Sony PSP

After roughly a decade at the top of the home console industry, Sony decided to tackle the portable system market–one heavily fortified by Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance and DS. Sony sought to take down Nintendo by adopting the tactic that made the PlayStation 2 such a runaway success: by offering sophisticated, graphically intensive games and a heavy dose of multimedia functionality. The device is called the PlayStation Portable (PSP), and in addition to playing games of PS2 graphical quality, it can play music and movies (downloaded or via disc) and surf the Web. It may not be the best handheld media product on the market, and the games lack the innovation of ones on Nintendo’s portables, but as an all-in-one device, the Sony PSP is king of the hill.

Design of Sony PSP:  From an aesthetic perspective, the Sony PSP is a gorgeous device. It’s one of those gadgets you immediately want to get your hands on but vigilantly want to protect once you set it down. Weighing essentially the same as the Nintendo DS (6.2 ounces, including removable battery) and measuring 6.7 by 2.9 by 0.9 inches (WHD), the body feels well built and solid in your hand. Although not a lightweight, it’s by no means a brick, nor, we suspect, would it be especially durable in a fall; you’ll want to treat the PSP just as gingerly as an iPod or a Palm-style PDA.  

The centerpiece of the handheld is its especially impressive 4.3-inch wide-screen display (480×272 pixels, 16.77 million colors). The screen is flanked by controls that will be immediately recognizable to fans of past PlayStations: the directional keypad is to the left of the screen, and the familiar square, triangle, circle, and X buttons are to the right. We dug how Sony managed to include an analog “joystick” below the directional keypad. The stick isn’t raised like the analog controls on a PS2 or an Xbox, but it conveys that multidirectional element that gives it a joysticklike feel.

In lieu of the PS2 controller’s four total shoulder buttons, the PSP has two: one per shoulder. Ergonomically, the device is OK but not great; as with most handheld gaming devices, you’ll have to do a little finger stretching every 15 minutes or so to keep from cramping up.

The PSP uses Sony’s recently created “cross media bar” interface. You use the directional keypad to horizontally navigate through Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Game, and Internet icons, and each section has other icons attached to it on a vertical axis. All in all, it’s a simple and elegant way to access the PSP’s many features.

Games and officially licensed movies come on Sony’s proprietary UMD (Universal Media Disc) media, which are housed in protective cartridges. The UMD drive is grafted to the back of the unit; you load it and snap it shut just as you would a camcorder. The top edge also sports infrared and a USB 2.0 port that you can use to link the device to your PC or Mac, though no USB connection cable is included.

The headphone jack is at the bottom left of the unit; Sony’s official earbud-style headphones sport an in-line remote to control basic playback. The nice thing about the remote is that you can use other headphones with it, not just the provided ‘buds. Like Apple, Sony has chosen to go with white headphones. We’re not sure why, since the PSP is black (though an iPod-white version is available in
Japan).One gripe: Since the device has a glossy finish–and is mostly black–it’s a fingerprint magnet. A static-free cloth should always be at the ready when using your PSP, and the Value Pack had one bundled. Sony’s official carrying case is a padded soft case, but a variety of third-party versions are also available (see our list of PSP accessories for more information). 

Features of Sony PSP  The folks at Sony tout the PSP as, first and foremost, a gaming device. But in the next breath, they claim that it can do so much more, billing it as “the first truly integrated portable entertainment system.” Both statements are, in fact, true, and suffice it to say that as a portable gaming device, particularly from a graphics standpoint, the PSP is unparalleled. You’re getting a miniaturized PS2 gaming experience–or close to it, anyway–and Sony has amassed a decent selection of titles from various game developers to show off its handheld’s gaming chops. Beyond gaming, the PSP’s video prowess may be its most impressive trait. As we previously noted, the display is a 4.3-inch TFT LCD with a 480×272-pixel resolution and 16.77 million colors; by comparison, each of the Nintendo DS’s two screens has 256×192 pixels with 260,000 colors. The picture quality from a UMD movie such as Spider-Man 2 is superior to what you’ll see on most portable DVD players, though the majority of DVD players have significantly larger screens.  The only problem with video playback–and it’s a big one–is that it’s currently hard to watch anything but UMD videos on the PSP. Unlike Sony’s MiniDisc, UMD is not a recordable storage format, so you’ll have to store any video or music and images on a Memory Stick Duo card. The lack of affordable and recordable UMDs has put the format in dire straits. Sony is hoping to give the format a boost by bundling UMDs with its DVDs and creating an accessory that can transfer the video to TV, but it remains highly unlikely that the many studios and retailers that have jumped ship will come back. Thankfully, getting media onto a PSP is much less of a hassle than it used to be. The Sony Media Manager software lets you transfer photos, music, and videos from a PC to your PSP with relative ease. It also lets you back up your saved games and manipulate podcast feeds. It’s a worthwhile alternative to the bare-bones media management options with which the PSP originally shipped in March 2005, but it will cost you about $25–it’s not bundled with the PSP. Fortunately, there are also a wide variety of third-party and freeware software titles available, many of which focus on converting existing video files to PSP-friendly formats (see our “How to put video on your PSP” tutorial for one example). Unfortunately, “home brewed” videos are limited to scaled-down resolutions that fail to completely exploit the PSP’s native 480×272 screen. The exception: live, streaming video from Sony’s LocationFree TV accessory. This Slingbox-like device lets you watch live TV on your PSP while in range of any Wi-Fi hot spot. Still, it’s a shame that the only way to take full advantage of video on your PSP is to buy UMD-format movies or expensive networking accessories. What about music? Well, the good news is the PSP plays many types of audio files without your having to convert them to Sony’s proprietary ATRAC format first–a common problem with the company’s earlier MP3 devices. You simply drag your audio files into the music folder on your Memory Stick Duo card, and they’ll show up on the PSP. Firmware-updated PSPs can play MP3s, ATRACs, WMAs, WAVs, and AAC-encoded song files, though not the copy-protected versions from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The device supports M3U playlists, but if you have your playlists in another format, you’ll need to find and download a converter. However, as basic as the PSP’s music player is (read: iPod Shuffle with a screen and no autosyncing capabilities), it will be adequate for many people. Those interested in replacing their iPod with the PSP will have to deal with the lack of on-the-go playlist functionality and, most important, the DIY storage. You can get a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card for about $50, while double the capacity will cost you about three times as much. Sony announced 4GB and 8GB Memory Sticks at E3 2006 but no pricing. Player controls can be initially tricky–the in-line remote is handy–but we like the speedy precision of the fast-forward/rewind functions as well as the undulating background graphics. The PSP can also display album art when it’s available. The image viewer is also basic, with simple slide-show functionality. But again, it’s easy to drag JPEG files–or TIFFs, PNGs, GIFs, and BMPs, if you have version 2.0–onto a memory card, rotate them (if needed), and show off your shots to anybody who might want to see them. In addition, you can set a photo as your PSP’s background wallpaper, replacing the colorful splash screen behind the home menu. Unfortunately, you can’t view photos and listen to music simultaneously. Last but not least, the PSP has built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. Getting our handheld up and running on even a WEP-encrypted home wireless network was a breeze, and the PSP lets you save multiple wireless configurations so that you can connect from multiple locations without repeating the setup procedure each time. Though PSPs purchased before September 2005 were previously limited to WEP encryption, upgrading to v2.0 firmware adds support for the more secure WPA-PSK standard. Once you’re Wi-Fi enabled–and you’ve installed the latest firmware–you can access the Web using the PSP’s onboard browser. This slick, nearly full-featured app supports tabbed browsing, Javascript, and CSS, though Flash support is still lacking (read more about the PSP’s Web browser).  The browser looks great, displaying crisp images and reproducing colors very accurately. Typing isn’t quite the pain it could have been; Sony has augmented its standard cell phone-style input system with a few shortcuts, giving common strings such as http:// and .com their own keys on the virtual keyboard. Furthermore, the PSP remembers every address you type, so you’ll never have to tap in a long, complicated URL more than once. You’re given the option to reshape the browser’s display window, in much the same way that you can resize video clips during playback. This helps avoid the dreaded left-to-right scroll-back while reading articles, though it usually garbles the page’s layout in the process. You can easily save images from the Web to your Memory Stick Duo and subsequently use them as wallpaper on the PSP’s main menu; customizable wallpaper is another perk of the 2.0 firmware.  JavaScript works like a charm, cooperating with several JavaScript toolkit utilities, but the Flash player included in the latest update is version 6–the current standard is 8–which makes viewable content hit or miss. Our videos and the rotating feature images on the CNET main page, for example, require version 7 at the very minimum. On the PSP, the Flash images and movies change to text and still images, respectively. Some sites seem to mix and match Flash versions, which makes compatibility even more haphazard. We were psyched to see a Strong Bad e-mail start up, only to stop playing when the scene changed. We also noted that the Flash player struggled to work with compatible content, as Strong Bad’s typed response chugged out in full words rather than the smooth tapestry of letters that normally flows from his laptop. Adding to the Flash woes is the lack of a suitable keyboard emulator on the PSP, rendering most Flash games unplayable.  

