Video Functionality:
The video playback is one of the biggest reasons to get the MPM-201. Having used the Archos AV320 for several years, I have gathered many videos which I like to have with me. If you select the "My Movies" icon from the main menu, you will be provided a list of the videos you have on the unit. These are all done by filename, and you can have them in sub-folders if you'd like. You can easily move any DivX 5 or MP4 video to the unit, simply by dragging it to a folder under "My Movies". No additional software is necessary, providing your videos meet the playback requirements. I did have some issues playing some of my videos encoded with DivX 6. Not all of them had issues, just a few. A quick re-encode with either Dr DivX or DivX 6 seemed to resolve the issue.
To play a video, you simply select the file and press the OK button. If you are not certain what the video contains, it will show you the first frame of the video in a little thumbnail. After a few seconds the video will start to play. Once the movie has started, there are several functions you can perform. Obviously you can increase/decrease the volume and you can scan forward/reverse in 2x, 4x, or 8x. Selecting play will revert the movie back to normal speed. The play button also acts as a pause/resume button. Finally you can advance to the next or previous file if you desire.
Once the video is done playing, it will return to the first frame of the video and wait for your command. There is no setting for it to advance to the next video, or a shuffle option. Even returning to the main menu would be preferred to it sitting there at the first frame.
Since the player only plays DivX or MP4 videos, and not MPG, NHJ Limited has included a fully registered copy of Dr DivX (DivX 5) on the install CD. This is a great utility for it to include, and in my opinion better than DivX 6, purely because you can adjust the settings to your personal preference.
The biggest issue I ran into during video playback is that if you load files that are not encoded to the precise size requirements, it does not do any auto-resizing to fill the screen. Several videos that are smaller than 480x234 would remain small instead of being stretched to fill up the screen.
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