A low-cost portable digital video player receives proprietary compressed
data from a source such as a personal video recorder (PVR), and displays
the data on an integral display. A rewritable non-volatile memory of the
player stores the data and a media decoder of the player transforms and
decompresses the data. According to one embodiment the decoder transforms
the data to a non-proprietary format, prior to storing the data.
According to a second embodiment, the memory stores the data in the
proprietary format, and decoder transforms and decompresses the data in
response to an instruction from a user input device, and transfers the
decoded data to a display. A cradle for the player provides
communications to the PVR, a power supply and optionally further storage
capacity.