In the Middle of Indecision

[downgoesthekingd]

Hello everyone, just came across this site looking for a solution to my problem. There's a lot of information about various possible solutions, so I decided to sign up and ask you guys what you thought. What's my problem, you may ask? Well it's just this.

I, until recently, had a very nice and dandy chinese MP4 player that would allow me to play just about any video I threw at it up to 720p.

Then it died , and I was looking for something to replace it. I was, at first, looking for a really nice and portable video player that would play all of the videos I wanted to play and more. So, I came across this:http://www.ownta.com/cube-h880fhdr-bbe-mp5-player-with-hdmi-and-otg-functions-4gb.html. This cube player looked ( and still looks) really good, but I wanted to weigh all of my options.
So, while on my web travels, I came across the Dingoo, and the DS flash cards ( I have a DS Lite).
Now, I still want all of the video compatibility the chinese player offers, but I am really tempted by the opportunity to play all of my old games on the go. So, I have two sets of solutions, with different pros and cons:
A) I buy both the Dingoo and the Cube player
Pros:
Dedicated devices for video playback (nothing plays more or better than that Cube atm) and emulation, and all around use for both
Cons:
Doesn't play my DS games, would come out to almost $200 for both ( quite a lot in my opinion), would have more devices around than I can shake a stick at.
B) I buy the Cube, and a DS flash cart
Pros:
Backup for my copious collection of games, would improve my DS`s functionality, Cheaper, wouldn`t have to have a second device to play my old-school games. Lots of cool homebrew.
Cons:
Perhaps not as long lasting as the Dingoo, worse general playback than the Dingoo, might not last as long

So, in your opinion, which device`s functionality do you think is better, the DS cart ( such as the Supercard 2) or the Dingoo?
As well, which card do you think would be the best for long-term use ( IE I am not treating this as disposable electronics)

Please comment below, if you could be so kind.

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[zeromac]

DS cart plus the cube player, DS cart can emulate most of the olides you want to play and the decent NDS games available

EDIT: Actually a better alternative is an Ipod touch

It comes in 8gb size and if you jailbreak it, you can get some classic emulators to play all those old games. It also supports quite a few formats of video/music

 

[downgoesthekingd]

Nope, not meaning to be disrespectful but there is no way I am getting that stupid expensive iPod touch.
I hate iTunes. Nay, I despise. Nay, I want to burn it in its sleep. I have never used another media program that can ( and has) deleted my digital data while updating ( Apparently it didn't like my downloads of music from newgrounds and gave me a message along the lines of " tag corruption" and proceeded to clear my hard drive of about 3 gigs of data before I could stop it)
Sorry, iPod touch is completely and totally out of the picture.
Also, the Cube can play 1080p, and has a ridiculously good screen, and the battery isn't too shabby. As well, it has otg ( plug in hard drives). The format support of this thing is absolutely ridiculous ( Here's the list: S, AVI, MP4?MPG, MKV?PSP?DAT, VOB?WMV, ASF, PMP, RM, RMVB?MOV, M2V?QT?M2A formats?HD video decode?H.264(BP/MP/HP), Mpeg2(MP)?MPEG4(SP/ASP)/xvid(SP/AP)?VC-1(SP/MP /AP)?WMV9(SP/MP/AP)?and Mpeg1?H.263?Divx(3.11/4/5/6)?RMVB(rvg2/rv7/rv8 /rv9/rv10)?M-jpeg(B) )). Which is why I want it so bad.
And, the screen doesn't break if you drop it from 2 feet

.
So, one vote for DS cart.

.
Thank you for the reply.

 

[zeromac]

No problem

Your right that is a big list of formats but try VLC media Player it has shitatons more formats supported, no idea if its ported to any devices but there might be a app for it on the app store

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

 

[downgoesthekingd]

VLC does play every file format known to man, but the problem is it isn't hardware accelerated ( and on the ipod touch definitely not), so it's rather quite slow on slower processors, which the 8 GB has. That, and it won't do HDMI to my family HDTV, or integrated component out. Or, OTG ( which would give me the option of an external HD for watching videos on).
It's also the price (Cheapest for an iPod touch 8GB is $150, the most for the options listed would be is $160. And the durability.
Every friend or classmate that I know who has an iPod touch or iPhone has at least one in the graveyard, with a cracked screen, or a broken screen, or the buttons broke on it, and it was too expensive to be fixed. There are.... 10 that I know of personally broken from very small drops. Whereas, with my Cowon D2, it was dropped by my sibling down a flight of stairs ( tall stairs too), hit many steps and still survived.
I don't desire to rinse and repeat the mistakes of others, so I have designed not to get an iPod touch. That, and I hate iTunes soooo much, you have no idea. It's like my Waterloo.

