iriver 20 GB PMP-120 Portable Media Player

• Plays digital music and video files, including WMV, MP3, WMA, DivX (AVI), BMP, and JPEG
• 20 GB storage total storage capacity--up to 80 hours of video, 600 hours of music
• 3.5-inch color TFT LCD
• USB 2.0 support, audio inputs and audio/video outputs, built-in FM tuner and voice recorder
• Includes rechargeable lithium-ion battery; up to 16 hours (audio only) and up to 5 hours (audio/video)

I had bought Creative PVP sometime back, but had to return it bcoz it uses Microsoft Media Player. Wrong media player choice. It makes the whole process of uploading media very tiresome and slow. So i returned the Creative. I checked iRiver at the store and found that it did NOT use Windows Media Player. So I bought it. I have been playing with it over the past couple of weeks. It provides a DIVX codec software and associated media converter software, that makes importing videos easy. Use the Portable Media Center DIVX profile, when coverting videos.I use the AVI format to upload videos onto the player. It is also a full featured mp3 player, voice recorder and a fm tuner. The speakers are little bit low in volume, so have to use headphones in noisy situations. The fit and finish of the hardware is not as nice as Creative. The software has some spelling mistakes such as "FM Tunner" instead of "FM Tuner". But at the end of day, it does what it is supposed to do. And it provides all the software and cables right out of the box. I am in process of creating a PC based DVR solution, to capture and record live TV. iRiver will then become my portable video system. iRiver can also send video signal's to TVs through a provided port and cables.Provides USB Master port capabilities to interact with other USB port capable devices, without using a PC. It comes with a nice hard case, that U can use to carry it around and to even prop it up while watching it on an airplane. Battery is removable type, so u can buy an extra one, if U are on a really long flight. PVP space is still evolving fast, so expect to see lots more new models coming out in next couple of months. If like me, u want one right away, iRiver is an reasonable choice. You will need some experience in media conversion to successfully import videos in a watchable format. Experiment with video sizing, audio mixing etc till u get it right. iRiver has also released another PVP that uses Windows Media Player. Do not buy that, unless you have a full featured Windows Media Center PC.

An update to the review. Using Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 80 Video capture device (USB based) and excellent Pinnacle Video Capture Software, I have been able to successfully capture TV output and import into iRiver. I had to reconvert the Dazzle AVI output files to iRiver AVI using the iRiver media converter software. Now I have a complete portable video solution. I am a bit surprised it all actually worked. I was even able to capture HD channel outputs from my DISH TV satellite box using the AV components in the back of the satellite receiver.

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Actually I was waiting for the portable media player from Microsoft. But I heard unfortunately it won't come out soon. And I found out that iriver is in partnership with Microsoft for the portable media player.

Anyway, I've been using this little surprise for a week. I think it beats any portable media players in the market.

The battery hour is very long. I roughly guess it lasts at least 3 times longer than my wife's Ipod. The lcd display could be bigger, but still quite large as a portable player. Speaking of the quality of sound, you know irivier has superior sound quality to any other players.

I'm a digital camera mania. This device not only save files through the usb fort but also host usb port. So you can read all the image files directly from the digital cameras. This is fantastic.

It also has a FM tuner. One thing I found really great is that you can record the music directly from the radio, and you can control the quality of sound files. It may be some kind of music piracy. Not sure though.

In sum, believe me, this one is a killer toy. I hope the price will be lower so that I can buy one for my brother.

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It does what it says it will do. However, the player has enormous trouble with Xvid, regardless of settings. Plan on only encoding in Divx. With Divx, it can handle 1500kbps, 640x480@30fps and lots of B-frames. It also must have CBR-MP3 to play the video in sync, so if you have VBR with anything, you must encode it over to CBR. The screen isn't particularly detailed because the pixel size is so large. With video, you are limited to 192kbps for audio; anything higher will cause a desync.

It also tends to hang while playing a "non-standard" movie (such as VBR-MP3 or Xvid). You will have to remove the battery to reset the machine and allow for control response again. This problem is alleviated by making absolutely sure you're using Divx and CBR-MP3. On top of that, you lose the ability to fast-forward/rewind through movies above ~650MB. If you have a 1.3GB movie, you'll need to break that up into smaller chunks if you plan on being able to fast-forward through it. It'll play the larger file, and it'll even continue the movie at the stop point, but you will not be able to fast-forward.

Doesn't play Vorbis/FLAC/ACC/AC3 audio, but it will handle VBR-MP3 just fine. The playlists are fairly standard, and the player will let you make your own playlists. The radio uses the headphone cord for it's antenna, and it does a good job with gain. Radio reception is good. There is a built-in microphone for recording audio to MP3, but you cannot record from the radio.

The player comes with iRiver's own little converter, and it's extraordinarly poor. They have pre-selected options, and it is adjusted for encoding speed, not quality. Plus it will crash if you have various codecs on your machine.

You spend more than what you get. There are superior products available for less money. 2 stars because of the price, 3 stars for the machine itself.

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This mp3 player comes extremely well equipped with anything I could ask for: MP3, Radio, Video, Pictures, Voice recording, Line in audio, WMA, huge screen and more.

This is a geat product that I have been waiting for. But, the fact that this device could not record any movie (comparing to: Lyra RD2780, Archos, and more are coming with movie recording capability) really make this product inferior.

I have called the customer service and they told me that they don't have any plan to support the movie recording capability.

I hope they can oversee this weakness and change their mind to support the movie recording capability on the next firmware release.