A media player is a portable device that allows you to play your media files like your movies, music and photos on a TV screen easily without the use of a computer.

There are many different types available including High Definition, Standard Definition, Networked (either wired or wireless) and Recording models. Each type may have different manufacturers, features and also at many different price points.

The latest models have been released in 2008 and are under the Networked Media Tank (NMT) range and feature the powerful Sigma 8634/5 chipsets.

The NMT is a state-of-the-art integrated digital entertainment system that allows you to watch, store and share digital content on your home network. With a built-in Digital Media Player, the NMT allows for seamless integration between your digital media and your entertainment system. An optional hard disk drive also gives the end user the ability to download content from the Internet and store it in the NMT to watch at their leisure.

The end result is that the user is provided with a complete Digital Media Device solution at hand. Not only having to watch and serve digital content, but also the ability to download media over the Internet and store it internally.

The NMT supports the industry standard UPnP AV discovery protocol, giving users access to the wide range of media servers that are compliant with the DLNA specification. It is also capable of acting as a media server, allowing the user to share the media stored in the optional internal hard drive across the local area network.

The UI for the NMT is designed and presented as a HTML interface. First time users will quickly pick up and begin to use this product with ease as it is designed with a familiar and intuitive interface for easy navigation.

Playback of High Definition 1080P movies is supported by the NMT, along with most of the common and popular audio, video and image formats available on the market today. The standard set of playback modes, such as trickmodes, playpause and etc., are also fully supported, along with simultaneous display of images and playback of audio tracks.

The inclusion of the optional hard drive for the NMT opens up a host of features and options for the product. Beyond the basic offloading of media storage from the PC and local playback, the NMT gains the ability to act as a file server over the local area network and the Internet. Samba and FTP server applications provide access to the NMT's contents from practically any platform. The NMT also gains the ability to download media on it's own with the BitTorrent application, further reducing the dependence on the PC. Managing the NMT and it's various applications is easily done through a web interface, giving the user full control over the device.