Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Now here’s a portable DVD player that’s a bit more useful. Instead of being restricted to just playing movies that come on a plastic disc, it also gives you access to all the movies, TV shows and music you might have on your iPod. The 8 1/2 inch widescreen LCD display is a lot easier to watch than the rather compact one the iPod features, and it makes it a lot easier for more than one person to enjoy. The iPod slides into the front of the player and is protected by a clear plastic cover, and I assume it can be then controlled using the DVD player’s included remote since the touch wheel is inaccessible.

On a 5 hour charge the battery pack is good for about 3 hours of DVD playback, or about 4 hours of iPod video playback, and it also charges the iPod while in use. Other features include an AV out port for connecting the player to an external display, dual headphone jacks and support for DVDs, VCDs, CDs and MP3 CDs. You can get it from Hammacher Schlemmer for $269.95.

[ The Portable iPod Video Enlarger And DVD Player ] VIA [ Gear Live ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Companies like Tonka and Fisher-Price have made a name for themselves when it comes to designing toys that can survive the abuse of a small child. But with today’s kids becoming more and more tech-savvy, it only makes sense that in recent years they’ve expanded to making easy-to-use but hard-to-destroy electronics like digital cameras. Continuing with that trend, Fisher-Price is now selling a ‘Kid-Tough’ portable DVD player that features a rubberized shell and shock & skip-proof technology allowing it to survive multiple drops at the hands of a pre-schooler. The 3.2-inch LCD display isn’t gigantic by any stretch of the imagination, but it gives the player about 2 hours of battery life which should make any kid who’s stuck in a car seat more than happy. But that small screen size also means the DVD player can’t really be shared, so the $149.98 price tag is kind of steep if you have more than one kid to distract.

[ Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Portable DVD Player ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re in the market for a portable DVD player, I say go big or go home. This laptop-sized Monster Screen portable DVD player features a 12.5 inch LCD display with a half-decent resolution of 800×600. (More than enough for a DVD movie.) And besides DVDs, the Monster can also play VCDs as well as MPEG-4, AVI, DIVX and XVID videos whether they’re burned to a disc or loaded via a USB flash drive or an SD card.

And if you get tired of watching movies the Monster also features a built-in TV tuner for VHF-L, VHF-H and UHF frequencies, as well as a couple of video game controllers designed to be used with its NES emulator. (You’ll need to supply the ROMs.) While it’s claimed that the built-in battery can provide “hours of fun”, with a 12.5 inch LCD display I’d actually be impressed if it made it through a 2 hour movie. You can get it from Chinavision for about $200 if you’re just interested in a single unit.

[ Monster Screen 12.5 Inch Portable DVD Player with Games ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I rarely watch videos or movies on the go, but it’s mostly because I can’t be bothered reformatting or converting them into a format that’ll play on any of my devices. The Aigo Patriot MV5920 however appears to play all formats including VOBs, Divx, MPEG etc. at a resolution of up to 1280 x 720. Unfortunately the display is just 480 x 272, but being able to play back a file that large without you having to downconvert it first is pretty convenient.

All of your media is stored on the MV5920’s 160GB hard drive, and it can also serve as a mobile DVR capturing over-the-air D1 video streams. You can even use the device to stream audio and video since it includes Wifi, but I doubt it has a web browser given the lack of keyboard and touch screen. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera, support for most digital audio formats (no FLAC), a 2300 mAH rechargeable lithium battery and as always, an e-book reader that only supports the TXT format. If you can find one, it will set you back about $429.

[ Aigo Patriot MV5920 ] VIA [ PMP Today ]

By Evan Ackerman

We’ve written about pico projectors a whole bunch in the past, but the SunView portable media player appears to be one of the first commercially available products to contain one. Demoed at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, the PMPP (that extra “P” stands for “projector,” of course) is a relatively small 133mm x 79mm x 25mm device features at 3.5″ touchscreen, rechargeable battery, speaker, SD slot, and remote control. The highlight is of course the projector, which can illuminate a 53″ screen at 9 lux with a full color gamut VGA (640 x 480) image.

