Hey everybody, I am a newbie to mp4 players, and I am just trying to figure out what's what. It seems that Rockchip and Action based mp4 players are the most common, so I am curious as to how they compare. Thanks!!

I forgot to mention, please vote in the poll above.
Thanks.

Rockchips are better than Actions, no question. the reson Actions are so popular is because they are cheap, and easy to produce. That makes it suitable to equip all kinds of clones. Rockchip, on the other hand, tends to be more original. It's faster and generally offers more functions, and FPS's in video function. Also, the amount of formats supported is usually extended comparing to a Actions chipset.
So, it's not really a question of which one is better, it's a question of how much you are willing to spend. I'd wait a while before buying a new one, because new Actions and Rockchip chipsets with AMAZING speeds and capabilities are coming out next year (some enhanced Actions are already out, actually).

Thanks for the tip crazy.neo, i'll keep that in mind. I'm still wondering, are Action chipsets tougher or less likely to crash?

Actions chipsets are much more likely to crash than Rockchips.

some info for you on the new range of actions chip - no nano clone crap here, these new chips are looking very good with functionality and stability that outstrips the current 26xx rockchip range

Ainol V900 player - one of the only (i think so far) from the Chinese known brand manufactures:

i got this in anticipation of regular firmware updates but none have come as yet

Nice functionality from the chip but the player itself is pants, very light weight and cheap plastic, expensive for what it is and the buttons must have been designed for new born baby sized fingers!!! - very hard buttons to use as always hitting the menu button when trying to navigate.

this chip is a very good attempt by Actions and as i see it is a direct reply to the Rockchip 2608(a).

pros

1. playlist support
2. rename playlist on player (on screen keyboard)
3. music database
4. music listed by Artist, Album, Genre and star rating
5. bookmarking on music and movies (great for audio-books and podcasts etc), can set unlimited bookmarks and also sets auto bookmark for the last item played.
6. FLV support
7. more flexible Xvid support
8. calculator, calender and stopwatch
9. clock
10. image thumbnail preview
11. SRS sound effects (good)
12. sub menu pop-up from any screen
13. in player transfer from SD card to player and vice versa
14. games (3 - tetris, snake, boxman)
15. image zoom
16. music fade in, fade out (small thing but i wish my meizu m6 would do this)
17. very good sound quality and many SRS options to play with


cons

1. limited to 5 preset playlists only
2. can not empty playlist on player (have to remove one by one) although can delete a file on the computer.
3. eratic playlists saves, can add whole artist to playlist in one shot but deletes it when you connect to PC!!! Adding items one by one is ok though
4. little bit fussy on video bit rates (wont play my rockchip converts as encoded at 512bps) but plays ones made with higher or lower settings)
5. can not change theme
6. does not add music into database residing on SD card
7. copied music files from SD to player are not added to music database and no manual database update function (like meizu has)
8. some FLV files freeze and lock player (not sure why yet, but all youtubes play fine)
9. no album art
10. inconsistent button assignments when in different locations on the player.
11. generally ugly interface, and feels rushed, ill thought out and has some minor layout bugs.
12. listing of music (order). have to be careful here as it adds music to its database in the order they are sorted on your computer (i you do drag n drop from explorer). i think it works more a pre-created static lists as opposed to a dynamic database.
13. voice recorder is very bad as picks up all sorts of interference (but maybe Ainol at fault here)
14. bit fussy about disconnecting from PC, sometimes still thinks it is connected and will not be recognised next time, you need to quickly put the USB cable in again and out to release it.

Seems like things are looking up for mp4 players in general then

Hi i have a teclast c260 and makd511 you said that there is a game called boxman. where can i find that boxman game?

Never heard of "boxman" is it a pacman type game?.

I think it is only for the Aniol v900 player anyway.