The humble MP3 player has blossomed into a full-blown multimedia powerhouse with the rise of Digital Media Players.

Riding the train to work? Sitting at the bus stop? Waiting for a taxi? A Digital Media Player lets you keep your entire movie, music and photo library sitting in your pocket, ready to call on at a moment's notice.

What to look for

Digital Media Players vary from tiny music players, no bigger than a postage stamp, to widescreen movie players with crisp, bright displays. Of course such features are also built into many high-end mobile phones.

Smaller Players

Tiny music players usually contain flash memory, which means they've got no moving parts. This makes them perfect for exercising and it means they're more likely to survive the rough and tumble of life in your pocket.

Larger Players

Larger players tend to feature an impressive widescreen display along with a tiny hard drive capable of holding a vast movie collection. Many Digital Media Players include a raft of extra features, such as wireless internet access, an FM radio and a memory card reader, plus the ability to transfer photos directly from your digital camera. Some will even let you record music and video straight from a CD or DVD player.

Connectivity

Most Digital Media Players can connect to a television and stereo, which is particularly useful if you're making the trek to grandma's house and want to show her your home movies or digital photos on her television rather than the tiny screen on the player.

Ease of use and playback formats

The two areas that tend to distinguish Digital Media Players are ease of use and the range of formats they can play. Some Digital Media Players let you drag a variety of music and video files straight onto the player via USB, such as MP3 music and DivX video files, without the need to worry about converting formats or negotiating digital rights management. Other Digital Media Players trade this flexibility for ease of use, forcing you to use specific software and formats (such as Apple's iTunes), but then making it simple to download content and transfer it to your player.