I travel weekly to another home, I expect to be doing it for at least another year, I have a computer set up and sync’d there, I’ve got clothes there, and I’m sick and tired of lugging my bag with laptop and assorted accoutrements through customs to the gate etc. Yes I am lazy. I don’t have an iphone, I have a BB, it has a small screen, and I am not getting the new BB yet with a larger screen. I lug my laptop so I can watch movies or listen to my music on the plane. This is where I catch up with various TV shows and movies that I downloaded, as I don’t have much time during the week to do that, and I’ve seen every damn thing on the plane 2 times already.
So I’m looking for a thin flat movie player contraption. Something wider than a 3-4" iphone size screen, but doesn’t meed to be large, smaller than an iPad is better. I’ve got about NT$ 5000 to spend. Thin is good.
Today at 3C I saw a thin flat thing, and when I asked her where the players were (nyuck nyuck nyuck sorry)… I saw an AIP mp4 PoS about 3.5" diagonal flat thing did everything I wanted, but too small. Anyone have experience or suggestions? Maybe something from Archos (don’t know where to get them) or a large Samsung mp4 player?
Philips has a couple of models, but I have no idea if they’re any good
shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=item … 1D&ROWNO=5
+'s 4.3-inch screen with 800x480 resolution, HDMI out, plays 720p files, 8GB can be upgraded with micro SD card. -'s files seem to need to be re-encoded as it only supports fairly low bit-rate video and simple profile MPEG-4 video, 3.5h battery life for video.
shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=item … 1D&ROWNO=1
No advantages over the other model except 5h battery life for videos, but lower resolution screen, but otherwise it has the same feautures
shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=item … 0W&ROWNO=7
iRiver, +'s 4.3-inch touch screen, micro SD card slot, supports a lot of file formats. -'s 480x272 screen (although this is good for widescreen content), still only support basic bitrates and mostly just simple profile which means re-encoding video.
There are of course plenty of local things like this shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=item … 2I&ROWNO=7
but I really don’t know if they’re any good or not, but the specs are impressive, especially for the money.
Archos doesn’t seem to have anything within your budget in TAiwan, as from what I can tell they only sell expensive tablets here at the moment, but they have some new devices coming engadget.com/2010/08/31/arch … s-we-go-h/
The 4.3-inch model doesn’t look too shabby for $200.
Thanks LS, I might try the iRiver or one of the local/Chinese brands. I’ve been watching the Archos stuff the past couple of months, I like what’s coming in the next iterations, but I’m not sure those engadget prices aren’t gonna double for the Asia markets, and they may not even make it over here for a few months after Sep-Oct. They’re current versions are having issues with the online apps store, especially since apparently most Android apps aren’t tablet friendly (only smartphone friendly), and especially with the 1.6 Android in the current systems (as opposed to 2.2 in these).
My next computer will maybe be a tablet but it aint gonna be an Apple - maybe a supposed Blackpad - and I’d prefer a good app store, a good touchscreen, and ebook reading capability for that, I’m thinking 4-6 months off at the earliest in Asia (maybe I can pick one up in Jan-Feb in the US).
The good Android tablet won’t be out until Android 3.0 hits as it adds real support for tablets.
I’d go for the first Philips out of the ones I linked to, although some of the local stuff “looks” impressive, but I haven’t actually seen any of it. There seems to be something of a shortage of decent devices these days as Apple has such a strong influence in the market that no-one else bothers to make something that isn’t pure shite.
Maybe it’s worth considering getting a new phone instead? Many of the new models are better at playing video than the dedicated players and you get a lot of other nice features too, but of course at 3-4 times your budget…
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]The good Android tablet won’t be out until Android 3.0 hits as it adds real support for tablets.
I’d go for the first Philips out of the ones I linked to, although some of the local stuff “looks” impressive, but I haven’t actually seen any of it. There seems to be something of a shortage of decent devices these days as Apple has such a strong influence in the market that no-one else bothers to make something that isn’t pure shite.
Maybe it’s worth considering getting a new phone instead? Many of the new models are better at playing video than the dedicated players and you get a lot of other nice features too, but of course at 3-4 times your budget…[/quote]
I definitely thought about a new phone, but my company gives me the blackberry and I don’t wanna carry two phones. If I’m gonna carry another device, I want something with a bigger screen than a phone. I had an iRiver a couple years back for mp3’s and it still works and the design is good. Little leery about build quality on the local versions, but I’m not gonna be a “power user”.
All right I totally screwed the pooch here. My topic title should have been > 4", not <3-4". I must have been staring at my johnson a-turtling when I typed it originally.
So you’re last link, and the Philips, and the iRiver for that matter, are all kinda small. I imagine sitting on the plane with my hand holding the thing and squinting for 3 hours. Which reminds me of most of my trips around Asia come to think of it…
How about a digital movie frame that can play mpeg, is that even remotely possible, or just silly?
They need to be plugged in in general which is a bit of a problem.
How about a portable DVD player that can play other stuff? Plenty of them around with both USB and SD card support. shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=stor … _NO=AFAD3A
At this moment there’s not much on the market in the 4"-10" (aka bigger than an iPod smaller than an iPad) segment, but wait literally 2 more months and you’ll be flooded with them. They’ll all be shit, but for only watching TV shows on the plane they will do the job.
If you can’t wait that long you’ll probably need to head to Hong Kong, or better yet Shenzhen, to pick up something as seen in the link above, although you might get lucky and find one in a dingy corner of Guanhua.
Just to follow up (for future searches), I ended up with the Ergotech UC903:
7" display (pretty huge compared to cellphone or iTouch), plays avi, mpg, wmv, etc, 8GB is holding 3 full length movies and Season 5 of Supernatural plus some music, and it supposedly displays PDF, which would make it a passable book reader, but my first test of PDF didn’t work (maybe I ingested it with Foxit, anyway…). Screen is real bright, tho hard to see on a sunny day, but works like a charm in the airplane and next to the pool. It’s real light and easy to use. Not touchscreen but simple controls hidden around the side. Feels real solidly built - whether it is has yet to be seen - and puts out HDMI/1080p to a TV. Powers and data with the USB socket, comes with a little stand, little earphones (I’ll use my own), a remote, a carry case, a few other knick-knacks, for NT$ 4990 at 3C - though it’s new, and only the Guang- Fu Xin Yi 3C had it as of last week.
This’ll tide me over a year til the blackpad or whatever, no worries.
