Samsung Yepp YH-999 Portable Media Center Shipping in July?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/archives/000343.php' target='_blank'>http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/archives/000343.php</a><br /><br /></div>"The Samsung Yepp YH-999 Portable Media Center (PMC) will start shipping to North America this July. This is great news for people (myself included) who have been waiting to get their hands on the slickest of all the pre-production PMCs. We also found out (via some press material) that the Yepp YH-999 is the first PMC that is capable of receiving both standard TV broadcast signals and the future Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) signal (F.Y.I. Korea is upgrading to DMB in the second half of 2004)."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/samsung_yepp_yh_999.jpg" /><br /><br />Wow - looks slick! I'm really looking forward to seeing these devices hit the market. Even if initial sales are small, it's an important first step in the evolution of devices that will go beyond the realm of the MP3 player...

[Gary Sheynkman]

wow this thing looks much cooler than the Viewsonic brick, we'll see how it does against the iriver underdog :!:

[entropy1980]

I hate to say this but.... I am actually looking forward to seeing what Apple is going to do in this space... :D

[Gary Sheynkman]

make some proprietary movie format and allow you to only use videos from their video store :roll:

[entropy1980]

make some proprietary movie format and allow you to only use videos from their video store :roll:
Kind of like MS and WMA? Come on like MS is all about being open with Windows Media? Sure You can license it but all the WMA offerings are practically identical and as the marketplace has shown people seem just fine with Apple "controlling" content. If it was really all that bad and MS alternatives where that much better wouldn't we be hearing about the millions of tunes sold from WalMart and Napster? :roll:

Back on topic I think the devices are intruiging but I think I will wait until second generation to see what problems arise out of this first crop.

[Mojo Jojo]

Looks nice, clean compact. Is there any more specs floating around?

For me I am either looking for something like this, that can do small apps like e-mail and something like a checkbook/time biller but nothing big so a low processor is fine. Or a PDA that is better at storing and playing movies.

As for Apple, while their is speculation I am not sure it will happen anytime in the immediate future. It seems logical given their digital hub. I would think though that it will happen in a year or two when the iPod sales slow a bit as this seems more an evolution of the iPod then a new product. But hey, just an opinion. I am actually interested in what MS and Partners has up its sleve when the super-long-ridiculous-no-one-can-remember-its-name update to 2003 hardware hits the shelves.

[Jason Dunn]

The reality is that Microsoft realizes they were late to the game with audio, and they're trying to get there early with video. They'll have the infrastructure from a hardware partner, content, and DRM angle in place long before Apple does, and that will give them a distinctive advantage. We'll see who's in the lead five years from now. :-)

[Zack Mahdavi]

I hate to say this but.... I am actually looking forward to seeing what Apple is going to do in this space... :D

I honestly don't think Apple will enter this space anytime soon. After all, even the Jobs himself said that he doesn't believe there's a large enough market for this kind of device.

Anyway, this Samsung device looks amazing! The picture makes it look very slim. I can see myself buying something like this.

[entropy1980]

I honestly don't think Apple will enter this space anytime soon. After all, even the Jobs himself said that he doesn't believe there's a large enough market for this kind of device.


I didn't say i expected it anytime soon. I do believe when they do decide to enter you can bet it will be unique and easy to use...

[Zack Mahdavi]

I honestly don't think Apple will enter this space anytime soon. After all, even the Jobs himself said that he doesn't believe there's a large enough market for this kind of device.


I didn't say i expected it anytime soon. I do believe when they do decide to enter you can bet it will be unique and easy to use...

I agree with you on that one. I own an iPod and love it. It'd be nice to see one of these devices from Apple, although I think the upcoming breed will be pretty mature on its own. If someone like Netflix launches a video rental store, then I'll definitely grab one of these!

[Filip Norrgard]

the future Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) signal (F.Y.I. Korea is upgrading to DMB in the second half of 2004)."
What no DVB? :evil: Why, Samsung, why??

