As I’ve mentioned, Cube is one of the popular Chinese media player brands. Here is a short review of the B33HD. If you are in a hurry, be sure to check the video review (scroll below).

Build, Accessories

The player itself looks very sleek, and more expensive than any $69 player out there for sure. As I read somewhere, this model is definitely ‘inexpensive, but not cheap’. The unit has a nice weight to it, and its dimensions are perfect for holding and operating with one hand. However, both the front and back are absolute fingerprint magnets. The player comes with a protective cover on both sides though.

This is the box the player came in. Garish, to say the least:

The bundled accessories are fairly minimal: USB cable, earphones (better than usual bundled crappy earphones, but not good either, and somewhat uncomfortable) and a Chinese only manual. I also got a very nice free pouch with the player from HouseOfDap.

Interface

This is a button operated player. A wheel-like rocker is the primary navigation key. Move it up/down and press it inside to select a particular item. There are buttons for Volume-Up/Down, Play/Pause on the top. Slots exist for HDMI output, TF card, earphones, DC charger, USB cable (charging and OTG) and microphone input.

Here’s the home screen. Pretty well laid out, with the main items on the left.

Navigation across these items is via a rocker on the right (not visible in this picture).

Playback

All right, the main course. I’ve bought this player for watching movies, and I’m glad to say that this player does not disappoint in this aspect. The screen is ultra sharp (hard to imagine unless you’ve seen 800x480 pixels crammed into a 3.6″ screen) and as a result, videos are a treat to watch on this player. It has played all my standard definition movie rips without any hiccup. However, I must mention here that if most of your videos are 720p or higher, you should not consider this player (take a look at any with the SoChip 9800 processor instead, such as the Ainol V9000HDA or the Cube H900HD). I’ve seen frame drops on 720p WMV files that I’ve tried.

See the video below for more on this.

Music playback is decent on this player. By the way, sound quality itself is pretty good (be it on movies or music clips). However, the music player interface is not jazzy. If you’re used to the iTouch’s interface, you’ll be disappointed. This player does read ID3 tags and organizes your music files accordingly though.

Negatives

All right, no review is honest without a list of negatives. Here’s my list:

• As with most such Chinese players, the UI is fairly basic -- looks outdated beside the iTouch/ZuneHD interface
• The screen is brilliant, but suffers from some backlight bleeding in my piece. If you see the video review or the pic above, you’ll see a slight backlight bleed on the left edge of the screen especially when the scene is dark. Not a deal breaker, but the screen would be a perfect ten without this
• The battery -- would be great if it had juice worth at least 6 hours of video playback (currently around 4 hours)
• Uneven capitalization in menu items’ captions -- little things that leave a bad taste

I’ve uploaded a short video review of the player:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=atBR8JIykMM

Conclusion

At the end of the day, I’m very satisfied with the player since my primary necessity is video playback. The sheer value for money is also outstanding (costs Rs 15,000 lesser than an iTouch, yet plays movies better). Hence, I’d highly recommend this player to anyone looking for a budget portable video player.

If you’re budget is slightly higher ($100-$150), there are some amazing options. The best place to start researching about them would be the MP4Nation and HouseOfDap forums.

~Raj

• Cannot play most video formats without conversion to its supported formats
• Costs an astounding Rs.18,400 ($386) for the 32GB version in India (costs $275 in US)
• iTunes – Voted BloatWare Winner years in succession by experts

The primary reason I wanted the iTouch is to use it as a personal video player (I already have the excellent Sansa Clip for my audio playback needs). And that is where it falls woefully short. I wouldn’t mind converting, if that didn’t take more than an hour for each movie.

Hence I started the hunt. I zeroed in on the acclaimed Cowon S9 ($199 for 16GB) which has a supposedly brilliant 3.3″ AMOLED screen or the Microsoft Zune HD. Truth be told, neither of these are primarily meant for video, and hence I wasn’t really too keen on going for either of them after reading up and seeing them in action in reviews. This is when I discovered the world of…

Drumroll…

Chinese Media Players!

Now, the first image that usually comes to mind upon hearing the word “Chinese” for a gadget is that of a cheap Apple iPod knockoff, or a mobile phone that doesn’t serve as a dishwasher, but does pretty much everything else for a very cheap price. And if you go to any local electronics bazaar in India, it’s easy to see why this is true.

I admit, I had heard of brands such as Meizu before. However, I had no idea of even the existence of the so-called Chinese PMP market before my chance visit to MP4Nation and HouseOfDap. Both have excellent forums (MP4Nation forum, HOD Forum) with some really helpful people. I quickly discovered the merits of these media players:

• Ability to play AVI (XVid, DivX), VOB, MKV, WMV, FLV (and most commonly used formats) out of the box
• Support for videos up to 720p or even 1080p
• Supports subtitles (in SRT, SUB etc formats) in videos. Yaay!
• Plays files directly from a portable hard drive or a USB pen-drive
• Costs from USD 50 to USD 150
• Screen sizes ranging from 3″ to a mammoth 8.9″ (4.3″ is the most common)
• Screen resolutions are typically 800×480 (iTouch is 480×320)

A little background on these devices. There are a lot of media player brands in China: Ainol, Cube, Onda, Ramos and Teclast are among the popular ones. The software or user interface they use aren’t nearly as slick as the ones on Zune/iTouch but do get the job done. However, their strength lies in the hardware. The main processors they use are, of late, amazingly capable. Almost any video of any resolution is a piece of cake for processors such as the SoChip 9800, or the Telechips TCC8901 for example.

