14 DAY TRIAL // Disney is largely known for quality animation films and kids-oriented entertainment programs. Nevertheless, the company also had some success with digital music products for kids, and now, it introduces digital video products with its new Mix Max personal media player which is said to support not only digital music and video but also full-length movies.
"With the Disney Mix Stick, we proved that kids were ready for digital music," said Chris Heatherly, Disney Consumer Products' VP of global electronics, in a statement. "The plug-and-play experience also proved to be a winning feature for parents who welcomed the idea of not having to download music for their kids. We saw an opportunity to do for video what the Mix Stick did for audio-make it accessible, easy, and designed for kids with a unique sense of personal style."
Mix Max is equipped with a 2.2" LCD screen, is familiar with WMV, JPG images and MP3/WMA audio formats (including support for DRM-protected music). A built-in rechargeable battery offers only 2 hours of video playback and 8 hours of music playback in a single charge. The player is expected to retail for $100 and it comes in several nicely-etched styles including High School Musical models and personalized designs featuring characters like Tinker Bell, Forever Princess, Princess Flowers, Cheetah Girls and Tween Bling, or unisex chrome and ice blue for more serious folks.
Mix Max will include only 512 MB of internal storage space (not a surprise for that $100 price tag). However, there's a microSD/MMC card slot which will be used to access content in the form of Max Clips full-length movies or Max Clip music videos, available soon directly from Disney.
Disney's media player offers a 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB 2.0 connectivity, ships with Windows Media Software CD and will be available in October.