Excuse the expression but DMB sounds pretty DuMB. :P I guess we'll see some nice abbreviations of DVB and DMB coming from engineers soon, as it was with the analog formats PAL and NTSC (from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL))
Some engineers jokingly expand NTSC to "Never Twice the Same Colour" while referring to PAL as "Perfect At Last" or "Peace At Last"!

[Mojo Jojo]

The reality is that Microsoft realizes they were late to the game with audio, and they're trying to get there early with video. They'll have the infrastructure from a hardware partner, content, and DRM angle in place long before Apple does...

Couldn't agree more, well maybe the content part for video I think is still fuzzy for everyone and no one seems to have that yet so the nod to MS for the codec and its acceptance.

The Apple camp has been asking for this type of product (along with PDAs) for years but the corporation don't seem to be moving.

To ponder a little more about content... what is it that people will watch? Movies are nice but would people pay 10 bucks a movie? Like songs now? Or would a 'cable tv' like subscription work better? Download already aired tv shows for a a couple bucks a month. Sopranos, CSI and such without commercials? Or both?

[Felix Torres]

I hate to say this but.... I am actually looking forward to seeing what Apple is going to do in this space... :D

I honestly don't think Apple will enter this space anytime soon. After all, even the Jobs himself said that he doesn't believe there's a large enough market for this kind of device.


I would be very shocked if Apple got into this business any time soon because the target audience simply doesn't match Apple customer profiles.

It is no accident that the first PMC devices are shipping in countries that rely strongly on public transportation cause that's one of the scenarios where the hardware makes sense.
The other scenarios include regular business travellers and families with kids and a mommymobile. :-)

Anything Apple sells has to meet Jobs' aesthetic, no?
Well, can you see Steve Job commuting in a crowded train or driving 2.8 kids in a minivan down to Disneyland?

On the other hand, jogging with an iPod is very much in keeping with his public personna.

Hence: iPod yes, vPod no.

Still, it would be interesting to see such a product, if only to see if they stick with MPEG4 or go back to Sorensen. :-)

[entropy1980]

These devices will fail until someone figures out legislation to allow you to tranfer movies you own to the devices. I don't see how you are going to convince people that they need to spend another $10-25 for another copy of "The Goonies" even though they own a DVD copy. Until someone gets their head out of their you-know-where these devices are going to be geek-only and cut out at the knees by overzealous copyright protection. Am I advocating DRM removal.....? Yes in some ways we need to put FairUse first and not treat consumers as pirates. I am not a criminal just because I want to watch their movie I paid for on a different device. The needs to be tougher crack down not on consumers by use of DRM but on the people who are distributing it.

[Felix Torres]

To ponder a little more about content... what is it that people will watch? Movies are nice but would people pay 10 bucks a movie? Like songs now? Or would a 'cable tv' like subscription work better? Download already aired tv shows for a a couple bucks a month. Sopranos, CSI and such without commercials? Or both?

Officially, these are companions to Media Center PCs much like PocketPCs are companions to desktop PCs.

The content will be recorded off the air or cable, or downloaded via broadband.

There are several companies *already* offering movie rentals over the net: for $3-5 bucks, I believe. The business model allows you to D/L the movie to your HD or PMC whenever you want but the rental period doesn't start until you start watching. Then it allows as many viewings as you can stand before the rental period ends.

Think of it as DVD rentals that you can stockpile until you want to get started and don't have to return when the period expires.

The local software (which has been available for PocketPCs for a while) allows you to schedule recordings off the cable that automatically get sync'ed to the portable device.

For the PocketPC its called Sync-n-go.
Check this for an idea of how it'll likely work:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/plus/dme/portabledevices.asp

[Crocuta]

I do believe when they do decide to enter you can bet it will be unique and easy to use...

Very true. I don't particularly care for Apple's proprietary approach to things, but they are exceptional designers.

[Magellan]

I have the Archos AV380 and I have no problems getting my DVD movies to play on it. It plays Divx very well with no re-encoding. I do like the smaller form factors on these newer devices though.

[dean_shan]

Ahh where's the Drool emoticon from PPCT? This would be the perfect time to use it.

[ppcsurfr]

Wow!!!

:drool:

well that's the only thing I can think of...

Mabuhay!!!

Carlo