Product Reviews

As hard disk-based MP3 players such as the iPod become more and more popular, it's not surprising that many firms have experimented with portable players that can also show video and pictures. A year ago we reviewed Archos' excellent AV320 (What's New, Shopper November 2003), which worked using a simplified Linux-based operating system. Now Microsoft has launched a new operating system for this kind of device, which it calls Portable Media Center. This is the first product to use this system.

The Zen PMC is fairly large at 275x145x8mm, but includes a large battery which allowed us to watch video for over five hours. On the front is a 3.5" reflective 320x240 pixel screen. The controls include a four-way pad for navigating menus that sits under your left thumb and the familiar Windows Start button. The Start menu plays back recorded TV, videos, music or images.

Navigating the Zen PMC is as easy as you would hope - you simply scroll

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through the menus with the directional pad to select the file you want. Once it's playing, you use the volume, pause, fast-forward and rewind buttons as necessary.

If you stop watching a TV or video file in the middle, the PMC system remembers where you are so you can carry on from where you left off later. You can play albums or playlists of music while viewing either album art or pictures from your collection, and you can quickly flick through photos or easily view a slideshow.

In the past, we've found that loading files on portable media devices can be troublesome. The PMC system connects to Microsoft's new Media Player 10, from where it can be either automatically or manually synchronised with no need for drivers. Media Player also automatically converts media files to the formats which the Zen PMC can support: WMV video, WMA and MP3 music and JPEG images. After the DivX codec was installed on our PC, it happily converted DivX films and transferred them to the Zen PMC. The quality of converted video is fine for viewing on the Zen and good enough to watch on a connected TV.

However, the Zen isn't without its problems. The screen is highly reflective, making it hard to view in some conditions. It's also expensive and its TV function will be of limited use to those without a Media Center PC or TV card. Its simplicity makes it the best portable media device we've seen yet, but some might choose to wait for smaller Portable Media Centers which will be available soon, though with shorter battery life.