The Linux-based Pontis MX2020 Portable Media Playe

sky-walker

We were pleasantly surprised when we discovered (by snooping on its firmware files) that the
Pontis MX2020
multimedia device that
Geeks.com
sent us for a review actually uses Linux (embedded distribution
uCLinux, kernel 2.4.19). If it’s video, audio, pictures, recording or
even basic PDA functionality via its touch screen, the Pontis MX2020
can do it all. And for very cheap too.
The Pontis was released around the same time the also-Linux based
Archos PMA400
PDA/PMP combo device (which runs Qtopia). But the PMA400 costs over
$600 while the MX2020 costs just $199, making the MX2020 a promising
purchase for users who don’t have a PMP device yet and just want to try
out the waters. The MX2020 was originally released in Korea from iUbi
as PMP2020 and was later ODM’ed to German company
Pontis
and the Chinese company KISS. Although it’s based on the GPL’ed Linux, I could never find any diffs or patches of the
iUbi uCLinux
implementation for download.

The MX2020 sports a 20 GB hard drive, a 3.5″ TFT touchscreen and a
compact flash port. The original Korean version supported WiFi via a
special CF card too, but the Pontis has this ability disabled. The
MX2020 comes with a cradle that has a slot for a second battery
(charges via AC or USB), a standard usb cable, A/V cables, CDs, a very
well-written and visual manual, earphones and lastly, a leather case.
The device is smaller than the other two PMPs we have reviewed in the
past, the RCA Lyra RD2780 and the Neuros 442. On the device itself you
will find two embedded stereo speakers, a hold button, a reset button,
an integrated microphone, two A/V inputs/outputs, an on/off button, a
joystick (works as arrow keys and as volume up/down and forward/back
songs), a play/pause button, a Stop button, a mini-usb slot (for file
transfer only, not for charging), a connection slot for the cradle and
a Menu button. And of course, there is the stylus.
 


The stylus looks a lot like the Zaurus one, which I like very much,
as it is not very thin of very small. It is what I would call “the
right size”. The MX2020 includes some basic PDA functionality,
including a Calculator, a Memo, a Notes (painting) and Calendar
application. The touchscreen functionality is integrated with most of
the button/menus throughout the media applications so you could, let’s
say, change the volume with the stylus too. However, the file manager
and main menu requires double-clicking with the stylus instead of a
single click, which can confuse some existing PDA users. On the back of
the device there is a small hole, where you can place the “nose” of the
stylus in it and make the stylus function as a “stand” for the device,
helping the viewing experience.
 


Booting the device takes about 8 seconds. When fully booted up it
you are presented with the 9 main icons, from which 2 of them are
disabled. The first one is Video, the second one is Audio, third one is
Pictures. Then you will find a file manager, the A/V recording
application, the setup of the device and the PDA functionality. WiFi
and TV/Radio icons are disabled (I tried my Linksys WCF12 wifi card,
didn’t work). I must say that moving around to icons, files and menus
is just slow. I don’t know why, but it is slow, and each time you open
a new application the LCD turns black for a tiny bit until the new
application is fully loaded.
 


Each of the three main uses of the PMP, video/audio/pictures, show
a file manager view but with only the filenames they recognize as
supported. For example, if you load the Video icon, you will be
presented with a file manager view that will only show up .avi or .asf
files. The rest of the files in that folder will be ignored so the user
won’t open the wrong file. The device supports MPEG2, DivX 3.x, 4.x,
5.x, ASF, AVI, Xvid and supposedly Mpeg4, but my Xvid/Mp4 file I tried
didn’t work. All the rest of my DivX and ASF files worked without a
problem. Even the video I recorded last week with the Neuros Recorder 1
worked perfectly and smoothly in the device. You must be careful with
DivX though. The device won’t playback movies encoded with B-Frames in
them, so it will skip these frames in a way that can make playback look
not very smooth and actually give the impression that video playback is
slow (which is not the case). So, avoid B-Frames when encoding your
DivX files for this device.
 


When clicking the “Menu” button the user is presented with a
different menu each time depending if he/she is in the screen of video,
audio, pictures or file manager. You get EQ for audio, LCD settings
when in video, zoom and rotate when in pictures, delete/rename etc when
in file manager mode etc. However, I (and everyone I showed the device
to) found the general UI inconsistent when trying to use the MX2020
(especially in its settings and PDA apps), but ultimately it doesn’t
take long to learn its quirks.
The audio player has some very good quality, and is able to play
WMA, OGG, AAC-LC and MP3. The device doesn’t support playlists, but
your can organize albums by directory, on the /top/mp3/ folder. Be
aware of the available
firmware upgrade
(May 16th 2005 version). While it adds a bit better ogg support (ogg
was still working before the upgrade btw) and B&W video recording,
it totally breaks WMA support and introduces 1-2 new smaller bugs. So,
think hard before you decide to upgrade the firmware (which btw is an
easy procedure to do). The Pontis company was sold a few months ago and
they don’t have plans to further support the device, from what I
learned from its CEO.
 


The picture viewing experience was very satisfying, but only jpeg
pictures are supported. The funny part is that the actual UI of the
device uses BMP icons, and yet the picture-viewing application does not
read BMPs.
Recording audio, video, audio/video and voice is very easy. The
manual is detailing very well how to use the A/V cables and the
resulted QVGA recorded video is of a very good quality. Click ‘Save as’
to
this video
we
recorded to check it out. The industry’s standard audio and mpeg4 video
it encodes with was compatible with any media player we tried it out.
 


Battery life is “ok” compared to other early hard-drive PMPs in the
market. It achieved 3 hours of video playback (enough to watch a 2-hour
movie in medium LCD brightness) and 7 hours of audio playback (with LCD
off). The device can be mounted from all operating systems that support
external USB disks. The compact flash disk will mount on the /top/cf/
folder of the device and using either its internal file manager or your
desktop operating system’s you can use the CF card to copy audio/video
in it.
Overall, the Pontis MX2020 is a very good PMP device for customers
who never had one. It’s not perfect, but it carries out all simple
operations perfectly. And for that price (
$199
),
it is absolutely unbeatable. It is the most affordable hard-disk based
big-screen PMP on the market today, and yes, it runs Linux. - Eugenia
Loli-Queru


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