When I travel, I make sure I have my laptop, my video-out cable, and my audio-out cable so that I can connect my laptop up to a television in order to watch the media I want to watch, instead of what just happens to be on TV. In fact, the last time I went on vacation, the DVD player in the house we were staying in broke and I had to turn my laptop into a DVD player in order to watch a DVD that had been rented.
For the most part, this solution works for me. The disadvantages are that I can't use my laptop while watching video, and that in order to adjust volume, pause, skip, etc, I have to get up and push buttons on the laptop.
I hadn't even thought about it before, but it turns out that there is a solution out there for people tired of using their laptop to watch digital media. The newest (and currently the smallest) 1080p capable device in this arena is the Amex Digital MP-501. This little guy is impressive. It's about the size of a small paperback book and has an SD/SDHC slot, two USB ports, an HDMI out, and additional Audio and Video out ports. Perhaps the most impressive part is the currently proposed price: $49.
The list of video files supported by this device is very impressive as well. The full list can be found here, but I was very happy to see that it supports the MKV video container with h.264 encoding as well as AC3 audio. That means that you can watch an HD movie with surround sound on this little device.
The one thing I found missing from the description was any mention of a remote control. I see no other visible way of controlling the device, but it would have been nice to see a picture of the remote control in order to get a feel for the size and functionality of it.
This device is apparently coming out of China, so it is not known if and when it will be available in the United States. However, if it's priced near $50 and all the claims are true, the next time I go on vacation I may be replacing my bundle of cords with the MP-501 and an HDMI cable.
