Twelve Black Code Monkeys

Vosonic, a British company that’s been making portable hard drive solutions for digital photographers for a while now, recently introduced a couple of devices that are seeking, like the Epson P-2000, to converge the photography-oriented device with a more general-consumer Portable Media Player (PMP) device.

The MMV VP6300 comes with a 20GB hard drive, lets you play MP3’s, WMA’s, Mpeg-1, and Motion Jpeg on its 2-inch color LCD. It looks a whole lot like an iPod to me, and I think the only reason why this device is still being displayed on Vosonic’s page is that it’s not yet sold officially in the U.S., and so Apple probably can’t bully them legally over the pond quite as quickly and effectively. The device also takes most memory formats, you can plug it to your TV to watch/listen to its content, and even has a remote control. Sadly, it seems not to have any U.S. distributors, so if you live in the U.S. you will have to buy it either directly from Vosonic (if that’s even possible), or more likely through third unofficial parties through eBay.

The XS-DRIVE Super VP6210 comes in various sizes ranging from 20GB up to a whopping 80GB, but is a bit larger than the MMV VP6300. Its LCD, while it looks smaller, is only smaller in comparison to the larger size of the unit as a whole – it is the same 2 inches as the VP6300. In addition to the formats of the VP6300, the XS-Drive also plays AVI, and “MOD” which I think may be a typo meaning “MOV” or QuickTime. Everything else looks to be about the same as the VP6300.

The one problem I see for both of these is that they apparently can only show Jpeg images. This will be fine for the vast majority of folks, but for the serious photographer who takes images in RAW format, at least part of the time, it’s a serious limitation. The other issue I see is that for those who want to buy albums on Apple’s iTunes music store, these devices don’t support the AAC format like the Epson P-200. Then again, they do support WMA, which is Microsoft’s format that has DRM (copy protection scheme), so when MS’s music store gets off the ground, there will be an alternative. While these are pretty nice-looking devices, the much larger screen of the P-2000 and its support for RAW format files so far for me still give it the edge. And of course the fact that it comes from a large, well-respected company like Epson and is being officially sold in the U.S. through the normal distribution channels. These devices could be spectacular, but I, and I’m sure a lot of other people, would feel nervous about buying something from a relatively small, little-known company. What kind of support is going to be available if a unit I buy stops working? Will I have to send it overseas and wait weeks before I get a replacement or the unit fixed?