  8. My kind of thing. WAIT NO DivX? by psyburn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I listen to music all the time and have my own collection of movies I like to play on the go. Sounds like a great device. The my wallet gives a reality check. At $500, I think a cheap $800 Dell or PCClub laptop would do more for me than the PMC. Except for the boot time and battery life, I would love to have one in a heartbeat....

    --
    This was brought to you buy the Department of Redundancy Department
    1. Re:My kind of thing. WAIT NO DivX? by DAldredge · · Score: 2, Informative

      The large media corps that help decide nextgen dvd standards do not like DIVX and Microsoft doesn't want to piss them off. Microsoft need to grow and having every dvd player maker on the planet pay them money will help them do that.

  9. It's useless by News+for+nerds · · Score: 3, Informative

    if you don't have Windows XP Media Center Edition to sync.

    1. Re:It's useless by AlexMidn1ght · · Score: 1

      From TFA...

      Sync: After you run the Portable Media Center Setup disk, you are ready to add music, videos and pictures to your Portable Media Center using Windows Media Player 10 and a USB 2.0 cable.

    2. Re:It's useless by ptorrone · · Score: 1

      you don't need a media center pc, all you need a tv tuner / recorder on a xp machine (for now) and windows media player 10. that said, as i said in my review, it's not that interesting unless you record craploads of tv (and a media center does make it easier). technically, you could record with mythtv or whatever and get it to the device, it shows up a har drive and you could just send the files over (if they're wmv).

    3. Re:It's useless by News+for+nerds · · Score: 2, Informative

      In "useless", I mean all metadata of recorded TV material, which is the juicy part of sync, is lost, if you don't have Media Center PC. MS can't to it without giving Windows XP Media Center Edition some superiority over other products out there. It's natural thing for corporations as Apple does with its FairPlay tech and toward Real's hack, but it's still grain of salt to users.

    4. Re:It's useless by ptorrone · · Score: 1

      agreed, but here's something i found out---all the major tv tuner and recorder hardware and software vendors have annouced support for the portable media center, so in theory all the meta data is all there. i thought it was odd for microsoft to do that, but it's just adding meta data to windows media videos and encoding them at 320 x 240 / 500 or 800 kbps and whatever sound-- no it's not like they care, they may make more on pmc licenses than media center xp licenses. i haven't tried this myself yet so it could all suck or be cool, once i do i'll post about it.

  10. Very limited list of supported formats : ( by AlexMidn1ght · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the article:
    " Supported digital media file types:
    Windows Media Video and Photo Story files (.wmv, .asf) at a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and at a bit rate less than 800kbps
    Windows Media Audio files (.wma)
    MP3 audio files (.mp3)
    JPEG image files (.jpg, .jpg, .jpe, .jfif)

    Compatible with:
    Windows Media and Photo Story files (.wmv, .asf) at a resolution higher than 320 x 240 pixels and/or at a bit rate higher than 800kbps
    Microsoft Recorded TV Show file (.dvr-ms)
    MPEG movie file (.mpeg, .mpg, mpe, .m1v, .mp2v, .mpeg2)
    Windows Video file (.avi)
    Windows Audio file (.wav)    "

    But seriously, what is the difference between "supported" and "compatible" in their marketing lingo?

    1. Re:Very limited list of supported formats : ( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Supported means you can call and go round and round in circles with their under educated and under motivated tech support.

      Compatible means they hang up on you.

    2. Re:Very limited list of supported formats : ( by ptorrone · · Score: 2, Informative

      i'm pretty sure "compatible" means it can convert the file the file to play, while supported is native on the device. based on my use of the device that seems to be accurate.

    3. Re:Very limited list of supported formats : ( by AlexMidn1ght · · Score: 1

      Thanks! Seems more logical now. The compatible formats are the ones the sync tool will convert without any trouble and the supported ones are native to the player.

      I have to admit, I didn't know these new gadgets even needed to convert the files to play them! I understand with a PDA running PalmOS but shouldn't these puppies play virtually everything like most audio players do?

      Makes me wonder how the other portable video players work. The details on the AV400 from Archos are a bit sketchy. Does it need to convert all the video files like this one? They really should find an easy way to add codecs like any normal PC!

    4. Re:Very limited list of supported formats : ( by ptorrone · · Score: 1

      i agree, it would be easier if all these players just played whatever your threw at it. but i think it comes down to cost of the decoder chips and costs to license decoders. for example, you can make a desktop mp3 player that plays on your computer for free and sell it, but if your player runs on a portable device you need to pay a fee to the mp3 folks. i'm pretty sure most players convert some of the files and can't play everyting (yet).

    5. Re:Very limited list of supported formats : ( by SilentChris · · Score: 1

      May as well add DivX, OGG and others to the compatible list. The first thing I'm doing when I get one of these is hacking it.

