Best portable media player?

I have a Creative Zen Portable Media Center which is ok, but the resolution is 320x200. What's considered the best on the market right now? My company does a lot of research on these devices and we want to get a really nice one to replace the Zen.

I saw Creative was supposed to come out with the Zen Vision, which looks more powerful that the original Zen, plus it does 640x480, but I don't think it's been officially announced.

 

[Juice Box]

**Obligatory Nik Response**

 

[Rallispec]

if i were in the market for something like that -- i'd grab a PSP.... If you need something smaller though, i have no clue.

 

[40Hands]

I have a GMini 400. Same size as an iPod, plays video, pics, mp3s, hooks up to a TV via RCA cables.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Rallispec
if i were in the market for something like that -- i'd grab a PSP.... If you need something smaller though, i have no clue.

Not nearly enough storage.

I'd wait for the Zen Vision. I also like the current Samsung PMC because it's small and on sale just about everywhere, but if you don't have a Mediacenter PC, you have to bother with converting to WMV. Plus, I'm pretty sure it also has a low-res screen.

I'd wait a couple months, there are a ton of PMPs coming out across Asia, hopefully, we'll see some of the cool ones rebranded and sold over here.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the GMini 400 is really sweet too, a bit small screen for video IMO though.

 

Thanks werk. I will take a look at those. The Vision looks great but Creative has yet to announce it.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: dwell
Thanks werk. I will take a look at those. The Vision looks great but Creative has yet to announce it.

Actually, they keep posting it on their site then taking it off again. They did the same thing with the 20GB Zen DAP (which most people don't even know exists!). Check out DAPReview for the latest PMPs coming out...every day I check out the cool sh1t they get in Korea, etc and say "no way am I buying one here until we get cool stuff like that."

Do you watch your ZEN on the subway?

 

[blazerazor]

Sony really screwed up by not putting a harddrive in the PSP.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: blazerazor
Sony really screwed up by not putting a harddrive in the PSP.

Too expensive as a standard feature. It would've been cool if it had some sort of connector for a "backpack" 1" or 1.8" drive. Encourages pirating too much for their tastes too, I'd imagine. Oh, and the PSP gets pretty lame battery life as well without a HD, could you imagine a spinning UMD and HD sucking power out of that battery?

It would be perfect though, if it did have a HD.

 

Originally posted by: werk
Do you watch your ZEN on the subway?

No, I don't really use it outside of the office. I just sync our content to it and see how the video looks. Transcoded it's a little choppy. It can't seem to play anything at a higher res than 320x200. No hardware scaling I guess, or I am doing something wrong.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: dwell

Originally posted by: werk
Do you watch your ZEN on the subway?

No, I don't really use it outside of the office. I just sync our content to it and see how the video looks. Transcoded it's a little choppy. It can't seem to play anything at a higher res than 320x200. No hardware scaling I guess, or I am doing something wrong.

What are you using for transcoding? And what's the source?

 

Originally posted by: werk
What are you using for transcoding? And what's the source?

I used WMP 10 to transcode. The source is a WMV at 640x480, 24fps. Our content is actually WMV DRM, but it does not look like WMP can transcode protected media, and sending it to the device unscaled plays uncropped and choppy.

I have been playing around with some unprotected stuff lately, same format and at 640x480.

What do you suggest to transcode?

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: dwell

Originally posted by: werk
What are you using for transcoding? And what's the source?

I used WMP 10 to transcode. The source is a WMV at 640x480, 24fps. Our content is actually WMV DRM, but it does not look like WMP can transcode protected media, and sending it to the device unscaled plays uncropped and choppy.

I have been playing around with some unprotected stuff lately, same format and at 640x480.

What do you suggest to transcode?

Weird. You'd think that it should be able to play just about anything you throw at it through WMP. Especially if the source is WMV as well! 😕
There are a bunch of transcoding apps for MCE machines, let me see if I can find one that has a regular windows frontend.