Apex MP-2000 Portable Media Player

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.twice.com/article/CA428853.html?display=Breaking+News' target='_blank'>http://www.twice.com/article/CA428853.html?display=Breaking+News</a><br /><br /></div>"From out of no where Apex Digital, Inc. has just announced that they will be entering the Portable Media Player market and will have a device ready for consumers to purchase as early as next month. TWICE reports that the $399 Apex MP-2000 "can be used to play video and music transferred from a PC or copied directly from a TV, DVR, VCR, DVD player or stereo system. The device stores audio and video on a 1.8-inch 20GB HDD. Digital still images and video can be viewed on its 3.5-inch 320 by 260 color LCD screen. Audio can be heard through stereo headphones or the device's single mono speaker.<br /><br />People can use the device to view recorded video when they're on the road, but they can also plug it into a TV to display video or still images on a friend's TV. The device won't play Macrovision-protected prerecorded video, but it is upgradable to support DRMs that authorized movie-download sites it might support in the future, Brothers said."<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/apex_mp2000.jpg" /><br /><br />No matter what Steve Jobs says, video would seem to be the next important feature on <b><i>Portable Media Players</b></i> (note to Steve - the word media has replaced MP3 to describe these devices). Of course this unit plays all the important media types (including WMP9 which should add this player to Jason's list of approved devices). BUT what is really intriguing is the ability to encode and save 640X480 video for playback on TVs. The 20GB hard drive can store up to 40 hours of MPEG-4 video at 640X480 and 80 hours of WMV at 640X480. Battery is rated at 12 hours for music and four hours for video. Apex also hopes to offer improved units with bigger screen sizes and larger hard drive capacity.

[foldedspace]

It's always good news when Apex jumps into the mix. I happen to like their products, but the biggest impact is that the price is likely to drop across the board.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

OT: I finally thought of a really great use for PMPs!

Football!

To be more precise, major footy events which are usually played in the west and thus are televised at ungodly hours in Asia.

With the right hardware and software, watching matches (or match highlights) on the way to work (or at work, hehe) might just be the ticket to launch sales in the East (World Cup 2006 is 2 years away though, and Euro 2004 is about to end).

Still OT: James, I thought you also didn't think much of watching videos on tiny screens?

[James Fee]

Still OT: James, I thought you also didn't think much of watching videos on tiny screens?
I still don't, but the people have spoken. 8)

[The Yaz]

I recently bought the RCA Lyra Video Jukebox for my Daughter. She's always using my PocketPC to listen to music or watch movies I copied in WMV format. I figured that it has most of the features she uses (picture viewer, music player, movie player) and it sports a simple interface with 20gigs of storage.

It took me three nights of work, but she now has her entire music collection stored on it (@ 128kps) and copies her favorite tv shows directly from the tv AV ports. So far she's used 1.5gig.

These units are going to be the future of portable entertainment, outside of video game systems. In fact, I suggested to RCA that they look into the ability of reading e-books on it. Otherwise, its something she can use for years.

The Lyra has been out since 2003, so I was able to find it for $309 USD.

Steve 8)

[mcsouth]

I kinda poo-poo'd these types of devices, considering that my PPC could do all of this stuff - why would I want to carry another device?

But 20GB is one obvious answer - my PPC (iPaq 1945) can't touch that, no matter how much I'm willing to spend on an SD card.... I have to admit that these PMP units are looking really enticing. I will also state that I have a serious case of the drools over the new Sony PSP unit.....it's too bad that they are going with a proprietary disc format (I'm pretty sure it is?!?!?) that will restrict the ability of the unit to play back content that I already have.......

[Felix Torres]

These units are going to be the future of portable entertainment, outside of video game systems. In fact, I suggested to RCA that they look into the ability of reading e-books on it. Otherwise, its something she can use for years.

The Lyra has been out since 2003, so I was able to find it for $309 USD.

Steve 8)

Don't exempt games. :-)

MS intends to enable DirectX gaming on their Portable Media Centers.
And since they run WinCE, they *should* be able to run ebook reader software.
For that matter, vendors could, if they chose, implement a fair amount of PDA functionality.

These gizmos are computers in all but name; how much they do is limited only by the OS and the manufacturer's design decisions.