  11. Sucks by LowBrow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My crystal ball is telling me we will be seeing the same comments from yesterday...and this lack of media center still sucks.

    1. Re:Sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      What's the resolution on your Crystal Ball ?
      Can it Play DiVX ?

  12. Personally... by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1
    Personally, I'm less interested in M$'s new media player than I am in finding out how much money M$ has ponied up to have this much press on Slashdot.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  13. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  14. covert advertisizing? by nchip · · Score: 3, Informative

    I agree.

    Atleast they could mention that there are several NON MICROSOFT portable media players out there too:

    Iriver pmp-120

    Archos gmini400

    When you have several articles touting A less featured microsoft/creative model without mentioning alternatives, sounds like advertisizing indeed.

    --
    signatures pending - ansa@kos.to - (dont mail there)
  15. ``Is it legal?`` by mqx · · Score: 2, Informative

    ``Seems like it falls under fair use, but depending on who you ask and what time of day it is, it may not be. So be smart. We don't think recording a DVD for personal use you own to a device you own should ever be considered illegal, but these are odd times folks and we're not giving you legal advice.``

    Just to be clear: this is not legal according to statutory copyright law, and it is unlikely that the DVD license gives you permission to do it. It would be really nice if it _was_ legal, but unfortunately it isn't. Whether you'd get caught is another issue (considering how many people transcode CD's to MP3 for personal use ...).

    1. Re:``Is it legal?`` by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just to be clear: this is not legal according to statutory copyright law

      According to the letter of the statute, I suppose you're right, but I was under the impression that
      (A) time shifting,
      (B) personal use backups, and
      (C) format shifting
      were all legitimate fair use exemptions upheld by the U.S. courts in various decisions (the most famous being the Betamax one which established A).

      Am I wrong about format shifting?

    2. Re:``Is it legal?`` by mqx · · Score: 1

      "According to the letter of the statute, I suppose you're right,"

      I know I am right.

      "(A) time shifting"

      This is allowed, and in some countries (e.g. UK) codified in statutory law rather than just relying on case law precedence.

      "(B) personal use backups"

      This only applies to computer software, not digital media.

      "(C) format shifting"

      This does not apply, other than where format shifting is necessary part of using the work (i.e. conversion from MP3 codec into digital bits for the transducer in the speaker), and not where it starts to constitute a new work, or a new economic use for the work (e.g. format shifting from a CD to MP3 to use on your MP3-walkman).

    3. Re:``Is it legal?`` by AdamGott · · Score: 1

      You have neglected to mention the DCMA which makes any form of copying dvd's illegal. A tech sight devoted to the latest gadgets should be well versed in this topic! As for statutory copyright law, it is not as black and white as you make it out to be. I am unaware of any successful prosecution in this matter (not that I claim to be all knowing) and any such case would surely have made big headlines. In fact, it is my understanding that high courts in the US have almost always routinely ruled in favor of the end-user when it comes to fair use rights.

    4. Re:``Is it legal?`` by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you saying that ripping CDs is illegal? How does iTunes still exist then?

  16. buggy code (I understand now!) by bsy_at_play · · Score: 1

    you got lines 50 and 60 swapped.

    --
    beware syntactic cavities
  17. Sigh, not even reading the headlines anymore by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 1

    The ones you mention, and I am fairly certain iRiver one is not out yet, are NON-MS-windows media players. This is the first Microsoft windows media player. Does that explain it to you?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  18. Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    People like you are the reason I don't buy Apple. Let me break this to you: Steve Job isn't god. Apple isn't the only company with good idea's.

    Your message sounds awfully like the article where many slashdotters pronounced that the iPod wouldn't sell. Except your's is the same message from the other side.

    1. Re:Damn by dcstimm · · Score: 1

      yes your correct, steve jobs is not god, but he sure knows what he is doing. Apple has made some AMAZING products, products that sell and that people drool over because of the design, simplicity, eligance, and much more. What other companies do what Apple does? They make their own OS, Hardware, they Support it, they are in almost every major computing field. Hell gateway, dell, Hp, none of them have their own OS, and none of them are as creative as apple.

      --
      keanmarine.com
  19. Cost of device+cost of XP media edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With XP costing upwards of 200 or more, this
    device is now $700. No thanks, I'd rather get a cheap laptop one a couple years old would suffice)
    with built in DVD-ROM drive.

  20. Re:Meidaplayeeeeeeee by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I fell off my chair laughing at the last line.

    Thanks man, you made my day, although you didn't mean to ;-)

  21. I thought it read by CameronWolf · · Score: 1

    Moron, The portable media centre

  22. Credit where credit is due by Cauchy · · Score: 1

    I think many of y'all are missing the point. Yes, in a purely price vs power arguement, get a laptop. However, the same arguement could be made about high end PDA's as well. I have a notebook already. I have a high end PDA as well. They serve different purposes. The fact is, these portable video things have several advantages over notebooks:

    1) They are small.
    2) They are portable.
    3) They have longer battery life.

