I have seen the first of several implementations of Microsoft’s much touted  audio/video-enabled Windows Mobile Portable Media Center platforms scheduled to be delivered to retail shelves between now and Christmas.

And I am under-whelmed. Compared to the many personal video recorders now on the market and even some very smart portable TVs and next generation PVRs, the Windows Mobile PMC platforms I have seen are a definite step backward. I hope they are merely precursors to the proverbial two steps forward.

The one I’ve looked at closest is  Creative Laboratories Zen PMC, pictured above. In most respects the platform is defined, and its specifications enforced, by Microsoft. So the hardware vendors it is partnering with do not have much room for engineering differentiation, except for packaging, cosmetic niceties and detailing. So it is not that much different than the specs I have seen for several other devices that will soon be out, such as from iRiver and Samsung.  

Microsoft is devoting as much hype to promoting the PMC as it did to its Tablet PC and settop box efforts. And if it spends as much money and effort in promoting the PMC I think we can expect it to be as much of a modest success as they have been.  

But the mobile PMC will not transform the marketplace – not to the degree that Microsoft says it will. It will certainly not have the same impact that Apple’s iPod and other such devices have had on the way we use portable audio players. It has nothing to do with the specific features and engineering on particular implementations of the platform and everything to do with the concept as Microsoft has defined it.  

First, the pluses. The ones that I have seen, including Creative Labs ZenPMC, are small, have a hard drive instead of a bunch of DVDs to store tens hours of prerecorded audio and/or video. They also work for several hours off rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.   

But there are many more negatives, even at the conceptual level. Because it is both a video and audio player, a Windows PMC  will always be bigger and bulkier than even the largest personal audio players will be.  

In audio players, technology and the way we process sound has allowed engineers to create audio environments that rival the best of some high fidelity systems of even a few years ago.

By contrast, no matter how good and high quality the video on a PMC, the size of the viewing screen will be limited to no more than five or six inches diagonal. At that point it is transformed from a PMC to a TMC, or transportable media center.   

And no matter how high the quality of the video on the PMC, you will still be viewing life, or at least a video image if it, through a hole in the wall, not surrounded by it, the way you are with many of the high quality audio players.  

The smaller you make the screen, the more portable it will be. But at the same time, the video will be even more under-whelming. Finally, with video, you have to give it your full attention. With audio players you can surround yourself with high quality sound and still remain attentive to whatever other task you are doing, such as driving a car. Try that with a video player and you are dead.    

But within the constraints of the platform as Microsoft has defined it, Creative Labs has done a creditable job. It measures 5.7 by 3.2 by 1.1 inches, about the size to easily fit in a bag or purse, but not most trouser pockets. To get the size down and still fit within the definition of portable, Creative had to make sacrifices on screen size, which on the unit I looked at was 3.8 inches diagonal with a 320 by 480 pixel resolution. 

While the display is bright and crisp, the neat and clean all lower case menu that Creative Labs has chosen is harder to read on such a small screen. The main menu gives you the choices in that irritatingly saccharin, “my this” and “my that” format that Microsoft insists on using. 

Creative provides a five-way button controller to move among the various choices. Click on one and a submenu appears. Under “my music” you can sort your music audio or video collection by genre, name or performer, for example. Once you make a choice there is an OK button to start the audio or video.

The ZenPMC has a built-in 20 GByte hard drive that provides storage for about 80 hours of medium quality video, if that is all you are saving. If you have got a lot of audio or a few still images, there is considerably less space. But in either case, the limiting factor in terms of playback is the lifetime of the rechargeable battery, about seven hours for video and 21 hours for all audio playback.

One nit I do have to pick with Creative about the packaging is that while sleek and elegant, it has got a curved bottom edge. Looks nice and keeps it from looking boxy. But you can't stand it upright, say on a side table or on the back of the seat tray on an airplane.   

One thing that Creative could not get around with good engineering is the limitation imposed by the PMC platform as Microsoft has defined it. Unlike a TiVo, a VCR, a PVR and any of half a dozen non-PMC portable video players now on the market, there are severe limitations on where you can get and record video.  

Astonishingly, the generic Personal Media Center definition includes no option for audio or video inputs, so you cannot record TV shows or music from a VCR, cable settop box, satellite, TiVo or DVD player.  Certainly there were none that I could find on the Creative Labs unit I looked at.

One choice you are given is to buy a specially equipped Media Center PC, or upgrade your existing XP system with the software that will allow you to record from a TV input and then convert that into a special format for the PMC. And the only way to download it to the PMC, apparently is via a supplied USB 2.0 cable.

Alternatively you will soon be able to buy preformatted videos directly from Microsoft and its partners. From clips from www.MLB.com  and  movies from www.cinemanow.com.   that will cost you about $3 per movie. But after 24 hours of viewing, that’s it, no more movie.

I am sure that there will soon be some aftermarket offerings that will provide other options, such as add-in cards that accept the video input and automatically reformat the input.

But if this is the future, I'm not sure I like it.

Pricing and Availability

Creative Laboratories Inc.'s ZenPMC is now available at Best Buy, Fry's Electronics and on the Creative Web site for an estimated street price of $499.99, comes with a rechargeable, removable Li-ion battery and comes with a protective case that fortunately can double as an adjustable stand.

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Manufacturer Creative Laboratories Product Name Creative Zen Portable Media Center Dimensions 5.67 x 3.18 x 1.06 inches  (144 x 80.7 x 27 mm) Weight 12 ounces (340 g) with standard L-ion battery Local Area Connectivity USB 2.0 (backward compatible with USB 1.1) Processor/OS Arm CPU/ Windows XP-derived Mobile Portable Media Center OS Storage 20 Gigabyte internal Hard Drive (9,000 songs, 85 hours of movies) Playback formats Zen PMC - WMV (7,8and 9), WMA, JPEG; Windows Media Player 10 - MPEG, MPE, M1V, DVR-MS, MP2, WAV, AU, SND Display 3.8 inch diagonal TFT, 320 x 480  pixel, 4096 color display  Power Internal lithium-ion battery with 22 hours of continuous audio playback or seven hours of continuous video playback.