Ask Engadget: Best PMP for long flights?

It's Thursday evening -- do you know what that means? Besides being the unofficial start of the weekend (party people, what's up?), it's time for another round of Ask Engadget. This week we've got a college freshman who's scared to death about 8-hour flights between his hometown and his new school... without gadgets.

"I'm about to start college all the way across the country from my hometown. What this means for me, other than unprecedented freedom, adulthood, etc. [and a dose of this thing called the "real world," might we add] is lots of long flights back and forth. I'm looking for a device to entertain me during these trips. Is there anything out there that the readers can find that can play DVDs (ideally from any region, but that's not a deal-breaker) along with my AVI files and maybe some audio formats, too? The biggest issue here is battery life. I'm willing to spend $300 - $400 if I have to. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!"

We're not so sure there's a portable DVD player / PMP hybrid out there that's extra longevous, but you can always get those discs onto a vanilla PMP with a little work. So, jet-setters -- what's the best solution here? Video playback really takes a toll on handheld battery life, but are there any hidden gems that just keep going and going? Hook a brother up, and then send in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com.

[engadget.mlc @ Aug 7th 2008 9:35PM]

I know it doesn't play your DVDs without a little bit of work, but a PSP with a fat memory stick is a really good airplane movie watcher.

When you get tired of the movie, you can just play some games. Good battery life, and it can be replaced (just carry a spare).

My wife travels a lot, and she loves her PSP.

[Mush @ Aug 7th 2008 9:36PM]

X2

[Demo @ Aug 7th 2008 9:44PM]

X3.
My PSP + extra battery are all I need for a long flight. Games, movies, music, and Wi-Fi (for the few airlines that have it).

[deyanimay @ Aug 7th 2008 10:17PM]

x4

[Scott @ Aug 7th 2008 10:24PM]

X5. The PSP with an extra battery is cheap and has a great screen for watching movies in-flight. The form factor is very good for this too - it's comfortable to hold without needing to use the tray table.

When I'm going on a trip, I'll put movies on 1 memory stick and games on another (hax0red firmware) and I'm all set for cross-country flying.

[jimmy @ Aug 7th 2008 10:26PM]

plus if youve got special firmware and umd rips on a fat memory stick, the battery life will last trans-atlantic. spinning the umd kills battery

[Rock Stone @ Aug 7th 2008 10:56PM]

x6

PSP rules for the situation - I love having all that it can do (movies, music, internet radio, pics, games). plus you can SMS, email, skype and VNC to boot!

[Abuzar Baloach @ Aug 7th 2008 11:00PM]

Whoa, thats a lot of cores. I thought the AMDs maxed out at X4.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 7th 2008 11:02PM]

I considered buying a PSP for movie-watching on flights, but the memory sticks seemed damn expensive at the time, and the max capacity was not that great.

The deal-breaker was not so much the cost of buying an extra device, but just having one more bulky toy to worry about, complete with chargers and accessories.

Once the iPhone came out I was glad I didn't bother buying the PSP. But then, you may not be in the market for an iPhone/iPod touch, and the lack of swappable battery might be a deal-breaker for you.

[TopaZ @ Aug 7th 2008 11:49PM]

X12 for PSP --

There are so many battery options, both official and 3rd party

Blue Raven Battery goes 15 HOURS!

Someone above mention spinning the UMD, which is a battery killer. That's true.

The other biggies are backlight power, and CPU speed.

If you have a custom firmware you can UNDERclock your cpu (don't do it at all for games, do it moderately for video, do it severely for music) -- and my Blue Raven has lasted over 20 HOURS for video playback.

20. HOURS.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Aug 7th 2008 11:55PM]

PSP rocks the world of travel and now with Talkman travel via the PlayStation Network store you can have a travel guide and translator all in one for the low low price of $5.99 per city ( Paris, Rome and Tokyo). What "other" pmp out there does that? Not to mention games, skype, netsurfin, multiple netradio stations, Homebrew or as a camera/vdeo recorder or a kick ass GPS unit. The only thing it lacks is a Keyboard. Otherwise the whole nettop genre would be doomed.

[Kurian @ Aug 8th 2008 12:48AM]

Definitely get the PSP + extra battery.

I even take 2 batteries to college lol.
Around 700Kbps video rips are near perfect quality.

[air12ick @ Aug 8th 2008 4:29PM]

I agree with the PSP. Not only can you have multiple Memory Sticks and batteries, but if your stranded at an airport with free WiFi and a PS3 at home, you can access all sorts of multimedia content. I was stranded in Korea for 12 hours, and the PSP came in handy. Plus if you have the PSP Slim and your on vacation, you can hook it up to a TV to finish watching your movies on a proper screen.

As far as video and audio formats go. It supports most of the popular ones. The ones that don't, I load up on the PS3 and hope I can remote play in. Also, because of the RSS feature, I can subscribe to my podcasts and vidcasts. Example, on Revision3, I just subscribe to the Small Quicktime and it works, or the MP3s and ACCs out there too. Basically its and unlimited amount of multimedia (well if you are able to get internet access before boarding).