As expected, overall Web performance is a little slow. On CNET’s reasonably fast connection, we still had to wait a good 5 seconds before images started popping up on the pages. Once the images began to load, the cursor would freeze in place until they were finished downloading. This sort of thing isn’t a problem on a computer, where you can still read plain text and click links without images, but the PSP’s small screen made the wait a bit more frustrating.  The PSP’s strong slate of features–as well as the many bells and whistles that Sony has added via its first major firmware update–proves that the handheld is still under development and hints at even greater things to come. Some of those future upgrades are more fully developed than others. Sony highlighted a few of the more noteworthy forthcoming PSP features in the pipeline at a business conference in March 2006. In terms of gaming, an emulator is being developed that will allow the PSP to play digitally distributed (that is, pay-per-download) PlayStation 1 titles. Later in the year, Sony is pledging to add Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) support to the PSP, with an EyeToy-styled Webcam peripheral to complement it. A GPS-locator accessory is also in the works, with compatible games slated to support it. Finally, Sony is said to be preparing a major upgrade to its Connect online service that will create a more iTunes-like music and movie download service, but details remain scarce. In fact, since these new features were announced, Sony’s been mum about new details–the camera was shown off at E3 2006, but no new information has been revealed about any of the other new PSP concepts. It’s more than likely that Sony is waiting until the November release of the PlayStation 3 nears to comment on most of them, as it’s likely that numerous features of the next console–accessories and downloads, among them–will be shared between the two. Performance of Sony PSP The Sony PSP runs on a proprietary 333MHz processor and comes with 32MB of built-in memory, some of it reserved for the PSP’s operating system and applications, and 4MB of embedded DRAM. While we would have preferred more built-in memory, game developers we spoke to were happy it has what it has, given that early rumors suggested Sony would include only 16MB of RAM.  One of the issues with using an optical disc format such as UMD as opposed to Nintendo’s flash memory-based cartridges is that load times tend to be significantly longer. After we previewed beta versions of games, we were concerned that load times would indeed be a serious problem. But now that we’ve run graphically intensive games such as EA’s Need for Speed Rivals, Konami’s Metal Gear Acid, and Sony’s Twisted Metal Head-On, we can safely say that it’s a relatively minor hindrance. Yes, games can take a good 10 seconds to load, but it’s not much worse than what you’d expect from the PS2 itself. (As one might expect, content loads very quickly from a Memory Stick Duo card.) That said, the Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance SP are much zippier in this regard. Luckily, the wait is usually worth it because most of the games look spectacular. As we said, you’re getting close to a PS2-like gaming experience, and many of the titles are ports of their PS2 counterparts with only small compromises made to the graphics. For the most part, games play smoothly, though you may encounter some frame drops in bigger action sequences in certain games. We played Twisted Metal Head-On against four other players in multiplayer peer-to-peer (PSP-to-PSP) wireless mode and were impressed by the smooth gameplay. We also played Twisted Metal via the Internet with two other people and had good results. But we imagine that when you get up to a dozen players (Twisted Metal supports up to 16-player multiplayer), you’ll probably encounter a hiccup or two. And, of course, wireless gameplay depends on your connection–or, in the case of peer-to-peer action, the distance and potential obstructions between devices. As far as distance goes, we were able to move about 60 feet apart with a clear line of sight in an office setting before our connection became spotty. We felt the Nintendo DS offered better wireless coverage.Before we get to battery life, a few sentences about the PSP’s audio. Using the earbud-style headphones, sound quality was fine with games, but we would have liked the maximum volume to go a tad higher when we listened to our MP3s, especially in noisier environments. When you play games and watch movies such as Spider-Man 2 on UMD, you can boost the volume a bit via a special UMD volume-settings menu, which is helpful. A few preset equalizer settings (Heavy, Pops, Jazz, and Unique) are on board to tweak the sound, but you can’t manually set treble and bass levels, which is too bad. The PSP’s external speakers can’t put out booming sound, but they’re certainly adequate for gaming and casual video watching; using the headphones, however, will give you a much more immersive experience. Conveniently, volume can be raised and lowered from two buttons just below the screen or via the headphones’ in-line remote. 
Battery life? Well, a lot of numbers have been bandied about, with some critics suggesting its relatively short run time would be the PSP’s Achilles’ heel. Here’s what we got:Running on full brightness, we managed about 5.5 hours of gameplay before having to recharge the included 1,800mAH lithium-ion battery pack; gaming time can vary significantly depending upon screen brightness (two dimmer settings are options) and the game you’re playing. It’s worth noting that recharging a battery to full capacity takes a lengthy 2.5 hours. Playing in peer-to-peer wireless mode reduced game sessions by a little more than 2 hours; the battery pooped out after 3 hours, 15 minutes. For music only, the PSP was able to run for a decent 11.2 hours.  And finally, we managed to watch Spider-Man 2 all the way through twice and got 20 minutes into a third showing before the battery died. All in all, that’s not too bad and slightly better than we expected. Still, the easiest way to ensure that your PSP doesn’t go dead at an inopportune moment is to purchase an additional battery pack; kudos to Sony for making it replaceable. Transfer rate over USB 2.0 to an inserted Memory Stick was a reasonable 2.2MB per second.

 

Top PSP Download Sites

Psp Blender

  This club has the largest variety of PSP games and movies with the fastest download speeds. Over 20 million items and growing! Download PSP movies, music, software, backgrounds, and themes. Play and watch them on your PSP! Membership also includes FREE DVD to PSP movie software.
PSP Blender was the only reviewed site that offered a ticket based support system which was very useful when it came to getting support.
Highly Recommended !!!     Lifetime Unlimited Access – $37.00 * Best Value 

Unlimited PSP Games 

Brand new club and growing at rapid rates. Extensive variety of PSP games but also movies, music, and software are continuously added. Search and download as many PSP games as you want!
PSP Upgrades & Downgrades, Homebrews, Software, and many movies, Hacks and cheats.
Best choice for games and movies. Fairly new on the PSP scene and rapidly growing

Lifetime Unlimited Access – $34.95

All PSP Games

 After we got everything installed and configured (which took a surprisingly short time), the first impression we got was of an enormous selection.
We took the website for a test drive, and we found almost everything we could think of, in very short order.
Needless to say, were seriously impressed. We’ve never seen this much variety before, and while the website navigation leaves a bit to be desired, the program certainly merits our praise.

1 Year Membership – $34.95 Lifetime Access – $44.95    PSP X Studio  It’s rare when a program does everything it promises to do, and even rarer when that same program is easy to use. In this case, we’re glad to say that all of our expectations were met, and more! More specifically, this program promised a fast connection, lots of sources, unlimited downloading, and best of all, ease of use. We were pleased to see that everything worked almost immediately, installing and configuring with virtually no user input. Just plug and play! Lifetime Unlimited Access – $29.95  My PSP Download  This is the new guy in the block and a lot of people are falling for this. We usually dont post negative reviews so this is a first for us. This club offers a generic version of what other sites offer, probably because they rip their content from other sites. We received many complaint from people that signed up for this site. It appears that they are in the business of ripping off unsuspecting visitors and ignoring their requests for refunds. Click here to see some of the complaints on this website Lifetime Unlimited Access – $39.95 * Buyer Beware

Net PSP Downloads 

We decided to add a 6th place since we found that the same people from the site above had opened up another site that we have been receiving a lot of complaint on. Again, we usually dont post negative reviews but we’ll make an exception here.
We received many complaint from people that signed up for this site. It appears that they are in the business of ripping off unsuspecting visitors and ignoring their requests for refunds.

Click here to see some of the complaints on this website

Lifetime Unlimited Access – $39.95 * Buyer Beware

Denon AH-C700 In-Ear Headphones

Think about it–there’s something like 42 plus million iPods and who knows how many other MP3 players out there–and they all come with crappy headphones. Clearly, it’s a heady time for aftermarket headphone manufacturers. Denon Electronics, a name we normally associate with high-quality home theater components, apparently took note of the burgeoning sales opportunities and recently introduced five headphones, including two in-ear models, the AH-C350 ($50) and the model we’re reviewing here, the AH-C700 ($200). The latter is available in either a silver or black finish.

 

 

 

As with most canalphone designs, the AH-C700’s eartips must be pushed directly into your ear canals to deliver the full sound-isolating potential and bass response. To that end, the headphone comes with small, medium, and large hemispherical silicone earpieces, and chances are that one of the three will be a perfect fit your ears. We found the AH-C700 easy to wear over long periods, but some listeners may find the AH-C700 (and other in-ear headphones) uncomfortable, and their sonic isolation makes them less than ideal for jogging outdoors or walking on busy city streets. We can’t fathom why, but Denon neglected to include any sort of travel pouch or carrying case with the AH-C700. We stowed the headphones in our pockets where the earpieces picked up a small amount of dust and dirt. Yuck! We removed the earpieces from the headphones every few days to wash them under running water.

The headphones’ all-metal design feels more robust and “high-end” than more typical molded plastic designs and its beautifully finished aluminum connector is fitted with a gold-plated, 3.5mm mini jack. The 45-inch long OFC (oxygen-free copper) cables cable proved to be less tangle-prone than most headphone wires.

The AH-C700’s sound is definitely bassy, but the treble is still very lively and detailed. To be honest, the plump bass might be a bit too much for those that prefer balanced audio, but as guilty pleasures go, the AH-C700 sounds very right to us.

The headphone’s sound-isolating talents were put to the test on the
New York City subway system. It didn’t do much to banish the low rumble of the trains or dramatically hush the screeching sounds of the wheels against the tracks. Its sound-isolating abilities are about average–our reference Etymotic ER 4 Micro Pro in-ear headphones ($299) more effectively blocked out the din. Ah, but when we played
Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible the AH-C700’s bass clobbered the ER 4’s. The mighty 500-pipe organ in the Saint Jean Baptiste church in
Montreal that opens “Intervention” positively thundered over the Denon and the bass drum’s thuds were more convincingly percussive and drumlike. The Etymotic’s sound offered somewhat greater clarity, but we missed the Denon’s soul-satisfying warmth. In the end, we’d call it a draw.