 

[zeromac]

Fair enough but may i ask, what purpose are you manily aiming for with your setup? I mean like are you aiming for portablility or epic HDness? or like TV out ?

Because me, personaly i would kill for a Ipod Touch because of the portablility and the fact that its not just a media player

 

[TornZero]

You can also try using Miro when your Cube is charging. http://getmiro.com It uses VLC to read videos, it has great video output and I believe it allows an outward connection (with a basic PC-TV cable or HDMI cable). The system requirements are extremely low as well, and it's completely open source.

Also, I have an iPod Touch myself, and it has endured literal Hell through rapid screen-breaking presses and random drops (on many surfaces; asphalt, multiple flights of stairs, drywall, tile, and more) and after a year and a half, it still has no more than a few scratches on the back of the case (it might be the fact that I take extensive care of it, though I don't use any case protectors. Too uncomfortable in my pocket sometimes). What your friends/classmates did to kill their iPods, I do not feel sorry for them for not taking better care of a $200-300 device (depends on the capacity).

 

[downgoesthekingd]

I am manily

aiming for a number of things. HD epicness is one, another is absolute portability ( which is where TV out comes in, so that I may watch videos on any screen and I don't require some large HD box or DVD player).
However, the primary concern, and another reason why I don't want an Ipod Touch, is that this is to help me get to sleep, odd as that may sound.
For, you see, I work nights ( I help close a fast food restaurant) a lot of times at work, and, in order to help me get to sleep after having to be so buzzed to get things done, I watch a movie. But, the problem after my MP4 player died was that I could not watch it on anything but my computer, but then I checked my email, and went on the internet, watched Youtube, and then 4 AM rolls by and I get practically zero sleep. Because of the internet's temptation, I have decided that I wouldn't get a MID smaller than a netbook, so that I could still go on the internet, but wouldn't be connected 24/7.
That, and I hate converting videos on my slow computer ( I do download movies, but only the ones I own - my computer is too slow to rip videos quickly)
So... yeah.
Edit: Sorry Tornzero. I didn't see your post.
Miro looks quite good, and I have used it in the past, but, as my above comments state, I am trying to get off the computer ( actually the internet) after work. Thanks for the input.
The problem with the iPod touches I have seen in the past was that they were inconsistent. From the way that it's designed, it appears like all of the force is designed to go to the edges of the screen. Nothing wrong with that persay, but this makes them more finicky(EDIT: I mean less consistent, so one drop will damage the screen, the other will damage the case, another will damage the board, whereas most players are designed so that any drop has the force go to the center of the back of off-centre) than most to drops.
Most (not all) of these people that I know were actually really careful with their touch ( protective cases, screen protectors, the whole shebang), but a 3 foot drop put 2 out of business, the great keying of '09 put another out (funny story actually, a classmate was playing around with someone else's touch, tried to scare the person by saying - "Hey look, I'm keying your touch", then the guy ran to grab it, and accidentally pushed the touch up, and the screen got a deep cut, where it lost sensitivity. Suffice to say, a new iPod touch was bought), and so on.
So, knowing myself, and my basic clumsiness ( and my desire to never buy another device that uses iTunes again), I decided to not get an iPod touch a while ago.
That, and the cube player is half the price of the iPod touch, and does everything (just about) that I want it to do, minus emulation on the go. So, which is better for emulation otg, the dingoo or the cart ( such as the SCDS2, which looks quite good) or something else?

 

[TornZero]

I'm going to assume you already have a Nintendo DS and you'll be playing on the older-generation games like the GameBoy Color and the NES, with some DS games just when you need something higher-quality, so I would definitely go with the SCDS2. It's very efficient, it has great compatibility with DS games and homebrew (including the emulators for lower-generation devices like the GBC and the SNES), and it can even emulate GBA games without having to use a Slot-2 support cart (not to mention that the interface is very nice). And if you won't be using it too much (like sitting down and losing track of time while trying to play a game), then battery life isn't too much of a problem at all. The DS while playing the emulators and DS games is able to last its normal lifetime (8-10 hours per charge) and playing GBA games reduces it to 4-6 hours per charge, which to me hasn't been any trouble.

 

[downgoesthekingd]

OK, sounds good.
How does it compare to the CycloDS card? Just curious as to why it's priced so high.