Portable Media Player or Enclosure buying guide
About PMP (Portable Media Player)
There are so many PMP (Portable Media Player) selling in the market, and most of them are made in China, people will buy it because it is cheaper than branded PMP, and the features are much more powerful, here are some tips for you to choose a right PMP/HDD enclosure if you planning to get one, and watch those media file from your LCD TV in your living room without have to turn on your PC, or convert the media files and burn into DVD.
The Good
- Support to play lots of media file types like : .mov, .avi, .flv, .rmvb, .rm (most of the china brand PMP support these format), .mp4, .mkv, .wmv, mpeg 1/2, .dat, .vob etc.
(This is much better than iPhone/iPod touch/iPod) - Portable with LCD screen display.
- Support most of the image and music file types. Support to play music with lyrics file, play image slideshow with background music with random slideshow effect etc.
- Most of them are support TV-Out and came with composite cable or component YPbPr , AV cabl, VGA cable, or HDMI cable, depend which model you buy.
- Some came with IR remote control, USB cable etc. depend which model you buy.
- Battery is consider ok, most of them can last more than 5 hours playback, loud speaker volume, bigger screen, depend which model you buy.
The Bad
- The UI (user interface) usually are very simple and boring, some are really ugly, it is almost the same with those UI use in digital camera.
- Warranty are very limited, some are without warranty, use with your own risk.
- Bad battery quality, there are lots of complain about the battery, well, use with your own risk, but you may not able to sue them when something happen, because you can’t even find the manufacturer’s name from the box or casing.
- Firmware upgrade is possible, but difficult to find and do it by yourself. You need some basic knowledge of how to do it.
Buying tips
- Choose the one with TV-out, so you don’t have to look for additional cable or converter by yourself. Unless you don’t care it is support to play on TV or not. But if you do, consider those support YPbPr cable is better, because YPbPr support HD resolution playback on your LCD TV.
- Choose the one above 3.0 “inch screen size, actually 3.0″ is consider to small, i don’t think to watch movie on 3.0″ inch LCD screen is comfortable, 4.3″ – 5.0″ is the best!
- Choose the one with longer battery life, since it is portable device, i don’t think you are enjoying to watch a movie that need to separate into few parts when on the move and yet need to look for power source to recharge the battery.
- Better UI (user interface) may not in your consideration, but to me is very important, at least it must be easy to navigate and use, otherwise, i don’t want to refer to the user manual all the time!
- Expensive one is better? Not really, you should compare few of them, check their review from several website, video etc.
- Choose the one support lots of media file types, so you don’t have to look for firmware upgrade all the time.
- Choose the one with better chipset and RAM, otherwise, you may find some movie playback are not synchronize with the sounds, or jerky.
About HDD enclosure PMP
From my experience, Hard Disk Drive (HDD) enclosure Portable Media Player (PMP) is not really good, they have a heat problem, if you play more than 1 movie, it may stop playback sometime. It is better to buy those without Hard Disk, and support external USB hard disk/SD card/USB drive etc. Which is better, at least there is no heat problem.
The Good
- Same as PMP
The Bad
- The UI (user interface) usually are very simple and boring, some are really ugly. But still acceptable, of course, you can’t compare it with FrontRow(Mac) or Media Centre (Windows)
- Warranty are very limited, some are without warranty, use with your own risk.
- Without LCD screen, you can only play from your external display.
- Firmware upgrade is possible, but difficult to find and do it by yourself. You need some basic knowledge of how to do it.
Buying tips
- Don’t buy those support to insert Hard Disc Drive inside, this kind of player got heat problem, just look for those support external USB device will do.
- Consider those support YPbPr output or HDMI output is better, because YPbPr or HDMI support HD resolution playback on your LCD TV.
- Better UI (user interface) may not in your consideration, but to me is very important, at least it must be easy to navigate and use, otherwise, i don’t want to refer to the user manual all the time!
- Choose the one with control button on the casing, so that when you lost your remote control or broken, you can still able to control the playback from the casing.
- Expensive one is better? Not really, you should compare few of them, check their review from several website, video etc.
- Choose the one support lots of media file types, so you don’t have to look for firmware upgrade all the time.
- Choose the one with better chipset and RAM, otherwise, you may find some movie playback are not synchronize with the sounds, or jerky.
Somehow, we have to admit that a PMP from China is much more useful than those branded PMP.
