good portable player for video & music ?

26 Jul 2007 8:40 PM

Mad Scientist Jr

I am seeking a portable media player to play videos and music.

Here's what I'm seeking
* not a laptop -- something that turns on instantly and costs around
$200 (or no more than $400)
* accepts SD (the larger the better) and/or DVD-R, DVD+R (plays MP3s
off DVDs too), CD-R, CD-RW, etc.
* has a 7-9 inch screen - basically bigger than a video iPod's
* runs at least 3 hrs on battery power, has AC adapter also.
rechargable battery would be nice.
* plays LOTS of formats - MP3, DIVX, MPEG4, ASF, WMA, AVI, XVID, MP4,
MOV, OGG, WAV files...
* good MP3 interface (lots of DVD players truncate the song names, I
want it to display entire song/artist name on screen)
* video/audio out to connect to a TV or stereo would be nice (not
crucial)
* video/audio IN to connect video games or camcorders to (not crucial
but would be cool)

Can someone recommend any good models?

Much appreciated...

26 Jul 2007 9:30 PM

Mad Scientist Jr

The Cowon D2 looks pretty good - though I wouldn't mind something
bigger (like a 7x5" screen) that plays DIVX, ASF, MOV...
Also something that has analog video in and can record on a timer
would be nice.

The Aiptek DV8800 records TV pretty well, but you can't program it to
start or shut off at a certain time, and it records to ASF files which
don't play back on all media players.

On Jul 26, 4:40 pm, Mad Scientist Jr <usenet_daugh***@yahoo.com>
wrote:

Show quote

> I am seeking a portable media player to play videos and music.
>
> Here's what I'm seeking
> * not a laptop -- something that turns on instantly and costs around
> $200 (or no more than $400)
> * accepts SD (the larger the better) and/or DVD-R, DVD+R (plays MP3s
> off DVDs too), CD-R, CD-RW, etc.
> * has a 7-9 inch screen - basically bigger than a video iPod's
> * runs at least 3 hrs on battery power, has AC adapter also.
> rechargable battery would be nice.
> * plays LOTS of formats - MP3, DIVX, MPEG4, ASF, WMA, AVI, XVID, MP4,
> MOV, OGG, WAV files...
> * good MP3 interface (lots of DVD players truncate the song names, I
> want it to display entire song/artist name on screen)
> * video/audio out to connect to a TV or stereo would be nice (not
> crucial)
> * video/audio IN to connect video games or camcorders to (not crucial
> but would be cool)
>
> Can someone recommend any good models?
>
> Much appreciated...

30 Jul 2007 2:00 PM

Mad Scientist Jr

Well it doesn't have a built in screen, but the Mvix (MV-5000R)
Multimedia Center (w/LCD) supports just about every format under the
sun (except Quicktime MOV, Real media, and raw WAV files). And they
have models with up to a 750GB hard drive, or you can buy one without
and just add your own. It connects to your PC like a USB2 hard drive,
you xfer your music/video files to it, and then plug it into a TV or
stereo. It has a remote, and a built in LCD screen for song titles,
etc (so if you want to just use it with your stereo you don't need a
TV). Sweet!

Has anyone tried this? Is there anything else similar on the market
that is comparable?

On Jul 26, 5:30 pm, Mad Scientist Jr <usenet_daugh***@yahoo.com>
wrote:

Show quote

> The Cowon D2 looks pretty good - though I wouldn't mind something
> bigger (like a 7x5" screen) that plays DIVX, ASF, MOV...
> Also something that has analog video in and can record on a timer
> would be nice.
>
> The Aiptek DV8800 records TV pretty well, but you can't program it to
> start or shut off at a certain time, and it records to ASF files which
> don't play back on all media players.
>
> On Jul 26, 4:40 pm, Mad Scientist Jr <usenet_daugh***@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I am seeking a portable media player to play videos and music.
>
> > Here's what I'm seeking
> > * not a laptop -- something that turns on instantly and costs around
> > $200 (or no more than $400)
> > * accepts SD (the larger the better) and/or DVD-R, DVD+R (plays MP3s
> > off DVDs too), CD-R, CD-RW, etc.
> > * has a 7-9 inch screen - basically bigger than a video iPod's
> > * runs at least 3 hrs on battery power, has AC adapter also.
> > rechargable battery would be nice.
> > * plays LOTS of formats - MP3, DIVX, MPEG4, ASF, WMA, AVI, XVID, MP4,
> > MOV, OGG, WAV files...
> > * good MP3 interface (lots of DVD players truncate the song names, I
> > want it to display entire song/artist name on screen)
> > * video/audio out to connect to a TV or stereo would be nice (not
> > crucial)
> > * video/audio IN to connect video games or camcorders to (not crucial
> > but would be cool)
>
> > Can someone recommend any good models?
>
> > Much appreciated...