Product Description

The iRiver PMC-120 series plays your movies, TV shows, music, photos and more. It features the ultra-intuitive Microsoft® Media Center interface and connects seamlessly to Windows Media Player**. Plus, it comes complete with a widescreen vivid color display, integrated speaker, 20GB† of internal storage and a removable rechargeable battery

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41413 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: silver and black
• Brand: iRiver
• Model: PMC 120
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 5.00 pounds
• Hard Disk: 20GB
• Display size: 3.5

Features

• Plays digital music and video files Synchronize your media library with Windows Media® Player Intuitive Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center interface 20GB of internal storage.
• Store up to 80 hours of video or up to 600 hours of music. Wide 3.5 inch vivid color display Supports secure transfers from Windows Media Player.
• Connect to your home entertainment system. Built-in speaker. Store or transfer files of any type. Rechargeable, replaceable Lithium-ion battery.
• Up to 14 hours of battery life (audio) Up to 5 hours of battery life (video).
• Up to 80 hours of video using 320 x 240 at 500kbps AVI format. Up to 600 hours of music using Windows Media format at 64kbps.

Amazon.com Product Description
The iRiver PMC 120 is a mobile media powerhouse, featuring a 20 GB hard drive that can store up to 80 hours of video or 600 hours of CD-quality music. It also has a vivid 3.5-inch LCD for playing your favorite video footage on the go and a TV-out for displaying video and images through a television or display. The USB 2.0 connectivity makes it fast and easy to transfer songs, photos and videos from the computer to the 9.6-ounce device. Other features include a built-in speaker, a "kickstand" support for positioning the device, and USB mass storage capability--enabling you to transfer important documents and presentations to the PMC 120's memory. The rechargeable, replaceable lithium-ion battery offers up to 14 hours of battery life when playing back audio, or up to 5 hours with video.

It runs Microsoft's Portable Media Center (PMC) operating system, which is essentially a portable version of the familiar and intuitive Windows Media Player found on your PC. Use Windows Media Player's AutoSync feature to synchronize content stored on your PC with the PMC-120. It will also play recorded TV programs transferred from a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC.

The PMC-120 supports Windows Media DRM 10 and the ability to play back digitally protected Windows Media Audio and Video files, providing access to the more than 1 million tracks available in Windows Media Audio format from more than 60 online music stores as well as content from the CinemaNow.com online movie site and Major League Baseball's MLB.com.

What's in the Box
iRiver PMC 120, iRiver earphones, quality carrying case, USB 2.0 cable, TV out cable, installation CD-ROM, and AC adapter

Customer Reviews

Fun and easy but still has a generation 1.0 feel to it
The PMC-120 is the player for you IF you happen to own a computer running Windows XP Media Center Edition - a recent creature that turns your computer into a kind of TiVo, recording TV programs directly onto your hard drive. I do in fact own a Dell MCE model, and have scads of TV shows I'd like to take on the road with me, as well as vacation photos (*.jpg), music, etc.

Pros: The PMC syncs neatly with Window Media Player 10 to convert my TV files (*.dvr-ms) to a format playable by the portable player. Installation and translation of files is straightforward - you just build a playlist and hit "synchronize." The portable's screen is bright and the controls are much more intuitive than I-River's other model, the PMP-120 (P not C). There is a USB port built in so, if your digicam also has a port, presumably you could send photos right to the player without going home to your computer. It's a nice way to show people your snapshots.

Cons: The PMC is so reliant on Windows Media Player that other files formats are not so easily handled (how to translate DVDs, for example, is not clear - presumably it's possible if you use third-party translation software). So if you don't have a Media Center computer you are better off with the PMP or with another brand. Translation is slow and doesn't always work: of the first three files I tried, one got corrupted in the process and two worked ok but have some minor problems in syncing the audio and video.

Finally, I-River support is more-or-less non-existent. Thus, although I'm happy to own one, if you wait for another year to buy one you'll probably get better (faster, cheaper, easier) results. Although I'm fond of mine, it's very much a first-generation contraption at this point.

Good player, but....
When I got my hands on the PMC-120 I thought this was going to to be the best player but when I started to play with it all the glitches started to come into my way.
I agree with the other reviews that it has a first generation-device feel to it.
MUSIC:
When I tried to put music in my PMC it syncronized my mp3s with the WMP 10 with no problem (very fast). If U are looking for a grab and drop (copy/paste) your music mp3 device, this is not for you because when I did it got everything in one same folder that read "Unknown artist and album". So you have to put all your mp3s via WMP 10, wich is no problem for me because it does it very fast. The problems that I encountered is that it only has one "Portable playlist" and sometimes when Im playing an mp3 and navegating through the other albums the controls respond 1 to 2 seconds later after pushing the button.
One cool thing is that it shows the cd covers without having to put them in. This is done via the WMP10.
The sound is very good and crisp, and the equalizer setups are fair.But you defenetly cant tell the difference between the diffrent eq setups with the built in speacker wich has a very small horrible sound.

