Nov. 5, 2007 issue 

Thanks to a new wave of handheld, video-friendly devices, it’s never been easier to keep yourself (or the kids) entertained. But before you buy a portable boob tube, there are a few things to consider.

If you plan to eye lots of video, consider a display of at least three inches. In general, expect to squeeze about 20 to 60 hours of video into 16 gigs (most new players come with 8 or 16GB of memory). If that’s not enough, look for a player with a memory-card slot, or consider a hard-drive player. For the video itself, iPod owners can seamlessly download movies and TV shows from Apple’s iTunes Store, while other devices play videos bought from services like Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow and Wal-Mart (though integration isn’t as smooth as Apple’s). Still unsure? Here’s a look at the latest portable video players:

The iPod touch features a roomy 3.5-inch-screen, built-in wireless and a slick touchscreen interface for navigation. ($299 for 8GB, $399 for 16GB; apple.com).

Samsung’s YP-P2 features its own three-inch widescreen touch-controlled display and stereo Bluetooth for wireless listening (the ability to handle cell-phone calls is coming soon). But with only 8 gigs and no expansion slot, you might hit the storage ceiling quickly ($200 for 4GB, $250 for 8GB; samsung.com).

Barely bigger than a bank card, Creative’s Zen has a 2.5-inch screen, but it was still large enough to enjoy an episode of “The Office” downloaded from Amazon. The controls and interface are iPod-simple, and with an SD card slot, storage is unlimited ($200 for 8GB, $250 for 16GB; us.creative.com).

SanDisk’s Sansa View is not as small as the Zen, but the 2.4-inch screen is about the smallest we’d go. It does claim to have the longest battery life—seven hours for video versus about five for the others. ($150 for 8GB, $200 for 16GB; sandisk.com).

Archos’s 605 Wifi sports a 4.3-inch screen, 30- to 160GB storage, and pop-out kickstand. Thanks to built-in Wi-Fi, you can wirelessly buy or rent videos from CinemaNow. One drawback: downloads can take hours ($300 for 30GB, $400 for 160GB; archos.com). But at least you’ll have a great video library.

—Cathy Lu