 

Alternatives to Apple TV

Thanks to Apple TV, all the music, TV shows, and movies purchased at Apple’s iTunes Store will no longer be trapped on your computer. Instead of watching on your comparatively cramped desktop or laptop monitor, you’ll be able to enjoy iTunes-purchased movies and TV shows on a big-screen TV. While Apple TV will almost certainly remain alone in being compatible with iTunes content–the company has thus far refused to license the FairPlay DRM to any third parties–it’s not the only “content box” that you can attach to your TV.

MovieBeam MB2160

It’s a promising idea: a rotating selection of 100 movies–including some in high-def–are automatically queued up on the MovieBeam’s hard drive (the content is downloaded via a proprietary over-the-air service–if it’s not available in your area, the company won’t sell you the box). You can view any of the movies on a pay-per-watch basis (a onetime fee of $2 to $5 gives you a 24-hour viewing window), and because they’re already on the hard drive, there’s no waiting for a long download. Unfortunately, the video quality leaves a lot to be desired, and the fact that you’re limited to just 100 choices–determined by the company–makes it a tough sell. Perhaps new owner Movie Gallery can reinvigorate the MovieBeam concept

RCA “Akimbo” Video On Demand Player 

In addition to Akimbo’s video content–which ranges from the familiar (BBC, Discovery, and National Geographic TV shows) to niche-oriented programming (anime, extreme sports, international TV, adult content)–RCA’s Video On Demand Player also provides access to all of the films from Movielink. But its combination of a flat monthly fee plus pay-per-view and subscription charges–depending on what you want to watch–remains confusing, and none of the content is available in HD (unless you sign up for the software-only version).

Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD

In addition to offering HD video output and compatibility with a wide range of file formats, the Netgear is said to enable playback of YouTube videos on your TV. Netgear is also touting the Digital Entertainer HD’s ability to play back video files purchased from the new BitTorrent Entertainment Network. We’re getting one next week, and we’ll be able to do a head-to-head streamdown with the Apple TV.

Digital Media Adapters 

Already have a hard drive full of music, movies, and photos, and just want to watch them in another room? A digital media adapter will let you stream them from your PC to your TV. Originally limited to digital music files, the latest digital media adapters (known by a variety of names, including “network media devices” or “digital media receivers”) handle audio, photos, and video–but getting one that’s compatible

“Exclusive”… Introducing…Apple TV

Back in September, in an unusual move for Apple, the company tipped its hand by demonstrating many of the features, as well as the availability and pricing, of what was then known as “iTV.” But the show left us with as many questions as answers, and we wondered whether the little box would live up to the expectations of Apple fans and pundits who have long been clamoring for a “home iPod.” With the official unveiling at Macworld today, we now have some of these answers–though we won’t know for sure how the device, now dubbed Apple TV, stacks up to current network media devices until we’ve had a chance to test it.

Apple TV is a network media box that streams movies, music, TV shows, podcasts, and photos from the iTunes library on your PC or Mac to your HDTV. The box, which looks like a squashed Mac Mini and measures 7.7 by 7.7 by 1.1 inches (including an integrated power supply), connects to your TV via either HDMI or component video and audio, and wirelessly syncs content from your iTunes library so that you can enjoy it in the living room using the included remote. As promised, Apple TV will be available in February for $299; you can order it online now. 

The first bit of good news is that Apple TV uses 802.11n; it can connect either to an 802.11 AirPort Extreme Base Station–also announced at Macworld–or directly to a newer Mac with integrated AirPort Extreme. If you do not have 802.11n, you can also connect it via wired Ethernet. The faster 802.11n protocol means Apple TV should deliver smoother video streaming, even at HD resolutions, and make the product more futureproof. (Whether you can stream from existing 802.11g devices–or do so at acceptable speeds–is unclear.)

Once Apple TV is up and running on your network, iTunes automatically recognizes it, and you can set it to automatically sync unwatched or new purchases or manually choose the content you want to stream to Apple TV. The device can sync with as many as six computers. We were surprised to see that Apple TV has its own storage, specifically a 40GB hard drive that Apple claims is sufficient to store up to 50 hours of movies and TV (in H.264 1.5Mbps video at a resolution of 640×480 with 128Kbps audio). Alternatively, the drive is sufficient to store 9,000 songs in iTunes standard 128Kbps AAC format or 25,000 photos. The advantage of local storage is that, since it doesn’t actually stream in real time, it is likely to work even if your computer is not turned on. Theoretically, it is also possible to bypass your computer altogether and download content straight from iTunes to your Apple TV, but so far, it sounds as if this functionality may be limited to movie trailers and similar short-form content from Apple.com rather than the iTunes Store itself. Further, it sounds to us as if you first need to stream an entire movie or show to the Apple TV’s hard drive before you can begin watching it. (We’ll need to get our hands on the product to verify all of this.)  

Another big question mark was the file formats that Apple TV would support, and here we have some clear answers. It goes without saying that Apple TV will work with any standard iTunes format. Audio formats include AAC, protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 and variable bit rate MP3, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV. But the bigger news is it supports wide-screen, high-definition video, more specifically 1,280×720 at 24 frames per second, aka 720p. That means you will be able to view movies and TV shows at better-than-DVD quality–as long as you can get them from the iTunes Store. Other video formats include H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store), 640×480 at 30 frames per second; 320×240 at 30 frames per second; and MPEG-4, 640×480 at 30 frames per second. Finally, Apple TV supports all standard photo formats, including JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG; you can view photos in slide shows on your TV.

Right now, the movie selections on iTunes Store are limited to Disney and its affiliated studio brands, such as Touchstone and Miramax. But at Macworld,
Apple CEO Steve Jobs also announced a deal with
Paramount that makes an additional 250 movies available for iTunes, the iPod, and now Apple TV. That’s a great step, but with the exception of a few “season passes,” Apple still charges a flat fee for movies ($9.99 to $12.99) and TV shows ($1.99 per episode). The introduction of Apple TV makes it more apparent than ever that Apple should rapidly expand the video offering of iTunes Store, make more of it available in wide-screen HD formats, and especially provide the option for a monthly subscription fee like many of its competitors do. There are other network media receivers that offer more features, but the clear ace up Apple’s sleeve is that Apple TV works seamlessly with iTunes and, most notably, with the iTunes Store–something nearly no other streaming media receiver can claim. And given Apple’s market share with the iPod and iTunes Store, the advantages of Apple TV will outweigh what appear to be shortcomings–at least on paper.

 

The “Newest” in IPodware

iDump

If you’re looking for freeware to copy songs from your iPod to a PC, iDump is the way to go. Small enough to keep on your disk mode enabled iPod, but powerful enough to show you every song’s iPod path–cracking Apple’s unusual file-saving protocol–this 5-star software is a must-have freebie for any iPod user.

iGadget

 

Some apps sync your Outlook info to your iPod; others back up songs, playlists and podcasts to your PC. iGadget supports all of those and throws in local movie listings, weather forecasts, driving directions, RSS news feeds, and even personalized horoscopes. iGadget syncs and manages the info, then installs it into folders in your iPod’s Notes section.

Plato Video to IPod Converter

With every new iPod model, it seems there’s a new niche to be filled. The Plato Video Converter fills one created by the iPod video, taking on all video formats and making them viewable on the iPod. It’s slightly buggy, graphically, but that doesn’t affect the output.

iPod Copy

iPodCopy offers full integration with the 5G iPod, so you can copy not only your music but also your videos from your iPod to your hard drive. Easy-to-find buttons also allow you to back up your contacts, notes, and calendar. Although plagued by occasional sluggishness, iPodCopy is worth the wait. 

J.River Media Center

Forget about small apps to improve iTunes; if you’re a PC user, you’ve probably wondered how to ditch the program entirely. J. River Media Center provides full iPod support for playlists, video and image files. It also can record sound, and even includes a TV tuner. It’s worth the $40 since it’s the only media player you’ll need. 

MediaMonkey

Geared towards managing extensive collections, but suitable for all music aficionados, MediaMonkey is a great iTunes alternative if you don’t mind the lack of video support. Two automated functions keep untagged tracks from falling through the cracks, and plug-ins are available if you want to tinker with the engine or add additional sound processing effects.

HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray

DVD is, by some measurements, the greatest success in consumer electronics history. Following its 1997 debut, it took the format just a few years to completely conquer the home-video market previously ruled by VHS tapes. Before it even reaches its 10th birthday, however, the electronics industry and the
Hollywood studios are already putting DVD out to pasture. Two rival next-generation formats–Blu-ray and HD-DVD–are already vying to become the successor to DVD’s throne. Both display movies in full high-definition resolution, addressing one shortfall of the current DVD format, which is only standard-def. But to get that improved visual fidelity, you have to decide to buy either a Blu-ray player or an HD-DVD player–and be willing to live with a list of caveats a mile long. To explain why we’re so cautious, we’ll take a look at both formats, examine how they compare to one another, and highlight the advantages–and disadvantages–they offer compared to the current generation of DVD.

Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and DVD formats compared  

Blu-ray and HD-DVD are rival incompatible formats, a situation that recalls the Beta vs. VHS battle that stifled the early growth of the VCR and home-video market in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Despite an attempt to unify the two standards in 2005, the corporate godfathers of the two formats–Sony for Blu-ray and Toshiba for HD-DVD–failed to come to an agreement.

