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Portable CD-RW/DVD Player
BugNuker writes "If your CD/MP3 player wasn't enough, you have to check this out. Sony has released this all in one media device that can play mp3's, wma's, cd's, and DVD's... yes, DVD's. It can be hooked up to your computer, and be used as a CD-RW and then hooked up to your TV, and play your favorite DVD's. But can it play my mp3's recorded on my DVD? Ultimate media device I would say, same size as a personal cd player. Comes with a Memory Stick expansion slot, a rechargeable battery and a USB 2.0/1.1 interface." There's a picture. It's cute. And expensive.
"When away from the computer, the drive then works as a stand-alone CD player that can play standard audio CDs, and MP3 or WAV files from a CD, DVD or Memory Stick."
Damn, sure sounds like it to me.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
Sony press release: http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/2873
= 185
Product page: http://www.storagebysony.com/cd-rw/product.asp?id
Notebooks don't have as good battery life as portable players, but that doesn't make up for the lack of a screen. And notebook screens are about twice the size as the screens on most of the portable DVDs I've seen.
What's the use of a portable DVD without a screen? So you can take it upstairs and watch DVDs on your portable in bed, or the kids can do the same. Or you can visit friends who haven't bought DVD yet, and take along a movie to watch.
The portability alone has a use even without a screen. And if you're really sad, you can use the opportunity to listen to a director's commentary without the pictures - most of the time with commentaries you might as well have sound-only.
...it can't be hooked up directly to a TV to view a DVD. Only through a computer linkage can it that be done. This product will be totally cool when I can take it to my luddite grandmother's house where there is no computer and hook it up to her TV while she's baking brownies.
Only then will it rock!
Sony product page
Sony's cool new Digital Relay(TM) portable battery operated CD-RW/DVD-ROM/Memory Stick® drive burns CDs when attached to a PC or Macintosh® computer using the USB 2.0/1.1 port. Detach the drive from the computer, and you now have a portable CD player that also plays MP3 and WAV files on CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, or Memory Stick media.
It plays DVD-ROMs, not DVD-Video discs. This basically is a MP3 player that can use DVDs. So you can get 4.7GB on a MP3 disc instead of 650-700 MB. I still think it's worth a link on /., but for pete's sake, RTFA before you submit, and editors, RTFA before you post!
Sony is way, way more than two companies. You can find their list of subsidaries in Japan and outside Japan, which seems to be about 85 companies.
The subsidaries seem to be free to act as they see fit and their seems to be very little interference in how they are run from the Sony group company.
Just the computer games divisions are divided into Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEI*), Sony Computer Entertainment America(SCEA) and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe(SCEE). All of these companies are separate entities, with seperate responsibilities and ideas about how they should be doing business.
*Yes I know it should be SCEJ, but it isn't, okay?
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
It will not play DVDs to a TV. It only acts as an external drive to allow DVDs to be played on a computer. My guess is that it has no MPEG2 circuitry and relies on the computer to do all decoding.
This is what it does:
Portable CD player - regular and Mp3 cds
External CD-R/W drive and DVD ROM drive
Maybe its just me, but this is no big deal. Portable CD/MP3 players can be had for under $100 dollars, and almost everyone already has a CD burner / DVD ROM in their computer.
If you need to make CDRs while you are on the road, this may be useful, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't already get an external CD burner for under $300.
To Sony, I say "big deal".
From the first article:
"When connected to a Windows or Macintosh computer, the device can serve as a CD-RW drive for recording digital content or backing up computer data. When connected to a television or PC, the device can also become a DVD player for watching movies. "
Not really.
Ogg Vorbis has better audio quality than MP3. Someone who just wants better quality would say the same thing.
Furthermore, supporting *wma* (also rarely used and lower quality than vorbis) costs money and doesn't have a lot of point.
May we never see th
http://mp3playerstore.com/stuff_you_need/dvd/benq. htm
m
$159 isn't too bad. There's also:
http://mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/mp-2001.ht
for $64.95. Probably horrible shit construction, but not bad for the price.
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After reading some comments here about the fact that it doesn't support display nor Linux... I did a lil' research...
:)
;)... However, I think the Linux community will find way ....
The ZDNet article states "...When connected to a television or PC, the device can also become a DVD player for watching movies. "... Now that is not entirely false... As you'll see in a copy of the press release (scroll down the page to find it) here... You'll see that you can play DVD movies via the PC's USB.. "Hi-Speed USB Interface (USB 2.0/1.1)"! at 8x speed... only... as for the TV it's not supported; as stated "Output: Mini analog stereo (headphone jack) only"... So that is one fact down... Prolly in the future they may provide the means to do it via USB>DECODER>TV...
Now for the other problem... support for Linux... the press release states "System requirements: Pentium® II 233Mhz or faster PC with 32Mb RAM, HDD with 1.2Mb sustained transfer rate or faster, Direct-X supported sound card, Installed USB 1.1 or 2.0 port, Power Macintosh G3, Power Mac G4, iMac DV or iBook® computer running Mac OS 9.2.2 or higher OR Windows 98/2000/Me/XP operating system..." So the answer for the time being is no... no Linux support... but it's less than a month away... and who knows... if everyone rants on their head they may support it
Great ideas happen at 4am. Bad career moves happen at 4pm...
Portable CD/MP3/DVD players can be had for under $100. The only link I can find has them for $107, but my local Target has one on clearance for ~$70.
Probably. They always say on PDAs that using the backlight is the worst way to conserve power. As well, I'm sure running a motor has got to more effort than running a decoder.
I've got a Rio Volt and it uses the audio buffer as cache for the loaded mp3. (they say... 40secs of cd audio or upto 1200 sec of mp3 audio in the equiv space) It's cute, usually halfway through the song, the cd stops spinning and I can shake the unit till I'm blue in the face or the next song ends. It's got about the same sort of performance on 2AAs.
Forbes thought it was a DVD-R
Funny.
-- People who hate Windows use Linux. People who love UNIX use BSD.
When connected to a television or PC, the device can also become a DVD player for watching movies
That's the second half of the 5th paragraph in the artical.
Come on people. It's not that hard. (and +5 informative? Whatever)
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