    Yes, it is a M$ product, and yes, Archos and RCA way beat them to market. But, these new devices simply show a maturing of the product type, and they will get better for having more competition. Heck, it looks to me like between the PMC's and the AV400 line, they are starting to become a mature and useful gadget, and I'm all about my gadgets.

    I am surprised that people are missing the utility of combining these devices with a Replaytv unit. It is very easy to download recorded tv from Replaytv. I do it all the time to watch on airplanes. Some form of personal video thingy would be great as it is smaller and last longer---I get less than 2 hours watching shows on my notebook.

    As for the price, it is inline with other similar devices. Heck, the RCA units are still selling for $400, and they are garbage by comparison. Is Thompson bringing out a new product? Besides, cost is all relative. It depends on how much money you have, and how much you want it.

    1. Re:Credit where credit is due by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      ...and I'm all about my gadgets.

      Heh heh, me too!

  23. This whole review is just an ad for MCP by kryptkpr · · Score: 1

    Speaking of downloading movies and TV from the web, here's something we noticed. While we'll often hunt for a movie or TV show on BitTorrent, it's usually faster to just use the Media Center PC guide and search for a movie or show. With 200 channels on cable there's a good chance what you're looking for might be playing somewhere soon. Then we just set it to record and automatically transfer it over to the PMC.

    They can keep their PMC/MCP and other Windows Media enabled garbage. I'll stick to my BitTorrent, MPEG(1|2|4) and XBox Media Center setup where what I want is either downloading right now, or will be downloading soon, regardless of when it's on or if that channel is available to me or not. Not to mention in 10 years, I'm pretty sure we'll still have MPEG decoders.. I can't say the same about WMP and it's array of codecs.

    --
    DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
  24. Copy DVDs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The Portable Media Center is officially shipping today, along with announcements of more TV Tuner and recording hardware. The NYTimes covers some of this and Engadget has an in-depth review with photos, screenshots, videos and how to convert DVDs to play on these devices."

    Could we be seeing a future story where the MPAA files a lawsuit under the DMCA against Microsoft by I can just see it now, old man Jack Valenti vs Bill Gatus of Borg. If this goes through, then hopefully that could mean a repeal of the DMCA.

    Yes, I know, wishful thinking. :(

  25. advanced gameboy and psx by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    i think this idea will do well. the screen size is a bit small and you could increase the size, but i currently play with my advanced gameboy more than my ps2 and gamecube. That tiny screen doesn't bother me at all. Certainly, you could connect these things to your larger tv or in my case dlp lcd projector.

    And as for the pvp being larger than your pocket, my gba fits in my pocket, but I never put it there, it's necessary to not detract from the jewels in my case ;D

    I take my gba and put it in my bag. I'm a "girlie man", so putting too many things in my pockets makes me look bottom heavy, like i have big hips or something--frightening!

    I see a large use for these things in terms of having an operational small lcd screen that you can lug with you everywhere. It's basically a replacement for your laptop. Where can it be applied? How about you get a small gps unit for it and use it in your car? I think it's great for planes and subway, it seems the battery life is better because this thing is streamlined for media, not other compute methods.

    The only problem is that ms is on that thing. Freescale actually makes G4 processors for Apple, I think I hear an apple rumor coming. But these arm processors are used more in embedded devices.
    I just want to see some type of embedded linux on there instead of embedded windows.

    Good potential. Imagine downloading the news to watch at your office and then watching on the 1 hour nj transit ride home. Oh the potential!

  26. You're not confined to the tiny screen. by huchida · · Score: 2, Informative

    One feature that most people seem to be missing: it has video out. You can load movies from your computer and connect it to your TV. Or take it with you and use it on a friend's. Much quicker than burning DVDs, much less complicated than connecting the computer to the entertainment system.

    1. Re:You're not confined to the tiny screen. by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 1

      Much lower quality, too. Given the slow transcoding, I'm not even sure that copying video to a PMC is faster than burning a DVD.

  27. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  28. TiVo by lostchicken · · Score: 1

    This just flat isn't going to work until it syncs with a TiVo.

    Apple seems the best company to be able to make one of these sell. If they sold a video iPod that would sync with a TiVo, it'd just sync the higest rated x gigs of unwatched video whenever the iPod went into the TiVo cradle. This would be when the sort of device works. It'd be wonderful for people in the northeast with a long train commute every day. Or places in Europe. Make it simple, have it work with a TiVo, then this will take off.

