By Evan Ackerman

You probably keep your old VCR around because of that pile of VHS tapes that you still have. But come on, are you really going to go through all the hassle of rewinding a tape just to watch Labyrinth in lousy quality one more time? Yeah, true, I totally would. Anyway, you should relegate that entire technology system to the garage or the basement and replace it with something that’s relevant in this day and age: a media center PC. And just to make the transition easier for you, it’s a media center PC that looks just like a VCR.

Currently available from Maplin in the UK, this is a barebones system, meaning that you get to stick your own operating system, hard drive, and optical drive into it. But it does come with a Intel motherboard and processor, a wireless card, a bunch of inputs and outputs, and a TV tuner. Only problem is, it’s a European tuner, which means you’re either gonna have to run a really really really long cable, or find some way of swapping it out for something that’s relevant in the civilized part of the world.

The VCR barebones media center PC is $212 plus shipping.

[ Maplin ] VIA [ RFJ ]

By Evan Ackerman

Minidiscs used to be the coolest things ever. The players were tiny and awesome, and technology itself was miles ahead of the CD if for no other reason than most Minidisc players could also record. Plus, the little disc cartridges were pretty slick. A company called Vmedia is trying to convince netbook manufacturers that bite-size optical media is still relevant, and that Vmedia drives are worthwhile additions their computers.

Vmedia discs are similar to Minidiscs in appearance, but they’re actually even smaller, measuring only 36mm x 36mm (Minidiscs are not quite twice that size). They can hold 1 or 2 gigs of data and are optionally rewritable. This is all well and good, but Vmedia’s biggest competitor is probably going to be SD cards, which are smaller, cheaper, faster, more reliable, more reusable, and have significantly higher capacities. Why does Vmedia think they stand a chance? They’ll tell you, after the jump.

So why buy a Vmedia disc over an SD Card with preloaded content, like SanDisk is attempting with music and its slotMusic platform?

“Cost is one advantage of VMedia. We are manufactured the same way as optical discs are,” [Marketing VP Wendy] Volan said. “SD is a fantastic medium, particularly as a recordable medium for your photos, music, and video. But the thing that needs to happen, especially in terms of the SD slot, is the industry must develop a standard.” She explained that many consumers think that if they have an SD Card slot and an SD Card with video, it will play. “We really need to get to a point where you have a player that can play it all. Any Vmedia disc can play back from a Vmedia drive.”

And as for the upsell over downloadable content, “Vmedia is about is customer choice. Right now we are in a time when consumers have a lot of choices in how they can consume media and on the mobile side there are fewer choices. The shift to downloaded video is going to take quite a while, and Vmedia fills that gap right now,” Volan said.

While it’s true that we’re not yet at the point where we have ubiquitous access to streaming media, I think a brand new proprietary format that requires significant hardware integration is not the answer. Yes, it would great to be able to watch movies on my netbook, and yes, I think making netbooks with conventional optical drives isn’t the solution. But I’m not willing to pay a premium for hardware and media that will allow me to do that and not much else, and that will be rendered obsolete as soon as mobile broadband (WiMax or 4G) becomes a reality (I’m bullish on that). In the meantime, I’m willing to either rip my DVDs and stick them on my netbook directly, or just suffer and read a newspaper or something.

[ Vmedia ] VIA [ Laptopmag ]

By Evan Ackerman

After all the uproar about HD DVD and Blu-ray, with Blu-ray claiming the final victory, you have to wonder what exactly the victory consisted of. According to Laurie Fincham, Chief Scientist at THX (the high-fidelity sound reproduction standard), “It’s too late for Blu-ray. We don’t really need another spinning format… I think consumers will only become interested in replacing DVD when HD movies become available on flash memory.”

I have not bought into any high definition disc system, nor do I plan to. Why not? Well, I never thought it was worth the expense or the hassle. The point that Fincham is making is that Blu-ray is just not enough of a step forward to really get the attention of the market. The transition from VCR tapes to DVDs made a lot of sense, if for no other reason than you can’t skip around a tape (plus they take up lots of space). But the difference between DVDs and Blu-ray discs is nowhere near so dramatic… You can just fit more stuff on ‘em, the functionality isn’t materially changed.

The big deal, of course, is the high def resolution. At the moment, Blu-ray is the way to go if you want to watch a movie in 1080p. The problem, according to Fincham, is that the optical disc is relatively large, fragile, and expensive, and fixed media is definitely on the way out, even now. A dual layer Blu-ray disc holds 50gb of data. Sure, that’s a lot right now, but it won’t be a lot for long, as flash memory prices continue to decrease while capacities increase:

“In the future I want to be able to carry four to five movies around with me in a wallet, or walk into a store and have someone copy me a movie to a USB device. Stores will like that idea, because it’s all about having zero inventory. I don’t want to take up shelf space with dozens of HD movies “By the time Blu-ray really finds a mass market, we will have 128GB cards. I would guess that getting studios to supply movies on media cards, or offer downloads, will be a lot easier than getting them to sign up to support a disc format.”

Fincham doesn’t touch on the issue of streaming HD content over the internet, which I think is probably the biggest long-term threat to the Blu-ray format… But either way, since I can’t actually afford an HD TV, much less a Blu-ray player or discs, I’m just gonna stick with my DVDs, thank you very much.

[ DVDTown ] VIA [ DVICE ]