personal media players

[cyberpunk]

I'd get the ipod just for sexyness factor, I have two friends with ipod video's, they are NICE, all I got is a crappy ipod mini. If I were to get another ipod I think i'd get the nano though, I'm obsesed with small form factor, also they got video to play on the ipod nano, just the screen is kinda small.

By they I mean people on the internet, IE most of the human race (Mostly the stuipid ones)

[UniTyler]

Originally Posted by john_childs

Portable DVD players are available now for very close to $100 (USD). They have a bigger screen.

That makes me shiver whenever I see the price of those things. A few years back we got one for about $500 for our road trip from here to Utah, and now you can get ones with bigger screens for $100. Maybe the one we got was really high quality or something, I dunno.

[habbywall]

Originally Posted by UniTyler

That makes me shiver whenever I see the price of those things. A few years back we got one for about $500 for our road trip from here to Utah, and now you can get ones with bigger screens for $100. Maybe the one we got was really high quality or something, I dunno.

yours is probably the same, its that when something comes out its really expensive.
as for me i have been looking at a 10 inch dvd player, the cheapest ive found it is 243 plus shipping, which would be fine for me, the only bad part is having to carry all the dvd's with you.

[ntappin]

Originally Posted by john_childs

I don't fully understand the need for video on a small portable MP3 player. I can see playing little clips of video, but watching an entire TV show or an entire movie on that little screen would be tedious. It seems to me that the utility of watching video on a little screen like that would wear thin after a very short period.

Portable DVD players are available now for very close to $100 (USD). They have a bigger screen. Most can also play CDs, and MP3s from CD. If I was going to watch a movie during a trip (long drive or a flight) I'd much rather watch the movie on a small portable DVD player than a little iPod. If I got tired of movies I could have it play MP3s or a regular audio CD.

The video for the little iPod and similar media players needs to be formated specially to be able to play on the device. Re-encoding video to be able to play on an iPod like device is not trivial. Re-encoding a DVD to play on an iPod is not trivial. I don't see normal people (non-geeks) going through the trouble to set up a batch process to rip and encode a DVD overnight. Too much effort and too technical for most people.

i dont know about the ipod but with the gmini the quality of the screen is such that although it takes a tiny bit of getting used to it doesnt bother me or my friends to watch it at all. i quite often will watch movies or tv episodes on my commute everyday. plus its great when i need a bit of inspiration while unicycling, just turn on my favourite video and my mind is full of great ideas.
also you can hook it up to the tv and watch whatever is on there without affecting the quality at all

[john_childs]

Originally Posted by ntappin

i dont know about the ipod but with the gmini the quality of the screen is such that although it takes a tiny bit of getting used to it doesnt bother me or my friends to watch it at all. i quite often will watch movies or tv episodes on my commute everyday. plus its great when i need a bit of inspiration while unicycling, just turn on my favourite video and my mind is full of great ideas.
also you can hook it up to the tv and watch whatever is on there without affecting the quality at all

Where do you get the movies and TV shows in a format that can be played on the gmini? Do you need to encode them yourself?

And what happens when the battery eventually dies? Is the battery replaceable?

[forrestunifreak]

I know nothing about MP3 players, but we have had two portable DVD players. One used for cheap, and one we later bought new at $150 because the old one broke.

Its nice, because I can (and do) watch Universe 2 and Defect werever, whenever I want.

[john_childs]

Originally Posted by UniTyler

That makes me shiver whenever I see the price of those things. A few years back we got one for about $500 for our road trip from here to Utah, and now you can get ones with bigger screens for $100. Maybe the one we got was really high quality or something, I dunno.

The price of LCD screens has gone way down in the last couple of years. But the screens on the sub $150 portable DVD players aren't that good. The more expensive portable DVD players have better screens and you can see the difference. The displays on the cheap ones are adequate. Next time you're at an electronics store go compare the video quality on the cheap sub $150 portable DVD players with the more expensive ones. You'll see the difference. But being able to get a portable DVD player for under $150 is neat and they're getting closer to the $100 mark.

