Portable Media Player Review

Media players handle music, video equally well

Portable media players (PMPs) are all-in-one handheld entertainment devices that play movies, TV shows, home videos, music and photos -- all from digital files stored on the device. Some PMPs (also called digital media players, portable video players and video MP3 players) can also connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi -- allowing you to get online at public hotspots or over a home wireless network.

Now that so many MP3 players also play video, there's a lot of crossover between MP3 players and portable media players. Still, there are considerable differences in form and function between them. For one thing, the focus of MP3 players such as the iPod Nano in 8 GB (*Est. $150) and 16 GB (*Est. $200),iPod Classic (*Est. $250 for 120 GB) and Microsoft Zune (*Est. $240 for 120 GB) is on music and compact size. While their smaller screen sizes are fine for browsing your music collection and watching short videos or TV shows, watching hours of video on such screens can be fatiguing. Portable media players shift the focus to video (though they play music as well), with larger screens of 3.5 inches and up. We cover MP3 players in our separate report. If you are looking for information on the Apple iPhone, that model is covered in the ConsumerSearch report on smartphones.

As with other electronics, you can find basic PMPs as well as full-featured players. Basic media players can handle music and video, but formats are sometimes limited. Low-end models simply transfer music, photos and video from your computer through a USB connection. Most include software to convert video to whatever file types are supported by the player. Fancier PMPs have larger screens, along with added features like FM tuners and voice recorders. A few portable media players can record from your TV or camcorder, so you can watch a show later, or they include Wi-Fi capabilities for connecting to the Internet.

While numerous reviewers cover MP3 players, reporting on portable media players is a little spotty. Many publications lump them in with more petite music-centric MP3 players -- not exactly a fair comparison. Still, two reviewers, CNET and PCMag.com, do a better job than others in evaluating PMPs. ConsumerReports.org also goes out of its way to identify a player that's optimized for video and other media rather than music, but it covers relatively few models.