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Multimedia/Photo Viewers - what's out there?

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Correction: at Buy.com they just discounted it again. They now have a $50.00 rebate. So you can get it for $219.00. A great deal.
 
I bought the Creative Vision W, but returned it when I discovered that not only could I not view my raw files, they don't even show up in the file list. Ridiculous. Since my D100 doesn't have Raw+JPG, there was no way to know if the photos were there.

I debated between the Epson and the Wolverine ESP, but went with the Wolverine. The Epson's screen is definitely better, but the Wolverine met my needs (plays video/music, shows raw files, decent capacity, and finally was cheaper by a lot).
 
Yeah, sorry, I did get that wrong - which I noticed after I posted - but since you can't edit any posts on this forum I had let it slip.

So yes, obviously you can upgrade the O/S - the problem for many people is that since it lives on the HDD and not on an EPROM if your HDD dies you can't do anything except send it back to Epson. I know the P-5000 is a superb unit and I'd love one but that still really worries me and my biggest barrier to buying that unit.
 
Another thing I consider as odd... Vosonic says this is a 'limited version' and that if you want one, you should order soon as it may be gone forever...

http://www.vosonic.twmail.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?forum=8&post_id=1076#forumpost1076

I've never heard the 1000 hours max for a OLED... but then I fully admit I've never really looked into it... If true... what about a camera like the Canon 400D/Xti? They have OLED screens...
Mike Christie said:
I've now spent most of the afternoon looking into the new Vosonic
8390 unit with the OLED screen and I'm not sure I like what I'm
reading - apparently OLED screens are only good for about 1000
hours max which means it could be dead in a year or two (depending
on your use).

I am also not comfortable with the screen warranty - they will only
replace the unit/screen in the first three months and then only if
it has more than 4 dead pixels in the area around the main
picture.... sounds to me like they don't have much faith in the
screen to me - or am I being too cynical/pessimistic?

Check out this page for the warranty details on the 8390:
http://www.vosonic.com/index.php?PA=warranty

Apart from the screen issue it looks like a really good unit - way
cheaper than the P-5000 and has a user-swappable drive... but the
trade off is clearly the (possibly) limited life of the screen and
the poor 320x240 resolution (although that may not necessarily be a
problem if it's a good enough screen I guess.)

So now I'm really confused - typically the Epson excels at what the
VP8390 doesn't and vice-versa - talk about frustrating!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks - that's just made my decision easier as my top requirement is RAW compatability. I am now very tempted to just get the Vosonic 8390 (which I think is the ESP or is it the ESP2?) although now I know it's probably possible to back up the P-5000's drive on day one I may go with that option... gee, I never thought this decision would be so tough!
 
As a prospective buyer that message concerned me a lot so I've left a post on the Vosonic forum in question asking for the reasons why the 8390 is to be discontinued... surely there is some problem with it (perhaps over longer-term use) which is why they say it was a "limited run" model. I'm not for a minute saying (or even suggesting) it is anything to do with the OLED but something smells fishy to me!

I know the 8390 looks like a great PMP but I won't buy one now until I find out why they've been discontinued and what will replace them. Luckily I have almost 3 months before I need to use it on my travels so maybe I can wait for their new unit (if there is one).
 
Wolverine does not sell the "ESP2" (8390). They only sell the ESP (8360). I emailed them about this and here is there reply:

"2- Vosonic and Wolverine are the same company. However, the Wolverine is focused on marketing the product into the US market. We also tend to use better components for the Wolverine because the US consumer is more of a demanding consumer. We do not market the units with the OLED screen because the screen is hard to find and it is more expensive than the standard screen. In addition, the OLED screen has no back light so it is much dimmer than the standard screen."

If you want the 8390, you will have to buy the Vosonic
 
Mike,

I've been going through the same pain as you. And I finally gave in and bought the thing. Got it from http://www.technobox.com.au who matched the price on the 100GB version from JAL Digital, and upgraded to 120GB to boot. I'm going overseas for a short trip next weekend so wanted to make the purchases this week.

I'll let you know how it goes :)
 
keep in mind the creative vision will show the jpg if you shoot Raw+jpg. But my D100 doesn't have this option, so the folder showed up empty. I would hope they could solve this with firmware, but don't hold your breath.

Shame b/c the video was much nicer on the creative than my Wolverine.
 
owen_meany said:
Shame b/c the video was much nicer on the creative than my Wolverine.
Click to expand...
That's sort of to be expected - the Creative is designed primarily as a multimedia / video viewer. The Wolverine/Vosonic line is geared towards photo storage and then multimedia viewer - it has evolved (I assume) from their older devices which were purely data storage) and it has better support for more memory cards.

I shoot raw onto SD, I can't do raw+jpg, and video playback is a nice-to-have extra feature. So it just doesn't make sense for me to get the Creative.

With any luck, I'll have my 8390 delivered to my door before lunch!
 
I've just unpacked my new VP8390.
1 x VP8390 w/ 120GB HDD
1 x Cradle
1 x Spare Battery
Lots of cables

Over the weekend I'll get a better chance to give it a real test for transfer speeds etc etc, but from initial impressions, it looks great.

The screen is awesome. Apparently it doesn't have a backlight. If that's true, it because OLED most definitely doesn't need it. Perfectly viewable and bright from every angle up to 175º !!

I have one ancient 128Mb SD card with me to do a quick test. 30 secs to copy 50Mb, but it was bought when 128Mb was a large memory card, so its not particularly fast. One annoyance though is that the CD slot is not spring loaded, and the card goes in quite far - leaving only about 5mm to grip with fingertips to pull it out.

(Hmm.. looks like I also just managed to crash the device by inserting the SD, then removing it before the device finished reading - hitting the hard reset button fixed it)

Will post a decent review when I get more of a chance to play with it.
 
Couple of speed tests using Sandisk Ultra II 2GB;

Copying 192 files, approx 10Mb each (Almost full capacity on the memory card)

Copy from HD to SD via USB2: 32:00 mins
Copy from SD to HD via USB2: 7:32
SD to VP8390 (High Speed): 9:10
SD to VP8390 (Normal Speed): 9:17
SD to VP8390 (HDD Speed High): 8:52
VP8390 to HD via USB2: 4:25
 
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