Review: Epson P-2000 Multimedia Viewer

You're on vacation, and you've just snapped a couple of hundred high-quality photos during the whale watch, now to mention a few videos. Your memory card now is totally maxed out, you're 400 miles from your computer, and you really don't want to buy another card. What do you do? According to Epson, you pull out your trusty P-2000.

The Epson P-2000 (which lists for $499.99) is a portable multimedia viewer that contains a 40GB hard drive. It allows you to offload and play photo (JPEG and RAW), video (MPEG4 and Motion JPEG), and music (MP3 and AAC) files, and view them on its 3.8-inch LCD. The device has two slots, one that accepts CompactFlash memory cards and another for SD (Secure Digital) cards; you can also move files directly to and from your computer via a USB 2.0 connection.

Designed in a sleek black and silver case, the P-2000 uses a replaceable lithium ion battery which is recharged via an AC adapter. At 14.4 ounces with battery, it's not a complete lightweight, but it is quite portable.

The controls, most of which are located to the right of the LCD, are easy to understand at first glance. A round rocker switch lets you cursor around the display menus; pushing the center of the button (where it says "OK") makes a selection. A small Cancel button directly to the left and below the rocker lets you cancel any actions or go back to the previous menu. If you want to take a few short cuts, you can use a Home button to go back to the main menu, Display to adjust your display settings, or the Menu and Print buttons.

In The Clear
In a device such as this, the LCD is one of the most important components, and here Epson has excelled. The display is bright, clear, and very viewable; I had little trouble using it even in bright sunlight. The sound quality is another story; if you try to listen to it directly from the device's speaker, its' pretty tinny. However, you can hook up a pair of headphones, which improves things greatly, audio-wise.

When you turn on the device, the display shows you the device menus, which you use to navigate through its various features. The main menu consists of a group of icons that lead to your saved data, the contents of any memory cards you've inserted, audio files, your settings, or photo albums. (Photo albums are simply any images you want to group under a single heading, so you can display them apart from your other saved files.)

On the whole, the P-2000 performed as advertised. It's very easy to download images and videos from an SD card -- just insert the card, and click on the Memory Card icon. You are then given the choice of either copying the data, creating an album after the copy, or simply browsing the card.

Moving files between the P-2000 and a computer is a bit more difficult. When you connect the two using the included USB cable, your system recognizes the P-2000 as essentially another hard drive. You can then move files between the two using Windows Explorer. However, if you're moving files onto the P-2000, make sure you read the manual first -- if you don't place your files in the correct directory (which is several levels down), you'll never find them on the device.

If you want to show off your photography, you can view your albums, or all your saved files, as a slide show. The P-2000 comes with a limited number of transitions and background music (the five innocuous ditties that come with the P-200 can be augmented with up to three of your own); you can also set the duration of each slide. However, you can't change the order of the slides. There is a TV Out port if you want to show your images to a larger group.

Photographers who may find themselves with lots of images and no laptop, or enthusiasts who want to be able to pass their photos around at a family gathering, will find the Epson P-2000 a useful peripheral to own.