2. Features

Though it's not the smallest or lightest PVR, the Mustek H140 is portable enough. It fits neatly in a pocket or purse and holding it while watching videos won't tire you out too quickly. The unit's 40 GB drive has plenty of room for lots of songs and movies. A full length (roughly 2 hour and 50 minute) movie, recorded at the highest quality the H140 offers, takes up about 1.3 GB on the device's hard drive.

The H140's 1,000 mAh battery doesn't last all that long when you're watching videos, and unfortunately, in Apple iPod style, the PVR's battery isn't replaceable. That means you can't just slip in another battery to watch a longer movie. And, if your battery goes south you'll have to deal with Mustek to get another one installed.

Most spec sheets on the H140 include a list as long as your arm of photo and video files the device can play. In fact, the unit only plays JPEG and ASF files. Other formats are "compatible," meaning you must use an included Windows application to convert formats such as BMP to JPEG and MPEG to ASF. The software will not convert a DVD to an AFS file; to do that, you must record the DVD with the H140. The device's on-board music player can only play MP3 and WMA files, and can also record music. The conversion software Mustek provides also handles sound files; for example, it will convert the files on a CD into set of files in WMA format.