It may sound like I love my PSP, well I do. There is so much I can do with it, that outside of my cellphone, thats the other portable device I always carry with me. The only other device I would consider would be the iTouch or iPhone, but I'm not a huge fan of them. I just prefer the bigger screen.

[ishism @ Aug 8th 2008 3:30AM]

Wow, PSP got a lt of love.
5/8 you fukers probably have your psps hacked the fuk up

[Matthew @ Aug 8th 2008 10:10AM]

I agree PSP. the screen is great for movies too.

If the PSP isn't portable enough or you want more room go for iPod Touch 32GB but try to wait for the new ones coming out in the next couple months.

[neofolklore @ Aug 8th 2008 7:50AM]

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

[Jonyah @ Aug 8th 2008 9:30AM]

Looks like the PSP wins. My slim psp with CFW4.01 rocks. Recently picked up a few 4Gb memory sticks from frys for $25 each. That plus an extra battery or two, and you're set for the day.

I've had ipods, ebook readers and my laptop for use in flights (I travel a lot for work), but since getting the PSP, it's the only thing that comes out of my bad during the flights. It's screen is incredible and as others have mentioned it has the added bonus of hundreds of great games.

[Aedile @ Aug 8th 2008 9:48AM]

Add another vote for PSP w/3rd party battery. Rip your DVD's to a memory stick (you can get them pretty cheap these days). Huge screen, has the added advantage of being able to play some smoove games.

[Andrew @ Aug 8th 2008 1:43PM]

PSP definitely. I watched a bunch of anime (appropriately) on my flight to and from Japan last year (8-9 hours each way) and a single battery easily handled it. As long as your stuff is on a memory stick, battery will last a long time. And software to encode for PSP is fairly easy to use and ever since the resolution limitation was removed and h264 enhanced, things are good. You don't even need any hacked firmware or such.

If the screen is deemed to small, one of many recent netbooks like Eee might fit the bill, but a 6-cell battery would be needed.

[etechshop @ Aug 8th 2008 8:08PM]

x88

I got 3 fat sticks
1 for movies
1 for games
1 for audio

2 extra batteries :)

1 usb/charger cable.

1 noise canceling headphone

you are good to go...

[paralipsis @ Aug 9th 2008 1:16AM]

I too would highly recommend the PSP for video on long haul flights, but I have found the core functionality (i.e. games) to not really work for me. In hindsight I don't know if it was such a great investment. I invariably end up hauling along my DS as well, so I have always wondered whether I could have gotten a dedicated pmp that didn't require re-encoding all the video instead.

[RUJake @ Aug 7th 2008 9:37PM]

Zen Vision W for sure. I bought it just for long trips and it is perfect for movies and music. You can easily get over 7 hours battery life for videos, and even more for music. The picture quality is great, and it handles most file formats you throw at it.

[Sean @ Aug 7th 2008 9:57PM]

2nd'd. A 60GB ZV:W is amazing for video, you get a large, colorful screen, the ability to play almost any video format with almost no conversion needed and the battery life is amazing for a player of its size.

[derspiess42 @ Aug 7th 2008 10:50PM]

Ditto. I upgraded my Zen Vision W with an 80GB hard drive, and it took me a while to even get close to filling the thing up. One extra battery, and I'm golden.

[Chris Anderson @ Aug 7th 2008 10:54PM]

3rded - I own the 30gb model , and it's been great to me over the past year and a half of ownership. They're relatively rugged (i'm a drummer, and use it during my practicing - it falls on the floor all the time!), the software is so-so (as with almost any PMP), but the device really shines where it counts...usability and reliability. And trust me....the screen is amazing.

[Taylor @ Aug 8th 2008 2:35AM]

Combo broken:
I've had experience with 4 Zen players (Zen Micro, Zen Neeon, Zen Micro Photo, and Muvo^2) and they've all broken.
The Vision W might be better.

[k4ffy @ Aug 8th 2008 8:05AM]

+1 for Zen Vision W. Plays just about anything, nice hard drive space, and spectacular screen.

[mvuong @ Aug 8th 2008 1:30PM]

Another one for zen vision:w. I watched almost all of s3 of Entourage on my last flight. The only thing that is weird is sex scenes on a plane. I am not quite sure on the etiquette for this kind of thing, especially with the vision:w's field of view...

[Unknown @ Aug 7th 2008 9:38PM]

Definately my HAXXED Phat PSP with Filled with fantastic Homebrew .

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[Pochi @ Aug 8th 2008 2:52AM]

Definately? HAXXED PHAT?

Let us pray.

[Edward Hilquist @ Aug 7th 2008 9:39PM]

I use a 160 GB iPOD Video..it has the best battery length while watching video's 7-8 hours, and tons of space for songs and movies. I also use Cucosoft and backup my DVD's to mp4 format to watch, and lastly, I use SageTV at home and record OTA HD and basic cable to mp4 which I can copy as well. I did watch 18 episodes of Entourage in a row on a flight from Chicago to Shanghai once..

My biggest complaint is the small screen, but it's a trade-off between screen size and battery most of the time.

