PVPs - Personal Video Players

[Russell]

I have only made a quick run through this site, but I have long awaited its arrival. I am curious, what PVP/PMP does everyone think is the coolest?

Gizmodo found a ton of them at CES.
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/more_from_ces_endless_personal_video_players.php

[Gary Sheynkman]

I definatly think that archos is the coolest because it allows for alot of freedom regarding whee you get your videos from...especially live TV

[Suhit Gupta]

Russel,
Unfortunately I had not heard of any of the players on your poll list. The only ones I have seen (both in my boss' ridiculously large pile of cool toys and at airport electronics stores) are the Panasonic and Samsung players. There is actually a really nice anthology of top PVP of 2003 in this article (http://www.i4u.com/article688.html). Of course, these guys have chosen to throw in some laptops as PVPs as well, so that perhaps changes the field significantly.

Suhit

[Jason Dunn]

This is one area I hope to learn a lot more about, along with getting some juicy hardware from some vendors. 8)

[Russell]

Russel,
Unfortunately I had not heard of any of the players on your poll list. The only ones I have seen (both in my boss' ridiculously large pile of cool toys and at airport electronics stores) are the Panasonic and Samsung players. There is actually a really nice anthology of top PVP of 2003 in this article (http://www.i4u.com/article688.html). Of course, these guys have chosen to throw in some laptops as PVPs as well, so that perhaps changes the field significantly.

Suhit
I have actually read this article before, and I thought it was kind of crap (no offense to your opinion). This is actually one area where I hope to be a big contributor on this site because I belive it is going to be huge. I don't know how many of you were a CES, but personal video players or personal media players or whatever you want to call them are going to be huge.

One of the big rumors out in the world of PVPs is about whether Apple is actually going to create some sort of video iPod. So far, all signs point to yes. A few weeks back, they had a job posting for a someone to help with a future consumer electonics. http://www.macminute.com/2003/12/19/videoipod. If you go to the posting today, it focuses only on audio. I swear it talked about Video last time I read it. Plus, Apple just happens to own Pixar Studios, and they definitely have their hand in the film industry cookie jar because of it. I plan to keep posting as much info on the PVP marketplace as possible.

[Russell]

Russel,
Unfortunately I had not heard of any of the players on your poll list.

Suhit

The Archos probably gets the most attention because it was the first.
The RCA Lyra - seems to have a better user design
The TAZ 1 - has yet to show itself on the market. My guess is that it won't be out until summer if they don't go out of business because they are a start-up. BUT, theirs is very promising comared to the LYRA and the Archos models because the TAZ 1 has removable 60GB hardrives. It also has a removable MP3 player.
The ZVUE! is really in a different space than these three because it costs hundreds of dollars less ($99). It uses flash memory cards where the others have hard drives. The market for the ZVUE! is teens and tweens.

[Suhit Gupta]

I have actually read this article before, and I thought it was kind of crap (no offense to your opinion).

None taken. Like I said, I have only seen are the Panasonic and the Samsung, both of which were quite cool. Unfortunately, they are both (small) laptop sized.

This article, even though it does a fairly lousy analysis of most of the devices, does mention all the major PVP's in the field, including the ones you listed :). Anyways, looking forward to your input in this field as I would love to learn more about them.

Cheers,
Suhit

[Gary Sheynkman]

Russel,
Unfortunately I had not heard of any of the players on your poll list.

Suhit

The Archos probably gets the most attention because it was the first.
The RCA Lyra - seems to have a better user design
The TAZ 1 - has yet to show itself on the market. My guess is that it won't be out until summer if they don't go out of business because they are a start-up. BUT, theirs is very promising comared to the LYRA and the Archos models because the TAZ 1 has removable 60GB hardrives. It also has a removable MP3 player.
The ZVUE! is really in a different space than these three because it costs hundreds of dollars less ($99). It uses flash memory cards where the others have hard drives. The market for the ZVUE! is teens and tweens.

ill have to disagree on the Archos. You cantrecord from TVs unlike the other ones. I think therefore it is superior...for now :wink:

[Russell]

ill have to disagree on the Archos. You cantrecord from TVs unlike the other ones. I think therefore it is superior...for now :wink:

I didn't say the Archos is the best. I don't think it is the best. What I said is the Archos probably gets the most attention because it was first. What I mean is that the media has written about it the most.

I don't think the Archos is the best by any means. For high end players, I think the Taz 1 looks very promising. For low end players, I would definitely have to go with the ZVUE!. The challenge with the Taz 1 is that it hasn't even hit the market yet. But, they have a pretty loyal following already.