iriver Smart HD - Multi-touch PMP Built with MKV Fans in Mind

PMP manufacturers couldn't dismiss the importance of MKV to their products as the said format is just the de facto choice of container for a large number of videos (particularly HD) populating the bit-torrent world. Here, we have iriver Smart HD - likely the first HD-ready PMP by the Korean PMP titan. The Smart HD is almost everything most people, especially the Koreans, would hope for.

A 3.5" multi-touch screen capable of bumping out 480 x 320 pixels in 16 million colors dominates most of the front panel. The iriver lets you play just about every audio format, including the usuals as well as OGG, lossless FLAC and APE. As a mobile cinema, AC3 support is present to support 5.1 channel audio, which is emulated by SRS Circle Surround Headphone. For video, the Smart HD can handle 720p H.264 decoding at up to 10Mbps. There's no mention whether or not the iriver can read the soft subtitles in the MKV so we have to assume this is too much to ask for. The Smart HD will come in four versions: the 8GB; 16GB; 8GB with DMB TV tuner; and 16GB coupled with WiFi and DMB.