Recommendations for a large screen PMP with possible HD support?

J-blk

Hi everyone,

I'm a long term iPod/iPhone user but would like something with a bigger screen for watching TV shows/movies when traveling and I'm finding most reviews fairly lacking TBH so I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a large screen PMP. I'd be mostly looking for the following:

1) Screen >= 7" - nothing smaller.
2) HD support would be nice - especially H264 in an MKV container. I could easily convert the files to MPG instead if the container is the issue, but I don't want to be spending hours transcoding.
3) Xvid/DviX support in an AVI container also a major plus.
4) HD output via HDMI or component to an HDTV would also be nice but not essential.

Any ideas? And if anyone has any such device (e.g the current generation Archos 7" PMP), I'd love to hear how you get on with it in "real life" as opposed to most of the reviews that I can find online. Thanks in advance.

Voodu Child

7" makes for a massive PMP, definitely not pocketable, so would you consider just getting a netbook? If you are going to be carrying it in a rucksack then the difference in size/weight between a 7" PMP and a netbook isn't massive.

Very few PMPs currently support MKV. The Archos 5 Android (new model) does, although currently it struggles with typical 720p content (can just about manage lower bitrate stuff). There is no 7" version planned that ive heard. The old Archos 7 definitely doesnt support MKV.

The upcoming SmartQ V7 is 7" and supports MKV plus has a HDMI, though it is a seriously butt-ugly player. Its basically just similar to the current SmartQ 7 except with a faster processor and some kind of media accelerator to allow HD playback.

J-blk

Voodu Child wrote: »

7" makes for a massive PMP, definitely not pocketable, so would you consider just getting a netbook?

Not really interested in it being pocketable so I don't mind the massive form factor that much (for a PMP). All netbooks AFAIK are complete garbage for HD playback (notably MKV) which I realize may be the case for every single PMP out there too, but I was hoping there might be some exceptions available that I am not aware of. I also don't want the whole laptop form factor of a netbook, so the PMP is a better fit (true, there are a couple of tablet netbooks around, but they are very, very expensive for what they are).

Voodu Child

Well with the CoreAVC codec and some playback tweaks most netbooks will manage 720p content up to a point (talking about proper HP H264 here). Certainly better than the Archos or any other Western PMP.

If you're really after HD playback and a HDMI, you should check out the Nvidia ION netbooks. They'll manage HD playback fine and most come with HDMI. They are only just launching now, ive seen the HP Mini311 on amazon and a few other ones are launching around now also (Samsung N510 is one I can think of off the top of my head).

PMPs really arent at a stage yet where they can comfortably handle 720p H264. Even the Tegra in ZuneHD can't hack it, and it doesnt even support MKV anyway. I have some PMPs that can handle H264 in MKV up to maybe 480p (and lowish bitrates) but they fall apart once you approach higher res and bitrates. There's some stuff coming out of China shortly that probably can (using the Telechips TCC8900), and im sure there will be 7" versions, but the quality of thoseChinese PMPs tends to be hit and miss.

J-blk

Voodu Child wrote: »

If you're really after HD playback and a HDMI, you should check out the Nvidia ION netbooks. They'll manage HD playback fine and most come with HDMI.

AFAIK, the ION acceleration only works with specific applications so if the supported apps can't play MKV (very likely), it'll make no difference from a bog-standard netbook - and the freaking Atom CPU is still going to be an issue then.

Voodu Child wrote: »

PMPs really arent at a stage yet where they can comfortably handle 720p H264.

I pretty much thought as much but wanted to check. Thanks for the input.

Voodu Child

J-blk wrote: »

AFAIK, the ION acceleration only works with specific applications so if the supported apps can't play MKV (very likely), it'll make no difference from a bog-standard netbook - and the freaking Atom CPU is still going to be an issue then.

Shouldn't be any issue tbh. The ION is just a 9400M (or something like that, cant recall) - so getting video acceleration working is no different to any other Nvidia card - ie very easy.

Plenty of video apps support MKV and plenty of free (and paid) codecs support video acceleration nowadays. I use MPC-HC (free) and just tick the DXVA option and thats it, done. 1080p MKVs and my CPU is barely ticking over. My GPU isn't much better than the ION.

Win 7 actually has bundled DXVA codecs as far as I know.

J-blk

Yep, the ION is using a 9400M indeed - didn't know about the DXVA codec option though. Since I have a MacBook that has a 9400M, I might try installing Windows in Boot Camp and check the CPU usage there with MKV playback. If it stays really low (because on the Mac OS X side, it hovers around 30% or higher and that's on a Core 2 Duo), then an ION netbook probably can perform the same.