What that means to you is that no Blu-ray player will be able to play HD-DVD discs, and no HD-DVD player can play Blu-ray discs. If a movie comes out in one format, there’s no guarantee that it will be available in the other. Certain studios could release movies in both formats, but you’ll still have to be careful not to buy the wrong version of the movie. Adding to the frustration is the fact that the capabilities and features of the two formats are far more similar than they are different–as shown by the chart below.

Feature	DVD	HD-DVD	Blu-ray
Maximum native resolutions supported via HDMI	EDTV (480p)	HDTV (720p, 1080i, 1080p)	HDTV (720p, 1080i, 1080p)
Maximum image-constrained native resolutions supported via component video1	EDTV (480p)	EDTV+ (960×540)	EDTV+ (960×540)
Disc capacity	4.7GB (single layer) 8.5GB (dual layer)	15GB (single layer) 30GB (dual layer) 45GB (prototype triple layer)	25GB (single layer) 50GB (dual layer) 100GB (prototype quad layer)
Video capacity (per dual-layer disc)2	SD: approximately 3 hours HD: n/a	SD: approximately 24 hours HD: approximately 8 hours	SD: approximately 23 hours HD: approximately 9 hours
Audio soundtracks3	Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES	Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital, DTS-ES	Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital, DTS-ES
Manufacturer support (home theater)4	All	Toshiba, LG, Thomson/RCA	Hitachi, Mitsubishi, LG, Sharp, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Philips, Thomson/RCA
Manufacturer support (PC storage)4	All	Microsoft, Intel, HP, NEC, Toshiba	Apple, Dell, Benq, HP, LG, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony, TDK
Studio support4	All	Paramount,Studio Canal, Universal, Warner, the Weinstein Company	Sony Pictures (including MGM/Columbia TriStar), Disney (including Touchstone, Miramax), Fox, Paramount, Warner, Lions Gate
Compatible video game consoles	PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo Revolution	Xbox 360 (via forthcoming external HD-DVD accessory, sold separately)	PlayStation 3
Player prices	$99 and less	$499 and more	$599 (PlayStation 3 with HDMI port); $999 and more (stand-alone players)
Movie prices	$6 and more (retail)	$20 to $28 (retail)	$20 to $28 (retail)
Number of titles available by the end of 2006	50,000-plus	Dozens to hundreds	Dozens to hundreds
Players are backward compatible with existing DVD videos	Yes	Yes	Yes
Set-top recorders available now	Yes	No	No
Can record high-def at full resolution (eventually)5	No	Yes	Yes
“Managed copy” option6	No	Yes	Yes
Copy protection/digital rights management7	Macrovision, CSS	AACS, ICT	AACS, ICT, BD+, BD-ROM Mark
Region-coded discs and players8	Yes	No (currently; could change in future)	Yes

 Sources include: thedigitalbits.com, dvdfile.com, blu-ray.com, Toshiba HD-DVD, Blu-ray Disc Association, CNET News.com, Business Week, HDbeat.com, About.com, and Wikipedia Notes

1. Each movie studio may choose to implement the image-constraint token (ICT) on a disc-by-disc basis, which constrains or downconverts the movie’s resolution to 960×540 via the component outputs (HDMI output remains at full resolution). However, most major studios–Sony (Columbia/Tri-Star/MGM), Fox, Disney,
   Paramount, and Universal–have publicly stated that they will not make use of ICT, at least initially. There are even rumors of a backroom deal among studios to withhold use of ICT on HD disc releases through 2010. If true, movies from those studios will display at full resolution via the component outputs.
2. Video capacity will vary depending upon the type of encoding used. Discs encoded with MPEG-4 or VC-1 offer more compression and, therefore, more video per gigabyte (standard-definition or high-definition) than those encoded with the older, less efficient MPEG-2 codec.
3. All HD-DVD and Blu-ray players should incorporate built-in audio decoding and analog audio outputs. Those features should enable the newer Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS-HD surround formats to be heard by using existing A/V receivers and audio equipment–but the resulting soundtrack may be a downmixed Dolby Digital or DTS-ES version that lacks the theoretically better audio fidelity that’s encoded on the disc.
4. Manufacturer and studio support is subject to change. With the exception of Sony’s devotion to Blu-ray and Toshiba’s to HD-DVD, other manufacturers and studios can (and already have) switch sides, or they can support both formats. Also, the depth of support for companies aside from Sony and Toshiba has yet to be determined; for many of them, “supporting” one or both of the formats has been limited to issuing press releases or scheduling future product and/or movie releases that remain theoretical until they are available for purchase by the public. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s support for HD-DVD does not preclude Blu-ray compatibility for Windows; Blu-ray discs will be usable with Windows XP and Windows
   Vista PCs through the use of third-party software and hardware.
5. Early-generation set-top (non-PC) HD-DVD and Blu-ray players are players only, with no recording capabilities. Future set-top recorders are expected to become available in both formats in 2007 or later, but look for copy-protection and digital rights issues to severely restrict the HD programming you’ll be able to record from TV.
6. Managed copy refers to the ability to make an HD-DVD or Blu-ray movie viewable via a home network or a portable video device. The details haven’t been worked out yet, leaving managed copy as more of a theoretical option than a usable feature for the foreseeable future.
7. It is likely that HD-DVD and Blu-ray will feature additional copy-protection methods (including Macrovision or other protections for analog outputs) than the ones listed here.
8. As of spring 2006, HD-DVD discs and players are not region-coded, but that could be changed at any point in the future–for example, the appearance of region-coded discs and a firmware upgrade for the hardware needed in order to play them. Blu-ray discs are coded to three regions (roughly, the Americas and Japan; Europe and Africa; and China,
   Russia, and everywhere else not included in the previous two regions) that are far more streamlined than the nine-region DVD system. That said, HD-DVD and Blu-ray players should honor the nine-region system when playing standard DVDs–so don’t expect to play out-of-region discs. 

HD-DVD in-depth

The Hardware:  HD-DVD beat its archrival to the marketplace by a couple of months. The Toshiba HD-A1 ($500) has been available for purchase since mid-April. Three other HD-DVD players are currently or will soon be available as well, but all of them are little more than clones or rebranded versions of the base Toshiba model: the Toshiba HD-XA1 ($800; adds a motorized front flip-down panel and backlit remote), the Toshiba HD-D1 ($500; the Wal-Mart version), and the RCA HDV5000 ($500).

The Movies:  The first wave of HD-DVD movies is currently available. There are three versions of HD-DVDs: single- or dual-layer HD-DVD-only discs; hybrid discs (a single-sided disc with a standard 4.7GB layer that plays on any DVD player as well as a 15GB HD layer); and twin-format discs (with a standard dual-layer 8.5GB DVD on one side and a 30GB dual-layer HD-DVD on the other). The advantage of the pricier hybrid and dual-format discs is that you get backward compatibility of a sort: watch the movie in high-def on your HD-DVD player in the living room, but use the DVD version in your bedroom or portable player. Early HD-DVD titles available for purchase include The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, Phantom of the Opera, Doom, Apollo 13, Serenity, Swordfish, Goodfellas, and The Bourne Supremacy. On deck for June and July are
Constantine, Pitch Black, The Rundown, and The Perfect Storm–to name just a few. Other titles pledged for the format–albeit without specific release dates–include 12 Monkeys, Dune, The Thing, End of Days, Backdraft, Waterworld, The Bone Collector, Spy Game, Conan the Barbarian, Dante’s Peak, The Italian Job, Tomb Raider, U2: Rattle and Hum, We Were Soldiers, and The Manchurian Candidate. Suggested retail prices are $28.99 for catalog titles (movies already available on regular DVD), $34.99 for new titles (films coming to any home-video format for the first time), and $39.99 for hybrid/twin-format discs, which will work on HD-DVD and regular DVD players, as described above; however, online pricing seems to have settled into a more affordable $20-to-$28 range

The Gaming Wild Card:  While the Xbox 360 is capable of 720p and 1080i high-def output–it can display games and downloadable video clips in full HD–it’s limited by its internal DVD drive. That’s kept the price down to a reasonable $399, but it also means that the Xbox 360 won’t play HD-DVD–at least, until Microsoft releases a promised HD-DVD add-on drive, which the company has officially announced is coming later in 2006. That accessory will enable HD-DVD movie playback, though 360 games will continue to be released on DVD-ROM discs to ensure compatibility for all systems. Because it will require an external drive, though, it seems destined to be a kludgy solution, no matter what the cost.

Upside: Players and movies available now before Blu-ray; players are much more affordable than initial Blu-ray units; decent selection of movies slated for release throughout the year; some movies include standard-DVD version on the same disc; “managed copy” requirement means movies are technically able to be transferred to other devices and/or viewed over home networks.

Downside: No HD-DVD movies from Columbia, MGM, Fox, or Disney; Xbox 360 requires as-yet-unreleased accessory to play HD-DVD discs; initial HD-DVD players not capable of 1080p output; studios can program discs to not display full HD resolution on older HDTVs without HDMI inputs (though they have not yet opted to do so); “managed copy” details are vague and may involve additional charges.

Outlook: HD-DVD players are already available–and not obscenely expensive–but only a handful of movies will be available before midyear.

  Blu-ray in-depth 

  The Hardware:  The first of many Blu-ray players arrives just a few weeks after the first HD-DVD players. On or around June 20, Samsung’s BP-D1000 ($1,000) will hit stores, followed soon after by the Pioneer BDP-HD1 ($1,800), the Sony BDP-S1 (July, $1,000), and the Panasonic DMP-BD10 (September, less than $1,500). By the time of the CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) trade show in September, even more Blu-ray models from various manufacturers should be available or, at least, announced. Unlike initial HD-DVD players, all Blu-ray players are expected to be capable of outputting video at 1080p.

