Launched on 1st August 2007, the Eco Media Player (EP-MX71) is a wind-up video player with a full colour LCD screen - the world's first. It also offers a digital FM radio, MP3 player, LED torch, mobile phone charger, SD card reader, memo recorder, photo viewer, e-book viewer, and data storage - all powered by hand winding.
This is a Trevor Baylis (inventor of the windup radio) branded product designed in the United Kingdom. It is available for around £170.
NEW The Eco Media Player is now available in the UK for just £134.99*. Click here to buy Eco Media Player and find out more.
* Use the discount code FSCS25 when checking out for free UK delivery on your order (before 21st December 2007).
Wind Up Power
Inside the Eco Media Player is a rechargeable NiMH battery to store power. The player can be powered/charged either by hand-winding using the ECO-Dynamo (see photo above) or via its integrated USB port through a computer. One minute of winding provides up to 40 minutes of audio playing time, and when fully charged the internal battery will provide up to 20 hours of playing time.
As shown in the photograph at the top of this page - the winder also acts as a stand for the device.
Eco Media Player Specifications
The Eco Media Player has a 1.8 inch 0.26 million pixel colour LCD screen through which asv (mp4) formatted files can be viewed.
Other common video formats such as wmv, avi, and mpeg can be played, but must first be converted into asv format using the conversion utility.
Photographs and other image files (jpeg, bmp, gif, and animated gif) can be viewed in high quality on the colour screen using the photo viewer.
The Eco Media Player can also playback mp3, wma, asf, and wav formatted audio files in stereo HI-FI via the included headphones, or playback through the built-in mono speaker.
A digital PLL FM radio with digital precision tuning (87.5Mhz-108Mhz) is included and it is possible to record the radio, or record voice memos using the built-in mini microphone. Recordings are stored as mp3 files and the recording quality can be preset to 64k, 128k, or 192k bits/sec as required.
The Eco Media Player can be connected via high speed USB 2.0 to a Windows PC. The device appears as an external disk drive and so files can be simply dragged and dropped from the Player to the PC and back again.
1GB of memory storage is provided - suffient to store up to 250 audio tracks, and SD cards can be used to increase the total memory available.
Finally, the integrated torch offers 0.3 Watts of high brightness LED light, and the Player can even be used as an emergency mobile phone charger.
NEW Click here for a very positive Review of Eco Media Player by Stephen Fry in the The Guardian (24.11.07).
Trevor Baylis and the Wind Up Radio
Trevor Baylis OBE is world famous for his work on the wind up radio (aka clockwork radio or Freeplay radio) in the late-1990's. Millions of his radios have been sold around the world offering an often life saving means of getting information to people in war torn and disaster stricken locations. In addition, since batteries are not required, these windup radios and subsequent windup devices offer an eco-friendly alternative.
