Portable Player
In these days of quick access multimedia, when everyone seems to be able to carry half a film library on their ‘phone, you might think that the market for a portable player would be pretty much defunct. Until, that is, you consider two things: the quality of your portable player, and its intended use. A ‘phone is still primarily a ‘phone – you can watch movies on it but the experience is hardly comparable to plugging in a decent portable player and watching through a laptop, a TV or a dedicated screen.
Technically speaking, of course, a phone is a portable player. It fits in your pocket and it plays MP3s or MPEGs. Trouble is, the quality of compressed files like this is notoriously bad – an MP3, for example, is fine for the tinny little headphones you get with it, but plug it into even a car stereo and you’ll notice that compression has taken half the bass away and killed the space between the midrange and treble sounds. If you use a dedicated portable player you can listen to CDs at CD quality, whether you’re in your car or on the move: the difference is astonishing.
Same goes for movies, too. Compressed film files are rubbish unless you are watching them on (for example) the three-inch screen of your iPod. Though (again) an iPod is really a portable player, capable of storing a ridiculous amount of compressed audio and video, it has the same problem as your ‘phone: if you’re watching or listening to it on the move, fine, but for an actually enjoyable video experience? No-one can seriously believe that watching Lord of the Rings on an iPod is worth even starting. Get yourself a portable player that plays DVD (you’ll soon be able to get a Blu-Ray portable player), plug it into the TV when you get to your destination, and watch the thing properly.
Owning a portable player, be it DVD, CD, Blu-Ray or a combination of all three, allows you to take proper quality media with you wherever you go. A portable player can be as small as the media it takes (i.e. CD size) without losing much in the way of file translation quality – which makes it whole universes better in terms of watching or listening experiences than an iPod or a computer with a load of compressed files in its hard drive. Compression squashes quality as well as size: you can take a whole load more stuff with you if you use a portable player like a pod or a ‘phone, but it’s all awful. Invest in a proper portable player, one that is meant to take the data-rich media of CD or DVD, and reclaim a decent viewing or listening experience.