    --
    -twb
    1. Re:TiVo by Cauchy · · Score: 1

      It can take content from a Replaytv. Tivo is not the only DVR out there. And, Replaytv's ability to transfer video files is, IMHO, the kicker that makes it much better than Tivo.

    2. Re:TiVo by geordieboy · · Score: 1

      God, I just read that as the highest rated X[XX] gigs of unwatched [hardcore filthy animal porn] video. What is wrong with me? Arrghh

      --
      The world is everything that is the case
  29. Headlines dont say ANYTHING about MS. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps YOU need to read them. The headline is as generic as it comes "Look a portable media center!! Look!" --- As I said, yeah, they've been out for freaking ever. What was your point again?

  30. Multimedia PDAs by TomB2 · · Score: 1

    I find it very strange that none of the techs here have mentioned multimedia PDAs in this discussion. Microsoft's own PDAs are half the size, weight and price of their PMCs with just about the same video and audio functionality since 2000. With any of the current models starting at $200 (Dell Axim X30) you can now match performance in every way including framerate. As far as the smallest size and weight, how about the shirt pocket-sized iPaq 1945 at $220?) Why would anyone pay over twice that for a brick that is only limited to media playback?

  31. Super Last Post! by mr+i+want+to+go+home · · Score: 1

    What a stirling effort!

  32. I returned mine less than 24 hours after buying it by DougDew · · Score: 2, Interesting

    On Thursday afternoon I bought one of these PMCs from Best Buy. On Friday morning I returned it.

    I returned it because, plain and simple, it sucks.

    Before I explain some of the ways that it sucks, let me first say that I bought the PMC on Thursday in exchange for a misbehaving 40GB 4th generation iPod. I loved the iPod, but was concerned that the iPod had stability problems. Having gone through two unstable iPods, I thought, "What the Hell, maybe a Microsoft/Creative device could work" and so decided to give the PMC a try. Within a few hours of trying I concluded that I would rather have an unstable iPod than a sucky and almost unusable PMC. So, when I returned the PMC I exchanged it for another iPod.

    Anyway, here are some of the problems that I found with the PMC:

    1. The PMC is very large and bulky compared to an iPod. In fact, the unit is large enough that you'll have to wear very loose-fitting pants in order to carry the unit in your pocket. And the unit is too heavy to carry in your hand for a long period of time.

    2. Installation of the battery is needlessly hazardous to the unit and is needlessly annoying. Before installing the battery, you must adjust a tiny, delicate on/off switch within the battery compartment to the "on" position using whatever small tool that you might have sitting nearby. If you're not careful you could *easily* break the switch by pushing too hard on it. Also, if you don't have a small tool (e.g. a jeweler's screwdriver) sitting nearby then you're not even going to be able to start using your unit. I was fortunate as after a few minutes of scrounging around I was able to find a jeweler's screwdriver. Had I not found a tool I would have been pretty pissed off. My iPod didn't require any such silliness.

    3. The unit's buttons have a cheap feel to them. The "Back" button not only feels cheap, but is too far recessed into the casing to be easily used. In gneral, I'd predict that because many of the unit's buttons protrude from the unit and are so cheap that they would not survive normal everday wear and tear.

    4. The unit's size and buttons make it impossible to operate the unit with just one hand. This is unacceptable for common everyday usage where one of your hands might be holding a cup of coffee, a newspaper or a cigarette.

    5. The top (user facing) half of the unit is made of glossy black plastic and therefore shows fingerprints a lot. Within a few seconds of being handled the unit no longer looks new and instead looks kind of gross.

    6. The unit completely lacks the sexy, cool appearance of an iPod. If I were a Mac user (I'm a Windows and Linux user), I'd probably say that the PMC is to an iPod as a generic Wintel desktop box is to a Mac G5 desktop box. The unit looks like one of those things designed by someone who has no sense of style.

    7. The directions claim that you should charge the battery for *sixteen* hours before first use. Sixteen hours is a long time to wait before taking a new toy for a walk.

    8. Although the unit's UI seems to be easy to figure out, mostly this seems to be because the feature set of the unit has been dummed down to the point that the unit doesn't do very much besides play songs and movies. Given that the unit is running Windows CE.NET (v4.2 I think) I expected the unit to be loaded with PIM applications and such. But, there don't seem to be any such applications. The iPod provides such things as tasks, calender and notes viewing applications. I had expected the PMC to be more functional than the iPod, not less. In fact, I had expected to be able to write .NET Compact Framework apps for the unit, but there doesn't seem to be any provision in the unit's UI (i.e. no "Start" menu) for running custom apps.

    9. Windows Media Player 10 is required in order to synchronize the PMC with your PC. WMP 10 is bad in several ways. First, WMP 10 is still in beta. That's right. In order to get music onto your new $500 PMC, you're going to have to use beta software. Than