DigitalVideoPlayer
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NXP & Roku reup deal on streaming player hardware
We don't know if you ever gave any thought to the hardware behind Roku's digital video player, but the company announced it is continuing a partnership with NXP to use the PNX8935 decoder to bring all that sweet Netflix, Amazon and more to your TV. Anyway you cut it, many have found the h.264 and VC-1 decoding capabilities worthy of paying the Roku's $99 price tag, we suppose it's not up to NXP when Amazon will let us get at any HD content or Netflix adds to its high definition library, so we'll just say job well done and look forward to what these two have planned in the future.
Roku digital video player adding Amazon Video On Demand
Roku owners looking to go discless are one step closer, now that Amazon Video On Demand will be available on the box after a free software update in early 2009. Fulfilling the promise of more "big name" providers to come, flicks like The Dark Knight, Pineapple Express or any of Amazon's 40,000 other titles can be purchased and played back to the TV for a 24 hour window. The bad news? Max bitrate is an h.264 compressed 1200Kbps. Not bad if SD only is your bag, but we're even more eagerly awaiting another Amazon VOD HD rumor.
Chinavision set to offer waterproof portable video player
Chinavision already has a portable video player you can take almost everywhere, but those that absolutely need access to low res video at all times might want to consider the company's new waterproof digital video player, which'll let you get in a little small screen viewing at depths up to 10 feet. Apart from that questionably useful feature, however, this player appears to be decidedly low end, with a 1.8-inch 128 x 128 resolution display, 1GB of internal memory, and support for all the basic audio/video formats, although video's restricted to a mere 15 fps. No word on price, but it's apparently "coming soon."[Via Tech Digest]
