IOGEAR today launched the Portable Media Player, its unusual take on the concept of a media hub. Rather than design a networked but fixed device like the Apple TV or Monsoon Hava, the company's new system is meant to be picked up and carried on vacation or between meetings, measuring only slightly larger than its remote and supplying many of the navigation controls on the player itself.

The size shrink is nonetheless said to have little impact on features: when attached to a TV through component video, the PMP is capable of either playing DivX, MPEG-1/2 and XviD clips at up to a 720p native resolution or else upscaling lower-resolution videos (including raw DVD folders) up to match the HD display. A 120GB hard drive holds as much as 50 hours of DVD-sized video or 9 hours of uncompressed DV footage from a camcorder.

The comparatively slimline IOGEAR box also handles MP3 and WAV audio as well as JPEG photos; for standard TVs, it can connect over standard RCA video and audio. Media is shuttled to the PMP through USB from any modern Windows PC. The company claims that its media device is available immediately and sells it for $350.