What’s in a name? Not much, if you’re talking about Iogear’s new Portable Media Player, which truly has no other designation other than “Portable Media Player,” or GMD2025U120, if you prefer. The company launched the blandly named new 120GB player on Tuesday without much fanfare.
Unlike most devices we’ve come to associate the term Portable Media Player with, the Iogear’s version has no color screen or even external display; it’s strictly for connecting to a television set and playing digital media files. It does, however, have the rather interesting ability to upscale digital video content to 720p resolution, making it handy as a way to shuttle digital video around without burning it to DVD or lugging around a laptop capable of high-def output.
The unit basically resembles a 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure with playback control buttons at one end and ports for both composite RCA video and traditional component connectors. To make it closer to a portable home theater, Iogear also includes a slim remote with more robust control options.
It supports a wide range of different movie formats, including Mpeg-1, Mpeg-2, Xvid, and DivX, and it will even play content from a copy-and-pasted DVD movie folder, preserving the menus.
The Iogear Portable Media Player can be preordered immediately for $349.95 directly through Iogear, and will begin shipping on April 10.
