Here is everything that I've noted so far(rather large)... most comments are from about a week ago, i've edited where applicable.
(my personal scale from 1 - 10, 1=not important & 10= the utmost importance)
1. No timed recording : 10
The inability to make a timed recording means that I have to be awake and aware to record something. It's better if you can time this.
2. Reliance on an external TV tuner : 8
Simplicity : yes. But no way to change channels or record more than one channel makes this somewhat less useful.
3. flimsy rubber cover at the top of the unit : 5
Mine is now off the unit
.. this is way too flimsy.
4. White line at the top of the screen : 3
This doesn't bother me, as this appears to be the one line of pixels that just so happens to be covered by the case. This seems to only happen when I'm using the tv tuner (pre-divxd movies and tuning other things seem to be OK)
5. Windows xp explorer hangs on my computer and on others after transfers : 5
I can transfer files, and then have to kill explorer.exe and restart it afterwards. I do not use a USB hub (I use this directly from the motherboard port) in my eyes, this is not a big problem, but I've seen this on a couple of computers (win xp pro) so I wonder if others are having this problem. Note : tried this on windows 2000 and I did not have the same problem.
6. Washed out color : 1
I'm not sure if this is my signal, or something related to my AV setup, but the picture almost seems a little too bright -- I have the brightness turned down all the way, and whereas files recorded from the unit are a little bright, the other movies I moved onto the device (divx) are just right. Not a major issue at all.
7. directional "pad"(?) : 3
This thing is kind of clumsy to use.
8. Audio output : 2
On other files, the audio seems a little low. On files recorded by the device itself, the sound is fine.
9. File Format : 5
.asf file format, although it may work fine, seems limiting.
10. MMC / SD card reader : 5
-- doesn't work. I put a MMC card in and it goes right in, i have to pull it out before it is 'eaten up' completely by the unit.
11. Turns off by itself? : 4
Sometimes I'm not sure why the unit turns off. I think I may be running low on disk space, but once in awhile I see the power light flashing, and sometimes have to reboot the unit to get it back.. [[I think now that this could have been usage issues related to trying to capture more video when the hard drive is full.]]
12. Lockups : 7
Sometimes the unit just locks up, and I don't know why. I have to keep a paperclip handy. I have two public domain mp4 files that I have seen lock up : one example is bob hope's "my favorite brunette", 256kbps version from
http://archive.org -- I tried to watch this and it locked up within the first ten minutes. I do not know if it's repeatable. [[update: this hasn't happened that frequently the last week or so, but i have only been watching videos that were captured by the unit ]]
13. Does not save current "watch point" : 4
You have to remember where you were, and fast forward to the location. I would expect that a video player would remember (at least) the last video file's last viewed location.
14. Does not know where you were when moving around directions : 1
When you traverse back up the directory structure (closer to the "root" directory, if you will), often I'm not sure where I came from. very minor issue of course, but sometimes I don't remember where I came from.
15. Cannot watch TV without viewing "PVR" screen without recording : 5
The big black bar stops you from using the screen as a monitor without recording. this seems unnecessary, although I haven't really needed to use it this way (it would come in handy)
16. While fast forwarding / rewinding video - I have no idea where I am at in the movie : 2
It would be helpful to know (by a location : end display or bar) where I am, sometimes I'm not sure where I am in watching the video and although not a necessity, I see this functionality elsewhere and am used to it.
Positive notes (These are just highlights, related to this unit in particular, not necessary all of the obvious good points about having a portable video recorder / player) :
I like the "tv/lock button" being where it is -- because I like to have a quick way to turn the video off when I just want to listen.
I like the placement of the inputs.
I like the quality and sound of the video. This looks much better than what I saw when I attempted to record via my computer and tv tuner. And it takes up MUCH less space.
I like the screen. Nice size.
I like the speed, except when you are watching videos of higher quality. It seems a bit jittery then. In QVGA low quality this seems perfectly fine.
Nice case. Very good-looking unit.
Other ideas:
One thing that may be possible to implement and awesome for nerds like me would be to allow someone to drop a file through the usb interface on the hard drive (e.g. a file named recordings.txt) with a standard format, then the device can pick it up (hopefully automatic, but possibly by a ui selection) and read in the listings so that you have an easier method of programming the timed recordings. that way you can just plug in something like
10/04/05 03:00 04:00 histories_mysteries.asf
and you could have the tuner 'semi-matically' record the show, picking a real name for the recording. this would also let someone programmatically pick up shows and notify the device every couple of days of new tasks to record.
There is everything I have so far, this information was recorded a couple of days after I got the unit, but I've kept it because I wanted to give better information, so I've recently edited it and added or subtracted things as necessary.
I like the device, but I'm struggling with trying to get this to record what I want. This is great for recording things that you see but don't have time to watch (ie you're watching 'dirty dozen' and company comes over) but the lack of a timed recording makes it tough to do what I want it to.
