Portable
Portable Media Center (PMC)
A Portable Media Center (PMC) is a hard drive-based portable media player device that can play digital video and audio files. A PMC can also be used to view JPEG image files. It runs on a specialized version of the Windows Mobile operating system and is currently produced by Creative Labs, iRiver and Samsung.
PMCs were introduced in the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show held in the United States. Creative worked in collaboration with Microsoft to come up with the design and concept of the initial product, but each vendor makes a slightly different version. The first company to launch the PMC was Creative, which launched its Creative Zen PMC in Comex Singapore on August 29, 2004 before introducing it in the United States on September 2, 2004.
For video files, only Windows Media Video files can be played; the user must convert his files to this format before he can play it. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Media_Center [Jan 2005]
Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers
All your media. Here. There. Everywhere.
Portable Media Centers put all of your favorite video, music, and pictures at your fingertips wherever you are. Take digital entertainment from your computer with you on the go, including recorded TV shows, downloaded videos, home movies, music, and photos. With Windows Mobile software that features an easy-to-use, familiar Windows XP Media Center Edition interface, Portable Media Centers let you enjoy immediate access to all of your favorite entertainment - anytime, anywhere.
Every song you've ever hummed.
Take your entire Windows Media Player music library with you, including all your favorite songs, artist and track information, playlists, ratings, and even album art. The Windows Media audio formats provide unmatched quality in smaller file sizes so that you can take more of your favorite music with you — up to 10,000 songs.* That's non-stop music for an entire month, without hearing the same song twice.
Every TV show you've ever quoted.
With Portable Media Centers, you can do more than just play music. Move digitally recorded TV shows from your computer running Windows XP Media Center Edition to watch hundreds of hours of TV on the road. Your Portable Media Center can store up to 160 hours of recorded TV.*
Every movie you've ever loved.
Now you can take all your favorite movies with you, wherever you go, whether you recorded them on your computer running Windows XP Media Center Edition, downloaded them from the Internet, or created them yourself by using a digital video camera. It's easy to move content from your computer running Windows XP to your Portable Media Center — video is automatically synchronized to the device. Your Portable Media Center can store up to 160 hours of video.* Every photo you've ever taken.
Do you ever notice how most of your digital pictures end up stored away on your computer and you never get around to printing them? Now you can take all the digital pictures that you have stored on your computer with you to share with friends and family wherever you are. Portable Media Centers makes viewing your favorite photos and slideshows easier than ever. You can store tens of thousands of photos.* You can also connect your Portable Media Center to a TV to share the fun.
* This storage capacity requires that you have a Portable Media Center with a hard disk that is 40 gigabytes (GB) in size, with all hard disk space dedicated to either video, audio, or pictures. --http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devices/portablemediacenter/overview.mspx [2004]
your Amazon recommendations