Leading China MP4 player manufacturer supplies ISO-certified products to wholesalers in Asia, Europe and North America. Leading China MP4 player manufacturer Cool Sources Co. Ltd. provides MP3/MP4 players, LCD PC monitors, Bluetooth headsets and dongles, and other products to customers around the world. Founded in 2001, MP4 player manufacturer Cool Sources now has over 1,000 employees and annual sales that exceed US$10 million. The company’s factories in Taiwan and mainland China, staffed with 5,000 workers, have a large production capacity. All operations are ISO 9001: 2000-certified and products meet CE and FCC standards

Why is a MP4 Codec needed: MP4 is the revolutionary new way to distribute music and videos over the internet. Previously, MP3 was the wonder technology, the universal format used for multimedia distribution. But the way in which multimedia capacities and bandwidth have increased over the past few years, no one seems to be satisfied with mere audio any more. MP4 is the newest technology that enables you to send and receive video information over the internet.

Video data is even more bandwidth-intensive than audio data. Uncompressed video data of the highest quality (DVD quality, for instance) would take hours and hours to transmit over even a fairly fast connection, if it were in the raw or uncompressed form. Suppose you want to share a short videocam recording with your family. You’d like the file to be small enough that you can send it as an attachment with an email. Or suppose you want to download a movie from an online store, and wouldn’t want to spend the rest of the week getting only the credit title sequence. In short, what you need is compressed video. And MP4 codecs provide the technology to give you that.

What are codecs? A codec is the actual program that encodes the raw data into compressed data, and also translates it back to visual impulses when you actually watch the movie. In order to encode raw video (the sort that you download from your handycam to your computer) into a high-quality but compressed file, you need to have the right codec installed on your machine. Similarly, you’ll also need it if you want to watch the compressed movie. That is what a codec does – it encodes and decodes. And that is where its name comes from.

A movie codec is nothing new. Most of the video that you see on your computer is encoded in some form or other. But in order to enjoy life-like video and still keep the file size within decent limits, the codec has to be very, very good. And that is where MP4 delivers. The MP4 codec can give you DVD-quality video, but the file size will still be so small that you can normally fit several movies onto a lightweight portable MP4 player that you can carry with you anywhere you go.

Cnet has posted a review of the Archos AV500 DVR Unit, below is a capture of their summary. 

The good: The Archos AV500 has a nice wide-screen LCD with great viewing angles yet is compact enough to fit in a pocket. It supports PlaysForSure audio and video and has superb audio quality, and with it, you can record audio and video from external sources, including TV at scheduled times. The AV500 also has excellent battery life and a good printed manual, and with the included plug-in, it will work within iTunes.

The bad: The Archos AV500 is one pricey beast, and the controls can take a little getting used to. We don’t like the fact that you can’t multitask and that it lacks a kickstand or carrying case. Although audio quality is top-notch, there is no equalizer, and the earbuds are uncomfortable. Also, it doesn’t have an iTunes-like source for video downloads, though it does record video.

The bottom line: The well-appointed Archos AV500 puts wide-screen video in your pocket, but we’re still waiting for a point-and-click way to get video into the device.

Read the full review here http://reviews.cnet.com/Archos_AV500_Mobile_DVR_30GB/4505-6499_7-31517717.html?tag=lst

Want to download free MP4 movies? Follow these links and get your fill! Free video for your iPod! Hours of fun! Indeed, it is one of the commonest key phrases that people from all over the planet use to search for unpaid video material on the internet. And the results produced by the engines look promising enough at first. But be warned that free usually means work or bad quality or lack of content. One good source of any YouTube or Google Video that you can download and convert to MP4 for free is www.filepop.com. This is a YouTube Video Converter that is easy to use but does one video at a time.

A much easier way to download many at a time and a place to find good quality content is at PSP Blender. Not only is it for PSP users but for any portable handheld unit including iPod, Zune and 3gp phones.

Distribution of video information over the internet has become a reality only in recent times. Vast improvements in video compression technology in the last decade have made it possible to reduce video file size to such a level that we can now easily transfer them over the internet, as small downloads or even as rather largish attachments to emails. At the same time, of course, the codecs must also preserve most of the audio/visual quality of the video stream. One of the most successful modern codecs for this type of compression is the MP4. MP4 videos have suddenly erupted all over the internet. Everyone is talking about MP4. Free MP4 is one of the most popular search terms on google, yahoo and other major search engines. This is largely a result of the fact that Apple’s best-selling personal media player iPod uses MP4 as its native file format. Previously the iPod used an audio-only form of MP4, but now the advent of the fifth-generation iPod with video capabilities has changed that. 

Most of the free MP4 available on the internet is, however, home-brewn footage from personal handy cams and such. MP4 is a popular video distribution method, but you can’t expect to download free versions of Hollywood movies like that. True, pirate websites do exist and illegally distribute free MP4 movies. But those are few and far between, and normally well hidden. Most of the links you’ll see on a search results page claiming to give you free MP4 movies are really posted to improve the search ratings of those respective sites. They are usually selling something or the other, and want to lure you to their site. So whenever you see “free mp4” listed in a search results page, it’s better to close the page and try again without wasting time.  Try PSP Blender for all your MP4 downloads. 

Recent data from German-based GfK research institute shows that the market for MP3 players in China’s seven major cities has fallen over the past three months.

The sales of MP3 players in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Shenyang and Xi’an have dropped an average of 12 percent in the past three months, China Business News reported on Tuesday.

GfK data revealed that sales of MP3 players began to decline in China last October and promotions by MP3 producers in March failed to reverse the trend.

The researchers believe that market saturation and a lack of new design and functions along with the introduction of MP4 players are the main reasons for the decline in MP3 player sales.

GfK data showed that the sector appears to have grown too fast in 2004 and 2005, with the 630 MP3 player makers churning out 5,800 models.

Source: Xinhua