The Evolution of Portable Video

What would you normally do to watch a video while you’re on the move, just whip out a PMP or your multimedia phone and start watching? It wasn’t that simple about a decade or so ago, though. Options were few and far between – beginning with portable DVD players (PDPs) and only much later branching out to portable media players (PMPs), mobile phones and tablets. Let’s go back in time and figure out why we should be thanking our stars for all the transitions that have taken place.

Devices and Technologies
The portable video trend entered its infancy stage when Portable DVD Players launched back in 1998. Panasonic and Philips came out with various PDPs and their screen sizes ranged from 7-inches to 12-inches. Although still in production, these players are not really sought after thanks to their weight, bulk and an otherwise average video quality, even if LCD and LED screens are the norm now. Video players started becoming more portable some years later with Archos’ Jukebox Multimedia in 2002 and Apple’s 5th generation iPod (aka iPod Video) in 2005. Optical media was replaced by in-built memory, with storage space increasing by 10 times and more.

The first ever PMP

Archos’ Jukebox Multimedia is considered the first ever PMP, because it played both audio and video. The player had a 1.5-inch LCD screen and came in 10 GB and 20 GB variants. Its primary interface was the now-outdated USB 1.1 technology and some serious refinement only came around in 2005, when Apple launched the fifth generation iPod, which was also called the iPod Video. The player had a 2.5-inch 320x240 QVGA screen and came in capacities of 30 and 60 GB. An update in 2006 upgraded the capacity to 80 GB and a firmware upgrade allowed iPod games for the device.

The PMP scenario has just gone uphill ever since. Of late, the maximum storage capacity has gone all the way up to the 120 and the 160 GB that the iPod Classic and Cowon X7 boast of. The iPod Touch has a 3.5-inch screen and the fourth generation of the device even has a Retina Display that bumps the resolution up to of 960 x 640 pixels. It is worth mentioning that audio formats have also undergone some noticeable changes that have made watching movies and music videos a lot better.

The iPod Video brought about a revolution

The display screens for mobile phones have undergone quite a few changes as well. One of the earliest multimedia phones that many of us have fond memories of, the Nokia 6600 which showed up in the early 2000s, had a 2.1-inch TFT screen. The phones have since moved onto LCD, OLED and Super AMOLED screens with sizes of around 4-inches, something like what we have seen on the Samsung Galaxy S. In other words, the screen sizes and technologies in mobile phones have improved in terms of viewing and ease of use.

If 4-inch screen sizes are still not enough for you, take a look at the tablet. These devices are the closest when it comes to portable gadgets that can churn out some good quality video. While Apple’s iPad has a 9.7-inch IPS screen with a 1024 x 768 resolution, Notion Ink’s Adam has a 1024 x 600 pixel 10.1-inch Transflective display. There’s a big likelihood that tablets are going to be the gadgets for portable videos in the future.

Nokia 6600 - 3GP ahoy!

Well, displays and devices are not the only things that have evolved, though. The videos themselves have undergone transformations too, even if they aren’t as drastic. Let’s have a look.