MoviePlayer
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Kaleidescape revamps Cinema One movie player with easier setup in mind
Kaleidescape's Cinema One player has been many things to movie buffs, but "accessible" isn't one of them -- limited distribution and an emphasis on custom installs has kept it out of reach. The company is widening that scope with a redesigned Cinema One that's almost as easy to install as an off-the-shelf Blu-ray player. It's a tad more advanced than that, of course. The Cinema One integrates with most home automation systems, and it stores up to 100 Blu-ray quality movies (including Kaleidescape Store downloads). Viewers who need more storage can attach a second player or the older DV700 Disc Vault. The revamped Cinema One is still expensive at $3,995, but it's at least easier to buy than its predecessor -- Kaleidescape is selling the new media server as a walk-in purchase at Magnolia and other retail stores.
Belkin showcases prototype PVP that engulfs your iPod video
We know, we're slightly bummed too that yesterday's brief "iPod" announcement wound up not being a beautiful hard drive-based widescreen video iPod, but nevertheless, a prototype shown at CES gives iPod video owners a glimpse at what big screen playback would actually look like. This Belkin creation was spotted by TechDigest, and aside from sleek, black enclosure, widescreen display, and gaping hole just begging for an iPod video to come on home, we don't much about it. Mimicking the design of so many portable DVD players already out, this PVP takes its cues not from an optical disc, but from a movie-playing Apple. The spies thought they overheard that the unit featured a rechargeable battery, which would make sense considering its portable nature, but couldn't confirm it. Of course, until Belkin actually decides to produce these things, it's likely a moot point anyway, but it sure looks sellable.
Xploder HDTV Movie Player for PS2 converts DVDs to...EDTV?
We're not quite sure what is so HD about 480p upconverted DVDs, but Xploder has followed up its HDTV Game Player for PS2 announcement with the the HDTV Movie Player for PS2. While we took the news that a set of component cables and a memory card setting could suddenly improve the resolution of your Playstation 2 games beyond their original capabilities with a grain of salt, this is even more confusing. Every Playstation 2 since the SPCH-50000 revision three years ago is capable of progressive scan 480p DVD playback when equipped with component cables already. That makes this product totally unnecessary for many owners, and of course we have to question if it will work properly with older model PS2's that didn't support 480p for movies, only for gaming.I remember trading in my PS2 immediately in 2003 when the SPCH-5000 came out for progressive scan DVD support, you can check the model # to see if yours is supported, or just look at the front. If it is missing the FireWire port you should be all set for 480p with the right cables and a change of a setting. With all the attention the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are giving to the HD Era, this may be an unfortunate grab to turn some of that attention into sales of unneeded stopgap hardware.
Nyko iPod Movie Player
TUAW sister blog Engadget posted a look yesterday at a product due out this November to turn the iPod into a digital video player. Despite the uninspired name, Nyko's "Movie Player for iPod" looks like a really neat little gadget to fill in the gap left by Apple in iPod video support. Essentially, it will use the iPod as a pluggable hard drive to store video and then read it into the player. The video will be transcoded using a modified version of X Software's Video Vault, which should ensure consistently high quality, and support for a wide range of video formats. Output will be ASF, and users will have several options for quality vs. size. A high quality, 2 hour movie will run about 800MB and be suitable for watching television screen via the line out. At that size, you can take more than 70 movies with you on your 60GB iPod Photo.The bad news for Mac users is that a Mac version of the customized Video Vault won't be available until February 2006 at the earliest, and while it will run on OS X, there's no word yet about whether the player will support HFS formatted iPods.
