A big headache for customers in the era of convergence is that it's very hard to know for sure what media will play on what device. One reader recently discovered that's the case even when you buy a player that has the Microsoft "PlaysForSure" logo.

"My IRiver T30 MP3 player has Microsoft's 'PlaysForSure' logo," the reader wrote. "Unfortunately, this logo appears to be nothing more than idle boasting. I downloaded an audio recording of Moby Dick from Maryland's Digital eLibrary Consortium. I am able to listen to the files I downloaded on my PC by playing them on Windows Media Player. As per instructions, I used Windows Media Player's Sync feature to transfer the files to my T30 player. However, when I attempt to play the files, it starts to read each section but then blanks out. Bits of sound blast out, but that's it."

The reader called IRiver about the problem. "The first thing they told me to do was to reformat the firmware," the reader wrote. "I did that, but it didn't help, so I called again. I was told that it was a 'known problem.' They wouldn't give me any timeframe in which the problem would be fixed. I asked the person to keep the ticket open and document that it was a known problem, and to let me know when the problem would be solved. When I hung up, I went to their customer support site, and saw that he had closed my ticket. So I created a new ticket from their web site and explained the problem. They have yet to respond."

The reader also contacted the Maryland eLibrary consortium, whose FAQ contained the link that had originally sent him to the PlaysForSure site to find a compatible portable device. They referred him on to Overdrive.com, their media console provider which itself sports a "Plays Windows Media" logo on its site. "They tried to help me with the problem, but Overdrive confirmed there is a known problem with IRiver's T10 and T30 not being able to play protected WMA files."

So if playing Windows Media files is a known problem for the IRiver device, why does it still get the "PlaysForSure" logo? "I bought the T30 player because it had Microsoft's 'playsforsure' logo, but, unfortunately, it doesn't play files that play on the Microsoft Windows Media Player," the reader wrote. "Just what does 'plays for sure' mean, and what happens if it doesn't play for sure? Will Microsoft insist that IRiver drop its logo? I have since now my returned IRiver player and bought a Creative Zen Nano Plus. Thankfully, it really does play for sure."