Even On My H340 i never really watch any movies, sometimes some family guy and some por but really if im using the h340 its to music or radio... since ive always got a tv handy and well i drive everywhere so im not really a passenger
I usually listen to music when I commute or workout. For serious listening, I listen to a proper rig at home just before I go to sleep. Maybe this is why portable video doesn't appeal to me. Like SQ, I'm quite sensitive to screen quality as well, meaning anything smaller than a computer screen just isn't enough.
How does putting files on the ZV:M work? Does Windows see it as a usb harddrive?
Sort of. It's not a true UMS device like a USB thumb drive that shows up as drive "E" or whatever, though it does have the ability to segment off a user defined size chunk of its hard drive for USB data use only if you'd like. There are 2 ways to get media files to the ZVM. First, you can use Windows Media Player 10 or 11, which supports the device directly. I don't use WMP, so I can't comment on this method. Second is Creative's software called Media Explorer. This makes the device show up kind of like a USB drive, letting you drag folders around, but again you need the software to do this. You can't just plug your ZVM into a friend's PC and use it this way (though you could use WMP). For video, if the file isn't in a format the unit can play, it will attempt to convert it before transfering. This feature works, but there is plenty of other software out there that does this job much better.
I understand that Windows Vista is supposed to be able to support these types of devices natively, without using WMP. I'm still on the fence about Vista, but this is definitely an appealing feature.
Actually there's a third way, a shareware program called MediaMonkey (www.mediamonkey.com). MediaMonkey is a great program that fully supports the ZVM and provides rock-solid and troublefree syncs (unlike WMP or the Creative software) among a host of other features.
I keep meaning to check out MediaMonkey. Thanks for the reminder, ILikeMusic. I haven't had any of the stability problems I've seen reported with the Creative software, but it's certainly not as nice looking as MediaMonkey. I may even end up using the player function if its of good quality. As much as I'm trying to use foobar as my player, I'm continually frustrated by its lack of user friendliness, particularly regarding playlists.
I have an Archos AV500 100gb and love it to death! Being a gadget whore, this is probably my favorite. The screen is twice the size of an Video iPod or even the Zen: M. I download tons of TV shows and it plays them perfectly with now re-encoding needed. The video quality is excellent. Plus you never know when you will be in the mood to watch any of the Star Wars movies roadtrips. Plus there is an aftermarket triple capacity battery that can be had for $80.
I have had this player since January and it has been great for listening to music as well as watching videos thanks to its relatively great codec support (divx, xvid). It has good native audio codec support as well (recently added FLAC in a firmware update) and since its release, iaudio has been wonderful with firmware updates which have pretty much taken care of 90% of the things that reviews said the player was lacking. THe only thing lacking is a tag database, however it reads tags just fine. You just can't sort by etc and likely need to use a nice file system to organize your music or whatever. THis hasn't been a problem for me. There aren't many things this player doesn't do
Though the Archos has the ups on the Cowon for recording video I believe (this may have changed because I know the firmware updates aided in video capture alot), I took the A2 because of the features it had just seemed to seperate it from the pack.
The Creative Zen PMP was never an option for me once I read the negative reviews about its screen and such.
This player has definitely been nice to have along to watch movies and such on a few trips I have taken and is just down right handy to bring along to friends houses to use the video/audio out to bring along what ever movies you like and play them there. It also does work as a full USB drive which is an added bonus for carrying data and stuff with you as well.
I could go on for a while, but honestly I couldn't be happier with the A2.
http://www.iaudiophile.net <-- site for iaudio stuff and they have a nice forum section dedicated to the A2 if you want more info.
I thought I would use the video feature of my iPod 5G 30GB more often, but I haven't played a video on it in months. I pretty much use it only for music since it is a big hassle to convert videos over for it and the battery life when watching videos just plain sucks. As an audio player, especially with the Rockbox firmware, it's great, though. If I really want portable video I can use my iBook which gets better battery life for video and has a far bigger and easier to see screen.
full length movies? nah.
cartoon shorts? cool.
soap operas? loser.
short podcasts on various subjects? you gotta see the French Maids teach "how to make a video podcast." no kidding.
the best thing about this video is this: there's a giant world of video artists that are making some very interesting stuff out there, and it's growing exponentially. Our challenge, which we do every day with our music, is to find good stuff and avoid the waste. The amount of *free* video podcast material on iTunes is staggering. and subscribing keeps the content fresh.
Originally Posted by thomasmiller short podcasts on various subjects? you gotta see the French Maids teach "how to make a video podcast." no kidding.
In fact, that is a useful application. But.
- I would rather have that on a device with web-access like my phone
- It needs to show me interes...useful things. Like how to give CPR.
Originally Posted by thomasmiller
full length movies? nah.
--tm
Well, that's true.......if you have an Ipod. If you have a player that was actually designed to play video and didn't have the feature included just as a marketing gimmick, it isn't.
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