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.
Overall: 7/10
Apart from the minor niggles the author mentions there is no ogg support. Think i`ll still go for the GP2X!
Huh??? Ogg is supported just fine! With or without firmware upgrade.
Huh??? Ogg is supported just fine! With or without firmware upgrade.
I hope you are right about that, but I didn’t see ogg in any of the literature or technical specs. Where is this listed?
EDIT: Okay. Next time I’ll be sure to RTFA before I open my mouth (keyboard)! Sorry – It’s right there in the article – duh!!
Edited 2005-11-14 19:28
Apart from the minor niggles the author mentions there is no ogg support. Think i`ll still go for the GP2X!
I’m wondering why this post had a score of -2 (I had to adjust the settings to view it, then I voted it back up).
You people do realize the word “niggles” is not a “bad word”, don’t you?
What is the screen like? Is it viewable when the surroundings are very bright? How does it compare against existing PDA screens?
Lots of questions about a very important feature 🙂
The screen is not as good as my HP rx3115 PDA. But it’s brighter than the Zaurus SL-5500’s (all QVGA).
One question though, it says the Pontis company has been sold. Who is taking care of warranty requests now?
Geeks.com supports the device for 1 year, if something goes wrong, not Pontis.
…requires Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
…requires Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
According to the product description on the Pontis website, Linux is one of the supported operating systems. You can check it out here:
http://www.pontis.de/site_e/produkte/pl_2020_e.htm and then click on the ‘technical specifications’.
I’m assuming you’ll just mount it like an external hard drive, and you probably won’t get to use the shrink wrapped software that comes with it.
My wife and I just bought matching 30 GB iPods (the new iPod Video unit) this past Saturday (I’m jamming out to some Doobie Brothers on my iPod right now ;-).
Then again, even after reading this, we would have bought the iPods anyway! 😉
Edited 2005-11-14 14:15
and you settled for less. It looks like some nice set of parts for only $199, hard to resist. Anyone take one apart yet, where are the real technical specifications?
I wonder what the real technical specifications are on this device? Is it runing an Arm7, Arm9, Arm11? Maybe it uses one of portal player’s SoCs with dual Arm7s? I would like to know more detailed specs if they are available. It would be nice if it was mentioned in the review.
Edited 2005-11-14 17:50
I think it uses special microcontrollers, not ARM. The uCLinux in particular is known to support those.
isn’t ARM a special Microcontroller? It’s used in all the ipods and in most mobile phones, and pdas. Why not here? I suspect it is a System on Chip from some guys like Portal Player, or maybe an asic from Broadcom or something that has an ARM core… o’well.
This PMP seems very interesting, especially pricewise, however I’m wondering: does the fact that it runs Linux provides an advantage to the customer ? For instance, will it make possible to update the PMP with new video formats support or something ?
No. Especially because the source code doesn’t seem easy to find.
qualify that with, “at this writing”, or, “today”, and it might be valid.
Well, I asked for the source code and Pontis does not have it. They just used whatever iUbi gave them as binaries. And the iUbi/Pontis devices are out for more than a year. If iUbi wanted to post their changes/source-code they would have done so, don’t you think?
Give it time you’ll probably see a replacement os project as soon as a few are disassembled, the hardware looks much too nice not to, probably only a cross compile and a few driver changes away.
The full hardware specs are not available. You can’t port anything to it in the current form. The only solution is for iUbi to post the source code so people can start updating it.
Got Skills? It’s only a computer, hardware is hardware, as long as it’s not proprietary and even then it can be deduced, really helps if they haven’t ground off the part numbers but even then there are plenty of catalogs with pictures. After all we’re talking rocket science not brain surgery, all you need is tools, time and two units…
Hello Eugenia,
I had 2 questions. First, you attached a QVGA (320X240) clip of the Wizard of Oz – but can the recorder support better resolutions? Can it record in VGA (640X480)?
Also, you said the picture viewing was pleasing. Did it take a long time to load large pictures individually? Were large pictures made blurry due to the screens low resolution – or were they “cropped for viewing”? My Iaudio X5L has this problem.
Thanks in advance.
No, only QVGA recording is supported, which is what you want for PDAs and for future phones. If you need bigger resolutions you need to get an Archos device instead (the Neuros 442 that I reviewed last week also does HVGA 640×240, but this res is not supported well by most media players and it makes the video look stretched). So, if you truly need big resolutions, either get a Neuros Recorder II (comes out in a few weeks, $150) or an Archos device ($350+).
Pictures are scaled down to fit on the QVGA resolution and they don’t look blury. There is a 4x zoom available too. They load pretty fast.
I appreciate the info – your 2 reviews have given me a lot to think about. The detail was great – I was considering those 2 players along with the MSI megaview and a couple others (MacVision MC3007).
My MX2020 is on order and should be arriving any day. I’m hoping I can upgrade the HD to 40gig…I have a spare 40GB 9.5mm HD available. I plan to use PowerQuest DriveImage 2002 and see what happens. Has anyone else looked at upgrading the HD in the MX2020? Thanks…..(20GB is good but 40GB is better!)
no, no one tried that. I suggest you don’t destroy the warranty of your order.
If you do decide to destroy the warranty and do something like this. The IUBI site has a download for the complete CD that comes with the PMP2020. It includes a system resore utility that will format and reinstall everything from scratch. If you do it.. let us know how it works!
Can user program recording time (e.g. daily, weekly) or it only allows manual?
Manual.
If you do try to upgrade the harddrive. See if you can load the iUbi firmware on it. It looks like the interface is still all in english, even though the manufacturer is Korean. Perhaps it will enable the Wifi
Well, I tried the latest firmware and other than changing logos and whatnot, it appears to be the same as the 1.01 pontis firmware…and no, the wifi and other icon are not working…also the wifi icon now looks like iubi entertainment…I wonder what their plans were for this…unfortunately I don’t have a wireless compact flash card
sorry, iubi channel, not entertainment…
One benefit of this firmware might be some more improvements, it looks like on the iUbi site they have done quite a bit more firmware releases than the one that Pontis did.
Did the harddrive upgrade work? Or was that someone else
(this is from the original post-er of HD upgrade…)
No…I haven’t tried it yet. These devices take the 1.8″ hard drive, not the standard notbook drive of 9.5mm height. Higher capacity brand new 1.8″ drives from Toshiba are in the range $100-160. I’ll start looking for one on ebay…
TTFN
I tried the iUbi Firmware and they didn’t seem to do much…the latest iUbi one seemed to bring it up to on par with the pre-loaded pontis firmware
Anonymous, please email me, I would like to discuss about the new firmware you tried. Thanks!
i am a newbie to pmp. I am having trouble playing some of the avi files on the mx2020. how can you tell rather the avi files was encoded to be compatiable with the pontis?
thanks