Video playback on the Eco Media Player does not share the same drag-and-drop simplicity as the music feature. Fortunately, the included video conversion software makes short work of converting popular video formats such as MPEG, AVI, and WMV. For those who watch videos in small doses, the Eco Media Player automatically resumes playback where you last left off.
While the Eco Media Player's music and video player can be played through the built-in speaker, the FM radio will play only though headphones. This idiosyncrasy is due to the FM tuner's reliance on your headphones' wiring to act as a radio antenna. Despite our disappointment with the FM tuner's inability to play via the built-in speaker, the Eco Media Player compensates by allowing up to 20 station presets and excellent reception. With all of the Eco Media Player's recording capabilities, the lack of an FM radio recorder seems like an obvious oversight, although it's not a deal-breaker.
The Eco Media Player's voice recording and line input recording functions are easy to set up and produce satisfactory results. Recordings are made directly to an MP3 file set to a 64Kbps, 128Kbps, or 192Kbps resolution. Finally, the photo viewer accepts JPEG, GIF, and BMP images without the need for resizing, and the eBook reader supports any basic text file.
Performance
For a device sold mainly on its design novelty, the sound quality of the Eco Media Player is surprisingly good. The softly strummed guitar found on Cat Stevens' "Trouble" held its sparkle, and the synthetic bass bloops of Orbital's "Sad But New" filled our ears without sounding overpowering or stripped of their oomph.
The Eco Media Player's recording quality was less dazzling, but acceptable. Line-input recordings made at the default 128Kbps MP3 setting were free of glitches but lost some of the fidelity found in the source material. Voice recordings were crisp, with plenty of sibilance-emphasizing high-end that made for noisy yet usable results. We also noticed that the level indication meters for both voice and line recordings are not accurate and may lead you to accidentally create low-volume recordings. We recommend monitoring your recordings using headphones to insure a useful recording level.
Video quality on the Eco Media Player is nothing to brag about, but if you're squirreled away in a cabin with nothing to do, watching episodes of The Simpsons on the dim 1.8-inch screen probably seems like a luxury. Small touches such as the hand-crank kickstand and built-in speaker make watching videos a viable proposition on the Eco Media Player. We should note that the screen on our Eco Media Player was just a hair crooked--not enough to drive us crazy, but enough that we would probably exchange it.
The Eco Media Player's battery can be charged either by winding it up or connecting it to your computer over USB. With a full charge, our CNET labs found the Eco Media Player is realistically capable of 32 hours of audio playback, and an outstanding 17 hours of video. Fortunately, even pipsqueaks can charge the Eco Media Player using only the hand crank. Just one minute of cranking at a speed of two revolutions per second, should produce 40 minutes of audio playback.
Final thoughts
It makes us happy to know a product such as the Eco Media Player exists, but at $350, its appeal is strictly for extreme outdoorsmen, travelers to third-world nations, MacGyver, or survivalists looking to stock up for the apocalypse. If you're just a casual camper, we recommend taking a deep breath and investing in a $20 USB car charger or an MP3 player with replaceable batteries.
What You'll Pay
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