A thought crosses his mind as he stares in front of the blank electronic page, "Mmm, what was I thinking when I accepted this odious task?" Perplexed by this new thought he glares deeper into the ever familiar tinged whiteness of the blank electronic page. The ghostly apparition of the words which started it all trail slowly across his thought set, "would you be willing to write an article which goes more in-depth about the differences in media players?" was the bait thrown to him.
He leans back in his chair and covers his mouth with the full of his hand, the now overgrown stubble bristles his inner palm offering some form of reality, "What the hell was I thinking when I accepted the challenge?" He breaks from his melancholy and paces towards the steps that will take him down to his trusted coffee maker. The drone of the Jura soon hums in the background as it busily sets about its task of preparing a double shot espresso. He sips the dark liquid; the bitter taste brings a grimace to his face, and a reality check to his mood. He returns to his task in hand, settles into his chair and begins to write......
Let me first say, I‟m a critic, a reviewer, a support engineer and a media fanatic all together, what do I know about media players? A lot I hope, but explaining some things about media players require the explanation of others and before you know, I‟m writing a book and you‟ll be sitting there for days in front of your computer reading small text with a drip feed of coffee and a pack of aspirin for the migraine. If you are reading this article and not the book, I did it, I managed to summarise part of my understanding of a media player. Now, firstly, don‟t go expecting me to give you a „ready to use‟ answer to the question of which player to buy as I can‟t decide that for you.
It would be little pretentious of me to claim I can make the right decision for you so what my remit is, is to make it easier for you to make that choice and understand the „hidden catches‟ behind the marketing and product specifications, which is often displayed and used in press articles. I will also try to inform you on some of the differences with the current available media players by separating them out into categories.
If anything is unclear or you wish more information at the end of the article, post a little comment and I‟ll try to explain in more detail on whatever your question might be. Off course, everything is based on my opinion of which you may agree or disagree as not everyone will have the same vision as me. I tend to always say to people: "The longer it takes for you to agree with me, the longer I will remain ahead of you". Now if that does not have a pretentious ring to it...what does?
Almost daily, within the MPC community and other forums I visit, I support people with their media player troubles. I converse with consumers that are perfectly happy and with those feeling tricked after purchasing a device or get stuck using it properly because of misunderstanding / misinterpretation of limits that apply. The reason for this is the marketing hype surrounding these players; they profess to be able to do „verything‟for a few bucks. On the other hand, I meet a lot of people that stall at the starting line, finding they are unable to make a decision about which player to buy, player A or player B. There‟ little I can do for people who have already purchased a media player besides offer some form of support, but I can do something for those interested in acquiring one in the future.
So grab that double shot of espresso like I did and have another on brew (depends on how long this article will become), and enjoy the read…
