ViewSonic launches View Show VPD500 and VPD400 PMPs

With 800 x 480 display and HD output

ViewSonic launches View Show VPD500 and VPD400 PMPs

23 July 2009 15:35 GMT / By Lars-Göran Nilsson

ViewSonic has launched two new portable media players in Taiwan, the View Show VPD500 and VPD400. Both are intended for video on the go and with a native screen resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, they offer some of the highest resolution displays on the market for this type of device.

The VPD500 has a 5-inch display and it comes with 16GB of internal memory, while the VPD400 has a 4.3-inch display and 8GB of memory.

Both models also feature a micro SDHC card slot for memory expansion up to an additional 32GB. The battery is said to be good for up to 4 hours of video viewing or 15 hours of music playback.

ViewSonic has also added component video output which allows you to you to watch videos at 720p resolution on your TV. Files are copied over USB from your Mac or PC onto the View Show devices.

In terms of file format support, ViewSonic has managed to cover most common formats, as you can watch AVI, Real Media, FLV, MOV, DAT (DVD), MPEG 1/2/4, VOB, DivX and H.264 files on the View Show. It also supports MP3, WMA, WAV, APE and FLAC audio files and watch JPEG, BMP, GIF and PNG images on it.

The only two file formats we’re really missing are OGG Vorbis for audio and MKV for video, but ViewSonic has still managed to include a fairly good collection of supported file formats. It also functions as an ebook reader, but there was no mention of exact file format support.

Both models will go on sale in August in the Asia-Pacific market, although we were told that they will launch in Europe and most likely the US at a later date. The VPD400 is priced at £92 in Taiwan, while the VPD500 is priced at £111 and both models will be available in black, white and pink.