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Gadget Rewind 2004: Rio Carbon
Before the Rio Carbon arrived to take on Apple's iPod juggernaut in 2004, there was Diamond Multimedia's first stab at the digital music market: the Rio PMP300, a portable music player released in 1998. Since it was one of the first portable MP3 players ever to be sold, Diamond ended up embroiled in a fight for the future of the format. The PMP300's ability to play digital music files downloaded from a computer led to a groundbreaking legal battle with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The RIAA challenged the company in court, claiming that its use of digital music files was copyright infringement, but Diamond won out and cleared the way for a new wave of portable music players (PMPs) to hit the market.
Diamond Multimedia intros AMP2000 Android set-top box, availability coming later this year
It's been quite a few months since Diamond Multimedia announced it's AMP1000 set-top box, so the company likely figured there was no better better time and place than CES 2013 to release its latest Android-based media offering. With the AMP2000, the multifarious company joins the likes of Hisense and FAVI in the powered-by-Google streaming race -- in which it'll give potential users the ability to wirelessly view files on any HDMI-ready TV set, as well as offering support for applications like Hulu Plus and Netflix. Diamond Multimedia notes the AMP2000 comes "with Google TV," though it doesn't go into much more detail, and thus it's quite unclear whether this means you get the actual Google TV experience -- you know, the one found on devices such as that Vizio Co-Star -- or if it's something a bit more like Always Innovating's HDMI Android dongle. Speaking of the lack of details, mum's the word on how much the AMP2000 will run you when it ships "sometime in March or April," but we can only imagine it to be around the same price as other similar offerings.
Diamond Multimedia intros GC1000 console-friendly real-time HD video capture device
Want to record those epic Modern Warfare shootouts, but don't want to impede your lightning fast reloads? Diamond Multimedia thinks its new GC1000 is just the box you're looking for. The USB HDMI video capture device promises to let you preserve, share (via YouTube and Facebook) and edit your finest gaming moments in 1080i with zero lag, thanks to its video pass-through capability. There's also the GC500, which Diamond refers to as a "lite" version of the GC1000. The main difference, it seems, being the lack of HDMI (both do composite and s-video also). If you're jonesing for the full-fat version, then you can lay down $140 for one from today. Don't need HDMI? Then you'll save yourself $70. Scan the PR after the break for retailers.
Diamond Multimedia outs AMP1000 Android set-top box: Gingerbread-based, 1080p, sells for $120 (update: ICS coming this week)
Diamond Multimedia's more commonly known around the web for selling Mac and PC capture cards (among other things), but as of today, the company's officially entering the set-top box game with its AMP1000. The media player itself is running a not-so-new flavor of Android -- Gingerbread, to be exact -- which will be used to bring a slew of familiar entertainment tidbits to the bigger screen, such as a media player capable of 1080p playback, an evolved internet browser and an oversized photo viewer, as well as other content like games, ebooks and magazines -- all of which can be downloaded from Google's Play repertoire. Although Diamond Multimedia's formally pricing the AMP1000 at $120, there's a Facebook-only offer that knocks the price down to a mere $100. Now, will it be enough to compete with, say, Vizio's $99 Google TV box? We'll let you be the judge of that. Update: Well, in case you weren't fond of the AMP1000's Gingerbread innards, Diamond Multimedia's got something in the works to solve that problem. A company rep has contacted us to let us know Ice Cream Sandwich will be coming to early adopters "later this week," as well as noting that all future units will come with the creamy OS already onboard.
Flaws found in 15,000+ Diamond video cards
There was a time -- back in the mid-'90s -- when Diamond Multimedia was tops in the burgeoning graphics acceleration game. Those days are apparently long gone (and look to stay that way) thanks to recent quality assurance issues affecting many of the company's 512MB Radeon HD 3800 series cards. Those manufactured between January and July of this year are said to suffer problems ranging from a complete lack of power management to plain 'ol "poor soldering." Alienware saw a 10-percent failure rate and shipped back its entire stock, canceling any further dealings with the company. For the record, Diamond doesn't actually manufacture these, acting as a reseller for GeCube, but perhaps was lax in its testing and now is perhaps being lax in its disclosure. The company has indicated that not only is there no problem with its products, its gone so far as to state that "Diamond manufactures the most reliable graphics cards in the industry and our customers' satisfaction is our first priority." Alienware would beg to differ.
Diamond Multimedia announces two ATI All-in-Wonder HD cards
We told you that ATI's reinvigorated All-in-Wonder would be hitting the streets in late July, and sure enough, Diamond Multimedia is first out of the gate with versions of its own. The All-In-Wonder and the All-In-Wonder Premium iterations are both slated to hit reputable e-tailers "soon," with the latter unit including a bundled remote and an input / output board with an array of easy access connections. As expected, each card will boast 512MB of DDR2 memory, a clock speed of 725MHz and a single hybrid tuner for capturing local NTSC / ATSC broadcasts and ClearQAM signals. Unfortunately, the most pressing piece (ahem, price) was omitted.
Diamond Multimedia puts its spin on ATI's HD 600 / HD 650 TV Wonders
Yeah, ATI's 600 / 650 TV Wonders have been around the block a time or two before, but it looks like Diamond Multimedia has chosen today to unveil its versions of the aforementioned products. Available now all across the web, the firm is cranking out seven models between the two flavors, and as expected, each supports ATSC / NTSC, while just a few play nice with Clear-QAM. So far as we can tell, you'll receive the exact same kit with a snazzy Diamond badge, but we suppose there's nothing wrong with that, eh?
Diamond planning HD 2900 XT-based 2GB VFX 2000 pro GPU?
Diamond is no stranger to packin' an awful lot of RAM onto graphics cards, and apparently, the forthcoming VFX 2000 Series Professional Workstation GPU will keep the legacy alive. According to Hot Hardware, Diamond is readying a 2GB (of GDDR4 memory, no less) professional card based on the R600 (now known as the HD 2900 XT), and reportedly, "the card's PCB has been modified from the standard HD 2900 XT reference design to support the workstation-class features inherent to the FireGL line of professional graphics cards." Still, there's no word yet on what frequencies the GPU and RAM will hum along at, but word on the street has this beast launching "in the coming weeks." Click on for another glimpse.
