How is a Personal Media Player different from a DVD player? Instead of playing movies from DVD discs, a PMP will typically have Flash memory or a hard drive for storing digital videos, which are usually stored in the Xvid, DivX and WMV formats that are popular on the Net. How do I get video on my PMP? All PMPs allow you to download video from your computer via USB. Some also have onboard recording so you can hook them up to a Freeview or Sky box and record TV directly, eliminating the need for a PC. What’s the quality like? It depends on the quality of the original file, but most PMPs are capable of playing video that looks as good as movies on DVD. Some players, such as the Creative Zen Vision W, can even play Hi-Def video, although they have to scale it down in order to make it fit on to their standard-defi nition screens. How many movies can I fit on to the hard disk? A full movie encoded in Xvid or WMV format at a similar resolution to DVD will typically take up between 700MB and 1.2GB of disk space. That means you can fit 25 to 30 fulllength movies recorded at DVD quality on a machine with a 30GB hard drive. Of course, lower quality video takes up less space, so you can fit more on your player by recording or encoding your video at lower resolution or with higher compression. Will I be able to hook my player up to my television? Yes, many media players have an AV output jack that lets you connect them to a standard telly. Using the AV cable that’s supplied with the player, you’ll be able to connect it to the composite or S-Video socket on your TV. An AV output is handy if you want to watch movies at a friend’s place, for example. Will I be able to listen to my music tracks as well? Absolutely. All PMPs allow you to listen to music in compressed digital formats such as MP3 and WMA. Players that are branded with Microsoft’s Plays for Sure logo can also be used with subscription services like Napster. What about photos? As well as video and music playback, all PMPs allow you to store digital pictures on them. Some even have a Host USB port, which means you can connect your camera directly to your player and transfer images without the need for a PC. Supported fi le formats usually include JPEG, BMP and PNG. Buyers Facts 1. Get a widescreen model. The displays on PMPs are generally quite small and if you play a widescreen movie on a 4:3 display, letterboxing will waste some of that precious space. 2. Check whether you can view pictures on the PMP. Some allow you to upload pics directly from your camera to the hard drive, freeing up your snapper’s memory card. 3. Get one that lets you record shows directly from your Freeview box. It’ll save hours of mucking around, encoding video files on your PC.
Published on 7th March 2007
