And some Archos devices come with a much heftier price tag than Windows devices, like the 80-gigabyte AV480 for about $800. The Archos players can not only transfer video from computers (if converted into MPEG-4 format), but can also record directly from a television and other sources, he said.
Feldman said, referring to the company's AV400 series of portable audio-video players, introduced in July. Others play video and music, but are primarily portable video game consoles or audio players: the Gmini 400, introduced last week by Archos the PlayStation Portable, coming soon from Sony and the Zodiac, due this month from Tapwave. Many of these players, some costing as little as $70 - like the Juice Box by Mattel, scheduled for release in October - are directed at young consumers. A slew of portable consoles have been released, with more soon to come, that play video from small optical discs or flash memory. Hand-held devices that offer video playback are not limited to higher-end devices. "It is not sure to us entirely how it is going to evolve," acknowledged Todd Warren, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Windows Mobile division. Still, executives of Microsoft and of the companies introducing the Windows players are hoping that typical early adopters of electronic devices - often men 25 to 34 - will help establish the category.
"For these devices to become mainstream, it has to be made simple to get video onto these devices, and far easier to get content than the products on the market right now," Mr. (A similar symbiosis existed between early iPods and Macintosh computers, and still largely exists between iPods and iTunes software.) But most consumers do not have Media Center computers. The process would be far simpler, he said, if a Portable Media Center owner also had a Windows Media Center computer, which functions like TiVo-style digital video recorders. Gartenberg said of the process of transferring video from television to computer to hand-held device. "You have to know ridiculous things like transcoding and codecs and bit rates," Mr. (IRiver will also make a 40-gigabyte model.)īut the process is not as simple as it sounds, said Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director for Jupiter Research.
Microsoft suggests, in fact, that the greatest source of content for its devices is television.Ĭomputers equipped with television tuner cards can record programs and movies from TV to their PC hard drives, then transfer the content to Portable Media Center's own 20-gigabyte hard drive. That is certainly a success."īob Bowman, chief executive of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which runs the popular site mlb.com, said his company would package condensed baseball games and highlights for Portable Media Center that will range in cost from 99 cents to $3.95. Look and see what happened with the iPod. "I do think that it's going to eventually take off pretty well. "I think in the beginning this is going to be a little niche," Mr. Pricing plans include package deals in which buyers of movies for their computers can get a version for their portable devices for an additional 99 cents, said Bruce Eisen, CinemaNow's executive vice president. Microsoft is taking steps to expand the video offerings for the Portable Media Center, striking agreements with Major League Baseball and CinemaNow, an online film store and rental service.ĬinemaNow, for example, will offer 200 movies and television programs coded for the Windows devices that must be downloaded into a computer before being transferred to a Portable Media Center.įor a typical charge of $3, renters can store the video on their portable devices for 30 days they will have 48 hours to view the programming once it is started. And all say the devices will appeal to commuters and travelers, including those looking to occupy small children on long trips.
Each camp makes the case for its own pioneer status on a new frontier of hand-held devices. The Windows-powered machines enter a nascent marketplace that includes devices by Archos, a French maker, and RCA. Samsung and iRiver will follow with sleeker versions this fall all three will cost about $500 each and be capable of 80 hours of video play. Microsoft's response takes the form of a system called the Portable Media Center, being incorporated first by Creative, an early maker of MP3 audio players, into a sort of oversized audio player with a color video screen. A FEW years ago, when MP3 players were establishing themselves as the hot cool thing, the next question seemed clear: What if you could take along not only music but movies, television programs, home video and still pictures in a high-tech box svelte enough to slip into a briefcase, backpack or purse, or perhaps a pocket?Īn answer is beginning to emerge, however tentatively.