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Remember Mplayer? The '90s game service is relaunching
If you lived in the '90s and tried to run multiplayer Quake across a 56K modem, you may have fond memories (or not) of MPlayer. The '90s PC gaming service is coming back after being defunct for 15 years, thanks to a company called MPlayer Entertainment. To refresh your memory, MPlayer was a free, ad-supported online community that hosted up to 20 million visitors a month. It ran between 1996 and 2001, and offered over 100 free games, including Quake, Mech Commander and Rogue Spear. It also popularized the idea of VoIP chat between gamers. The ad-supported service was never profitable, however, and was eventually sold to GameSpy, which took it offline in 2001.
Mac App of the Week: MPlayerX offers multi-format playback for OS X
MPlayerX (free) is one of those fabulous utilities like VLC, NicePlayer and MPEG Streamclip that seems to have ended up on my Mac as a must-have playback app. It offers an OS X wrapper around FFmpeg and MPlayer libraries. These enable it to handle a wide range of media codecs without requiring you to install extra packages. The player provides tons of options aimed at the power user. I must be honest, though, and say that 99.999 percent of the time, I play a file, watch it and that's that. If you want more features, the app lets you tweak playback speeds, video aspects, create loops and more. Say, for example, you are watching an out-of sync video, whose audio needs a tiny delay tweak. MPlayerX makes it simple to apply that audio delay directly in the playback window. MPlayerX is tremendously hacker friendly. According to the developer, it integrates with third-party remote functions, offers audio pass-through for home theater compatibility and even supports YouTube video streaming. If you wish to contribute to the MPlayerX project, there's a donate button on the site's main page.
4.3-inch P7 highlights iriver's CES 2009 PMP lineup
It's a little tough to rip our eyes away from the bizarre WAVE-HOME, but the 4.3-inch P7 is a darn good diversion. Said unit is flying high atop iriver's line of portable media players in Vegas this year, packing a 4.3-inch WQVGA (480 x 272) touchscreen, 4/8/16GB of NAND Flash memory, a microSD expansion slot, SRS WOW HD audio enhancement, a battery good for around 50 hours of audio playback, FM radio, voice recorder, seven equalizer presets and a curiously vague "full movie codec support." Following this guy is the E50, E100 Season II and Mplayer Eyes, all of which we had already known of during the run-up to CES. At any rate, all of the official details are just past the break, though pricing and availability are still being sorted.%Gallery-40249%
FLATMII streams games to your Wii, via USB
Nintendo has gone to some lengths to keep one step ahead of the modding community, but to little avail. We've recently seen a product that enables DVD playback on the Wii, and now we've been hepped to FLATMII, a device that plugs into the Wii's drive ribbon, letting you stream ISO backups of your games (or the Gecko OS, Mplayer, emulators and more) from your Windows XP or Vista PC -- which your console now takes for its DVD drive. If you're the sort of sane and sober Wii owner who figures that it is wise and prudent to backup games that you own legally -- the kind who would never ever think of stealing software -- hit that read link. And be sure to catch the video after the break.[Via Max Console]
iriver's Mplayer: now in soul-invading "eyes" version
If you've been tickled or otherwise delighted by the sheer cuteness of iriver's little Mplayer in its multi-colored, gold, or pink-bow variations, this one might send you through the roof. The company has introduced a new riff on its Disney-branded music machine, and it's dubbed the "Mplayer eyes." The device comes sporting ten LED "eyes" (naturally), 2GB of storage, and can be picked up for around $50 in light pink and baby blue. Of course, the player -- which was shown off at this year's IFA -- is only available in Korea right now, but with looks like these, we have a feeling you'll be importing. [Warning: read link is in Korean][Via Akihabara News]
Wii Fanboy poll: Watch any DVDs on your Wii?
When the news broke yesterday about the Mplayer homebrew application, we were quick to try it out for ourselves. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard and before you knew it, we were enjoying the Battlestar Galactica DVD you see above. But what about you all? Did you check it out for yourself? Let your voice be heard in our poll past the break.
