Tongfang PMC-V800 PMP plays Flash video

Like a thousand monkeys producing Shakespeare, eventually the endless tidal wave of generic PMPs from China had to result in something interesting, like Tsinghua Tongfang's PMC-V800. Not only does this 2.4-inch PMP sport FLV and SWF support, enabling it to play downloaded YouTube videos and Flash animations directly, it's also got mapping software, a karaoke mode, and USB On-The-Go -- all hiding behind a pretty slick "widgetized" interface. Sadly, additional video support is limited to AVI, MP4 and "HDTV," but all in all, it looks like a fairly decent player -- now if only we'd ever see it in the States.
[Via PMP Today]

[mushrooshi @ Nov 6th 2007 6:10PM]

Hmm. Interesting, but it could be a KIRF. Scroll wheel?

[nate @ Nov 6th 2007 6:33PM]

ooo, something round on it, must be an ipod rip-off!

[JohnTitor @ Nov 6th 2007 6:28PM]

got that Sansa Connect look to it

[js @ Nov 6th 2007 6:32PM]

an iPod knockoff.

Sorry, I just.... had to.

[ugg.tryptophan @ Nov 6th 2007 6:51PM]

and an iphone interface ripoff at the same time they must have worked really hard on this

[ugg.tryptophan @ Nov 6th 2007 6:32PM]

there is a creepy guy looking at chinese models sitting next to me, im sure he could use this, (am the only one who sees PMP and thinks of pimps?)

[joey @ Nov 6th 2007 9:43PM]

nope, you are not the only one.

[emjoi @ Nov 6th 2007 6:43PM]

I just like the name "Tongfang".
It's cool.

It seems like the Chinese just grab random bits of software and chuck them into the mix.

[John @ Nov 6th 2007 7:22PM]

Wait, you list three different video types and call it 'limited'? What do you call video support on iPods then, nonexistent?

[Nilay Patel @ Nov 6th 2007 7:40PM]

I'd call iPod video support "limited," just like we always do. As for "three video formats," MP4 doesn't mean MPEG-4, it means the goofy MP4 format all these Chinese players support, "HDTV" is esoteric enough to count as fictional, and AVI support probably doesn't include any useful codecs. But FLV and SWF are definitely pretty cool.

[Jeff @ Nov 6th 2007 8:44PM]

"MP4 doesn't mean MPEG-4, it means the goofy MP4 format all these Chinese players support"

Wait, what is this MP4 format then? It has to be *some* form of mpeg4 - there's nothing else that uses the mp4 3CC. There are at least ten different mpeg4 codecs. Do you know which one all of these Chinese players use?

[Nilay Patel @ Nov 7th 2007 2:20AM]

Chinese manufacturers use a number of crazy formats, like NXV, MTV, and AWV, but call all of them MP4, because an "MP4" player *must* be better than an "MP3" player. It's a little irritating, but also relatively funny.

[crescentdavid @ Nov 6th 2007 9:52PM]

I'm just amazed you have a tag that reads: Tags: TsinghuaTongfang. Now, THAT'S impressive.

[Constable Odo @ Nov 6th 2007 11:17PM]

Has a similar shape to an iPhone/touch. Must be an Apple rip-off. Of course, it's a very, very poor knock-off. Not even worthy to be called "invention of the minute."

[Taylor Kemp @ Nov 7th 2007 2:27AM]

That "HDTV" codec could be a bdaly translated Chinese way of mentioning the codec that Media Center encodes in.