2000TLondon

I'm looking to buy a video / music player for travelling. It won't really get used much apart from when I'm on holiday. I have a few long haul flights coming up this year, so need something visual I think as well as audio.

I only know about the PSP and the iPod video as friends have them and have recommended them..... Price isn't too much of an issue, and I would probably only play games on the PSP if they were REALLY good.....

What would the general advice be regarding buying something like this, which is the best all round and why, please? Are there any other players on the market that are better?

Cheers!!!

2000TLondon

Does anyone know anything about the Microsoft Zune?

ru'

I'd suggest the PSP; I travel a lot for work, often on my own, and it's great for passing the time.

Get one with 3.03 OS (or earlier) and you can then hack it for custom firmware enabling you to play back-ups of your games from the memory stick rather than lugging the UMD discs around. Also play PS1 games too, and even surf the net on wi-fi.

Some people say they're great for illegal game downloads and **** too, but I wouldn't know about that.

You'll need to budget for some memory sticks (I use 4gB fakes from eBay) and maybe a spare battery depending on how long the flights will be.

BlkKnight

PSP get's my vote as well.

The hardware is years ahead of the rest. It's versitile.

The only bugbare is the lack of decent games - althoutg there are a few.

AudiHater

80 GB ipod video. I have 30 GB of movies on it and the PSP was too much hassle keeping transferring memory stick data all the time. A movie is 750mb in decent quality on the IPOD.

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

I'd go for the PSP as well. Well I have, but I mean if I were you
You'll find that watching a video on an Ipod screen can give you eye strain. the PSP having abigger screen will be much better for that. And there are tonne's of good games for it. But as mentioned, its best to play those direct from the memory card, so budget for a big one, at least 2gb and above.
PSP all the way. does everything the Ipod does, and much more.

KiwiGTI

It's pretty flawed apparently, the software is particularly nasty. They have made a hash of it this time.

Zune review - Engadget

And that's probably the most honest and favourable review. I haven't seen one person recommending it yet.

jfrf

i have an archos 604.
its 30gig and the battery last 4.5 hours for a film.

for me battery life is important. I think the ipod video only last 2 hours? which is no use on a flight

alos the screen of my one is probably double the size of the ipod.

psp looks good . my only worry would be the lack of storgae for films.

good thing with the archos is that you can download films from the internet and record directly from tv. all for nothing.

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

I think the PSP's quite builky if you're not going to use it for games so i'd go for the Ipod.

BlkKnight

with compression, each film takes up between 400-500 mb - that's about 9 films on a 4gb stick + room for MP3's

hojkoff

I wouldn't really recommend that. You can 'brick' your psp tying that. I was thinking about doing it with mine but when I read up about it on the net I wasn't so convinced anymore. I would only run the file that lets you hack a psp if I knew someone who had run the same file on there one and it had worked.

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

It very hard to "brick" the PSP if you read the instructions on the firmware downgraders. I've downgraded at least 6 PSP's. The first one, mine, I almost "bricked" my pants, thinking that I might mess it up. But its so easy, you really have to be a fool to mess it up.

Oh yes. Almost forgot about the Archos range. Some of those screens are huges, and storage for films is unbelievable. If you are not bothered about games, and price isn't an issue. Go for one of them.

2000TLondon

Cheers guys! So do the games on the PSP feel / play like games on the PS2 or is it completely different? If the gaming is actually good, I'd definetly use that feature.

The Archos looks impressive, I hadn't heard of those. $349 to $399 ish here compared to $199 for the PSP so not the end of the world at all....... Which Archos is recommended, I'm on their site but the models are pretty similar..........

2000TLondon

Wow, you can actually get a 30gb archos for $249 here, but think I'll go a bit higher.........

The Archos 604 looks pretty good, with wifi for the web, but it only has 30gb storage. Can you upgrade the memory at all?

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I have an Epson P-3000, which has an excellent screen and plays a good range of movie formats from its 40GB hard disc. It's primarily designed to store the photos from your digtal camera, so if you're going on holiday and likely to fill your memory card(s) then it'll be really handy for that too.

It's pricey, though - if you don't need that feature, you might be able to get away with something cheaper just for movies.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

i have an archos AV7100 player which is pretty good but bulky so i have just purchased a cheap 40gig goodmans pvr which was only £60 delivered to my door and fits easily in your pocket for what it does i think i will just leave it in my car so i will always have something to entertain me !!!

Goodmans PVR Personal Media

scoob_babe

Have an 80gig ipod. PSP and Archos too bulky for what I wanted. Battery life would improve if I occaisonally remember to charge the damn thing up!!

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

I had an Archos av380. Really old one. the screen was damaged, so I took out the HDD, and used it on my laptop. It was 80gb laptop hard drive in there. So Imagine the newer ones do this also. You'd have to copy over all of the info on the old drive, set up stuff, to make a new one work. But it will probably invalidate your warranty taking it apart. So I would reccommend it if you're not too handy with things like that.

As for the PSP games. The graphics are on par with a PS2. But due to the size of the game discs, 1.4gb max, games like GTA have been scaled done to play on the PSP.