Gph: The Wiz - Official Announcement

[sbock]

Spoken like someone with Pandora money in their back pocket

Thats pretty low, many of the Pandora guys are working on it for FREE. (edit: dang i never thought I would defend DaveC on something....i find it kind of funny)

I think DaveC has a point. This product does seem like be like all other other cheap video players. Although the soc i think is a little stronger than what would be used in a small pocket media player.

Very interesting. A chinese PMP with a OLED display? With Linux OS? Open Source? With a SDK available? With documented hardware? Build from a company who support homebrew? With a large software libary at sales start which only must be recompiled?
Also a very important fact: How long a product is available. Look at the JXD 301 disaster and you know what I mean...

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

Also a very important fact: How long a product is available. Look at the JXD 301 disaster and you know what I mean...

I don't see why so many around here call the 301 a "disaster". They never built the thing to appease homebrew enthusiasts such as yourself, it was meant to be a device that showed up on the market for a while, made its money, and vanished into obscurity, just as every Chinese PMP has ever done. It did that, and it made the company money. Going in as a consumer and expecting anything more would be the disaster, IMO.

From a business standpoint, JXD probably calls it a huge success.

 

[Pickle]

Spoken like someone with Pandora money in their back pocket

Thats pretty low, many of the Pandora guys are working on it for FREE. (edit: dang i never thought I would defend DaveC on something....i find it kind of funny)

I think DaveC has a point. This product does seem like be like all other other cheap video players. Although the soc i think is a little stronger than what would be used in a small pocket media player.

Very interesting. A chinese PMP with a OLED display? With Linux OS? Open Source? With a SDK available? With documented hardware? Build from a company who support homebrew? With a large software libary at sales start which only must be recompiled?
Also a very important fact: How long a product is available. Look at the JXD 301 disaster and you know what I mean...
You have valid points, gph to some extent does backup thier product. I should know they were kind enough to fix my gp2x long ago. I should have said the actual device looks like the PMP's. I wish it was a bit bigger.

 

[sbock]

Also a very important fact: How long a product is available. Look at the JXD 301 disaster and you know what I mean...

I don't see why so many around here call the 301 a "disaster". They never built the thing to appease homebrew enthusiasts such as yourself, it was meant to be a device that showed up on the market for a while, made its money, and vanished into obscurity, just as every Chinese PMP has ever done. It did that, and it made the company money. Going in as a consumer and expecting anything more would be the disaster, IMO.

From a business standpoint, JXD probably calls it a huge success.


Of course is was a huge success. For the company who builds it. From a homebrew and customer point of view it 's a deasaster to change a product completly every half year.
Many people here compare devices like the JXD with GPH products. They see chinese PMPs as alternative.
From my point of view this alternative failed...

 

[Exophase]

Also a very important fact: How long a product is available. Look at the JXD 301 disaster and you know what I mean...

I don't see why so many around here call the 301 a "disaster". They never built the thing to appease homebrew enthusiasts such as yourself, it was meant to be a device that showed up on the market for a while, made its money, and vanished into obscurity, just as every Chinese PMP has ever done. It did that, and it made the company money. Going in as a consumer and expecting anything more would be the disaster, IMO.

From a business standpoint, JXD probably calls it a huge success.


If a handheld was making money why would it stop being available while there's still a healthy demand for it?

Obviously it wasn't making money, probably charged too little for it and went bust, hence was a failure.

 

[Amon_Re]

You can get a 2.5mm->3.5mm headphone adaptor for £2 (if that).

You can get them in the form of either a couple of inches of cable with a connector on each end, or what looks like a fat 2.5mm plug with a socket molded into the end.

Ever used one? They're a bit volatile and susceptible to audio cut-out upon movement. Besides, a joint that big is that much more susceptible to having a wire be bent out of place/disconnected and creating audio problems.


My iPaq also employs a 2,5mm plug, there was an adaptor included, it works flawlessly. Good quality cables help offcourse

 

[icurafu]

In reality, most of these gadgets get brought from street markets. Being a generic MP4 device, jxd will just release something else next.

