Gizmodo: dvd players

Oppo's Sub-$300 BDP-80 Blu-ray Player Plays Whatever You Throw At It [BluRay]

Kyle VanHemert — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:20:00 EST

We've long been fans of Oppo, makers of high-quality, universal Blu-ray players, but that quality always came at a price. Their new BDP-80, announced today, plays Blu-ray discs, DVDs, SACDs, MKVs, MP3s, and more for only $289. More »

Why The RealDVD Trial Might Actually Matter [Copyright]

John Herrman — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:05:39 EDT

Yes, OK, we called the software lame and poked fun when it earned that inevitable injunction, but that was just too predictable to get all earnest about. Well, RealNetworks might've been playing a long game. More »

Toshiba Making Upconverting DVD Players Because HD DVD Loss Still Stings [Toshiba Dvd]

Jason Chen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:40:00 EDT

Poor Toshiba's still not quite over the HD DVD defeat earlier this year, as evidenced by its president saying that they will "not market DVD players that are compatible with Blu-ray," instead opting for upconverting DVD players to bide their time before Blu-ray becomes so prevalent that the company has no choice. More »

iLuv i1255 Desktop iPod Dock/DVD Player Hybrid Is Simple Convergence [IPod Docks]

matt buchanan — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:45:00 EST

The Skinny: The iLuv i1255 is a basically a DVD player with an iPod dock slapped on top. It plays DVDs, VCDs and CDs plus puts media from the iPod on your TV, a common trick nowadays. Basically if you're in the market for both a bare-bones DVD player and iPod dock and wanna save shelf space. The Catch iLuv's i1155 is much sleeker, portable and works all the same angles. More »

New Harry Potter DVD Comes Bundled With Portable Video [Home Entertainment]

Sean Fallon — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:00:04 EDT

Warner Home Video announced today that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be the first DVD to come bundled with multiple video formats on a single disk. In addition to the regular DVD format, the disk will include versions for both home computer viewing and playback on portable media players. There has been no word on whether DRM could be part of the equation, but keep in mind that protection schemes are typical with Warner releases. More »

DVD Player Faceoff: $18 Durabrand vs. $20,000 Meridian [Home Entertainment]

Charlie White — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:07:36 EST

If you remember the dark days when the cheapest DVD player in the world cost $1000, you might get a kick out of this one by Chinese manufacturer Durabrand, selling at the British subsidiary of Wal-Mart for £9 (just under $18.00). How low can they go, indeed. That would qualify as disposable. More »

Pioneer DVD Players Cater to the Lowbies [Home Entertainment]

Travis Hudson — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 14:31:37 EST

Blu-ray, Schmue-ray is what I have to say and Pioneer agrees (kind of) by announcing the DV-300V and DV-400V DVD players. The DV-300V (top) is a simple, progressive DVD player that will be available in April 2007 for $69. The DV-400V (bottom) is a nicer DVD player that has an HDMI output, sound equalizing options and 1080p upscaling. It will also be available in May for $99. – Travis Hudson More »

Dare to Compare: DVD Players, One is $40, the Other, $3486 [Home Entertainment]

Charlie White — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:20:56 EST

Looking for Dealzmodos as we always do, we found a Toshiba upconverting DVD player on Woot for $39.99. It's refurbished, has HDMI out and up-converts to progressive-scan 720p or 1080i. Best of all, it plays DivX and all kinds of CDs, too. More »

Low End Theory [Low End Theory]

Brendan I. Koerner — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:15:57 EDT

Lessons of the Pawn Shop

Polaroid Portable DVD Player, No Shaking Required [Portable Media]

Travis Hudson — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:02:46 EDT

Polaroid—yes, that Polaroid—has announced their latest portable DVD player, the PDJ-0793. Most of the time I don't get a flying hoot about these portable players because a laptop can do the same job and is a bit more functional, but this one looks a little better than the average bear and has a reasonable price. The PDJ-0793 has a 7-inch screen mounted on a swivel base. It displays at a 16:9 aspect ratio and the battery life is average at about three hours. It also includes a headrest mount for the kiddos in the minivan. But the best feature of all, it doesn't require shaking to get the image to fade in—good job stepping it up in the technology world, Polaroid. Available for $175 or so. – Travis Hudson More »

Omisys Wi-Fi DVD Player Media Center [Home Entertainment]

Travis Hudson — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:13:41 EDT

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DVD player? Ha! With as many features that this baby packs it should be called a hard-driveless media center. The Omisys PN-210V comes loaded up with a nice big antenna for Wi-Fi streaming via 802.11b/g. It can play Off Vorbis, XviD, DivX, MPEG-4 and WMV9 and it can read burned CD and DVD media. It also includes an Ethernet port for hard-wired streaming and a USB port for mass storage device support—iPod anyone? Wait. There is more!. This player supports 1080p HD resolution. While there isn't a lot of options for 1080p media right now, this might be the right kind of player that will last a long time and provide a lot of good entertainment. There is a bit of a downside, it appears that the streaming capabilities only works with Windows at the moment. – Travis Hudson More »

Helios High-Def DVD Player [Home Entertainment]