I finally decided upon the Cube B33HD. A cheap player ($69 – a little over Rs3000 at current PayPal exchange rates), it features:

• SoChip 8600 processor – capable of upto 720p (not the very latest, but enough for my standard movie rips)
• A very nice 800×480 resolution screen, 3.6″ diagonal size (slightly larger than the iTouch, but not touchscreen)
• Supports most of the standard video formats, along with support for subtitles (important for me)
• HDMI output (watch on TV directly), USB OTG support

The next part of this review focuses on this player. For now, here’s a pic. Continue reading…

Continue to part 2…

~Raj

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

- Tennyson (“Ring Out, Wild Bells”)

May 2009 be the year that you and I have been waiting for. And the year that ushers in peace in India and the world. And the year of the Linux desktop!

Cheers to a new beginning. Sweets on your desk, true Bong style

PS: Did you spot the typo in the box above?

~Raj

If you are a professional working in a city like Hyderabad (or Bangalore for that matter), you would be well aware of the fact that shifting your apartment is an infinitely unpleasant experience. Be that as it may, I had it the silver lining of “it’s all going to be over soon” in mind when I started house-hunting.

Except that, things had turned infinitely worse, compared to the last time I had to shift (which was four years ago). Real-estate brokers, for example, had taken professionalism to a whole new level. This is about one such particularly clever broker.

After what must have been six weeks of meeting brokers of all shapes and sizes and visiting numerous crappy overpriced apartments, I received a call from a certain Mr. Khan from MagicBricks.com. I had registered myself at this portal, which claims to be “India’s No. 1 Property Site”. I had also given my contact information along with my criteria of apartments I wanted for rent. So, when Mr. Khan explained to me, in impeccable English, that he had at least six apartments within my budget and in the localities I was looking for, I was delighted. He also explained that should I end up not liking any of those, he would continue to present apartments as an when they become available, until I was satisfied enough. Finally, a true professional in an industry chock-a-block with cheats wanting to make a quick buck!

I promptly set up a meeting with one of Mr. Khan’s agents on the very next day. Agent Aryan and Agent Unnamed arrived on a motorbike about a half-an-hour behind schedule (which is acceptable by Indian standards, right?). One look at Agent Aryan, and you could tell that this was no ordinary real-estate broker. Clad in Levi’s and donning long rock star like hair, this dude had panache written all over him. Like his boss Mr. Khan, his English was fluent and flawless.

Then the first major gotcha dawned: Agent Aryan explained that his ‘organization’ requires an up-front registration charge of 500 bucks (before any apartment is shown to me). I argued that Mr. Khan had conveniently missed this point on the phone. He said that it was probably a mistake, and tried to call up Mr. Khan. But, again, conveniently, he turned out to be unavailable. I decided to take the plunge: 500 bucks for ’showing unlimited apartments until I was satisfied’ seemed reasonable at that point.

With ‘registration’ formalities out of the way, we proceeded to the first apartment on his list. Alas, it turned out that the owner of this apartment was not in town, and had not left the keys with the guard on duty. Fear not, we have five in queue. The next one was apparently already let out, and we had missed it by a day. Fear not, four in queue. The next one actually was a sprawling 3BHK apartment at a superb location. It was still under construction, but it did look like it would be over soon. But wait, wouldn’t this be way beyond my budget? Gotcha number two: upon asking Agent Aryan, he smooth-talked me into believing that his job was limited to showing the apartments. His boss would later call me and quote the rents of all the properties I’ve liked.

The remaining two apartments they showed were of a similar kind – looked like decent apartments, but would definitely be beyond my budget, considering prevailing rents in such localities. It was then that the third major gotcha dawned upon me: none of the apartments shown had much likelihood of ultimately getting through.

However, Agent Aryan promised me that the next day he would again call me and show me some more that were about to be vacated. Realizing that this was turning out to be like any other apartment chase, I returned home dejected and disillusioned.

It was then that the fourth and final gotcha dealt the death blow: I came upon this review of MagicBricks. Fearing the worst, I tried calling up both Mr. Khan and Aryan. Not once, not twice – at least a dozen times. And my call was ignored every single time, every single day, from that day onwards.

Moral of the story: Never trust brokers who charge you a large amount up-front. For websites with property listings, only consider ones which are posted by actual owners.

I admit – I’ve been rather stupid and allowed myself to be hoodwinked. Nevertheless, the sheer suave manner in which I’ve been cheated still continues to impress me. All in all – a ‘dear diary moment’, don’t you think?

~Raj

A few extra letters after your name never hurts !

For the uninitiated, Birla Institute of Technology and Science offers distance learning courses in various streams.  The M.S. in Software Systems is a two year “work integrated” learning program, which essentially means that this is designed for people who wish to pursue the course while working full time at an organization. You need to have some work-ex to apply. It’s a regular 4-semester 2-year programme with a mix of open-book and closed-book exams. And, you should have a “mentor” – preferably your manager in your organization who guides you through it.

For more information, point your browser to the BITS DLPD website.

~Raj