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View Full Version : Epson Announces the Epson Photo Fine Player P-4500


Damion Chaplin
03-17-2006, 05:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dpreview.com/news/0603/06031501epsonp4500.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.dpreview.com/news/0603/06031501epsonp4500.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Epson Japan has today announced the third iteration of its Photo Fine Player 'Multimedia Storage Viewer'. This new version sports an 80 GB hard disk (the same as the P-4000), the same beautiful 3.8" VGA LCD screen, SD/CF slot and USB 2.0 interface. Improvements include a new image processing system with support for images of up to 30 megapixels, wider RAW format support, wider video format support (including MPEG-1/2/4 and DivX) and new display modes (including grouping by EXIF tag). The P-4500 will cost 75,000 YEN (approx. $640) when it goes on sale in Japan."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/epsonp4500.jpg" /> <br /><br />While this does indeed look like a nice player, $640 is just slightly less than my camera cost in the first place! Personally, I think Epson should just give up and call this thing a media player. Give it full media player interface, and center the unit around the media - not the photos - and I think they would have a better chance at convincing people to throw down that much cash. It certainly would have a better chance with me. How about you?

Jason Dunn
03-17-2006, 06:42 PM
This isn't really aimed at someone who wants a portable media player - this is high-end photo storage/viewer unit with a (presumably) fantastic screen. Not the same market as someone who wants a Zen Vision for instance.

Lee Yuan Sheng
03-17-2006, 07:54 PM
You want a high-end product? Here's a high-end product. :P

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-7892-8176

Jason Dunn
03-17-2006, 08:16 PM
You want a high-end product? Here's a high-end product...

Wow, nice. :-)

Damion Chaplin
03-17-2006, 11:12 PM
This isn't really aimed at someone who wants a portable media player - this is high-end photo storage/viewer unit with a (presumably) fantastic screen. Not the same market as someone who wants a Zen Vision for instance.

Yeah, I wasn't saying that it currently is a media player, just that I think they'll sell more if they were to change its theme to media player rather than photo viewer. I mean, have you bought one? No one I know would even come close to buying one of these, even the professional photographers I know. However, I know a whole lot of people that carry media players.

Aside from the interface, they're virtually identical devices with virtually identical features, but one is marketed for the average joe to play audio/video and occasionally download photos to it and the other for the pro who fills it with pics and only rarely uses it for audio/video...