NeoSol Portable Video Player and TV

AMD unveils portable video player chip

The new Archos AC340 audio/video player

Wired has some more details on that new personal video player from Archos, the AV340. The AV340 looks like it might be the real deal when it comes to watching video on the go: it can store up to 80 hours of video on its 40GB hard drive, has a 3.8-inch LCD screen, also plays both MP3s, and, with an optional attachment, can even be transformed into 3 megapixel digital camera.
Rea d

Gmini400 audio player has color screen,
video playback

Another Hard Disk Sony Video Player?

So there's stink about this one possibly being a fake, but there's a new Sony hard disk-based video player on Japanese website CD Report that claims to have a 20GB hard drive crammed into a unit just a hair bigger than the iPod mini (hence, the fake rumors). If it is legit, it is supposed to be released sometime around Christmas for a price in the neighborhood of $450 - not a bad price if it ends up being the real deal.

Of course, Sony learned from the HMP-A1 that people might actually like players that could support native MP3 playback, so the new unit is rumored to have only ATRAC support (that means, basically, that this thing will be a dud as a music player).

Re ad - The SONY next machine HDD prayer estimate (Japanese) [Nifty via PMW via DAPreview]

Planetwide Games Brings the 1st Fantasy
Player vs. Player MMORPG "Risk Your
Life" to North American Video Game
Players

Portable Audio For Snobs

How to make your iPod an audiophile's dream. By Evan Cornog, Slate

Webcast ONE™ Video Player Selected by
Partsbase.com for Online Video
Presentations

5.5 oz. MPEG-4/Audio Portable From
Archos

Mix Wi-Fi and Portable Digital Audio,
Get Aireo

5.5 oz. MPEG-4/Audio Portable From
Archos

Download audio to your PlayStation
Portable (PSP) with FeedDemon

Last week I picked up a new PlayStation Portable (PSP) in the hopes that I could use FeedDemon to download podcasts and other audio files to it. Turns out it's possible, but it wasn't as straightforward as I would've liked.

In my case, I decided to use the PSP's USB connection to copy downloaded audio directly to the PSP's memory stick. Just in case other readers are struggling with this, here's how to do it:

1. Select "USB Connection" in your PSP's settings and enable the USB mode - this must be done in order for the PSP's memory stick to be mapped to a Windows drive letter
2. If you haven't done so already, create a folder on the mapped drive named PSP, then create a subfolder of that named Music
3. Open FeedDemon's FeedStation utility, then click the Options toolbutton and switch to the Podcasting tab
4. Place a checkmark in "This Folder" to copy downloaded podcasts to a local folder, then enter the path to your PSP's music folder (in my case, this is I:\PSP\Music)
5. Click OK to save your settings

The next step is to simply use FeedDemon to download your favorite podcasts, then let FeedStation take care of automatically copying them to your PSP.

Note: My PSP came with a feeble 32MB memory stick, which is far too small for storing audio. So if you plan to use your PSP to listen to podcasts, make sure to invest in a much larger memory stick!

Evolution of Portable Audio Photo Essay

I'm so glad we invented Canada. The CBC's new Arts section has a great short feature on the history of digital music, from the first transistor radios [pictured] to the latest in tiny white music bricks. It's even worse than I am about the iPod, though, so don't expect a surprise ending. Writer Matthew McKinnon does float an interesting idea, though: if music hadn't broken free of the 'one family, one radio' format, we might not have the endless variety of music we have today.

Brin g the Noise [CBC.CA via Colli sionDetection]

Panasonic D-snap Audio Portable Players

Panasonic introduced a few portable audio players yesterday that we forgot to mention (although they leaked way back in October), in the "D-snap Audio" line. We'll start with the "SV-SD100V" and "SV-SD90" square-shaped players with SD card slot (and only an SD card slot). They also have a mirrored organic EL display, and compatibility with MP3, WMA and AAC. In fact, the SV-SD100V throws in an FM tuner and voice recorder.