[Mike @ Aug 8th 2008 5:59AM]

not to be an iPod hater, but the iPod video is not well suited for that sort of thing. It's great for watching Family guy for 20 minutes during school lunch, but by hour two of a flight, you're tired of holding the magnifying glass over the screen. Microsoft's 80GB Zune is a good candidate, and an MID or NetBook would be the optimal solution for this. I'm not sure what the storage capability of the PSP is, but if it can hold enough, im sure it would do the job well, also. Also, as far as iPod Touch and iPhone goes, 32GB should be a minimum for video watchers. My 80GB Zune is almost full, and i dont have more than 150 episodes of shows, and only one movie, and the movie was for my girlfriend. Basically, the best idea would be PSP, Zune, or plan ahead what you're gonna watch with an iPod Touch, but absolutely NOT iPod video.

[Patrick Austin @ Aug 8th 2008 9:33AM]

150 episodes of shows? So like, the equivalent of something like 40 movies.

I've got very little music or video in rotation at any one point. Sure, there's a hundred gigs of stuff on my computer, but I don't need it with me at all times.

I vote iPhone or other similar product. If you're traveling a lot, the fewer things you need to pack, the better. 16gb is enough to watch movies on a transatlantic flight both ways and still have music to listen to.

If the trip is long, you'll probably have a laptop with you anyway, which is by far the best solution.

[pakkman781 @ Aug 8th 2008 7:02PM]

I second the 160GB iPod classic. Easy, spacious, and good battery. I know all the iPod haters here will disagree, but it really is a good player.

[apple fanboy @ Aug 7th 2008 9:38PM]

ipod touch but of course 32 gig

[ChrisG @ Aug 8th 2008 2:32AM]

iPod Touch FTW. The battery life lasts so long for me (esp. after 2.1 update). I can listen to my music long enough that a flight from new york to london (6 hours) barely takes a third of battery life. I have tons of apps, especially 3rd party games. Plus if the inflight movie sucks, I have my podcasts and movies.

[Cagrino @ Aug 8th 2008 7:35AM]

I concur with iPod Touch. I can play games or watch movies or listen to music. For super long flights to Asia or Africa I also take my APC UPB70 battery along.

It's really for my laptop, but it's so thin and light I can stick it in my bag with no problem and it can run an iPod forever on full brightness and at the end of the trip it's still almost full.

[EricR @ Aug 8th 2008 9:45AM]

I would go with the Touch.. one of the best and the larger screen size is a huge improvement over the Classic.

[tone @ Aug 7th 2008 9:39PM]

I have an Archos 704 and I love it. i had to spend a couple extra bucks for the codecs but it was well worth it. it plays every video format i've put on there and it's a nice size screen. battery life will last about 4 hours, depending on use.

[JohnTitor @ Aug 7th 2008 10:43PM]

704 is unnecessarily big, the Archos 605 with a the battery pack gives more powers for less money and does the same hi-res video. Also there's the Cowon A3, it's more expensive than the 605 but won't need an extended battery to go upto 10 hrs, also has some other features.

[tone @ Aug 7th 2008 11:55PM]

unfortunately i got my archos about a month before the 05 series came out. i knew they were coming out but wanted something for my flight to amsterdam so i settled. i'm fine w/it though.

[Pingmeister @ Aug 8th 2008 12:24AM]

If you can find a 604 it has a removable battery. I have 2 spare for long trips. 4.3" beautiful screen and lots of codecs. I have the 30GB version and when compressed to 1GB the vids still look pretty good on the video-out on a medium size TV (20-30").

[jon @ Aug 7th 2008 9:39PM]

i would have to go with one of those port dvd players with the thing to plug in an ipod, then you can have all ur music, ipod movies and dvds. combine that with an extra battery or extended one and ur set

[Richard @ Aug 7th 2008 10:55PM]

I don't own one, but that was the first thing I thought of. Best of both worlds.

[Colin @ Aug 7th 2008 9:40PM]

The most I travel from is New York to Florida, approx 2 and a half hour flight. I just keep my 80 gig Zune with me. I've managed to watch videos without the battery dying for the whole flight before. It doesn't play DVD discs, but what I do is I'll pick out a movie or two I feel like watching a couple days before the flight, rip and convert, and it's all good.

[DaLa @ Aug 7th 2008 9:44PM]

Oh, you're the guy who bought the Zune... thank you.

Bill G

[wcnghj @ Aug 7th 2008 9:58PM]

:) I bring my Zune 4.

[jahcriado @ Aug 7th 2008 11:55PM]

Man I love my Zune 80. I had an ipod vid (till it got stolen last year in India) & i much prefer the Zunes screen, radio & other functions. Not to mention wi-fi sync! It packs some heat man.

[Pradster @ Aug 8th 2008 1:41AM]

I use my zune 80 gig on long haul flights across the atlantic on a routine basis. its got good battery life, a yummy screen with great playback, its always been a very capable music player, and with the added option of games its quite a useful piece of kit!!

[ishism @ Aug 8th 2008 3:28AM]

Wifi sinc sucks major a$$. It's slow and pointless