The Movies:  The first wave of Blu-ray movies is scheduled to hit stores the same week as the initial players, though a few titles may dribble out beforehand. Stealth, Saw, Ultraviolet, Lord of War, Crash, Robocop, Terminator 2, 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight’s Tale, The Last Waltz, Resident Evil Apocalypse, Underworld Evolution, and XXX are scheduled to be among the titles you’ll be able to pick up before the end of June. Those will be followed later in the summer by Kung Fu Hustle, Legends of the Fall, Species, SWAT, and The Terminator. That list should begin to swell later in the year when additional titles, such as Fantastic Four, Behind Enemy Lines, Kiss of the Dragon, Ice Age, Black Hawk Down, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Reservoir Dogs are released. The wholesale price for Blu-ray movies will be $17.95 for catalog titles (movies already available on regular DVD) and $23.45 for new titles (films coming to any home-video format for the first time), but online preorder prices are in the $20-to-$28 range–exactly the same as HD-DVD. 

The Gaming Wild Card:  Now that the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has come and gone, we finally have the relevant details on the PlayStation 3. It’ll be available on November 17 in two configurations: a $600 “deluxe” model and a $500 “entry level” version. Gamers are already grumbling that they’re paying a hefty overhead just to subsidize Sony’s Blu-ray ambitions, but for gamers who are also movie fans–or movie fans who don’t even care about the PS3’s gaming capabilities–either version of the PlayStation 3 will be the most affordable Blu-ray player you can buy. No, it won’t have all the home-theater options–analog audio output, for instance–that more expensive Blu-ray players will but for $400 cheaper, who’s complaining? But before you add the PS3 to your Christmas list, keep two important issues in mind. Anyone who’s even remotely interested in Blu-ray movies will want to stick with the $600 version; the cheaper PS3 omits built-in Wi-Fi, the flash memory reader, and (most critically) the HDMI output. And while Sony is pledging to ship 4 million units before the end of the year, it’s still likely to be sold out–even at those prices.

Upside: EveryHollywood studio except Universal has pledged to release movies in the Blu-ray format; PlayStation 3 will play Blu-ray movies; Blu-ray movies and players are optimized for 1080p output; Blu-ray discs can hold more data or video than HD-DVD counterparts; most studios have pledged to not constrain resolution via component outputs.

 Downside: Initial Blu-ray players will be much more expensive than their HD-DVD counterparts; Blu-ray-compatible PlayStation 3 not available until November; studios can program discs to not display full HD resolution on older HDTVs without HDMI inputs (though they have not yet opted to do so).

Outlook: Blu-ray’s broader coalition of corporate support may be negated–at least in the short term–by higher hardware prices and the PlayStation 3’s November arrival. But its broader support from hardware manufacturers and movie studios can’t be underestimated.

The Wonderful World of PODCASTING…

Podcast Basics 

 Feeling Poddish? Take a few moments to learn the basics of podcasting technology and learn how this magnificent medium is unique from other forms of mass media. You’ll also learn some general podcast applications for your home and business

 Podcasting101 

Podcast Adoption – Why Should I Podcast?

If you’re considering podcasting, you’re probably wondering both, a) what it is, and b) why you’d want to get involved. Suffice to say (as you begin your journey) that podcasting is an amazing way to get audio material heard by an audience where and when they want. In terms of why you should podcast, however, the reasons are as varied, unique, lovely, controversial and fascinating as there are voices to be heard in the world. Just turn on a microphone and join the conversation. A. So, why should you podcast? Here are a few reasons:

It’s really fun. Yup, let’s start with the basics. If I were to say, “podcasting allows you to convert audio material via an RSS feed through an uploaded host…” the sound of your yawning would drown out the click of your mouse as you ventured to a different website. Podcasting is about creation. It’s about taking your ideas, dreams, ambitions, business goals, or any other reason that you’d use your voice for to create a lasting record of said content and making it available to others. And one of the reasons it’s so fun is because it’s easy. Get a microphone, press a couple of buttons, and start talking. And if you’re thinking, “but what would I say? I’m not funny or interesting and nobody would care about my show.” In short, I disagree.  You may not get an audience of 10,000 listeners, but the audience you do get will be utterly interested in what you have to say. That’s why they call podcasting the ultimate niche marketing medium. If you’re not in marketing all that means is, you can speak directly and specifically to the people who are listening versus trying to speak in general terms to broadcast to a larger audience. Think of it like when you were a kid and strung two cans together with string or used walkie-talkies; what did you say to your buddy when you pushed the button to speak? In some ways, did it matter? The joy was in communicating the joy of talking to one another using a fun medium. Podcasting is just like that.  

It’s easy. Okay, I know it may not seem easy at first. But there are great companies like WildVoice that allow you to record your voice for friends and make movie recommendations. Even though you’re not technically podcasting, you are creating audio files/sound and exchanging them with friends. You can easily learn how to make your first podcast or even use interactive conference call/podcasting tools like TalkShoe to record multiple voices that can be saved and edited for later use. You can buy a MicroTrack recorder and create an Audio/Podcast Tour like when you take a museum audio tour (but the museum can be your town, office, or special event).

It’s Profitable. Multiple companies are using podcasting/audio tools for both B2B/B2C applications. For some ideas on how, check out my article on Top ten business podcasting applications or read my Podcasting White Paper on how companies are getting real ROI (return on investment) from their podcast initiatives. Or read how Cheerios’ Nurturing Circle gives audio tools to moms so they can record and share their messages with other moms; Cheerios becomes the community conduit here for ideas and multiple visits. Likewise, GE on Demand podcasts/videocasts let people see inside the workings of General Electric to learn about their latest inventions/ideas. There are even entrepreneurs like Chip Hunnicutt who are getting great profits/returns by using podcasts to help sell Real Estate. Or convert existing business tools to audio with things like an Audio Press Release or an Audio White Paper. The possibilities are endless. 

It’s Entertaining. Whether it’s Top music podcasts, Top entertainment podcasts, or Top comedy podcasts, listening to podcasts provides an amazing level of knowledge and great content that’s available for free.  

It’s Personal. You can easily create an audio holiday card or other podcasts for the family to connect loved ones around the globe with the click of a button. But most importantly, you create a lasting file of your voice/thoughts/ideas for people to enjoy when they want for as long as they want. So get on the microphone, find your audience, plan your first podcast, and podcast right away.

Podcast Service Announcements (PSA’s)  Changing The World One Voice At A Time Say it Loud – I Pod and I’m Proud! It’s time the world understands the power of podcasting for the masses. No longer solely under the purview of tech geniuses, podcasting is being used by corporations large and small to get their marketing message heard. Whether you work for a large organization, a small firm, or are an entrepreneur working to gain an audience for your product/service, podcasting provides a “pull” medium where people can hear your message over and over again.  Podcast Service Announcements (PSA’s): Crainiupitis Podcastus If you’re involved in marketing for your business, you need to understand how podcasting can help get your message to the masses. Listen in to learn how to defeat the terrible disease of “Crainiupitis” and get podding today.   How To Create and Promote A Podcast 

Podcasting may seem daunting at first, but it’s really comprised of four simple steps:

Create your content. Edit your content. Package/Launch your content.

Promote Your Content.

Once you grasp these four basic steps, putting together a podcast is a simple and painless process. Plus it’s fun.

 Here’s How: 

1. Choose A Recording Software. You need a tool to edit the audio for your podcast. Mac Users should check out this GarageBand tutorial while PC users can try Audacity’s software. Plus there are a number of great all-purpose podcast software solutions you can use to record your podcast as well.
2. Choose A Microphone. The Shure Beta is a great option for beginning podcasters, with great features for about $160.00. Keep in mind you’ll need a USB interface for this mic to go into your computer. If you want to start with a simpler/cheaper solution, a USB Headset Mic is a good buy for under $30.
3. Write/Plan The Podcast. Content is King in the Podosphere. Poor material means potential subscribers will stop listening almost as soon as they’ve started. Learn how successful podcasters create their content or consider giving an interview to provide value to your audience. Identify Your Audience to determine who you’re podcasting for, and remember to follow your passion like the best podcasters out there and focus on creating honest, insightful content.
4. Record The Podcast. Whether you plan to record your audio via a Conference Call Line, a Handheld Digital Recorder, or via your Personal Podcast Studio, it’s important to experiment with various techniques to maximize sound quality. It’s also important to listen to audio experts to improve your techniques or consider upgrading your gear as you gain experience.
5. Edit The Podcast. Now that you’ve captured your audio, you’ll need to edit your tracks using audio software like Audacity, GarageBand, or Propaganda. You should also research resources like this great Audio Effects Primer and join Podcasting Groups or Forums so you can post questions long-time podcasters can answer. (Keep in mind, however, that you can go overboard with effects. For a great article on this issue, read Stephen Eley’s great article, Effects 101).
6. Find A Host and Upload. Podcast Hosting is easier than you think. It simply involves getting a URL for your website, finding a provider to host your material (the place in the Internet where your website lives) and creating an RSS feed for your podcast. Uploading a Podcast is when you take your edited sound file and “push” it onto your website/blog for the world to hear/subscribe to.
7. Promote Your Podcast. Promoting Your Podcast includes everything from submitting your show to Podcast Directories like the one at Podcast.net or using creative Marketing Techniques to get your show heard.
8. Solicit Feedback on Your Show. You’ll need to create a blog to go along with your show so listeners can comment on your podcast. A blog provides the place for your Show Notes along with a place to connect with your listeners by posting articles relevant to your topic of expertise.