Travis Hudson — Tue, 30 May 2006 10:46:59 EDT

No, this isn't an HD DVD player, but it claims to be a high-definition DVD player—big difference. The Helios HVD2085 tries to turn your moldy oldy DVDs into pretty, high definition-ness. Via the component cables this DVD player can output to 720p, 1080i and even 1080p. Via HDMI the HVD2085 can output to an assload of resolutions: 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 640v480, 800v600, 1024v768 and 1280v1024. It supports DVD, SVCD, VCD, CD, HDCD, MP3, WMA and Photo-CD playback. More »

Disney Portable DVD Player Recall [Portable Media]

Travis Hudson — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 13:41:53 EDT

The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Memcorp are recalling 102,000 battery packs that are in Disney branded portable DVD players. The battery packs overheat and can cause property or skin damage. These crappy DVD players have a 3-inch screen and are sold at the Disney theme parks and the Disney catalog from April 2005 to March 2006 for upwards of $130. More »

From the Atheistic East [Home Entertainment]

johnb — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 14:30:24 EST

[Thanks, Nutcheese! More »

Low End Theory [Columns]

Brendan I. Koerner — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 12:26:04 EST

Insignia: Mark of the Least

By Brendan I. KoernerI trust I'm not alone in dreading my semi-regular trips to Best Buy. The haphazard selection of products can be truly maddening, and many of the blue-shirted sales clerks need to get with the program. Don't get me started on the nightmare that was Christmas 2003, when I ordered my girlfriend's digicam online then tried to pick it up at a Best Buy outlet. In the time it took three different "sales associates" to locate my Sony DSC-P32, I could've built my own. Out of toothpicks and bubblegum, MacGyver-style.Best Buy's been suffering the consequences of its skeeviness as of late, however, as it scrambles to keep pace with Target, Wal-Mart, and Costco. Let's face it, America's a pretty lazy nation, and if we can pick up a progressive scan DVD player while simultaneously purchasing a five-pound bag of Doritos, heck, we'll do it. So Best Buy has to compete on price, and that means pushing its low-end, in-house Insignia brand ever harder. Just last week, the chain announced a whole slew of new Insignia dreck that'll be ready for the holidays.The upshot? If you've got a cheapskate uncle who knows you're into gadgets, expect some of the following goodies come December. Should you curse your fate, or is "Insignia" synonymous with "low-end quality"? An answer (of sorts) after the jump. PLUS: More surplus goodness! More »

Low End Theory [Low End Theory]

Brendan I. Koerner — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 13:30:48 EDT

Vexed by Vextra

LG Launches LightScribe DVD Drives [Peripherals]

johnb — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 17:05:09 EDT

It's called a "super" multi DVD drive by LG, so we hope the new 16X multi DVD writer is as good as its name intimates. Embedded Light Scribe technology lets you burn GIF/JPEG/BMP images straight onto the DVDs surface and the Defect Management technique gets rid of media black spots and fingerprint defects. The drive supports DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM. Should go for around $90. More »

Low End Theory: Back-to-School Craptacular! [Low End Theory]

Brendan I. Koerner — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:30:09 EDT

One of my favorite boardroom buzz phrases is "added value." As in, "By adding textured grooves to the volume knobs on our TVs, we've created a lot of added value for our customers." In other words, creating added value means making superficial changes that are just noticeable enough to merit a listing on the hype sheet. More »

Casio Bath-Toy DVD Players [Casio]

gizmogo — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 13:30:12 EDT

I like a good soak in the tub every once in awhile, but I usually don't hang out more than a few minutes 'cause I don't quite like that icky wrinkly thing it does to my toes. If I had one of these new waterproof DVD players by Casio, however, I would probably risk severe wrinkling and stick through an entire two-hour movie (or maybe a couple episodes of The Simpsons). Designed to be used in the bathroom, the DV-900W and DV-700W are 9-inch and 7-inch respectively, with a resolution of 480x324. Each has stereo speakers, a Dolby digital decorder, and an analog TV tuner for those who would rather catch the local news while in the embrace of soapy bubbles. You can also play a variety of discs on the thing, like DVD movies, recorded DVD R/RW, CD-R/W, in MP3/WMA and JPEG formats. The remote control, of course, is waterproof as well. The lithium-ion battery only lasts about 3 hours and 15 minutes though, which means you probably shouldn't try to watch the entire LOTR trilogy on it — which you probably shouldn't anyway, unless you want to look like a giant shriveled prune. More »

KEF KIT200 Home Cinema System [Home]

Travis Hudson — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 09:15:36 EDT

This system has the capability to turn even the crappiest, rotten mix CD into beautiful 5.1 sound. The KEF KIT200 is the upgraded bigger brother of the KEF KIT100 that was released back in 2004 and is a distant cousin to KITT, the car. This system has some hot 5.1 surround sound goodness that is powered by a fiesta of satellite speakers. The DVD player has inputs for cable, TV, VCR, composite and S-video. Who cares about the features though, this thing looks sexy enough to kill and should be available in the UK come October for 1,500. More »

I O Data AVel LinkPlayer2 [Home]

Travis Hudson — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 08:32:37 EDT

DVD player, smee-VD player. This is by far not a DVD player; this little gem would definitely rank in as a low-end media center in my sick twisted electronic mind. Integrated hard drive, network sharing, USB 2.0, flash reader, optional external drive are all media center-rific features. This will even play your completely legal rip of the smash-hit comedy Hitch in whatever video format you decide to legally rip it in. Ringing up at $250 makes it definitely one of the cheaper media centers available. More »