Finally got an Epson!

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Finally got an epson for my birthday today and this thing is friggin amazing!!!!! I absolutely love it, it's the perfect size, it's screen is unbelievable, copy's pretty fast, this thing is just the definition of perfect!

Did I mention the screen is AMAZING?:lol: It's soooo sharp! I can't believe how crystal clear this thing is. I'd rather view pictures on this thing than the UXGA screen on my laptop! This thing rocks!

Haven't used it much so I'll let ya guys know what I think of it a little more tonight after I break it in on a 10 hour trip around new england taking hunnddrrreeddsss of pics with a single CF card.:lol:

[khiemluu]

Ahh congrats mate!

Nothing really compares to it in terms of screen quality for storage tanks.

Khiem.

[buze]

Mine's on order; with some luck it'll ship on monday !

[weemannie]

Congratulations :D

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Awesome Buze, you'll LOVE IT! I used it all day today, and the file transfers were fast, and the screen is unbelievable. Only problem I'm having with it is getting music and video files onto it. The formats don't match up I guess. Does anyone know how to convert audio and video files into different formats?

[buze]

I don't know if it would work for you, but on the Mac (OSX) I can use "ffmpeg" to convert from pretty much anything to pretty much anything else :D There is surely a Windows port of ffmpeg too.
Note that ffmpeg can be a bit arcane, you will have to experiment!
I already rip my DVDs as .mp4 on the mac, so I really expect the files to work out of the box on the P2000... can't wait to try :D

[kram]

Everybody raves about this screen - can someone post a pic :)

[khiemluu]

Everybody raves about this screen - can someone post a pic :)

I think the best way is to go and see it for yourself, a picture of it will not do it justice.

I will have a go tonight and see if it turns out well enough to post a sample.

Khiem.

[kram]

Thanx Khiem. Will have to do some serious searching to find a shop here (in Hong Kong) that has it in stock.

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Kram, I took a picture of my epsons screen, and there's just no comparison. Like khiemluu said, you'll need to get your hands on one.

[KevC]

I believe sharpness is an inherent quality of an LCD. Much like you can't judge sharpness of a photo on your dSLR's lcd, the same way that small LCDs on image tanks seem oh so sharp :)

Glad you like it, I'm definitely getting something like that when I can afford and shoot more seriously! :)

[khiemluu]

Thanx Khiem. Will have to do some serious searching to find a shop here (in Hong Kong) that has it in stock.

I picked mine up from the Mong Kok computer centre when i was over there in February. Fortress didn't stock it at the time.

Can't remember the shop off the top of my head, but it was pretty hard trying to find it when i was there.

Khiem.

[blackviolet]

...Only problem I'm having with it is getting music and video files onto it. The formats don't match up I guess. Does anyone know how to convert audio and video files into different formats?

i use a variety of different tools, depending on what i'm converting. basically, i convert movies to divx - make sure the video bit rate is over about 950k, otherwise it won't play. some files tend to look a bit better when they are xvid. using mp3 (lame, etc.) audio is much better than pcm (sizewise). the file needs to be less than 1 gig. i've had quite a few issues playing 3vix files, so i don't encode with it.


i don't normally use it for audio mp3s as i have a photo ipod, but i've played mp3s on it at many different bit rates.

[khiemluu]

I guess the P-2000 is a Image Storage/Viewer first and multimedia player second. It's a pretty expensive MP3 player if that's the main purpose people are buying it for. :) Ipods go for less than half the price of the P-2000.

Khiem.

[kram]

Wow, didnt realize that the P2000 was widely available here....well, shoulda known - its HK!!

Kheim, how much did you pay for it?

[khiemluu]

Wow, didnt realize that the P2000 was widely available here....well, shoulda known - its HK!!

Kheim, how much did you pay for it?


I think i paid about $4000HK for it, not cheap but i had to have it, and there is no chance of getting it in Australia for a good few months (if they come at all).

Khiem.

[blackviolet]

yeah, if they ever come here in oz, it will be twice the price it can be had elsewhere. i picked mine up at yodabashi in osaka right as they came out. it's a fantastic media player - i haven't watched many movies on the plane's system as i'm always watching them on the p2000. of course, i'm also playing on the sony psp, too... ;)

[buze]

Ok mine shipped, should have it tomorrow -- huzzah!
I don't need it for music. I have an iPod shuffle 1GB that is tiny and much, much more practical (can pilot it even if it's under clothing etc)

The P2000 might be cool for watching divx while traveling (or un bed, with headphones :D) but otherwise it's primary tasks will be : 1) storage 2) portable slide show-thing when the in-laws wants to see pictures and I don't want to shell our $$$ to get prints of all of them.
In the winter I can display pictures on my wall with the MacMini + Sanyo Z2 1280x720 projector, and it's awesome... but it's not portable, and really is only practical after sundown!