To a MP4 player developer, sold-out just means success, time for the next thing.

 

[b._.o._.b]

I guess the only reason Wiz gets any attention here is because GPH made it.

You're probably right. GPH is as far as I know the only company making handhelds with a rather 'open' attitude. Some GP32x devs already created something for it, so there is a connection between this community and GPH. The connection is obviously less significant than the link between Pandora and the community. You could say Pandora is partly created by members of the forum.

If you want an improved GP2X, without keyboard and for roughly the same price the Wiz is imo the only device in the market that can replace it. It's not perfect, just like the GP2X isn't perfect.

 

[Orkie]

Obviously it wasn't making money, probably charged too little for it and went bust, hence was a failure.

JXD aren't bankrupt, but the 301 was making hardly any money for them because it cost a lot to make apparently :S.

 

[Squidge]

JXD aren't bankrupt, but the 301 was making hardly any money for them because it cost a lot to make apparently :S.

I'm not suprised to be honest, I wonder how much it cost them to scrub the top of the 'magic' chip on every one they sold?

 

[Exophase]

Obviously it wasn't making money, probably charged too little for it and went bust, hence was a failure.

JXD aren't bankrupt, but the 301 was making hardly any money for them because it cost a lot to make apparently :S.


Product line went bust then. Either way, they didn't come and "make their money", JXD 301 was too good to be true (except for the people who actually did manage to get one)

 

[DynaMight]

I was one of the people to buy a 301. It had potential but never happened.

Difference between the 301 and Wiz, is the Wiz has everything you need for devs etc to port stuff over and a solid company behind it who have one console to deal with, JXD release new stuff every other week. GPH have done quite well with the GP2X imo as far as continued production, if the GP2X died after the first 6 months, half of us wouldn't be here, it would had died.

Yes the GP2X had its bug but hopefully they have learnt something and the Wiz has less issues.

I know theres the Pandora but its quite big and not everyone wants a 'massive' handheld to carry around. Theres enough space in this community for both consoles.

 

[trooper]

I know theres the Pandora but its quite big and not everyone wants a 'massive' handheld to carry around. Theres enough space in this community for both consoles.

The Pandora is pretty much the same size as a GP2x, And not a great deal bigger than a Wiz.

GP2X-vs-Pandora-vs-DS-Lite-vs-Wiz-vs-GBA-micro

Trooper

 

[DaveC]

Yes the GP2X had its bug but hopefully they have learnt something and the Wiz has less issues.

Less issues?

Small screen, OLED screen that is easy to burn in, two d-pads, custom battery that will be hard to get once GPH discontinues it. These are just the ones we know of now. We don't even know how bad the boot times are, how well the D-pad works, or what the build quality is like.

It seems like it has the same amount of issues, just different ones.

 

[DynaMight]

Yeah but it doubles when its opened up

I have nothing against the Pandora but I don't think its gonna be a completely faultless machine. I will probably end up getting one though.

Like I said there's a market for both - even if only because of the price of the Wiz.

Yes the GP2X had its bug but hopefully they have learnt something and the Wiz has less issues.

Less issues?

Small screen, OLED screen that is easy to burn in, two d-pads, custom battery that will be hard to get once GPH discontinues it. These are just the ones we know of now. We don't even know how bad the boot times are, how well the D-pad works, or what the build quality is like.

It seems like it has the same amount of issues, just different ones.


Small screen isn't an issue, its a good size imo. OLED screen isnt going to die any time soon and its not like a TV where you may leave it on for hours on end stuck on the same picture, you are either playing something or its turned off.

Just buy a spare battery straight away, besides, they last quite a while, look at all other devices that use batteries. My N95 is 18months old and still on the original battery, holds a perfect charge and naturally its on 24/7. Quite a lot of devices dont even have an option to replace the battery, look at all the ipods and most cheap MP4 players, its got to be a plus.

 

[ruckage]

The Pandora is pretty much the same size as a GP2x, And not a great deal bigger than a Wiz.