PICTURES:
This is basically a grab and drop procedure to get your pics in the device and you can arrenge them in folders or subfolders. You can not transfer directly from your camera so if you are travelling and dont have a PC to transfer your pics this little baby wont do that job for you.

VIDEO:
Ok, now this is where it starts to get frustrating for me...
I wanted a portable media device that I would only grab and drop my movies that are divx and xvid. I knew that this device only reads WMV but it "supports" DIVX, XVID, MPEG, etc. This "support" deppends on what the WMP10 can play. So this means that you sincronyze (via WMP10) your movies no matter the format and it converts them into WMP movies and at the same time it just transferes it and fits it into your PMC secreen size. I had this in mind when I bought it and was fine with me untill I tried it the first time: The WMP10 wouldnt convert my XVID movies and after a few hours of trial and error and surfing the web my problem was that I had to have the correct video codecs that are compatibles with the WMP10. So after uninstalling and installing I was good to go so I converted a 1:45hr long movie in only 25 minutes. But this short moment of joy was suddenly interrupted by the fact that the WMP10 fits the widescreen movies into the PMC and makes all the images long and thin almost unwatchable!!!! You cant change this because the WMP does this automatically. My answer was using other software and converting my widescreen movies into WMV files. The problem is that it takes almost the running time of the movies to convert...I have tried a lot of different softwares and still havent found one that does it faster as the WMP10.
In the other hand if you have a full screen video you just use the WMP10 and it does it very fast and with good quality.
You can connect your device to the tv but the resolution is very low so I think this option is useless on the PMC.

So the veredict is: The PMC-120 is a good multimedia player with minor glitches. It is a little bulky but personally I think the size is not that big. I think the good side of the size issue comes along with its big 3.6 inch screen wich is great to watch films and this for me kicks arse compared to the ipod video.
If you want to play directly your DIVX or XVID movies on your player buy another porduct like the iRiver PMP series or the Archos players wich are way, way, WAY more expensive.
So I think that for the price and for what it does the PMC-120 gets two thumbs up.

Great player, prices are starting to come down
I recommend this player if you're in the market for a portable media player. I've found it's durable, easy to use and definitely worth what I paid for it. It comes with a nice zippered carrying case, which does a great job of keeping the screen from getting scratched up while you're not using it. The screen is clear and bright, the controls are comfortable and easy to use and the menus are very easy to navigate.

My experiences are pretty similar to the other reviewers. I agree, if you have a Media Center PC, this thing is invaluable. However, I've found that it takes way too long (hours!) for the player to convert dvr-ms files. With some 3rd party software, I can edit out the commercials and re-encode to the size accepted by the player (320x240 wmv) in about a 1/2 hour and once done, it takes only about 30 seconds to copy over. 20 gb is more than adequate for most people, since the video files are only about 200 mb for an hour show. The operating system on the player takes up some space, so you don't get the full 20 gb. But even so, you can fit around 85 - 90 hour long videos on there at a time.

I also agree that one of the player's shortcomings is the lack of customization with music playlists. You're limited to only one, and the shuffle function isn't great. I've found that you have to toggle the shuffle option a few times to get a different mix of songs, otherwise you get them in the same order every time. But that's not a major issue for me. Another cool feature is that you can have Windows Media Player download CD information off the internet and when played, the cd cover will show up in the player. Neat!

Another small problem I've run into is that the player isn't very stable if you're using it with the AC adapter without the battery attached. There's an arm you can pull out on the back of the unit that you can use to prop the player up to view the screen. The AC plugs into the top of the player and I have to rearrange the cord a bit to keep it from tipping the player over. Again, only a minor problem, but it would've been better if the AC plug was on the side of the unit and not the top.

Overall, I really like this player. I use it every day at work, and I'm looking forward to using it on the plane this summer when I travel. I haven't found any major cons to using this product, just some minor inconveniences. I'd have to say the biggest downside is the price. I don't think it's worth the MSRP of $500 (I paid half that amount after a lot of bargain hunting on the web), but thankfully there are more players coming out on the market, some with more storage, and the prices are starting to fall.

Oh, and don't listen to the other reviewers nonsense about the battery. There is no internal battery, just an external one that fastens to the back of the player. If/when it ever does go dead, you can buy replacements. So don't let any battery issues stop you from considering this.