Sony Unveils 'Video iPod'

by Mark Bassett
Published on Nov 12, 2003 12:00 AM



Sony of Japan has launched the GigaPocket, a Vaio version of the portable personal digital video player. The GigaPocket PCVA-HVP20 has a 20GB hard drive that stores 31 hours of programming at low resolution. The Vaio will come standard with a lithium ion battery with four hours of play time.

The GigaPocket is measures 12 x 8.4 x 2.8cm (4.8 x 3.4 x 1.1in), with a 3.5 inch backlit TFT LCD screen, and weighs in at 300g (10.6oz). The device supports MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 video compression standards (short of DVD quality), and AVI and WMV format video-once transferred from a PC through USB 2.

The GigaPocket will go on sale in Japan on the November 22, and retail for 50,000 yen. It’s sold with a pair of stereo ear buds, but you need separate TV tuner module to operate the device without a PC as its content source.