Also announced were the "SV-MP720V" and "SV-MP730V." Their interesting "two block" design actually won Panasonic a design award. The two units vary only in capacity, color variations and price. Both are MP3 and WMA compatible and have an FM tuner/voice recorder you probably won't ever use. A sort of disappointing 10-hour battery life on these.

New Panasonic player roundup [TechJapan]

Dcube: Portable Audio With Ogg And A
Scroll Wheel

Portable Media Player

New Details: Samsung Yepp YH-999 Portable Media Center

By Alexander Grundner

The Samsung Yepp YH-999 Portable Media Center (PMC) will start shipping to North America this July. This is great news for people (myself included) who have been waiting to get their hands on the slickest of all the pre-production PMCs. We also found out (via some press material) that the Yepp YH-999 is the first PMC that is capable of receiving both standard TV broadcast signals and the future Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) signal (F.Y.I. Korea is upgrading to DMB in the second half of 2004).

Specifications:
400 Mhz PXA 225 CPU
3.5" TFT Color LCD - 320 x 240
Windows Media Video playback up to 700Kbps
20GB (1.8" HDD)
USB 2.0
Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery
Composite video output port (for TV playback)
Dimensions - 3.8" x 4.2" x 0.8"
Weight - 7.9 ounces

Media Formats:
MP3, WMA, WMV, JPEG [eHomeUpgrade]

More Portable Player Competition

Toshiba's new "portable" DVD player

A portable DVD player from Motorola?

TiVo to allow transfer of TV shows to
portable devices

Altec Lansing inMotion iM3 Portable
Audio System

For the shelf-space conservative iPod fanatic, an iM3 would make a great audio addition. By TheTechLounge

Leo and Patrick's Portable MP3 Player
Picks

Looking for a good portable DVD player
for travel

Well, I'll be heading to Japan for a few weeks later in the month (I'm setting up some business meetings from May 26-29) and I'm looking for a good, relatively inexpensive portable DVD player for the trip. I'm really not an expert at this stuff, but I figured that some of you folks out there would be experts and could give me some recommendations on DVD players and reputable merchants. Here's my requirements:

1) Must be portable and have decent battery life (or an extra battery)
2) Must have a built-in screen
3) Must have a headphone jack
4) Should have speakers
5) Should be able to play multiregion DVDs (stuff I buy in Japan) as well as US DVDs
6) Should be able to plug it into a regular TV (NTSC) and display DVDs that way

I'd like to spend less that $500 on it, hopefully less than $300. Would totally appreciate some suggestions from you gadget mavens out there. I promise to post my review of the unit I purchase!

CES Showfloor: Samsung Portable DMB
Player

Yes, I finally made it on the showfloor! After hours of bopping around, trying to find just a drop of internet, I finally through all caution to the wind and actually looked at gadgets. Samsung's booth in particular was full of yummy things, like this nice-looking DMB portable television that we'll never get here (because we don't have DMB, not because they don't love us).

LG MF-SE 430, Portable Player/Subwoofer
Combo

LG's MF-SE 430 just barely crossed the line between "something to report on" and "another boring MP3 player," but all is well that ends well. The system consists of two speakers and a subwoofer, where you can directly insert the MP3 player itself. This is pretty good convergence if you ask me, but I'm really too open-minded about stuff like this. Also, judging by the pics, the speakers are flat panel types. Price and essentially anything else is unknown, but it's not like something like this will ever exit LG's homeland.

LG's player+speaker combo [dapreview]

GNU digital audio player

PureMusic Audio Player 1.0

Rio Audio intros new 5GB MP3 player

CAP (Cursed Audio Player)

iPod Player Elevates Portable Music

80GB Xclef 500 Portable Player (Soon
137GB)

CES Showfloor: Samsung's 8-Inch Portable
DVD Player

Here's Samsung's smallest new portable slimline DVD player. I know, it's not all that interesting, but I thought it was funny that it had a recessed circle in the top, yet that door on the left was were the DVDs went. It's like a dished-out ring has become the international symbol for "portable DVD" player.

Sony Shows Portable Audio, Video Player