[mythtv-users] Mobile Video Player Recommendations (MPEG4)

Nick Rout nick at rout.co.nz
Fri Jan 26 23:40:02 UTC 2007


On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:31:48 -0600
Kevin Kuphal <kuphal at dls.net> wrote:

> Jeff volckaert wrote:
> >> Sounds interesting. The truth is these little devices are fun to play
> >> with but I have found that I really don't want to watch a video on a
> >> tiny screen when away from home - a book is more entertaining and
> >> doesn't have the battery life problems of a video player :-)
> >>     
> >
> > While I agree about the book part (when IS the next Harry Potter?)...
> > I have to somewhat disagree about the tiny screen.  The Video Ipod
> > screen is still a little small, but a 3.8" PDA screen is a different
> > story.  When you are watching it from a foot away it is about the size
> > of a regular TV screen across the room.  A good transcode with good
> > audio is a joy to watch on the PDA.  I used to use 200K bitrate, but
> > once I got bigger CF and SD cards I bumped it up to 300K.  It made a
> > big difference.
> >
> > In the summer, I would rather watch a show on my PDA, in the evening,
> > sitting in a rocking chair on the porch than watching regular TV in
> > the living room.  Unless it's raining of course.  :-)
> >
> > I'm sure some people would disagree, but I would just like to say "Try
> > it".  A small screen doesn't equal a bad viewing experience.
> >   
> 
> In alot of ways, the PSP is a very good viewing device.  With built-in 
> Wifi, it isn't hard to get it to stream content to the device either.  I 
> believe ffmpeg has decent support (maybe even a built in profile) for 
> transcoding content for it. 
> 
> The 4.3" screen is 16:9 and has ample storage options plus you get the 
> bonus of some games (heck, Sid Meiers' Pirates is coming out soon and 
> that could keep you busy for a long time).  I think they were under $200 
> around Thanksgiving.
> 
> Kevin

One of nieces has an Italian husband (what is he, my nephew-in-law??)
and they were out at Xmas. I was impressed with his PSP - I was able to
connect it to the house wifi (wide open, my other in-laws house) and
browse the web. Not all that impressive you think? Well the PSP's
language option was set to Italian, so I had to intuit may way through
a lot of setup options to get it going, as I know no Italian.

I thought a gui that was intuitive enough for me to muddle through in
another language was pretty darn cool!

Aren't there hacks that allow a more versatile media experience too? -
as in more codecs/formats?

The difficulty i have in transcoding anything on my mythbox is that it
is a little underpowered, an epia M9000. Giving it anything too CPU
intensive seems to dtract majorly from the myth experience!


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