[buze]

Ok received mine, it's indeed gorgeous ! Already upgraded the firmware and dumped a CF in to play with.. Awesome!
Next for a test of mp4 video :D

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

That's awesome buze! Your going to love it, I know I'm loving mine. This thing absolutely rocks! I went out and took a bunch of shots, put em on the epson, went home and I'm able to sift through them on my computer without ever having to upload them onto my hard drive! (Which is very good since I only have 4gb's left). This thing is worth every penny of that $500.00. :)

How are you guys getting movies on this thing though? I guess you could convert them using windows movie maker, but what do you do? Copy a whole dvd onto the computer and convert it piece by piece? Haha, I'm not very good with software... can build custom built comps without a problem, but I suck at figuring out how to use them.:p

[tommykjensen]

How are you guys getting movies on this thing though? I guess you could convert them using windows movie maker, but what do you do? Copy a whole dvd onto the computer and convert it piece by piece?

If You find an easy way to do this let me know please :D So far I have not bothered with that for 2 reasons, 1: its a photo storage unit ;) 2: so far the attempts I have made required setting different variables manually and I don't want to test hundreds of combinations until I get it right.

[blackviolet]

How are you guys getting movies on this thing though? I guess you could convert them using windows movie maker, but what do you do? Copy a whole dvd onto the computer and convert it piece by piece? Haha, I'm not very good with software... can build custom built comps without a problem, but I suck at figuring out how to use them.:p

there are lots of free utilities on the net - things like dvd2avi , etc. that will let you rip your movies and save them into divx encoded avi files which the p2000 will play. the most important things are to keep the file size under a gig or so (or break it into 2 pieces) and to keep the mpeg 4 bit rate above about 950k. you will know if the unit will play it if the thumbnail is an image. if it's a movie camera, it won't work - delete it and try again.

there are also lots of websites around dedicated to ripping movies, as well as converting movies from other formats.

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Woah, seems like everything requires a download from the internet these days! What would we all do without the internet? :-)

Thanks blackviolet. I'm going to go look into that and see if I can get it to work.

[buze]

P2000 Tip : disable the "auto rotation while browsing" preference. I rought it was annoying to have 2 large black band left/right of a tiny thumbnail,when I can easily rotate the device!
As a massive added advantage, thid accelerates browsing/loading/zooming by a factor of 2 a the least! Seems the rotation code is less than efficient here!

[buze]

Videowise, I tried a recent .mp4 and got nowhere. I didn't even think a divx would work! I'll try it now :D

[kram]

OK, I walked into a shop and had a look at the P2000. Agree with everyone here has said - the screen is completely droolable. Unbelievable - but surely will reveal out of focus shots straight outhttp://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif

What clarity - wish I had the extra 300 bucks than what I plan to spend on my storage device..... maybe i'll still end up buying another lens and watch the next guy's P2000 http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Buze, I noticed the auto rotate thing the first day I had it. I agree, it's quite annoying. Made all the pictures tiny. So, I went right into the settings and fixed the problem before I copied my next card full of images in. :-) I still have yet to try that divx thing. Guess I should stop being lazy and go do it right now.

Kram, don't ya love it?! :-) Nothing beats an epson!!!!!! I almost bought a 40gb wolverine for 200 bucks, but read that the epson copies faster, has far better battery life (double) and I thought it'd be nice to see exif data, histograms and all that while out in the field. The tiny screen on the 20d is pretty much useless.

Well, off to try out divx. Post again later. :-)

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Alright, downloaded divx, divx conveter, gave it a try and it's not working. :-( I suck at using software... I downloaded the free trial version though... does that have anything to do with it? Everytime I drag and drop the files from the DVD to the converter it says they're an unsupported file format. Grrrr.....

[blackviolet]

buze - they shouldn't be .mp4 files. they should be .avi encoded with divx or xvid codec.


RPLS - don't drag the files off the dvd. for example with dvd2avi, you 'open' the dvd - and point to the biggest .vob file you can find. then it will associate with all of them. then 'rip' the movie to avi, choosing divx or xvid as your codec.

depending on what other programs you use, there are similar functions - just remember to choose. there is another easy set of programs called dvd2divx. it takes a bit to setup, but it is also quick and easy.

[buze]

I use the P2000 in "real" circumstance this week-end, worked wonder. Was at a wedding and dumped about 4.3GB of RAW files on it, then passed it around some of the guests to "wow!" them. Being able to see on a large screen almost in real time was definitly a winner !

Be sure to disable the auto-rotation preference, it makes the browsing much, much faster. No problem rotating the device after all :D

[EOSAddict]

Alright, downloaded divx, divx conveter, gave it a try and it's not working. :-( I suck at using software... I downloaded the free trial version though... does that have anything to do with it? Everytime I drag and drop the files from the DVD to the converter it says they're an unsupported file format. Grrrr.....

I spent many fruitless hours trying to get this all to work using various downloaded freeware and numerous 'codecs'!!!

I gave up in frustration. I think the only way to do it easily is to pay for the priviledge!! I have just downloaded a trial copy of Dr Divx from the Div X website and will give that a try. Is that what you used?? Does your pc play DVDs ok normally?

There is also lots on this subject on the Epson Talk/Storage & Media forums on dpreview.

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Don't think I downloaded Dr. Divx.... looking on my desktop I see Divx Movies, Divx Player, Divx Create, Divx Converter, XMPEG, and Divx Play. Still no luck.... :/

Computer plays DVD's perfectly on it's own though. I use the Dell Media Experience software that came with the comp and it rocks.