Thanks for the replies.

ellobee

What about an Archos 9, I think the launch date is tomorrow

J-blk

ellobee wrote: »

What about an Archos 9, I think the launch date is tomorrow

Because we don't know if it can play MKV easily, now do we? A lot of these players claim they do but are rubbish in "real life". That's why I was asking in the first place if anyone has any experience with any player that more or less fits the description in my first post.

ellobee

well seen as it's basically a pc, even comes with windows 7 there's no reason why it won't play MKV, I have to say it does look cool

Fat_Fingers

knowing Archos i think this might be very good but also very expansive, it will come with basic functions and then all codecs will be charged extra

J-blk

I don't mind that much paying for the extra codec (though it is awfully stingy of them to do) but I would hate to buy something like this only to find that it can't play my videos smoothly and I have to transcode everything.

Ellobee, there's no denying that it looks like a very nice unit, but at this stage, there's no way to tell if it'll simply be on par with a netbook and not much else - which probably means it just won't cut it for MKV HD content. We'll see - maybe some decent reviews will pop up soon, though MKV is not really tested thoroughly in most cases when it comes to "professional" reviews.

Voodu Child

The Archos 9 uses the 1.1GHz Atom Z510 which is slower even than the N270/N280 used in most netbooks.

So if you are talking about 720p videos using x264 then personally I think it'll struggle even with an efficient decoder like CoreAVC.

You won't have to pay for extra codecs because its just a Win7 machine, Archos won't have any control over what you put on it. Load up some codec packs and a good video player and you'll play any audio or video format you like. But like I say, I just don't think it has the power to do what you want.

J-blk

Voodu Child wrote: »

But like I say, I just don't think it has the power to do what you want.

Yep, I think so too - oh well, I'll just keep looking I guess.

cnocbui

Wait for the strongly rumoured Apple Tablet device, though I doubt if it will have a HD, but we can always hope.

J-blk

cnocbui wrote: »

Wait for the strongly rumoured Apple Tablet device, though I doubt if it will have a HD, but we can always hope.

An Apple tablet device has been rumored for years now so it's hard to tell when and if one will actually be released. I should know, I follow the rumors closely and have nothing but Macs at home . Besides, hell will freeze over before Apple supports MKV, DivX, etc so that kinda beats the whole point...

ellobee

Voodu Child wrote: »

The Archos 9 uses the 1.1GHz Atom Z510 which is slower even than the N270/N280 used in most netbooks.

So if you are talking about 720p videos using x264 then personally I think it'll struggle even with an efficient decoder like CoreAVC.

Looks like they are releasing it with the Z515 processor, it might make a difference, Archos are claiming it will play FULL HD, but I'm not sure you could trust what Archos say.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1088/1/

http://www.archos.com/products/nb/archos_9/index.html?country=ie&lang=en

Ghost Train

ellobee wrote: »

Looks like they are releasing it with the Z515 processor, it might make a difference, Archos are claiming it will play FULL HD, but I'm not sure you could trust what Archos say.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1088/1/

http://www.archos.com/products/nb/archos_9/index.html?country=ie&lang=en

They're pretty clear about the HD support, and their business is video so its probably safe enough to say it will do HD. The processor shouldn't be much of an issue, if the video chip and driver work for HD then it should be fine

Do not like the way archos charge for the video out accessories. I assume there'se no locked down plugin crap with a windows 7 machine so thats one positive thing

J-blk

"Plays HD" can mean any variety of things... I have little doubt that it can smoothly play uncompressed 1080p video even, but once you started throwing x264 or other compressed codecs into the mix (which is most commonly what you end up with in an MKV container anyway), it's a whole different ball game. So it may in fact be perfectly capable of HD playback as a general concept but still completely useless for all the MKVs I have...

ellobee

I'm not sure if you are interested in the Archos 9, maybe it's too big but if you were, you could go to the Archos Forum www.archosfans.com and some of the guys there have ordered the Archos 9 and ask them to test some video for you

Ghost Train

Well getting full hd from a portable device might be asking a bit much

Here's a bit of info regarding the video chipset. Would say that drivers and software and memory through put would all be issues which would effect video playback

The graphics core does include a full HD video decode engine that can fully accelerate H.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1 video streams. Intel claims that the engine is capable of decoding full bitrate Blu-ray movies however it lacks the ability to decode a second stream, and thus can't be certified for use in a Blu-ray device. Intel claims that the platform will only consume 120mW during H.264 decode.

Then there's the issue of output resolution. The graphics engine only allows a 1366 x 768 output resolution, so while it can decode a full 1080p HD stream, it can only output it at a lower resolution.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3276&p=17

I know that the original dell min 10 (not the v version) could play back hd files, because it had a similar chipset, so might be worth looking at forums that detail that

cnocbui

J-blk wrote: »

An Apple tablet device has been rumored for years now so it's hard to tell when and if one will actually be released. I should know, I follow the rumors closely and have nothing but Macs at home . Besides, hell will freeze over before Apple supports MKV, DivX, etc so that kinda beats the whole point...

Rumoured for years but very strong current indications of it being introduced early next year, but you already knew that seeing as how you keep such a close eye on things.

There are two scenarios being touted: 1) it will run the iPhone OS or a mod of it. 2) Full blown OS X.

If the latter, it might be possible to put VLC on it.