Hiya!
I don’t own a PMP. Oh, not for lack of trying, that’s for sure. It’s just that, after looking at the specs for, literally, a few thousand of them (my head hurts, and I’m probably gonna need glasses soon), I’m left with the overwhelming, and frustrating, feeling that the people that make ‘em all haven’t got a clue what the end-user actually wants. Looking at the other end of things, it also appears that most people are “settling for” whatever’s available that comes the closest to what they really want.
I think that’s horsepucky. (No, I’m not a redneck, but I figured I couldn’t say the word I actually wanted to use…)
Anywho, I’ve got some questions I’d like to ask, and some comments I’d like to share, if that’s ok with you. Grab a brew, pull up a chair, and join me in my quest for the ultimate PMP, and the notion that it shouldn’t cost a friggin’ fortune, even if we’ve gotta do it ourselves, piece-by-piece with superglue and duct tape.
I’ll add my questions in a bit, but first, let’s set the scene a little…
What would be the ideal PMP? I believe it’d be as follows:
1. It’d have to play the most popular formats of audio and media, from MP3 to Divx. RealMedia and Quicktime, though, would be illegal. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
2. It would not require any media conversion from original formats to something “compatible.” It’d just play the damn stuff as-is.
3. It would have black or metallic casing. Anyone attempting to order pastels or “happy colors” would recieve a cyanide tablet, and a coupon for 1 free visit from a guy named Guido, who would joyfully beat them ‘til their testosterone gland started working. Exception: Pink is allowed for girls (with no cute imagery, like kittens or daisies), but canary yellow would still merit a beating, regardless of gender.
4. Absolutely no aspect of the player would utilize or contain anything of a proprietary nature (as regards media playback, not unique company technology).
5. It would have a standard 1-4 GB of native flash storage. (see #6)
6. It would never contain an integrated HDD. (see #7)
7. It would allow for a user-chosen/purchased 2.5 HDD of any size or brand to be installed at will, within the unit housing, to be replaced and/or upgraded whenever the user wished. The HDD itself would not come with the unit, just directions to Newegg and maybe a gift certificate for ten bucks off and a free mousepad.
8. It would have a USB port. The USB port would allow for direct-play from an attached mass storage device, and not just be there for “loading” items from the PC to the PMP.
9. It would have a small viewscreen (LCD/QVGA/whatever works and doesn’t cause eye-strain). Apart from video playback, the screen would allow the user to visibly browse any attached device for choosing desired content to play/view, including all standard forms of graphic and text (TXT/PDF/DOC/JPG/and most importantly CBR (etc)). 😊
10. It would have a small bank of ports on the side or back, for piping in/out audio or video, to/from other devices (TV/DVD/Stereo/etc). (See #11 & #12)
11. It would have the capability to play media and have that media viewable/audible on other devices via attached line (or optional wireless attachment setup).
12. It would allow for attached media devices (eg. a portable DVD player) to play media and have that signal visible/audible within the unit. (In other words, if you’ve got one of those pocket-sized DVD players that looks like a walkman, the PMP would act as the viewscreen for it.)
Ok, there ya go. The basic “dirty dozen” checklist for the perfect media player. Now, here’s the ironic part. In my searches, I’ve found every single feature listed above, but never combined into the same unit. Keep in mind, this thread is talking about shirt-pocket sized PMPs, not notebook-sized portable DVD players that have similar stuff, with TV-tuners and gamepads. Hell, if somebody wants something like that, it boggles the mind why they wouldn’t just buy a nice laptop (for the same amount of money you can buy a decent one), and those’d do a lot more than most of those players, and have a much bigger screen.
Anyway, there does appear to be some consitancy with what gets left out. Most of the PMPs I’ve seen want you to convert the video to a different format, but some don’t. The really hard to find function is direct USB playback. Just about everything with a USB port wants you to use it to transfer media over to the PMP, so you can play it from there. If you watch the Chinese manufacturer’s sites, you’ll see a lot of stuff not yet for sale on the open market, and more of these features are being used, but still not all, at least not together.
As a poor schmuck, my strategy has been to look for disparate items that complement and work with each other to achieve the same end result, but won’t cost a fortune. For example, I’ve found what appears to be a pocket sized DVD player that plays just about everything natively (MP3, VOB, Divx, etc), and allows for audio/video output to another device, as well as actual direct USB playback. Doesn’t have any storage, though, nor a viewscreen. So, I’ll add a 2.5 external HDD to begin, and will cheat and buy a damaged (returned item) portable DVD player (looks like a notebook lid) that I can use as a monitor for it. 😊 I’ll be able to play virtually anything from disc or drive, and watch it on the screen or pipe it out to a TV or stereo. I’ll post an update on this combo after I’ve got the parts here and test it all out, but still, I can’t help but think a logical PMP, one that the makers took user desire into account for before designing, would be much easier!
Crap, I’m out of space for this post. Ok, let’s leave my question simply as this: Have you tried anything like this, or have you seen/used any items that come close to having all these features? I’ll put the coffee on. 😊