[Gilby]

Look at the response rate numbers. This would affect fast motion video.


Depending on the store you go to, it's viewability in high light will be very noticable. One area I wish my pda was better with.

You may want to consider a pda. You can play videos of all sorts on it, ise it an an mp3 player. One disadvantage though is that it'll probably such up more power and need to be recharged quicker. Many pda's have CF and/or SD slots in them so you can put quite a bit of storage in them to store videos.

[johnfoss]

The current issue of PC Magazine has a very positive review of a handheld media player with a big, 640 x 480 screen. 3.5" or so? They really liked it. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was. I checked their web site, but the stuff on there is at least a few issues out of date (I guess that's how they keep people subscribing).

This site has some nice examples, but I don't think any of the ones I noticed were the one in this article. I assume it's just hitting the market.
http://www.pvp4u.com/

As for me, I have an iPod "Photo" which I got for Christmas last year. After playing around with it some, I no longer use the photo part, as you can't zoom in, it has to re-encode them for display (shrinking them to a reasonable size so more fit on the HD), and it had trouble displaying larger albums/folders. I do however use it occasionally as a place to download photos from my camera on trips (extra accessory required).

I am currently about to exceed the 40GB of space this device has for my music collection, but of course I don't need to carry all of it around all the time. Like the Christmas music, which is on there now.

iPods are not overpriced. You're not just buying a portable HD with some software and a screen. You're also paying for good looks, good function (though not everything other players do), and the best user interface out there. iPods are popular because people can figure out how to use them without being geeks.

Since most of us are geeks, this is not necessarily a problem. When I think of having a video iPod or similar, I imagine using it to show people all the cool unicycle video clips people put online. Yes, in most (all?) cases those would have to be re-encoded to play on the device. But the same may be true for many other devices, which may play WMV but not MOV, or MPEG-2 but not MPEG-4, etc. It will probably take a few years for this to settle down to a more manageable set of codecs and compatibilities.

Sorry I can't remember the name or brand of that cool video player in PC Magazine. Okay, Creative comes to mind... Maybe it's this one:
http://tinyurl.com/cof5q

[cathwood]

Originally Posted by Gilby

Look at the response rate numbers. This would affect fast motion video.


Depending on the store you go to, it's viewability in high light will be very noticable. One area I wish my pda was better with.

You may want to consider a pda. You can play videos of all sorts on it, ise it an an mp3 player. One disadvantage though is that it'll probably such up more power and need to be recharged quicker. Many pda's have CF and/or SD slots in them so you can put quite a bit of storage in them to store videos.

Yes, yes I agree. PDAs are ace.

I think I have about 2gbs worth of unicycling and juggling videos to play on my PDA. And some more for music. It's also my diary. I have word files on how to jump (not that it's done me much good). Today I was writing my essay on it. And now I work in England, an area of which I know nothing, my PDA with it's Sat Nav gets me to work each day and around the area when I need to go to other places.
I also have a few ebooks, including the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilology on there. And I store my photos to look at whatever I want. IF I get desperate, I can even play games on it, Bejewelled II being my all time favourite (at the moment).

I love my PDA, its just so versatile.

Cathy

[tendon]

For music downloads buy Replay Radio http://www.applian.com/replay-radio/
Anything your computer can tune into can be recored. After it is recored, (day or night), it goes into Itunes and you can sink to listen. I have radio shows being recored all the time on my PC and listen the next day in my car.

[johnfoss]

Another thought is the Sony PSP. Apparently those things can play video and have very high resolution screens. Plus I guess they're good for games or something...

[habbywall]

i already have a ds, so i don't need that.

[VersatileWhale]

i'm sure this won't get answered, but does anyone have the new video ipod? Reason being my dad got one for my sister and he wants me to put some videos and music she'll like on it. But i can't upload any video formats that arn't *.mov files. Anyone get it to work?

[Matt.Weston]

Originally Posted by VersatileWhale

But i can't upload any video formats that arn't *.mov files. Anyone get it to work?

You need to use a video converter, like Videora. I haven't used it personally, but I'm pretty sure my friends with iPod Video's use it