Portable Media Center - First Impressions

Michael Gartenberg | July 29, 2004, 06:03 PM

I've been using a pre-release version of the Creative Zen device for the last week or so along with the technical beta of Windows Media 10 running on the latest build of Media Center XP. Here are some first impressions. Remember, this is still pretty early stuff.

Overall, this has been a very positive experience. The device is 20gb, (there are supposedly 40gb versions in the works as well) half of which was taken up by my music collection. Transfer was seamless. I plugged it in and Windows Media Player recognized the device. I told it to sync all my music and it transferred just fine. I was able to sort by the usual methods of artist, album genre. Transferring playlists was simple and as a bonus I could see album art where available. Building mobile playlists was fast and easy. While the unit's a little big for jogging, it worked fine on the treadmill and plugged into the car. When playing music the backlight dims automatically. It was like using a iPod with a color screen but much bigger.

Of course, PMC isn't just about music. If it was, you'd buy the iPod. So here's how the other features worked. Photos were simple WM10 creates a category called my pictures and if you're photos are reasonable organized, you can just drag a folder, like "Disney Vacation" to be synced. When you sync, the files are transcoded to 320x240. Transcoding was quick, even on large 4 and 6MP files. The device played them back quickly and cleanly. It might be nice to be able to crop before sync but that's a minor quibble.

The real trick with PMC is video. PMC handles both video and TV content. If you use Media Center or a supported PC DVR, transcoded content goes into the TV section. All other video goes to my video. I threw a bunch of stuff at it including some downloaded content. DVDs I had ripped to MPEG and TV content I recorded with MCE. All ended up just fine on the device. A lot's been written about the transcoding process. While I won't call it speedy, it was reasonable and as good a solution that exists. Things that I tagged for sync transcoded in the background, so when I wanted content, it was ready to go. Video was sharp, clean and very watchable. The transcoder handled ASF, MPEG, MPEG2, WMV with ease. With 10gb free I was able to squeeze 31 hours of video onto the device using default settings. That's more than enough for most trips I think. Battery life was excellent. I got just under seven hours of continuous video playback with the backlight on and volume set to max. That will pass the coast to coast test for most folks. What's the downside? none really. Letterboxed films are a little small with the screen striped for TV ratio and not 16:9 but i find that annoying on my TV at home as well. The smaller screen just makes it more noticeable.

Bottom line, mobile video might not be for you and if so, ignore this post. If you have do an interest in it and have access to a Media Center PC (or other PC with a DVR) then you should take a look at PMC. While the price point of the first machines will be high and the real value comes when using with a PC based DVR that most users don't have, PMC is the most viable portable media player platform that does video today. While the market might not be as large for video as it is for audio, PMC does for video what the iPod did for audio. Makes it accessible and usable for more mainstream users and not just a plaything for uber geeks.