Hands-on with Kodak's latest and greatest

We got a nice look at Kodak's newest gear from this morning, and while it's an uneven showing at best, there are certainly some gems. The real standout of the bunch is the Kodak Theatre HD Player, a teensy box with all the right ins and outs, a purtiful interface, and a glorious motion-sensing remote. We really haven't had this much fun with a peripheral since the Wiimote came along, and Kodak has somehow managed to best that in the role of couch-based cursor positioning. Kodak was a bit coy about what exactly goes on inside the thing, and we're even more curious as to whether somebody can produce a dongle to let it operate a PC, but it's a marvel all the same. Next up -- in importance, anyways -- is Kodak's new Zi6 HD pocket video camera, a transparent bid to cut in on those Pure Digital dollars. It's a bit of a bulky beast, and the image quality is hardly an improvement over the competition, but it certainly works as advertised: it really couldn't be simpler to turn it on, shoot a video, and upload that video to the internet. Perhaps our biggest gripe is that it looks like it was built by some second-tier consumer electronics company, and shares zero design language with Kodak's other products -- many of which have really matured in the looks department of late. The Z1015 IS we didn't spend as much time with, but it seemed nice, light but not too light, and has a gorgeous screen. Finally, the new W820 and W1020 wireless photo frames were on display, with some prototype software showing off some add-ridden FrameChannel content (seriously Kodak, what were you thinking?) but loved just about everything else on the frames.

Gallery: Hands-on with Kodak's latest

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[ddub @ Jul 10th 2008 5:22PM]

I don't get it? Is engadget in bed with Kodak now too?

[Mr. E @ Jul 10th 2008 6:18PM]

EnGADGET loves gadgets. And the companies that produce them.

[Mike @ Jul 10th 2008 6:20PM]

Yes, in fact every time Engadget posts an article on anything, it first must get in bed with the company involved. This requires every staff member to maintain a vast closet of Jammies and bunny slippers so that they may always be prepared for their next article and sleep in.

[GRoar1 @ Jul 10th 2008 8:05PM]

LAS........no, wait! I did this before...

[timmaughan @ Jul 10th 2008 5:06PM]

year, motion remote, yadda yadda. What formats does it playback? MKV? subtitle support? Can i plug a USB drive into it?

In other words: is it better than my Popcorn Hour?

[DarkLight @ Jul 10th 2008 8:02PM]

Is it just me, or Kodak, who had already lost most of their reputation when it comes to quality consumer-oriented stuff, is suddenly starting to gain it again at a _very_ agressive rate? (I mean, before this bunch of products, they already had a $300~ HD video camera that was better than the $700 Sonys and Sanyos !! - it never got popular because it was advertised as a photo camera, the HD video part was a surprise... But before that one camera, most of their stuff was "meh")

If it's not just me, certain companies have something to learn from Kodak...

[CTNewb @ Jul 10th 2008 8:46PM]

I think Kodak is coming around and at a surprising pace. Out of curiosity I bought a Kodak Z812IS and to my surprise out of my multiple Canon digital cameras I tend to choose the Kodak instead. For lousy $200 I paid it even records HD video. I hope the Z1015 will be even better.

[Andrew @ Jul 10th 2008 11:35PM]

What Panasonic model is that? Plasma or LCD?

[perfectionist @ Jul 11th 2008 1:12AM]

The Zi6 seems pretty good.
- It's got little internal memory, but is expandable unlike the Flip/Vado.
- Bulky compared the Flip/Vado, but is only about the size of 2 iPhones stacked together (Yes, the 3G has a curved back).
- Captures widescreen video (720p, but probably not high quality).
- Captures 3 MP stills (Flip/Vado = no still captures).
- H.264 encoding
- $180

No optical zoom, though.

[ds @ Jul 11th 2008 7:41AM]

Engadget seems way more impressed by this $300 "HD theatre" than anyone in any store will ever be. I still can't figure it out.. its like a **very** weak media center with a gyro mouse and they have nothing but praise.. how about ya know actually giving us any details about the thing other than the interface.. $300 for a gyro mouse and a box to view pics on my TV is not that impressive.. especially considering the last 3 TVs I have bought had memory card slots built-in, and my cable box provides instant access to shared photos.. Details please!

[DarkLight @ Jul 11th 2008 11:14AM]

Dude, who said it was for photos?

It's a whole HD media center.. HD video, audio, and internets

[ds @ Jul 11th 2008 12:26PM]

The point I was attempting to make is this -- This has been at least the 4th story the engadget group has made about this device praising it, yet they have not gave **any** details about its actual functionality as a media center other than saying it has an amazing UI and input device.. well thats pathetic and annoying.. until they release info about its media center functions as in video codecs, performance, etc I see it as a picture viewer assuming it can at least do that well. It has no 1080p, optical drive, or dvr functions so calling it a media center at this point is a big stretch.