Sony DVE7000S DVD Walkman

Sony’s had a number of cracks at the portable DVD player market, and its latest spin on the phenomenon attacks the market from a completely different angle — as far as we can tell, it’s designed almost entirely for the public-transport-minded consumer, whereas most other portable DVD players position themselves as in-car units with the odd bit of deskbound playback thrown in for good measure

The two main components of the DVE7000S are the display screen, which measures in at 193.4mm by 136mm by 27.9mm with a carrying weight of 775 grams. From a design viewpoint, it’s pretty much a PSP that’s eaten all of its Weet-Bix, and then some more; this means it’s a glossy and elegant looking unit that’s also a magnet for fingerprint smudges. The other part of the DVE7000S is the speaker stand, which measures in at 285mm wide, significantly expanding the width of the overall unit. It’s this factor, along with the fact that the player simply sits, rather than slotting or locking into place, that makes it a less than ideal in-car unit. There aren’t many vehicles with that much clearance between the front seats, so unless you want to utilise twin pairs of headphones and put up with lots of grubby fingerprints from the back seat, you’ll be stuck placing the DVE7000S at an angle and praying that it doesn’t fall off while you do so. A car charger is included in the box, as is a thin remote control, standard wall charger and carrying case.

Features
The DVE7000S features a 7-inch 480 x 234 pixel LCD screen. In multimedia terms, it’ll handle standard DVD discs, which load in at the back of the unit, along with DivX material, normal audio CDs, MP3 files and JPG picture CDs, so it can also double as a somewhat chunky picture frame. Sony rates the internal battery on the DVE7000S as being capable of up to 3 hours battery life when watching video material, and up to 7 hours with the display off — presumably that’s either for music listening only, or for if you really hate the visual part of movies.

Performance
We tested the DVE7000S as a standalone player in both stationary and moving environments. On a playback front, the DVE7000S performed acceptably well, although there were instances where we found it a little sluggish resuming playback on some discs, especially if we’d either added or taken away power sources recently. The screen itself is bright and very clear, and while we weren’t all that enamoured of the speaker stand on stability grounds, it’s certainly loud enough for most environments without being invasive

As noted, the extreme width of the docking station — which also forms the unit’s speakers — makes it a poor choice for in-car rear seat entertainment, as it precariously wobbles on its stand, and for most cars will be too wide to fit in a straight way regardless. It fared much better as a handheld device with headphones, which is why we’d say it’s a good fit for those who use a lot of public transport. Our tests matched up the rough three hour battery life pretty exactly, which should be good for most people’s daily commute, and you could always recharge it on the sly in the office. Whether you’re willing to risk a AU$429 DVD player on public transport is entirely up to you.

Creative Zen Vision W

The Zen Vision W quickly brings Creative up to speed in the blossoming world of portable video. And how could it not, with its splendid 4.3-inch wide-screen display, intuitive control set, removable battery, and CompactFlash slot? Bulkier than the aging Zen Vision, this aggressively-priced 30GB ($479.95) or 60GB ($599.95) portable video player definitely marches to its own beat, forgoing the DVR functionality that makes the Archos 04 series and Cowon A2 so special. But with more sources of compatible video content becoming available via online stores and set top boxes, should we care?

The silver and black Zen Vision:W makes the Vision look and feel wimpy. At 134 by 75 by 22 mm and 276 grams, the 30GB version is much heftier than its predecessor (74.4 by 124.2 by 20.1 mm and 232 grams). The 60GB W is a tad thicker and heavier. It’s substantial in the hand, and while pocketable for sure, it’s more of a backpack device. In other words, you don’t want to be jogging with this thing, though it’s extremely durable, thanks in part to the magnesium skin. Of course the payoff is the gorgeous 4.3-inch TFT screen, which boasts a resolution of 480×272 pixels with 262K colors. Photos and video pop off the screen, and unlike the Vision’s 3.7-inch 4/3 screen, it has an exceptionally wide viewing angle (however, when viewed head on, the Vision’s 640×480-pixel screen is impressive). The antireflective screen is vivid and sharp, and you can adjust its brightness and choose any background image you like. Personally, I think the Archos 604’s screen edges out the W’s, but both are great in my book. I was also impressed with the W’s ability to output video and photos to an external display at a maximum of 720×480. The W’s blue backlit controllers, exactly the same as the Vision’s, are quite intuitive, and the GUI is classic Creative, simple and to the point with conveniences such as the context-driven options and a customisable main menu. A five-way controller plus Back, context menu, and playback buttons lie to the left of the screen — designed for right-handed use all the way. The buttons are tactile and actually offer resistance. Some users may not like the popping sound and sensation of the buttons.

Below these buttons is a built-in mono speaker — some fidelity with very little oomph. The right spine includes the headphone jack and a rubber cover, which hides the DC input, as well as the A/V-out jack. You’ll find a Type
II CompactFlash (CF) slot on the right spine. This is handy for many digital camera users, particularly those with Microdrives. In addition to photos, you can import videos via the CF slot (and you get the option to transfer the latest 10, 20, or 50 of the latest files). Transfers are quick and photos look great onscreen. Though you can zoom, create slide shows, and rotate, I prefer the Archos 604 as a photo viewer, though you won’t get a CF slot.

A standard mini USB and a dock connection port (no dockable accessories yet) reside on the bottom, while up top, you’ll find the power/hold switch, pinhole microphone, and dedicated volume buttons. I love dedicated volume, but I often instinctively use the main up/down controls, which of course don’t work (though Creative could implement this if it wanted).

On the back, you’ll find the thin and easily removable lithium-ion battery pack — a useful and rare design feature (the Archos 604 also has a removable battery). An integrated kickstand for hands-free viewing would have been useful. The bundled accessories include passable earbuds, a wall-wart power adapter, a USB cable, a software disc (with Creative Media Explorer, Yahoo Music Engine, and other utilities), A/V-out cables, and a felt case.

 

The W can handle MP3, WAV, and WMA (including subscription music) audio files. This time around, the Vision supports album art, albeit as tiny thumbnails. The W is decent as an MP3 player and holds it own in sound quality, and it includes handy features such as playlist creation and the Creative DJ (that is, Album of the Day and Rarely Heard). However, you should justify the unit’s size and weight by using it for video. The Zen Vision:W supports a large number of video formats, including WMV, MPEG-4 SP, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DivX 4/5, and XviD. In most cases, Windows Media Player will do the converting for you, if necessary, though the bundled Creative Media Explorer will do the job (as well as help you create slide shows). The handy bookmarking feature allows you to mark an exact point in a song for up to 10 bookmarks. Videos get bookmarked automatically when you exit the video. You’ll also get a decent FM radio with up to 32 autoscannable and namable presets, but no radio recording. Reception is good. The Microphone feature is decent sounding (16kHz mono ADPCMWAV). I like that you get a visual volume level meter. Finally, the Vision:W continues the Zen support for read-only Outlook syncing, and the MTP device can be used as a hard drive on Windows and Mac machines, though you need to first partition the drive within the menu.
Battery life is rated for 13 hours for audio (mediocre) and 4.5 for video (decent). CNET Labs was able to muster nearly 17 hours of MP3 audio on a single charge; video fared well, too, with a solid 7.6 hours of playback per charge. You can recharge via USB, but it will take twice as long (6 hours vs. 3 hours) to fully recharge. Our sister site in
Asia posts battery results in its review. Overall processor performance is above average (start-up is quick), though you’ll hit occasional one-second delays, especially when scrubbing through video tracks. The Archos 604 feels more precise with video scrubbing. The way a new screen slides into view when navigating on the W seems sluggish to me. Sound quality is very good (though not as good as the Creative Zen Vision:M’s) and the numerous preset (and five-band custom) EQs are effective (as is Bass Boost). I just don’t like having to navigate to audio settings to apply EQs; this should have been included in the context menu. Overall, I think the Zen Vision:W is well suited for those who already have large collections of videos (and those who use TiVo To Go) and for those who take lots of photos. It’s a bulky beast, but an impressive display, good video format support, a sweet price, and nice sound quality make the W a solid playback-only choice.  

Cowon A2 (30GB)

The Cowon A2 is a sleek, attractive, and all-encompassing portable video player with video-recording capability that suffers only when compared to the similarly appointed Archos AV500 Mobile DVR. We really dig some parts of the interface, but we were annoyed by others. While the A2 can play a huge number of audio and video formats, it does not currently support Windows Media DRM 10. On the plus side, the A2, which is available in 20GB ($380) and 30GB ($420) capacities, boasts excellent audio and video playback and recording quality, as well as solid battery life.

Design of Cowon A2 (30GB)

The Cowon A2 enters a luxury PVP domain currently dominated by the Archos AV500 and the Creative Zen Vision, and it fits right in. While both the Cowon (20GB and 40GB) and the Archos AV500 (30GB and 100GB) offer 4-inch-wide LCDs and PVR capability, Creative’s Zen Vision does not record video or audio, and it includes only a 4:3, 3.7-inch screen. Both the Archos and the Creative players are slightly smaller and lighter than the 5.2-by-3.1-by-0.9-inch, 10.5-ounce 20GB Cowon, but the player’s curved rectangular shape is easy on the hands and the eyes. Controls are minimal and austere, with only five buttons adorning the clean A2 face: the familiar Cowon minithumbstick and the four cascading metallic buttons. The latter includes a Back key and three soft menu keys marked A, B, and C that correspond to onscreen options. The buttons flank the Cowon A2’s centerpiece, its magnificent 4-inch-wide screen.