Watch and learn: DVD on Wii how-to video
Earlier today, we reported on the better-late-than-never news that DVD playback has come to Wii, thanks to the console's burgeoning homebrew development community. We decided to give the hack a go ourselves and recorded a brief video tutorial of how you too can unlock the immense potential of the Wii's disc drive. Okay ... so you can just watch DVDs, but this is big stuff for Nintendo, folks.The actual process is so simple – and the results, even for a first release, so impressive – that we're boggled by the fact that Nintendo hasn't simply added this functionality to the Disc Channel as part of a system update. It's a matter of downloading a small file, a hombrew video player, copying them to an SD card, and using the Homebrew Channel (a guide to installing which we've posted about previously) to apply a two-second patch. Keep reading after the break for our full impressions. Gallery: Guide to watching DVDs on Wii
The Wii finally gets DVD playback -- no thanks to Nintendo
Carrying on the rich hacker tradition of picking up the slack for companies that are unwilling or unable to provide the functionality users need, a team of Wii coders have given the console what Nintendo could not: DVD playback. By installing a small, hidden channel on a system, this package blesses the console with a libdi file (DVD access library), and allows you to watch your favorite videos with the MPlayer application, an open source media player. The install file will run on modded and unmodded systems, and the software is also capable of playing media from SD cards (though it's experimental right now). Finally Wii owners can join the ranks of, well... pretty much everyone else.[Via TehSkeen; Thanks, brakken]
iriver's Mplayer ties one on
Eww. Clearly, the jaded, nicotine-stained Engadget editor in his big-boy trousers is not the target for the latest incarnation of the iriver Mplayer. While the 1GB innards remain unchanged, iriver has slathered the ¥14,800 (about $137) MP3 player in a healthy crust of Swarovski and silk to invoke the little girl trapped inside us all. Clap clap, bounce bounce, curtsy... a few more samples after the break. [Via AVING]
iriver's KKClay Mplayer ads make even the toughest toddlers cry
Is it us or does iriver's new Mplayer advertising campaign send the wrong message? "Find Pluto and you have found my murderer!" Ceremonial aftermath pictured after the break.Warning: The KKClay will get you too.
Apple TV linux bootloader
If the native hackability of the version of OS X on the Apple TV isn't enough for you, there's now a convenient boot loader that allows you to install linux. This also opens up the possibility of running linux based video software, particularly MPlayer, Myth TV, and XMBC. Further, since there are linux drivers for the NVIDIA hardware decoder in the Apple TV there's also the possibility of higher resolution 1080i output as opposed to the 720p it's normally limited to. Unfortunately, this is project is still in the early stages and none of this is working perfectly yet. Nonetheless, it's a interesting development on the Apple TV hacking front.[via Apple TV Hacks]
iriver gets in touch with its inner pink
We're not exactly sure what the special event is -- Breast Cancer Awareness Month isn't until October -- but we suppose you can celebrate the joy of pink whenever the mood strikes. Iriver is busting out pink versions for a bunch of its players, including the clix, MPlayer, D5 and recently-launched E100. Apparently a set of pink colored pencils is also included as a free "gift" with the purchase of any of these units, which should come in handy for that Precious Moments diptych we were thinking of doing.
iriver's new APlayer, Volcano and MPlayer Season II DAPs
We had some inklings about these ones, but iriver is taking the covers off its new fashion-centric DAP lineup. The APlayer already ran away with our hearts with its sexy looks, and while it lacks a screen, the FM tuner, voice recording and 8GB max capacity almost make up for it. The player is controlled with iriver's SPINN Lite dial, and also comes in 2GB and 4GB capacities. Next up is the Volcano (pictured after the break), a "minimalist" USB stick player that features a small screen and otherwise similar features and capacities to the APlayer, along with multiple color choices. Last up is the MPlayer Season II player, which looks to be just the new selection of colors for the existing 1GB Mickey Mouse flash player we've already seen floating around. No word on price or availability for any of these, but if that APlayer doesn't make it to the States we're going to cry.
iriver's new Mplayer stash raids the rainbow
Maybe we're not Korean enough to catch the appeal, but it seems like somebody is buying these Disney-branded Mplayers from iriver: the company just released ten new colors for the player in addition to the existing five available. Despite our stodgy form-factor reservations, we've gotta admit that it's a pretty sexy palette. No word on prices or capacities, so we'll just assume they're still sporting 1GB capacities and a $50-ish pricetag. There's another shot after the break.
iRiver's Mickey Mouse Mplayer gets unboxed, reviewed
We know you've all been waiting with bated breath for someone to get their hands on iRiver's Disney sanctioned Mickey Mouse Mplayer music jockey and unbox the hell out of it. Well, luckily for you, Pocketables is just as excited about the tiny, cartoon-shaped DAP as you are, and they've given us a full breakdown of the school-girl's dream gadget. Point yourself to the read link for a proper box thrashing and semi-unimpressed review.
iriver's Disney Mplayer puts Mickey ears to good use
Aww, isn't that cute? We get warm fuzzies just looking at this mouse ears MP3 player that iriver is building for Disney, creatively dubbed the Mplayer. Sure, ergonomics are pretty much a no-go, same for pockeability, but at least the controls shouldn't be too hard to figure out, and we don't figure iriver is going to be charging too terribly much for the privilege of ownership. No word on internals, or much more launch info than "this month," but somewhere in the 512MB to 2GB-ish range seems a shoe-in for flash memory capacity. Even better news is that iriver is unveiling this one in a sort of series, which started with the NV at "-2," was followed by the D5 at "-1" and has this Disney player repping the "+1" slot. Two more days of fresh iriver goodies? Sign us up.Read - iriver promoRead - Press shotsRead - Hands on pictures