GP2X-vs-Pandora-vs-DS-Lite-vs-Wiz-vs-GBA-micro

Trooper


Trust me on this the size difference between the GP2X and the Wiz is bigger than you think. Having the 2 side by side you really appreciate the difference more than you do by looking at those diagrams.

I hope to get some of my games running on this later as Puck2099 sent me an alpha of the Wiz fenix runtime so I will be able to get an idea of how the controls perform in an actual game.

 

[DaveC]

Small screen isn't an issue, its a good size imo. OLED screen isnt going to die any time soon and its not like a TV where you may leave it on for hours on end stuck on the same picture, you are either playing something or its turned off.

Just buy a spare battery straight away, besides, they last quite a while, look at all other devices that use batteries. My N95 is 18months old and still on the original battery, holds a perfect charge and naturally its on 24/7. Quite a lot of devices dont even have an option to replace the battery, look at all the ipods and most cheap MP4 players, its got to be a plus.

The small screen may not be an issue for you, but it will be for many. I mean 2.8" ? a good size? Come on. That blows especially when I am used to 3.5" on the "last gen" system. It is going backwards.

As far as the OLED wearing out you haven't been paying attention to previous posts. The problem is that it wears out UNEVEN as the colors fade at different rates causing color shift. It is also very likely to get image burn-in. It is WORSE than a TV. Ever play an arcade game that does have static game screens for a long time? Ever see a game with a high score, game score, or HUD remain unchanged while you play? This will leave permanent image burn-in. You don't usually do that on a TV where you mostly watch movies that change allot. TVs are also usually LCD or CRT which are not as bad as OLED.

With nice LTPS LCDs out there there is pretty much no point to OLED, not yet until they work out the flaws.

Buying a spare battery isn't going to be a solution. When Li-ion batteries sit unused they degrade. When they are used they degrade as well.

 

[MWeston]

Wiz video if it hasn't been posted on GP32X yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj5JIy6i5Kk

 

[Alex.]

Wiz video if it hasn't been posted on GP32X yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj5JIy6i5Kk


Was that a roughly 8-second boot time I just saw in there?

 

[DynaMight]

Small screen isn't an issue, its a good size imo. OLED screen isnt going to die any time soon and its not like a TV where you may leave it on for hours on end stuck on the same picture, you are either playing something or its turned off.

Just buy a spare battery straight away, besides, they last quite a while, look at all other devices that use batteries. My N95 is 18months old and still on the original battery, holds a perfect charge and naturally its on 24/7. Quite a lot of devices dont even have an option to replace the battery, look at all the ipods and most cheap MP4 players, its got to be a plus.

The small screen may not be an issue for you, but it will be for many. I mean 2.8" ? a good size? Come on. That blows especially when I am used to 3.5" on the "last gen" system. It is going backwards.

As far as the OLED wearing out you haven't been paying attention to previous posts. The problem is that it wears out UNEVEN as the colors fade at different rates causing color shift. It is also very likely to get image burn-in. It is WORSE than a TV. Ever play an arcade game that does have static game screens for a long time? Ever see a game with a high score, game score, or HUD remain unchanged while you play? This will leave permanent image burn-in. You don't usually do that on a TV where you mostly watch movies that change allot. TVs are also usually LCD or CRT which are not as bad as OLED.

With nice LTPS LCDs out there there is pretty much no point to OLED, not yet until they work out the flaws.

Buying a spare battery isn't going to be a solution. When Li-ion batteries sit unused they degrade. When they are used they degrade as well.


My point being you are scaremongering, I am sure the screen will fade and burn but not after a few months or probably even a few years. You are very rarely going to be leaving it on the same screen for hours at a time and it certainly isnt going to do it after a few minutes.
Its like the people who say dont buy plasmas because they die or people who are worried about flash cards wearing out - yes it will happen but chances are it would had lived its usefulness by then.

Sometimes, especially in the portable world, bigger isn't always better. Else we would all still be walking around with brick Gamegears/Lynx/Gameboys etc

I'm not saying that OLED is great but I am sure its not as bad as you are making out.