It sounds pretty good, but how well does it work? We’ll have to wait for someone to get their hands on one to find out, although based on our experience with pico projectors at CES, you’ll need a pretty dark place in order to see anything but the most contrasty of images.

Although the SunView PMPP is purportedly available in limited quantities, there’s no word on pricing yet.

VIA [ Display Daily ]

By Evan Ackerman

The one thing I miss about radio is being exposed to new music. I like all the songs on my iPod, but now that I have an established music collection, I rarely add to it. The Slacker WiFi portable radio acts like a cross between your iPod and the radio (sort of like, I don’t know, XM?), letting you access radio stations (or create personalized ones) over the internet, in addition to playing music that you already own. The neat thing is that the Slacker will buffer your radio stations on its HD, so you don’t have to be connected to the internet all the time in order to be listening to new music.

As you might expect, there is a monthly subscription cost to take full advantage of the radio service. The basic radio is free, but includes a ‘limited number’ of ads, and you can only skip 6 songs per hour. The price for premium radio is $7.50 a month, and for that, there are no ads, you can skip all the songs you want, and if you like something, you can save it from the radio onto your player. The player itself features 10 hour battery life, a 4″ screen, 802.11 b/g WiFi, and weighs 5 oz. A 2gb model (with 500mb for personal music, 1.5gb for radio music) will cost you $200, or you can get a 4gb (1.5gb personal music) for $250 and an 8gb (4gb personal music) for $300. Not too bad if you ask me, although I’ve never been a big fan of subscription based music.

[ Slacker Portable ] VIA [ Electronista ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ll admit there’s not much in terms of features that makes this new portable DVD player from Plezo really stand out. But if you’re looking for a player that does everything, the PPD-1920S seems fairly robust when it comes to functionality. The 9.2 inch screen is relatively large for a portable player, and it’s able to swivel up to 270 degrees, allowing it to be flipped around and used as a tablet player. If you’re wondering how big 9.2 inches really is, just use the round DVD tray lid on the player as a size reference.

It also supports Divx, which is a must-have feature for any video capable media device these days. And it can presumably play those videos off an MMC or SD card thanks to a dedicated slot, or a flash drive since it also includes a USB port. From what I can tell the player even includes AV in and out connections for watching the videos on a larger display, or using the PPD-1920s itself as a display for another external device.

It’s currently available in the Korean and Japanese markets for about $362.

[ Plezo PPD-1920S Portable DVD Player ] VIA [ Mobilewhack ]

By David Ponce

On paper, I suppose it makes sense:

1. StealGet inspired by the iPod nano’s look.
2. Shove a 2MP camera on the back.
3. Profit!

That’s the kind of ballsy capitalist innovation we like to see, and we’re certain that BTL International is going to ride its creative streak to fame and fortune in no time. Heck, their M2406 even has a couple specs that we wouldn’t mind seeing in the original:

It can play AVI videos, and MP3, WMA, WMV and WAV audio files. It has a 2.4-inch TFT screen (220×176 pixels, 262,000 colors), a built-in speaker and six EQ settings. Internal memory ranges from 128MB to 4GB, all flash, and can be supplemented with miniSD cards.

Of course, by now you’ve probably realized this company is based in China (official Home Of The Knockoff), and that we’re not entirely sure how to get shipment on this, nor how much we’d expect to pay for one. Still, the device is out there somewhere.

[ Link To Similar Model, Without Camera ] VIA [ Coolest-Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While the debate continues over whether or not a video can actually be enjoyed on a screen this small, manufacturers don’t seem to care. Instead they just keep churning out newer and better video-capable watches, and at cheaper prices. The latest model manages to add an FM broadcaster to the long list of features, which can be used with audio files or the audio portion of MP4 videos.

At 1.8 inches in size the OLED screen has a resolution of just 160×128 pixels, but on the plus side that tiny screen means you can enjoy about 4 hours of video playback on a full charge. (Or 7 if you stick to just audio and keep the screen off.) The built-in 4GB of memory is not too bad either, particularly when you consider how small a 160×128 video must be, and supported file formats include MP3, WMA, MP4 (audio and video), JPGs and e-books.

The watch is available from Gadget-USB.com for just $126.

[ Wrist Watch MP4 Player With FM Transmitter, 4GB ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]