Microsoft Portable Media Center Reviewed

dhopton writes "The first public review of the PMC that I've seen is interesting. It's critical in places, but also praises. It also covers Windows Media Player 10 to some extent. Overall, I'm looking forward to reviews of the non-Creative devices."

DRM?

[russint]

DRM-Enabled media players? No thanks.

Maybe it's just me but...

[topham]

Maybe it's just me being paranoid, but, this looks like a setup.

I mean, poor english, no train of thought and a site with a single blog topic.

Sounds like Microsoft advertising department to me. (trying desperately to not be an ad).

Re:My favorite quote

[Anonymous Coward]

My thoughts exactly. He'd probably be more than happy to see Apple go out of business and have all consumers stuck with nothing but MS for their portable audio needs. That is the MS mentality though. Also you just know he could afford an Ipod but would never buy it soley because its made by Apple. Sad really.

Trying to be objective

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

This does sound like a neat toy, though it's portability would certainly be limited. The ability to load up video files and play them on any TV certainly is an attractive prospect -- but I would only be interested if it can play back non-DRM encumbered Divx/Xvid files.

Back to the portability issue, this thing looks huge, and would only fit in the largest of pockets. I recently picked up a Rio Karma, and really can't imagine walking around freely with anything much larger than that. Also, I wonder how long this thing can run on battery power. With that huge color screen, I would think not long. (though maybe the screen can be turned off)

Wait for the competition...

[jmcmunn]

I plan on waiting at least a few months after the holiday season to see what kind of competion is available next year. I have to imagine these devices will really catch on, and if I decide to get one, they will likely be a bit cheaper once their is lots of competition.

Also, things like quality of product will be at least partially available for review within a few months. Who wants to get one right away only to find out that 1/2 of all of them die or something?

Personally, I am just trying to get my iPod first! Help me out and sign up for a free one with my link. (not trying to be a spammer, sorry there really is content in the post...)

Mind numbing review

[IamGarageGuy 2]

That has got to be the most long, drawn out review for a product I have ever seen. How about not writing it like a book that involves your mothers TV viewing habits, and your walk to the store.

Re:Affliations put to the side

[cfuse]

Will people actually carry one of these around for their commutes? How much of an increase will we see in TV viewing? Will it contribute to the growing social isolation I'm beginning to see (a world full of people wearing headphones)?

Are people socially isolated if they read the paper or a book, or just stare blankly ahead a fixed point in space.

Isn't the real problem that other people are less interesting than music or reading and that it is socially unacceptable (generally speaking) to communicate with strangers without good cause.

multimedia?

[hdd]

all i saw in the gallery is nothing more than some wma/mp3 palyback screenshots. Where are the tv play back, wasn't that suppose to be the key feature of this device? or perhaps at least some divx/xvid riped movie? Pocketpc with intergated svga resolution and powerful 624 intel processor(powerful enough to play dvd riped move at full speed with no frame lost, confirmed on axim x30 high) will be out before holiday, as far as i am concerned, that will be my mobile media center, after all there are a lot more you can do with a pocketpc-GPS navigaion, for instance.

He must make the RIAA proud

[Anonymous Coward]

"Besides that, I'm just an average guy with an anything but average collection of digital media. Some stats I compiled about a month ago are pretty out there. I was sitting on a 204GB collection of music. That's approximately 44,190 tracks for the curious."

So that's about $80,000 of CDs (which of course he purchased legally, right?)...all college students should follow his example.

Re:My favorite quote

[jest3r]

Why even bother comparing a portable video player to the iPod? Oranges and Apples really.

In reality there is nothing special about the PMC OS. The Creative Zen PMC Player [creative.com] looks like a cheap version of the upcoming Sony PSP [playstationportable.com].

Either way you can't really call the Creative player portable ... its as thick as a brick.

Re:Maybe it's just me but...

[Anonymous Coward]

He worked at Microsoft as what? "Hardware and Software Beta Tester"? I mean, seriously, that's not an full time position--that's, like, downloading something off the beta site and um, playing with it...

Re:Maybe it's just me but...

[segfault7375]

From the Academic Overview of his site:

With the completion of the 8th grade in July 1997 I was taken out of the public school system in favor of private tutelage by my grandfather, a college professor in English and Comparative Literature, at the California State University of Fullerton, for over 40 years. My family and I agreed that the offerings of the local small town high school were limited, and would interfere with my growing professional responsibilities.

This guy is a smug little prick, isn't he?

Seriously, he is an overachiver if half of what he claims in the Academic section is true.

~Segfault

For an alternate view..

[jlouderb]

I'm pretty down on the PMC. I put my reasons together here on ExtremeTech [extremetech.com]. It's not a review, but I've had hands-on time with all of them (real reviewers are forbidden to post a review until the Non-Disclosure expires sometime in the near future).

Then, after being raked over the coals by Microsoft apologists, I revised my opinions. The PMC is actually a brilliant trojan horse that'll let Microsoft take over the porn industry! [extremetech.com]

jim

Re:It's a blog!

[IronChef]

I guess he didn't spend enough time explaining that afterall he did have to type out 204GB several times and count all his tracks in his music collection (44,190).

Whoa. I couldn't even get that far. I was skimming but I had to stop because I kept wanting to swallow my tongue and end it. Let's hear it for the weblog revolution!

44,190 music tracks? That is an awful lot of music to own legally. I am impressed.

Assuming that half that is legal freeware/PD music (like the stuff you used to be able to get from MP3.com, or stuff from your buddy's band), that still leaves a lot of music to buy. Or license. Whatever it is these days, I can't keep up.

Let's just say 21,000 non-freely-distributable music tracks... and a generous average of 15 tracks per album... That's about 1500 CDs to buy, and at a conservative cost of US$12 each we are talking about $18,000 in music.

I like music a lot, but not $18,000 worth.

I am more concerned with battery life and heat from the 400mhz XScale CPU.

This is the same CPU as in a Pocket PC. Heat isn't really a problem, that 400MHz isn't doing as much work (or making as much toast) as you would think. You can get a few solid hours out of a Pocket PC with a teensy battery, so if these things are bigger than a Pocket PC I would expect batterly life to be decent.

Cheap portable DVD player to the rescue

[computechnica]

Cheaper open way to go is to just burn MPG files to a DVD-RW disc and watch up to 8 hours worth on a portable DVD player. Most of the players out there can play MPG, JPG, and MP3s. I just bought one with a 7-inch screen for $299 that can also double as a video screen for a camcorder (VIVO). Now they just need to add DivX/XviD and OGG support.

before I go any futher...

[Kn0xy]

Is this a review of this guy's qualifications and choice in schools, or does he get on with the review after 3 paragraphs?