Ainol V8000HDW PMP Gets Reviewed: Slick 1080p From HDMI Output

PMPs should have HDMI ports.  It's a pretty straightforward – and common-sense – idea, but most big-name portable media player manufacturers would far prefer to fit a proprietary socket and then sell you a pricey adapter cable afterwards.  Ainol may not be a brand name you're familiar with, but judging by MP4nation's review their new V8000HDW certainly should be on your shortlist if you're keen on HD playback.

That's because as well as a decent 6-inch 800 x 480 display, the V8000HDW supports more codecs and file containers than you can shake a stick at, together with offering an HDMI 1.3 port for hooking up an HDTV.  That means you can play up to 1080p Full HD video – including AVI, MP3, TS and MKV – directly from the Ainol PMP itself.

Onboard storage ranges from 1GB to 32GB (plus there's a microSD card slot), and the Sochip SC9800 chipset the PMP is based on is apparently swift enough to keep even 1080p playback chugging along nicely.  Unfortunately viewing angles aren't great, so this probably isn't the media player for communal viewing, but then of course you could always connect up a much larger display if you'd prefer. If you're tempted, we've found the 8GB model available for $159.