What's the Best Portable mp4 Player

[SeeleyBooth]

as title says really one of the new ipods as caught my fancy but are there any more you would suggest

[soulflyaway]

I think it really depend on the type of features you will need from the player. If you want one for music, video, viewing photos. There are many players out there. Recently Creative has also launched a new player the "ZEN". It looked pretty sleek and simple to use. It also has expandable memory which i think is really handy if you have many music and video files. There's a review for the player at http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/...?tag=cnetfd.mt

[FrankS]

Have a look at the Archos units as well. Also bear in mind that they all work on various codec's, not sure about the new IPod, but Archos unit's will work on AVI (DivX & XVid) files, WMA, AMV and MP3 and the newer ones will play MPEG2 (DVD) and Apple codecs with some plug in extras.

You might want to see if there are any particular codecs you want to play back.

Also so units allow you to record from an AV source, this is very useful.

[porker]

I think it depends how important video is to you, I am currently looking for a player myself at the moment and I have narrowed it down to a couple of units, the "Creative Zen vision W" and the "Archos 605 Wifi".
Both are 30Gb (Archos can also be had in 40,80 & 160Gb), are similar prices by the time you add the cost of the plugins onto the Archos and both have a 4.3" screen.
The Zen is said to have a much brighter screen to the 605, but the 605 has higher resolution and wifi. The Zen also has a CF slot, handy for offloading piccy's from digi SLR's like the canon.

I need mine primarily for watching movies, so I ruled the ipods out straight away ( classic -screen too small, touch - not enough capacity, expensive).

Hope this helps.

[alpine101]

I've got an Archos 605, nice little device and a bigger screen than my faithful old Gmini. Hoping that the 'to be released' 720p HD plugin isn't vapourware. The touch screen quality is excellent even in SD. I'd be surprised if the Zen is brighter than the Archos, since there's probably only one supplier of this size touch screen. The Archos backlight/brightness/contrast/gamma are all adjustable.
The 605 comes in 2 thicknesses, the 4GB and 30GB versions are thinner (15mm) than the ones with bigger disks (20mm). I've got the 160GB one, still quite portable!

[porker]

I have not seen either the 605 or the vision W so I am only reporting what other people have said regarding the brightness issue, but i know they are not the same screen (vision res is 480 x 272 and I do not believe it is touchscreen) so there could be a difference.

Saying this, I am probably going to get the 605 because of the wifi and the ability to plug a helmet cam into it.

[alpine101]

Originally Posted by porker

... i know they are not the same screen (vision res is 480 x 272...

Ah! No contest then...

[sneeks]

I bought a 605 30GB at the weekend and the screen quality is excellent. It really is a fantastic unit once you purchase the Cinema plugin in order to support more formats. I remain undecided on purchasing the Internet Browser plugin.

[jimnorth]

Originally Posted by alpine101

I've got an Archos 605, nice little device and a bigger screen than my faithful old Gmini. Hoping that the 'to be released' 720p HD plugin isn't vapourware. The touch screen quality is excellent even in SD. I'd be surprised if the Zen is brighter than the Archos, since there's probably only one supplier of this size touch screen. The Archos backlight/brightness/contrast/gamma are all adjustable.
The 605 comes in 2 thicknesses, the 4GB and 30GB versions are thinner (15mm) than the ones with bigger disks (20mm). I've got the 160GB one, still quite portable!

Hi Alpine

I'm after the 160gb but can't find them anywhere....guess you got it in the QVC special ?

[alpine101]

Originally Posted by jimnorth

Hi Alpine

I'm after the 160gb but can't find them anywhere....guess you got it in the QVC special ?

No, paid Pixmania price. Removed their attempt to get you to pay for their loyalty card from the order tho'...

[jimnorth]

Originally Posted by alpine101

No, paid Pixmania price. Removed their attempt to get you to pay for their loyalty card from the order tho'...

Ok Ta......not even showing on their site now. Will have to wait til next week when advancedmp3 should have them.

Was waiting for a Cowon Q5 but they're going to be silly prices.

How do you find the volume level from the Speaker?

[alpine101]

Originally Posted by jimnorth

Ok Ta......not even showing on their site now.

Will have to wait til next week when advancedmp3 should have them.

Was waiting for a Cowon Q5 but they're going to be silly prices.

How do you find the volume level from the Speaker?

It is on their site, next delivery 5th Oct they claim: unfortunately because it's a dynamic page, I can't give you the link, but just do a search for Archos 605 from their home page.

The onboard speaker is merely a token. It isn't something one would want to listen to. For one thing it's mono!

[sneeks]

I bought my 605 from Advancedmp3 last weekend. Very impressed with the screen quality but unfortunately the supplied USB cable is of no use. Whenever I plug it in to the player the 605 simply switches off. Thankfully I bought the DVR station and can upload files using that, I will visit the store tomorrow and test another cable.

[jimnorth]

Originally Posted by alpine101

It is on their site, next delivery 5th Oct they claim: unfortunately because it's a dynamic page, I can't give you the link, but just do a search for Archos 605 from their home page.

The onboard speaker is merely a token. It isn't something one would want to listen to. For one thing it's mono!

Thanks for the info.
The speaker is really putting me off this unit as I'll mainly be using it without headphones.
I used to have a 604 and it was so quiet I had to use a small pair of external speakers which was a pain.
Hmm..............decisions.

[porker]

Archos 605 on order, should have it for Monday

What are people using for shrinking DVD's, I have no experience of doing this so something simple prefered