Other controls and connections are arrayed around the Cowon A2’s perimeter. On the right spine is an indented power button, and on the top spine are the widely separated stereo speakers, with the mic falling in between. Headphone and power-adapter jacks flank a hatch covering dual A/V-in/out and USB jacks on the left spine. Identifying icons for these four jacks are embossed on the inside of the latch and are difficult to read. On the bottom spine is a triposition switch for LCD, hold, and A/V out.

Navigating the Cowon A2 is a mixed bag. The main menu is gorgeous and very PDA-like, with menu items such as Movie, Music, Photo, Text, and Radio, each represented by colorful icons. The background image (ours was soothing blue waves) is customizable, with tiny icons for the volume, the time, and the battery in the upper-right corner, as well as three contextual choices in the lower sliver of the screen that correspond to the A, B, and C buttons. The soft keys are convenient, but we’d often look down at the similar buttons to confirm the selection. The tiny thumbstick takes some time getting used to, especially when selecting down on an item, but it is at its worst when trying to navigate through dozens of folders and thousands of songs. It’s no Apple Click Wheel. The thumbstick also serves as the volume control, so you’ll need to navigate back to the playback screen to adjust the volume. Because the device is currently a UMS device (with its own advantages), you cannot browse music by album or track unless you organize your media in such a way. Cowon plans to release a firmware update that will sort music by ID3 tag.

Despite tricky navigation (thank goodness for the well-placed Back button), the Cowon A2’s solid graphics add to the player’s appeal. For example, the music-playback screen is built around a pulsating graphic equalizer, with all kinds of track and setting information populating the readable screen. The A2’s folder-tree file browser is PC-like, with preview thumbnails for photos and video–as with the Archos–that show up in an adjunct window as you pass over them. The radio screen is the best interface we’ve seen for a portable, and the recording interface is nice and simple, though we’d love sound-level meters. The graphical interface is way geeky and not a breeze to use.Unlike the Archos–which requires a separate hub that enables video recording, including a higher-quality S-Video connection–the Cowon connects directly to a minijack-to-RCA cable familiar to anyone who’s hooked up a camcorder to a TV; however, you have to use the included cable. Identical A/V cables that come with camcorders won’t work for reasons we have yet to discover. Still, not having to travel with an Archos-like hub gives the Cowon A2 an edge in full-featured portability.Unfortunately, the Cowon A2 doesn’t have a built-in kickstand, but the included carrying case can prop the player up for hands-free viewing. One edge that the Archos AV500 has over the A2 is its removable battery, though Cowon A2 users will be pleased by the battery results (see Performance). Accessories include decent white earbuds, a USB device cable, a USB host cable, an A/V-in/out cable, an audio line-in cable, an AC adapter, a black pleather carrying case, a hand strap, an installation CD, and a user manual. There is no remote control to be found, and there are no other accessories available from Cowon

Features of Cowon A2 (30GB)

The Cowon A2 is no stranger to features. It can play back MP3, WMA, WAV,
MIDI, and OGG digital audio files natively, and you can create a playlist on the fly, though you can’t save it; it also includes a top-notch FM radio/recorder. The A2 is a decent photo (JPEG, PNG, and BMP) viewer with audioless slide shows and a cool zoom feature, and it can be connected to most digital cameras for direct transfer. It can play back video files encoded in AVI, DivX/XviD, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, ASF, and the new open Matroska (.msk) standard but not motion JPEG.

But wait, there’s more. The Cowon A2 can also be used as a text viewer and has a very capable USB 2.0 hard drive, and impressively, it makes an amazing audio recorder. Although all voice, line-in, and FM recordings have a maximum level of 192Kbps MP3, the quality–as well as the speed for recording and saving–is outstanding. To top it off, the A2 is an effective PVR that can record from video sources such as TV and cable at a maximum resolution of 640×480 at 1Mbps, as well as at a minimum resolution of 368×272 at 500Kbps; all files are recorded into ASF. Unlike the Archos PVPs, the A2 isn’t Macrovision compliant, so you won’t be able to copy directly from certain DVDs.

What stands out is the number of formats and resolutions of video files the Cowon A2 can handle–without video conversion. Since there are numerous formats, Cowon has included software to convert noncompatible files. Chances are that the A2 will play a decent percentage of video files you throw at it. The latest firmware update (v 1.61E) gives the A2 the ability to multitask–that is, it allows viewing of photos or text while listening to music, something the Archos PVPs aren’t able to do yet.

Still, there remain a few holes in the feature set that we hope Cowon can address soon. First, the Cowon A2 is not compatible with WMA DRM and WMV DRM files, so it’s not a PlaysForSure device. Cowon plans to release a firmware upgrade in early 2006 that will make the A2 compatible with store- and subscription-based audio and video. Also, unlike with the Zen Vision, you can’t sync your Microsoft PIM programs, and the A2 doesn’t support TiVo To Go, either. Finally, timed recording with the PVR is badly handled. Instead of the timer/recorder function listed among the options in the Record menu, you have to go to the system settings under Setup from the main menu and set the alarm, making sure you pick the right mode–the Record Line-in Video mode, not Movie Player. 

 All content is listed alphabetically in the Cowon A2’s varying sections, but a lot of material is buried deep in folders that require some drilling, depending on how it was transferred to the device. For instance, to find a TV show recorded by the PVR, you need to click on the Movie folder (this really should be labeled Video), which brings you to two folders: Movie, which stores files transferred from your PC, and Record, which stores PVR recordings. Click Record, and you get a video folder, inside of which, finally, is your list of recordings. PVR recordings are listed in some arcane Cowon nomenclature (Video_051216.001.asf, for example) instead of something handier, such as the time and the date of the recording, with no way to relabel them on the device.

Getting content from your PC to the Cowon A2 is equally annoying. You can use Windows Explorer or the included JetShell Pro content-management software, but both suffer from the same overarching problem: Neither discriminates between compatible and noncompatible content. We synced all our video, which included several DRM WMV files, and music, which included a substantial number of Napster subscription tracks and AAC files, on to the A2. JetShell, which offers one of the most convoluted interfaces we’ve come across, did not screen out these incompatible files. Subsequent attempts to play an incompatible file froze the player, usually requiring a reboot. Since JetShell Pro doesn’t list the DRM condition of music files, it’s impossible to weed out potentially offending tracks before syncing.

We do like the media player while it’s playing music and/or video. In addition to the technostylish graphics, the player settings can be quickly accessed without having to back out into the Menu settings area. This means you can apply the Cowon A2’s impressive set of EQ and BBE effects on the fly, and you can hear results in real time. The same goes for video playback, which also features a bookmark option and instant scrubbing 10 to 12 seconds forward or backward with the tap of the thumbstick, though the Archos’s controls are better.

Performance of Cowon A2 (30GB) Like the Archos AV500 Mobile DVR, the Cowon A2 has a dazzling 480×272-pixel, 4-inch-wide screen that makes videos look sharp and bright, even in daylight and at varying viewing angles. Downloaded DivX content, such as trailers for Batman Returns and War of the Worlds, was glossy and crisp, with sharp details sans jaggies; bright colors with only occasional video noise on solid color backgrounds; and no false contouring in scenes with gradual gradations between light and dark, such as sunsets, shadows, or spotlights. Even tiny text was amazingly easy to read. JPEGs, however, seemed a bit pixelated, and certain patterns produced moiré effects. When recording, letterboxed or HD content expands beyond the normal 16:9 LCD area, cutting off some of the image around the edges. For instance, if you record an NFL game from an HD channel, you’ll likely lose some of the score box. For movies, this minor cropping is annoying, but it is not horrible and is certainly better than not seeing the full frame. But oddly, video isn’t actually recorded in this zoomed-in mode. The Cowon A2’s 16:9 playback mode stretches the picture only horizontally, not vertically. Worse, when you record in either of the 640×480 modes, the picture mysteriously disappears from the A2’s LCD, leading you to believe that the unit isn’t recording a picture–but it is. Also, piping video content out to a larger TV is expectedly pixelated, though viewable on small TVs.Although the Cowon A2 sounds great with the included white earphones, the built-in speakers, while crisp, are not very loud. In fact, because they point up, they disperse the sound into the air, and therefore, the volume needs to be cranked up. Back to sound quality: Digital audio sounds excellent, and the EQs (
Normal, Rock, Jazz, Classical, Pop, Vocal, and User) and effects (BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D surround) make a measurable difference for those who like to sculpt their sound. Voice and line-in recording are also strengths of this device, while the FM radio with its 25 autoscan presets comes in bright and clear.Rated battery life for the Cowon A2 is 18 hours for audio and an international-flight-friendly 10 hours for video–both are more bountiful than that of the Archos, which is rated for, respectively, 15 hours and 4.5 hours, and the Creative Labs, which is rated for 13 hours and 4.5 hours. CNET Labs was able to coax 16 hours of audio playback and 9.2 hours of video playback out of the A2, both slightly less than the rating but still excellent results.

 

iRiver Clix (2GB)

If the iRiver Clix looks familiar, that’s because it’s simply an improved version of the iRiver U10. You get the same cool, miniature TV-like design and great features, alongside an enhanced user interface and superb integration with Windows Media Player 11 and MTV Urge. In fact, the device is launching in tandem with the media software and the music service because Microsoft, iRiver, and MTV worked closely to create the perfect symbiotic relationship between software, service, and hardware. We at CNET hesitate to call anything perfect, but iRiver comes close with the Clix. Tagged at $169.99 for the 2GB and $199.99 for the 4GB, the Clix is much more competitively priced than its predecessor. Of course, we’d love to see a 6GB or 8GB version in the near future, but if you’re looking for a WMA device and don’t need more than 4GB of storage, check out this MP3 player–we’re enamored with it.

