Portable media devices?

[The Eva Monkey]

Can anyone recommend a goof portable media device suitable for watching anime fansubs on the go other than a iPod Touch? I thought to myself, hey, my work commute is a half hour each way, I could get through two episodes a day at least.

[Merridian]

Can't those newfangled smart phones play video files? I'm pretty sure a tablet could do it, too. How portable are you going for?

[The Eva Monkey]

I don't have a smartphone. I don't want to buy a tablet. I want something the size of an iPod/smartphone that's purposed for media playback. I know the iPod is a good fit along those lines, but I was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions.

[soul.assassin]

I have one of those cheapo multipurpose Chinese-made portables with a decent screen size (about as big as VCD resolution), optional TV output, and its ability to use SD cards, but I would prefer using a PSP for better playback quality.

[InstrumentalityOne]

I used to use one of those chinese media players with mkv, subtitle support too.
Something by oppo, can´t remember the model.
But some 720p encodes lag like crazy and the subtitle support sucks with lengthy subtitles going over the screen and being cut off on both sides because it HAS to be in one line.
I sometimes use it to watch some .avi files, but I´ve given up on watching softsubbed files on that thing.
Maybe the new ones have gotten better, dunno.

My Samsung Galaxy SII is running 1080p mkv files with a decent subtitle renderer fine(Still fixed to the bottom of the screen, but it handles new lines well), depends on the encoding, really.
Because HorribleSubs releases can lag a little at times, but it can be fixed by simply changing to faster encoder(which is supposed to look worse, but it´s not that bad).
No 10bit support yet though.
And it´s gonna get a lot cheaper when the new Samsung hits the market.

[toe mash]

My Samsung Galaxy SII is running 1080p mkv files with a decent subtitle renderer fine

All hail the Galaxy

Which video player do you use? I use "MX video player" on mine and it works great so far, although I've also experienced issues with horrible sub releases. Also with that video player you can really play with how your subs look.

[InstrumentalityOne]

All hail the galaxy, but weren't you using an iPhone just a while ago?
Edit:Got the wrong man, sorry.


I use the MX Video player too, its probably the best out there.

[gatotsu911]

Modded Game Boy Advance.

[drinian]

Yeah, I have some shell scripts that can burn in subtitles and resize for players that don't support nice things like .mkv. They were written for a Nokia N82, but could be adapted for other uses. Of course, HandBrake can fill many of the same purposes now. No doubt some of these cheap Android tablets are capable, if you want that size screen.

Or you could, you know, read a book. And that way you're not shutting out your surroundings like wearing headphones does.

[soul.assassin]

I think for MKVs, the player needs a more powerful processor to deal with the higher resolutions, file sizes and subtitles, which is why in low-cost/quality players playback is jerky.

[drinian]

I think for MKVs, the player needs a more powerful processor to deal with the higher resolutions, file sizes and subtitles, which is why in low-cost/quality players playback is jerky.

MKV is nothing but a container format. It has no control over the audio/video codec and bitrate that you put into the container.

I was more referring to the typical MKV's feature set, like advanced soft-subtitles.