detail information

Testing:

The basic tests that I performed on this device where as follows,

1. Copying and viewing of various picture files and formats
2.  Copying and listening to various MP3 files
3. Recording some audio using the built in microphone
4. Recording from TV to the POD
5. Copying and viewing of various video files and formats
6. Playback of video files onto the TV

Test One: Pictures

In total I put about a 100 pictures onto the device. These consisted of JPEG, BMP and GIF formats. All of these formats are supported by the device. Here I used a mixture of pictures I had stored on my computer and ones that I randomly downloaded off of the Internet.

I didn't have any problems in displaying any of the pictures that I uploaded to the POD. The slideshow option also made it very easy to see all of the pictures quickly to make sure that they all displayed properly. The only small negative here is the resizing or screwing of some pictures to fit the screen. In one picture a person's face had been elongated so that he looked like one of those grey aliens with the big black eyes. Most pictures however suffered from no manipulation to a very small acceptable amount.

Test Two: MP3

In total I transferred about 100 MP3 files onto the player. I then used the player like a walkman on the way to work for a number of days. I didn't have any trouble in playing any of the songs that I put onto it and they all played without interference or distortion. I actually had one file which didn't play but turned out to have been a corrupt file on my PC. This being my fault I can say as an MP3 player it is certainly not behind the times.

Test Three: Microphone

I recorded a number of conversations between people for one test and myself reading aloud as another test. All of the recordings are stored as MP3 files with a quality that you can decide in the settings menu on the POD.

All of the recordings I made where adequate but nothing special. When recording the conversation between people you could easily tell who was sitting close to the POD and who wasn't but the recordings where all made perfectly and you could distinguish who was who.

The best recording made was when I read aloud to the POD. The playback was clear and completely understandable. I knew it was me and could clearly understand what I had previously spoken.

Test Four: TV Recording

Setting up the TV recording was easy enough. All you have to do is plug the cables into the correct holes on your TV or Video and then plug them into your POD. All that has to be done after that is to make sure that in the options the TV Standard is set to the correct setting of wither NTSC or PAL.

The results here though to tend to vary slightly depending upon what setting you have chosen to use on the recording options. I found anything below the highest setting just didn't cut it when it came to watching it back.

All of the recordings that you take are stored in MPEG-4 format on the drive.

Test Five: Video Formats

Playing movies on the go is probably the reason why you would buy this device. The playback of a DVD movie that I created with DivX 5 looked fantastic. Obviously the more bitrate and therefore space you give a movie the better it will look. In my test I compressed a ~4Gb movie down to about ~1Gb using DivX 5. It still looked fantastic and even played better on the POD than it did on my current computer.

I then tried a number of other formats that I had stored on my PC and most worked fine. I did have trouble with a couple though and this grew when I attempted to play ones that I had downloaded off of the web. I would either get a black screen with audio or at worst the file wouldn't play and it would then jump back to the main screen again. All of the movies I tested would however work on my PC.

Although I didn't create any QuickTime movies the several 10 second shorts I created as well as the single long movie using DivX 3 and 5 at various bitrates which all worked fine on the POD. As stated before they looked as good as they did on my PC and the only difference between them was the quality at which they had been encoded at.

I thought I would also try creating an XviD movie to see what would happen when I tried to play it back on the pod. I wasn't hopeful that anything would happen as it wasn't support but unless you try these things you just don't know. The movie I created indeed didn't playback on the device. All I got was a black screen with the audio playing in the background.

Test Six: TV Playback

Setting up the TV playback was simply a case of plugging the correct wires into the correct holes on my TV. All that has to be done after that is to make sure that in the options the TV Standard is set to the correct setting of wither NTSC or PAL.

Once setup I had no problems getting the video to playback on my TV. The movies looked very similar to how they looked on both the pod and my computer. Obviously the quality of the movies recorded affected how good a picture was presented on the TV and a few of the movies encoded at a low bitrate although were watchable were grainy in their appearance.

Next is a summary of the Positives and Negatives of the Pod