Creative MuVo Vidz (512MB)

Design

The MuVo Vidz bears an entirely different form factor from the previous MuVos. It’s more boxy at 32 x 66 x 15.7mm and it has an OLED screen compared with the older monochrome display. We felt the screen was plenty bright, though we were doubtful it could win over any video fans with its 1.18-inch display. The trademark rocker switch of the previous MuVos has been swapped in favour of a quad-directional joystick, which is better suited to the new menu. The joystick offers plenty of tactile feedback and is surprisingly easy to use despite its diminutive dimensions. Hardware controls also include Play, Record and Navigation buttons. These are arranged in a row on one side of the MuVo’s body and though the buttons are well spaced out, it proved difficult to manipulate when the MuVo was sitting in a pocket. The
MuVo Vidz has the typical plastic façade of the MuVo series, but Creative may have tried to jazz up the design with a matt metallic plate overlay which proved rather scratch-proof. The curvy corners of the Vidz help to soften its hard corners and confer a little elegance. We also like the silver mirror finish bordering the display. Minute details, yes, but combined, these add a bit of style to what could otherwise become a bland looking MP3 player. For content navigation, the
MuVo Vidz‘s player menu follows a root directory-styled format, while a graphical interface is retained for the main functions. With such a tiny display, it’s actually preferable a root directory view is employed; it makes things easier to read.

Features:

If it was a year ago, one look at the MuVo Vidz and we would probably think it’s just another nondescript MP3 player. And judging by its 33g mass, it would be hard to imagine it being able to play video given video playback-capable portable devices were still hulking bricks back then. Looking at the Vidz now, we are not quite sure whether our gizmo genie was on the mark. The
MuVo Vidz may be one of the smallest portable video players around, right alongside multimedia midgets like the Cowon iAudio and MPIO, but the 1.18-inch screen and the fact that the Vidz can play only video files with an MV4 extension may be an eyesore to some. Creative did provide a transcoder software to convert MPEG-4 videos into the required format, and though it’s easy enough, it still represents an additional step between ripping the content and playing it on the Vidz. We were not thrilled when we found out that the transcoder can produce only videos with a display of 128 x 80 pixels and there are precious few settings you can tweak, other than changing the display orientation, audio sampling/bit rate and video quality. Because the screen is really small, there are no options to adjust the display since the visual benefits would probably be too tiny to be appreciated. Other than the transcoder and a playback application, Creative has kept the software to a minimum. Content transfer is conducted via a drag-and-drop interface, typical of flash MP3 players. Viewing text on the screen is ill advised since the
MuVo Vidz leaves words disjointed and sentences clinging in midair. As an audio player, the
MuVo Vidz has the basics down pat. It supports MP3 and WMA, a five-band user-defined and four preset equalisers (rock, jazz, classic, pop). There’s also FM radio and radio/voice/line-in recording. Picture viewing is included although our opinion on it is the same as for the video. One look at the accessories and we knew this was not something made by Creative. The unbranded earphones were such a big giveaway; since when did the company not include a pair of its own?

Belkin SportCommand

Belkin SportCommand iPod accessories for the fitness-focused set are nothing new; in the past six months, we’ve seen the Nike + iPod pedometer kit, and a watertight case from H2O Audio that lets you listen to your Nano while swimming in the deep blue sea.

Belkin’s SportCommand is more general in its applications; it’s a wireless controller that allows you to navigate through songs and adjust volume without having to lay a finger on your iPod’s scroll wheel. The SportCommand consists of two items: a flexible, battery-powered remote and a receiver that plugs into the charging port on the bottom of your iPod, iPod mini or Nano. The remote is covered in a water-resistant grey fabric, and sports five buttons — volume up and down, track skip and rewind, and play/pause — arranged in a cross shape. At the bottom is a plastic battery compartment — pop in the lithium cell and twist the cap to seal it from the elements.The remote can be strapped to your arm with the included velcro band, or hung from a belt loop with the carabiner clip. There’s also a strap extender for those who are broad-of-bicep or prefer a
Lara Croftian strapped-to-the-thigh look. The receiver consists of a plastic rectangle (the size of a postage stamp, and around 7mm thick) that attaches to a dock connector with a short white cable. Annoyingly, the dock connector protrudes from the iPod at a right angle, making the receiver-and-player combination an awkward shape. The remote will control your iPod whether it’s stashed in a pocket, backpack or thick jacket. Before strapping it on and going in search of those exercise endorphins, you’ll need to do a bit of playlist preparation in iTunes. There is no way to navigate through iPod menus using the remote, so you’ll need to have a list of songs on your player that will last the length of your workout. Belkin quotes a range of 50 feet (around 15 metres) within which the remote will control your iPod. This is quite impressive, but given you’ll still need to plug headphones into the player in order to hear your tunes, it’s a feature that is unlikely to be taken advantage of. Wireless headphones are an option if you want to avoid getting tangled up in cables, but you’d need to invest in a model with a receiver that plugs into a standard 3.5mm audio socket. Wireless headphones built for iPods tend to use the dock connector, which is occupied by the SportCommand.

With its durable construction and flexibility, the SportCommand is most appropriate for activities that involve getting cold and wet, such as snowboarding. However, it also makes sense to use the remote for sports like cycling, where you don’t want to be fiddling with a teeny Nano clickwheel while steering your bike one-handed into oncoming traffic. In order to evaluate the SportCommand, we grabbed a pair of roller skates and an iPod Nano and headed to the park. We queued up an appropriately upbeat playlist on the Nano, slipped it in a back pocket and strapped the remote to our right arm. In a bonus benchmarking opportunity, the fact that we hadn’t roller skated in several years allowed us to analyse how the remote would fare in the CNET.com.au “trip and stack it into a tree” test. (If you watch the video on the right, you’ll notice the battery compartment on the remote acquires a significant dint halfway through.) Skating back and forth along the path, the main thing we noticed was that the buttons on the remote needed to be pressed quite hard in order for commands to register. The velcro strap also made our arm a little itchy — we recommend wearing the remote over clothing instead of strapping it to a bare bicep. It’s also a good idea to feed the headphone cable under your garments, to avoid your arms getting caught and ripping out an earbud. The big, clearly marked controls on the remote were a pleasing alternative to the controls on the Nano — no matter how good you are at multitasking, squinting at an LCD and scrolling though songs as you skate, bike or board is a recipe for a ride in an ambulance. Overall, we think the SportCommand is best suited to cold-weather sports, where you would be more concerned about protecting your player from the elements. Although the remote made our skating safer, as it removed the need to take our eyes off the road, the fact that we still had to attach ourselves to the player via headphones negated some of the joys of having a “wireless” device.

i-Vision 922 Video Glasses

Remember several years back, when the pundits were predicting that virtual reality would take over our lives and humans would roam the earth wearing motion-capture gloves and skull-encasing helmets? No? OK, perhaps your childhood was a little different, but regardless, the predicted virtual future has thus far failed to arrive (Second Life notwithstanding).

What has arrived is the virtual display, which can be housed in a pair of snazzy video glasses to offer a screen size equivalent to a 48-inch monitor located two metres away. Such is the case with i-Vision’s 922 specs, which connect to devices that have an AV output (say, a video iPod, portable DVD player, or a games console) and deliver the images direct to your eyeballs. It’s not quite the cyborg-laden future the movies promised us, but it was enough to register a flicker of the needle on our Scale of Cool.

Design

Though they provoked comparisons to Star Trek props, the 922 glasses aren’t quite as sleek as the eyewear sported on the sci-fi series. The white plastic specs look like a cross between sunglasses and, with their chunky front section and square lenses, an old-school Fisher-Price ViewMaster. An earbud dangles from a curled, springy cord on each arm of the glasses — the buds nestle into circular hollows at the ear part of the arms when not in use. A rubber nose bit cushions the bridge of your nose and allows the glasses to sit snugly, although the fit would be better if the arms were more adjustable — the only possible position change is at the hinges where they meet the display housing.

To connect the 922s to your device of choice, you first must attach the remote, which is around the size of an iPod Nano, and houses an inbuilt rechargeable battery, volume controls and an on/off slider. The remote is plugged in with a grey cable just next to your left eye, which rather spoils the sleek effect of glasses’ minimalist front section. Your AV device is then plugged into a tiny Video-In port on the remote. Every cable configuration is accounted for, with an adaptor for composite video, AC charger and car charger thrown into the mix. When everything’s connected, there’s a chance you’ll trip over one of the cables that adorn your body like tinsel on a Christmas tree. We did once or twice.

Performance

The first test for the 922s was to see how they fared during an energetic gaming session. We connected the remote to a Nintendo Wii via the included component video adaptor, donned the specs and loaded Wii Sports. The Wii made for a particularly challenging console choice, because it uses a motion sensor to monitor gameplay. Swinging wildly at an imaginary baseball is fun when all your friends can see the results on a huge plasma TV, but when the screen is housed in a pair of glasses not dissimilar to those worn by Geordi aboard the Starship Enterprise, you look like … well, a bit of a tool. Not that you’d notice at the time — playing tennis or boxing with the glasses on is a surprisingly immersive experience. In fact, it’s probably best to clear the immediate area of objects and people before beginning a round of Wii tennis, as you’re likely to become engrossed in your own world of digital mayhem. Using the eyewear for an extended period — say, over 30 minutes at a time — made us feel a little seasick. It’s best to take frequent breaks to re-acquaint yourself with reality and prevent headaches.