No Go, this Gear

Because out-of-town assignments involve a significant amount of time in transit, I got myself an audio/video player. And because I won't be seeing the fruits of my efforts until the end of the year, I don't have a budget for an iPod. So I got myself something dirt cheap without resorting to a generic player: a Philips 1GB GoGear (nego-ed for P2440 at MP3 express). I almost got a bigger 2 GB Dynacom player upgradeable to 3GB for about the same price, but since I only listen/view a podcast once, I chose brand over space. The interface is pretty straightforward and it's easy to use. There's an image viewer, a recorder and an FM player. But it's not worth the trouble. I don't mind the tiny screen and that the lowest volume setting is still somewhat loud. My biggest gripe: it only plays SMV files, so you have to convert from WMA to SMV. How about MP4 and other video types? Find yourself a converter. Sadly, the free ones available online do not work very well. I think I'll just listen to MP3 podcasts until this conks out.