| Personal Media Players
Ian Bateman FRPS DPAGB
This article was written for AV News magazine in September 2005
Sooner or later with a digital camera, you'll find yourself running short of storage space. This is especially true for those who shoot RAW files, or on an extended holiday where it's not possible or convenient to pop into a shop to get files transferred to a CD. The options are to buy more storage cards for your camera, take a laptop with you, or buy a mobile storage device to download your files on to.
Last month I opted for the "storage device" choice, and have found that as well as its primary purpose it offers the AV enthusiast a whole host of useful extra features.
Originally these devices were known as "image tanks", and were simply a portable hard disk with a facility to download the contents of your media card. Recently however, they have been developed into gadgets called "Portable Media Players", and can do much more than simply store files.
There are many types on the market, with more being launched every month. The best-known device in photographic circles is probably the Epson P-2000. This has a 40Gb hard drive, a 3.8" colour screen, and can accept a variety of media cards. It can also display RAW files (actually the embedded jpgs), and play MP3 and media files. Altogether a classy product, and available at a shade under £300. |
Similar in style is the strangely named Dream'eo PVP E320, with a 3.5" screen and 20Gb hard drive. This one also has a stereo microphone input as well as an internal mike, and hence can be used to record audio.
It can be found on-line for as little as £200. I wasn't able to unearth one of these in a retail shop though, so couldn't assess the build and image quality. On paper, this unit certainly offers the best value, but ultimately I decided to pass on it purely because I couldn't see one in the flesh. |
The Flashtrax units have also proved popular with photographers, especially as file transfers from storage 
card to hard disk can be accomplished with a single button-click! It can also display RAW images and some types of video file. The quality of the screen, however, is poor and not a patch on the Epson. Battery life is also lower on this model than on most of the others. |
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Various new units have recently been launched, including products from Creative, i-River and Nikon. I trawled through lots of reviews before deciding what to buy, and found the best combination of features (for me anyway), 
value and reliability in the AV-400 from the French company Archos. This comes with various disk sizes from 20Gb to a massive 100Gb! They have also recently launched a new AV-700 series range, and will shortly re-vamp the AV-400 range with new styling. This means that there are some good deals to be had on the existing AV-400 range at the moment, typically starting at about £250.
It also doubles as an MP3 player, so plug in some headphones and the unit will keep you entertained on your travels! |
The unit measures 5" by 3.5", so is slightly smaller than the Epson, which makes it a bit more "pocketable". The screen is also slightly smaller and it doesn't display RAW files, but where it scores highly is in its superior audio quality. It has an internal microphone, but can also accept an external one and is therefore suitable for making digital recordings for commentary or ambient sounds. In common with most other units it has a built-in card reader (in this case Compact Flash), but other cards can be read by using an optional adapter. When attached to your computer (with USB lead) it shows up as an external drive, so file exchanges with your PC are fast and straightforward. What also sold me was its video recording and playback facilities. When attached to your TV with a SCART lead, the Archos can function as programmable video recorder, complete with remote control. Films etc can be recorded, stored and played back either on the LCD screen or on a connected TV. With third-party software it is also possible to copy DVD's to the unit as compressed DivX files, and build up a portable entertainment library to cater for rainy days on holiday! Using PTE's video export facility, it is also possible to convert your sequences to DivX files and play them back on the unit. This process is a little fiddly as it involves passing the sequence through several bits of software, but it can be done!
Not so long ago, showing a sequence involved setting up lots of heavy equipment in a darkened room. Now, you can simply hand someone a palm-sized player and ask them what they think!!!
If you're in the market for a PMP, your own choice will depend on which features you consider to be the most desirable, and a different unit may be the best one for you. Whatever you choose though, just make sure it's on your wish list for Christmas………
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