Steven Hughes Profiles Three New Portable Media Center 2.0 Devices

[Jason Dunn]

While I had some photos and spec sheets of these new PMC devices, Steven Hughes has done the work for me and profiled each device. Each device offers something a little different, but having Toshiba and LG on board means the PMC platform is around for the long haul. Check out the new devices...<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/bostonpocketpc-tatung.jpg" /><br /><br /><i>"Tatung is looking to move from their PC and Tablet based hardware and get into mobile consumer electronics with smartphones and portable media centers. The o*ne I got to see and briefly use at CES was the Tatung V620 Portable Media Center. A device similar to lasts years popular Samsung Yepp YH-999 20 GB Portable Media Center. The The Tatung V620 Portable Media Center offers a sizable 3.5” color QVGA display (320 x 240) and a similar storage capacity of 20GB. The Tatung will play 20 hours of audio or 5 hours of video o*n a full single charge and is using Texas Instruments DM320 MPU."</i> <a href="http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3030&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">[Read Post]</a><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/lg-pmc.jpg" /><br /><br /><i>"At CES I got to have some quick hands o*n time with LG’s first portable media center in the US, the PM70 Portable Media Center, which can record,store, and play music, videos, and photos.The 30GB drive can store up to 7500 songs,3000 music videos, 50 hours of TV/Movies or up to 45,000 photos. It’s 4.3" 16:9 ratio widescreen (finally!) makes it perfect for watching movies and built-in stereo speakers make for a better listening experience. This unit even adds a direct composite AV line-in for recording from various video sources and an AV/line out for external TV display. The LG PM70 PMC sports some pretty cool features besides its widescreen TFT LCD and 30GB HD, like 16 hours of audio /4 hours of video off of a full charge, TV out, camera in, SD slot,USB 2.0 port, built-in mic, and a cool built in kickstand in a very svelt package.</i> <a href="http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3028&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">[Read Post]</a><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/toshiba-pmc-gigabeat.jpg" /><br /><br /><i>"Toshiba had brought along a very competative, dimunitive portable media center to CES called the Gigabeat S Series Portable Media Center offering a vivid 2.4" QVGA color display and an extended storage capacity, so you can take your favorite digital media with you. Packing in a lot of features in this small casing (devoid of any labelling except for a black? windows Start button and Back button - probably due to being a pre-production model or going for a new look in that is so simple to use) besides having the standard features of a Portable Media Center to watch videos or TV, listen to music and download album art from o*nline music providers you can also tune into your favorite FM radio station with the unique FM tuner feature.The Gigabeat comes in a choice of colors and 2 storage options of either 30 and 60 GB HD capacities. The small unit sports a 20 audio/6 video hours of battery life o*n a single charge and TV out option for a larger viewing experience."</i> <a href="http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3029&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">[Read Post]</a>

[Felix Torres]

I really like that LG.
Give it a bigger HD and I'm in...
Better start saving for next Xmas...)

[Jason Dunn]

I really like that LG.
Give it a bigger HD and I'm in...
Better start saving for next Xmas...)

Yeah, I'm a little surprised that, given it's overall size, they didn't jam a 60 GB hard drive in that thing. That would drive up the price point, however, and I know that the vendors are leery of getting caught by the price point of the 1st gen units. We'll see - money says they'll introduce a 60 GB version before the end of the year.

[Jason Dunn]

I emailed a PR rep from Creative to ask them if they have a 2nd gen PMC planned for release, and this is the response I got:

"Creative has not announced a second-gen PMC."

Which is something we already know. Very non-comittal - in fact, she didn't even say the standard "We remain comitted to the platform...". Hrm. I wonder if Creative just wants to go their own way?

[Felix Torres]

I really like that LG.
Give it a bigger HD and I'm in...
Better start saving for next Xmas...)

Yeah, I'm a little surprised that, given it's overall size, they didn't jam a 60 GB hard drive in that thing. That would drive up the price point, however, and I know that the vendors are leery of getting caught by the price point of the 1st gen units. We'll see - money says they'll introduce a 60 GB version before the end of the year.

I hope so. My Riot won't last forever... ;-)

I just wish some of the designers would consider that using 2.5" drives instead of the 1.8 inchers gets you more capacity for a lower price *and* the room to use a larger screen.

[mcsouth]

I just wish some of the designers would consider that using 2.5" drives instead of the 1.8 inchers gets you more capacity for a lower price *and* the room to use a larger screen.

That would end up making for a much bigger, heavier and bulkier unit, though, wouldn't it? I would also have to wonder about the power dynamics - I would think that spinning the bigger platters would potentially result in a higher power draw, although that is just me speculating - I don't have any facts to support that.

While I'm not quite the tech gadget king that Jason is, :wink: I have owned quite a few different gadgets of my own over the years, and have come to some conclusions of my own - size and weight are a BIG deal to me. Ever since I bought my iPaq 1945, there isn't a day that goes by that it isn't in my pocket, ready for use (well, except maybe the beach, but even then it goes in the bag!). I happen to also have a Dell X50v, which I got for work - guess what, I hardly carry it with my anywhere - it's just too big to comfortably carry in a pants pocket or shirt pocket. It's big, even comparing just the unit itself against my iPaq in its aluminum case! The screen may be nicer, but that doesn't overcome the weight and size.

Considering that TCPMP runs just fine on my iPaq, and that transcoding movies using PocketDivx squeezes them down to about 250MB, I've been seriously planning on just buying a 2GB SD card or two, and passing on this next generation of units. Of the units shown, I will admit that the Toshiba unit is the one that caught my eye - small, portable, 30GB, and 6 hour movie playback (my iPaq is only good for about 1 movie, and it's lights out). However, I will wait and see until I can hold the unit myself, and see what the pricing really shakes out to before I get too excited.

[Felix Torres]

That would end up making for a much bigger, heavier and bulkier unit, though, wouldn't it?


Probably.
&lt;shrug>
But not all that much.
Even my "archaic" Riot only weighs 8 ounces.

Everything involves trade-offs and one size does *not* fit all.
I just wish designers remembered that not everybody wants to carry their music player in the shirt pocket or oh-so-trendy arm band; that a major place for listening to digital music is in cars, and that a few extra ounces is a fair trade for a larger, more visible screen and the ability to move to lossless codecs and still carry hundreds of CDs worth of music. To say nothing of saving enough cost on the drive size to double capacity for the same retail price.
Lets face it: some times you want a moped, but some times you really do need a hummer... ;-)