I Jumped In!

I just bought a portable media player. It's capable of video playback, audio playback, and something that most aren't -- acting as a USB host. That means that theoretically I can take my camera's cards, and load them into the player on the fly -- great for storage with a 30GB hard-drive in it. It also has a crucial feature that is lacking in almost every other portable player: recording.

I don't know the level of quality that I can expect from the line-in recording, but I'm hoping that this will be the beginning of my ability to podcast. We'll see. With a built-in mic, it will certainly be sufficient to grab ambient sounds for certain projects. To me, a simple hard-drive recorder in itself is exciting! Lots of capacity, and quick transfer times.

I'm working to keep my blog entirely brand-name free (unless living martyrs counts, but it doesn't yet...), so I won't tell you either the name of the player (a discountinued clearance model anyway. Suffice it to say that it's not the ubiquitous white one that has become such an iCon), or the store where I bought it. Though I will say that if the player wasn't so cheap there, I never would have been tempted to darken the store's doors. So much for all this talk of 'experience' -- the sales associates were very keen to share their misinformed opinions, and offer all sorts of 'advice'. I'm glad I did research myself, and that I was able to examine the manual before I bought it. The player has a little card in it that says something along the lines of "if there are problems, let us know. Don't return it to the store." Needless to say I'm trusting the manufacturer significantly more than the retailer on this one. An interesting point for anyone who's keeping score in the branding game -- big box stores are getting in their own way, and the brand relationships could in fact be about ready to leapfrog them. Hmmm...

Anyway, I'm hoping for the best from this thing, and remaining cautiously optomistic. Its abilities are a dying breed in the marketplace (it's a jack-of-all-trades, which is perfect for someone in my shoes). I'm glad to have got it before they went entirely extinct. Silly unseens market forces seem to be forcing the creative flexibility out of such potentially handy devices. Now if it would only balance my checkbook, remind me of my next project's due date, and tie my infernal shoe-laces again. Well maybe its next model...

On the other hand, if I can only get this thing to play music and videos, and provide the odd bout of digital storage, then so be it. If it lives up to half of its potential, I'll be sufficiently happy.