Erictric

Are USB Media Players the future? We recently picked up a Sony SMP-U10 USB Media Player and gave it a spin to see just how good it was — and overall, we’re impressed. Let me first start off by explaining the practicality of this product. It’s geared toward the folks who live and breath by their USB sticks. People who store movies, photos, and even music will certainly get a kick out of this player for the reason that it does it all. You’re able to view photos, listen to music, and perhaps best of all, you’re able to watch the movies you’ve got stored on your USB storage stick.

Now, for this particular brief overview, I want to stress how impressed I was with video playback on this device. The player will decode WMA, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and perhaps best of all, DivX video formats, which certainly makes it useful. You have the option of hooking this device to your television via ordinary composite cables, or if you’re like me — plug it into your high-definition television via an HDMI output.

Users have the ability to upscale video to 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and the player offers almost too many options to go into detail here. Sony has kindly provided the composite cables for the device should you need them, however, not HDMI cable is provided.

The device itself is quite small and light and will likely go fairly well with your current home entertainment setup as a result of being so non-intrusive and not-in-your-face. Setup’s a breeze — just plug and play, and Sony was even kind enough to provide a remote control, so you can be the master of your device from the couch. You’ll also get Sony-branded AA batteries, for use in your remote control.

Perhaps what’s most attractive about this product is the price point. You can grab one of these over at NewEgg.com for $69.99 with free shipping.

If you really would like be enlightened with the technicalities of the device, here’s a full list of features:

Playback Format: HD JPEG, JPEG, MP3, AAC, WMA, LPCM, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (PS)(USB), MPEG-4 Simple Profile, DivX

HDMI CEC

DD decode

USB Flash Memory (FAT32 File System only)

USB Card Reader

Digital Still Camera: Cyber Shot

Digital Media Player: Walkman

720p/1080i/1080p Upscaling

Video D/A Converter: 12bit / 108MHz

Custom Picture Mode

Picture Sharpness

High Speed Search

Smooth Slow

TV Type Default Setting: 16:9

Audio D/A Converter: 192kHz/16bit

96kHz/24bit Digital Audio Output

AV Alignment

Display on Front Panel: Mold (Low)

LED: x3 (Video/Photo/Music)

Quick Setup

Magic Pad Menu

Screen Saver

Back Ground Graphics

Smooth Slow

Title/Chapter Viewer (Picture Navi)

Auto Power Off (Default)

External Subtitle (DivX)

MP3 ID3 Lyrics

Zoom

PhotoTV HD

JPEG Slideshow BGM