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Was just checking these out yesterday:

Go Video

KISS (runs Linux)

Supposedly Gateway has one too, but perhaps they discontinued it. Could only find this Google cache link.

D-Link

And I'm sure I've missed quite a few. All have slightly different configurations; my goal was to find a box that would play media from the network.

Furthermore, I want the device to play DVD images (I rip ISO images using DVDDecrypter so I don't loose all the extra DVD stuff). I am not sure any of them actually support that. I would even be happy with a device that can play the VOBs directly, I can 'mount' the ISO on the server...

I can't tell if the Gateway has the same limitation from reading this review.

With the GoVideo, their PC server software is transcoding the video to MPEG2 on the fly, since the player only has an MPEG2 chip inside. Result: dropped frames, and messed up aspect ratios if you play any video that's not 4:3. Their playlist support is weak too.

Anyway, when they say "streaming" support -- don't get too excited until you actually try it.

Not to dog the product, but $299 isn't realistic in this market.

Why spend 299 on a wireless mp3 player when you can get a DVD player with the same types of outputs that'll stream mpegs, photos *and* Mp3s - in either wired or wireless mode? Same setup - a server on the PC, all streamed to the player.

Check this one: GoVideo Networked DVD player

And THAT one is $249. It's a great unit - really added a lot to the home entertainment center.

GO Video offers a dual drive VCR within the US that does pretty good tape to tape copies. Their introductory tape explains how this is probably something you'll be using to copy your homemade video cassettes of your skiing vacation to send to friends.

But the sad thing is that it seems to me that there are fair uses for this technology that involve copyrighted material, but they have to shy away from mentioning such, lest they open themselves to a claim that they exist to support people who are making knockoff copies for sale.

The court has already recognized time-shifting. But it's a well-known truth that people re-watch things they tape, and that people tape their favorite shows for permanent access. The industry may make noise like this is bad, probably just to keep people in line, but I'm quite sure that the pricing over the years has shifted to take this into account, such that HBO probably pays more in royalties for the showing of a movie given the knowledge of home video tapers out there than it would if it were sure there were no home video tapers, since they know they are eating up a little bit of their commercial tape market this way. As such, it would be an error in the extreme for a court to ever claim that keeping a tape of one's favorite show for multiple viewings was wrong, even though I'm not sure this has been tested. Cable companies would not get away with saying "Set your VCR. Your favorite movies are coming." if the makers of the movies they showed were even slightly at risk of suing them as complicit in an illegal act.

Once you acknowledge that people might want to do this, and that the system both tacitly accepts this and extracts and appropriate fee (through your cable bill rather than through your video tape costs), then you immediately confront two other reasonable things: (a) the need to upgrade the media to avoid fading and (b) the fact that often you have a 6 hour tape with only one or two hours on it.

I had a GO video recorder and all I ever did with it was 'compact' my tapes (move shows from one tape to another, so I could recycle one of the two tapes) becaues VHS cassettes are so darned physically large that if you get a lot of them, it takes a whole room to hold them. I didn't make copies for friends, but I wanted 6 Perry Mason's per tape, not just one. There are 270 of them, after all.

Actually, from their site, they say you can "Watch a video while recording from TV, Cable, or Satellite".

Parts of the DCMA do not come into effect yet, like the requirements that all consumer electronic devices capable of data duplication include hardware to stop it.

You can read more about a specific instance of this in the Go-Video's FAQs.

Can I use my Dual-Deck(TM) VCR to make copies of copy-protected tapes?

Go-Video Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs contain our patented "AmeriChrome" technology and proprietary software which allows a near-identical copy to be made from an original VHS tape. Some pre-recorded tapes contain anticopying signals that take advantage of single deck VCR design weaknesses, causing single deck VCRs to make poor or unusable copies of videotapes. Go-Video Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs are not normally affected by these signals.

All VCRs, including the Dual-Deck(TM) VCR, are affected by Federal legislation that was passed in October 1998, commonly referred to as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. One of the effects of this new law requires that all VCRs sold after April 28th 2000 recognize a type of anticopying signal that prevents consumers from making a usable copy of videotapes encoded with that type of anticopying signal.

We have modified our current models of Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs so that if they are purchased prior to April 28th 2000, they will continue to operate as originally designed for the lifetime of the VCR. If they are purchased after April 2000, they will recognize and respond to the anticopying signal as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Owners of Go-Video Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs are not required to have their units modified as a result of this law and can continue to enjoy their Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs for the unit's lifetime.

Parts of the DCMA do not come into effect yet, like the requirements that all consumer electronic devices capable of data duplication include hardware to stop it.

You can read more about a specific instance of this in the Go-Video's FAQs.

Can I use my Dual-Deck(TM) VCR to make copies of copy-protected tapes?

Go-Video Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs contain our patented "AmeriChrome" technology and proprietary software which allows a near-identical copy to be made from an original VHS tape. Some pre-recorded tapes contain anticopying signals that take advantage of single deck VCR design weaknesses, causing single deck VCRs to make poor or unusable copies of videotapes. Go-Video Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs are not normally affected by these signals.

All VCRs, including the Dual-Deck(TM) VCR, are affected by Federal legislation that was passed in October 1998, commonly referred to as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. One of the effects of this new law requires that all VCRs sold after April 28th 2000 recognize a type of anticopying signal that prevents consumers from making a usable copy of videotapes encoded with that type of anticopying signal.

We have modified our current models of Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs so that if they are purchased prior to April 28th 2000, they will continue to operate as originally designed for the lifetime of the VCR. If they are purchased after April 2000, they will recognize and respond to the anticopying signal as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Owners of Go-Video Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs are not required to have their units modified as a result of this law and can continue to enjoy their Dual-Deck(TM) VCRs for the unit's lifetime.

What about GoVideo type dual deck VCR's?
LetterJ
Writing Geek/Pixel Pusher
jwynia@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~jwynia