A portable video player for DirecTV. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Rival Dish Network already sells several models and there are all kinds of other portable video players on the market…including of course…the video iPod and others that work with Tivo DVRs. Now Thomson has announced it will begin selling the Lyra X3000 this month….which later in the year will be able to connect directly to next generation DirecTV digital video recorders. Thomson's Dave Arland….

"Previously, of course, it has been possible to move programs that you've already recorded to a device like this. But typically it's been a real time transfer. In other words, if you have a two hour movie that you'd like recorded, it would take you another two hours to move it to a portable device. The advantage of this digital connection that also has copy protection on top of it is that it goes very quickly, about ten times normal speed. So you'll be able to transfer a two hour movie in about twenty minutes."

The service will be called DIRECTV2GO. The Lyra X3000 can be used to store other digital content as well…

"The X3000 is also a music player, it's got a 20 gigabyte hard drive…so that's big enough to hold 40 feature length films. It comes with a remote control. It comes with a docking station for your TV so you can drop it right in there and use it like a virtual VCR."

The price…under four hundred dollars. Whether the tie in with DirecTV will help Thomson take business from Apple remains to be seen. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.