« Hi-Definition DV cam | Main | What is miniDV? »
September 07, 2004
Creative Zen
Microsoft's Portable Media Center will be available in the UK later this month in the form of the Creative Zen.
The player is the first Portable Media Center device in the UK, followed by products from the likes of Samsung and others.
It features a 20GB hard drive and 3.8in TFT colour screen, plus a rechargeable and replaceable battery that lasts 22 hours playing music, or seven hours of movie playback - according to the company.
It also has TV Out and Stereo Out jacks so that you can listen to music on the go or plug the unit directly into a TV to view movies, photos and other media stored on the device.
The player also uses the latest Windows Media Player 10 software that hooks into Microsoft's online content partners for downloading music and video. Windows Media 10 will be available for download in the UK from Microsoft once it has sorted out its UK lineup of content partners.
The new software also boasts improved syncing utilities, that Microsoft claims will allow a user to transfer a two hour movie in Windows Media Video format from a PC to the Portable Media Center in less than three minutes.
However, Windows Media Player 10 will work with other devices besides the Portable Media Center-based gadgets. Microsoft currently counts more than 70 portable media devices supported by the new software.
Another new feature of the player software is the ability to rip CDs to MP3 format as well as Windows Audio.
The Portable Media Center will only play video files stored using the video codec in Windows Media Player 10, and currently that piece of software is the only one that will encode files like this. But numerous TV card manufacturers: ATI, Hauppage, nVidia and more; are jumping on board with the format, so even PCs without the player software will be able to record TV shows and transfer them to a Portable Media Cente device.
Posted by robeva at September 7, 2004 05:26 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)