ok, so about a month ago i started looking for an mp3 player. the ipods look nice but i figured i could find something better for the price. i finally settled on the new samsung "napster" hd player and mostly liked it, but finally returned it 'cause it had major issues syncing with my pc - if the connection was made 10% of the time i was lucky!
then i started noticing all of these spiffy media devices that have color screens and play pictures and video. cool! i tried the iriver pmp-120 but wasn't impressed. the ui was ackward and lacked several key features, like the ability to run a slide show of your pictures. only plus was the very cool feature of being able to act as a usb host - plug in your digicam and download the pix. anyway, back it went.
next up is the creative portable media center. this devices seems to get the important things right - great ui, nice big screen, easy to use and it works well. sadly it is kind of big, and i'm not crazy about being forced to use wmp10 as the only way to get data to the device (tho i will say that syncing and adding content has been very easy).
now as i surf more i see more and more about the archos devices. this look pretty darn cool - more flexible download capabilities (just another removable device), more flexible media formats (i can load my pictures full-res if i want, then play with zoom and pan on the device), plus a built-in cf slot. seems like they thought of everything. i'm really tempted ... but i can't find 'em local. so if i buy it and don't like it i get to hassle with a return thru the mail and waste some bucks on shipping. also, there is the burning question of which archos - the av400 for a nice big screen but a bulky unit, or the gmini 400 for an awesome form factor and a great price ($330) but a pretty small screen. finally, neither unit has a great way to stand it up - actually kind of important to me since a major use will be watching tv shows while i pump away on the stairmaster/stationary bike/treadmill. i really don't want to have to hold the darn thing for an hour while i'm working out. so this is a major plus for the creative device.
anybody out there with hands-on experience, i'd love to hear your thoughts.
thanks,
joe
oh, and there's one more wrench in the works - i already own a pocket pc phone - does anyone know if these can play videos? if so it'd probably be smarter to just by a 1gb sd card and use that.
then i started noticing all of these spiffy media devices that have color screens and play pictures and video. cool! i tried the iriver pmp-120 but wasn't impressed. the ui was ackward and lacked several key features, like the ability to run a slide show of your pictures. only plus was the very cool feature of being able to act as a usb host - plug in your digicam and download the pix. anyway, back it went.
next up is the creative portable media center. this devices seems to get the important things right - great ui, nice big screen, easy to use and it works well. sadly it is kind of big, and i'm not crazy about being forced to use wmp10 as the only way to get data to the device (tho i will say that syncing and adding content has been very easy).
now as i surf more i see more and more about the archos devices. this look pretty darn cool - more flexible download capabilities (just another removable device), more flexible media formats (i can load my pictures full-res if i want, then play with zoom and pan on the device), plus a built-in cf slot. seems like they thought of everything. i'm really tempted ... but i can't find 'em local. so if i buy it and don't like it i get to hassle with a return thru the mail and waste some bucks on shipping. also, there is the burning question of which archos - the av400 for a nice big screen but a bulky unit, or the gmini 400 for an awesome form factor and a great price ($330) but a pretty small screen. finally, neither unit has a great way to stand it up - actually kind of important to me since a major use will be watching tv shows while i pump away on the stairmaster/stationary bike/treadmill. i really don't want to have to hold the darn thing for an hour while i'm working out. so this is a major plus for the creative device.
anybody out there with hands-on experience, i'd love to hear your thoughts.
thanks,
joe
oh, and there's one more wrench in the works - i already own a pocket pc phone - does anyone know if these can play videos? if so it'd probably be smarter to just by a 1gb sd card and use that.
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