Digital Home Thoughts: The DVX-POD: Great Idea, Poor Execution

First Impressions
The packaging is fairly standard – the DVX-POD comes in a brown cardboard box covered by a green sheath. You can tell they're not hitting the retail channel with this box: there are no product photos on it.


Figure 1: The DVX-POD box.


Figure 2: What’s inside the box.

Unpacking the box revealed the the DVX-POD, a USB synchronization cable, an AC power cable, a CD with the MManager software, a warranty registration card, two composite cables for AV in/out, a soft cloth for cleaning the screen, a pair of iPod-esque white headphones, and a neoprene case for storage. I found the screen cleaning cloth a particularly nice touch. My unit did not come with a manual, but I’d hope the shipping product would. The headphones match the styling of the DVX-POD, but nothing else does – the AC power adaptor and power sync cable are black, as are the AV cables. Given the effort put toward the styling of the DVX-POD, everything that comes with it should match to make the user experience consistent.


Figure 3: The DVX-POD inside the included neoprene sleeve – it’s a very functional case, unlike most of the throwaway cases that come with many gadgets, so you’ll want to keep this one. There’s a small internal pouch for the headphones, but no external pouch for the sync cable.


Figure 4: The DVX-POD held in my hand. That’s one big screen!

The DVX-POD itself is truly beautiful to behold. The screen is a huge seven inches (6.5 viewable), which is massive compared to the 3.5 inch screens I’m used to seeing on portable media players and Pocket PCs. That big screen also means the unit itself is fairy big – the good news is that it’s almost all screen. The bezel around the screen isn’t overly thick, so the focus is mostly on the screen. The plastic shell the wraps the DVX-POD is a bright, glossy white, and looks like it was made by Apple – and I don’t think that’s an accident. ;-) There’s a detachable stand that’s very clever – when it’s attached it folds up so that you can carry and use the DVX-POD without any additional bulk, but it serves the purpose of keeping the DVX-POD upright. Companies making Portable Media Centers, such as Creative Labs, would do well to take note of this stand design. I’ll talk about the buttons and inputs/outputs later on.