More on the Portable Media Center

Kinda small but they will sell by erick99 · 2004-09-03 18:32 · 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

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Re:Kinda small but they will sell by themoodykid · 2004-09-03 18:41 · 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?
Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Nos. · 2004-09-03 18:44 · 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.
Re:Kinda small but they will sell by skiflyer · 2004-09-03 18:46 · 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.
Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Judg3 · 2004-09-03 18:50 · 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)

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Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Jeff+DeMaagd · 2004-09-03 19:20 · 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
Re:Kinda small but they will sell by Anonymous+Writer · 2004-09-03 19:40 · 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

iPod functionality in a convenient laptop size by vijayiyer · 2004-09-03 18:43 · 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?

No thanks by antikarma · 2004-09-03 18:47 · Score: 3, Interesting

Screen resolution: 320x240 pixels

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

Re:No thanks by Jeff+DeMaagd · 2004-09-03 19:35 · 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.

If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by The+Lost+Supertone · 2004-09-03 18:50 · 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.

Re:If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by antikarma · 2004-09-03 18:59 · Score: 2, Informative

You didn't get the memo?
Re:If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by Opticalsky · 2004-09-03 19:15 · 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.
Re:If Apple Did It It Might Be Worth It by Frankie70 · 2004-09-04 02:00 · 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?

I understand now! by tuxter · 2004-09-03 18:50 · 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

Re:I understand now! by piquadratCH · 2004-09-03 20:05 · Score: 2, Funny

Nah, Creative stops usually at 30

These have been out forever. How is this new? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-03 18:54 · 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?

Man double-tee-eff by maelstrom · 2004-09-03 18:54 · 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.

My kind of thing. WAIT NO DivX? by psyburn · 2004-09-03 18:55 · 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....

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This was brought to you buy the Department of Redundancy Department

Re:My kind of thing. WAIT NO DivX? by DAldredge · 2004-09-03 19:15 · 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.

It's useless by News+for+nerds · 2004-09-03 18:56 · Score: 3, Informative

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

Re:It's useless by News+for+nerds · 2004-09-03 19:54 · 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.

Very limited list of supported formats : ( by AlexMidn1ght · 2004-09-03 19:01 · 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?

Re:Very limited list of supported formats : ( by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-03 19:18 · 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.
Re:Very limited list of supported formats : ( by ptorrone · 2004-09-03 19:23 · 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.

Sucks by LowBrow · 2004-09-03 19:02 · 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.

covert advertisizing? by nchip · 2004-09-03 20:46 · 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.

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``Is it legal?`` by mqx · 2004-09-03 21:02 · 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 ...).

You're not confined to the tiny screen. by huchida · 2004-09-04 06:24 · 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.

I returned mine less than 24 hours after buying it by DougDew · 2004-09-05 08:19 · 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

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