Sony unveils 'video iPod'

[girlgeek]

Hey Mike, any interest here? I have the 20GB iPod MP3 player, and I love it. Looks like this one might have some potential.

By Tony Smith
Posted: 11/11/2003 at 11:14 GMT

Portable video player
Sony has launched a portable personal digital video player under its Vaio brand in Japan . The GigaPocket PCVA-HVP20 features a 20GB hard drive, enough to hold up to 31 hours of programming - if you're pretty frugal with image quality, natch.

The GigaPocket is a compact 12 x 8.4 x 2.8cm (4.8 x 3.4 x 1.1in) and sports a 3.5in backlit TFT LCD screen. The unit supports the MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 video compression standards, and it's the former, running at a 1.41Mbps compression rate) that yields those 31 hours of programme storage.

The 300g (10.6oz) device also supports (sort of) AVI (DV) and WMV format video, but these have to be sourced separately and transferred to the GigaPocket via its USB 2.0 connector. These two formats are converted to 4Mbps MPEG 2 - a little short of DVD quality - on the fly as they're sent over from a PC.

Alas, the GigaPocket can only handle four hours of programming per file. And you need to add a separate TV tuner module to the device to allow it to operate without a PC as a content source.

Built inside the HVP20 is a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery offering around four hours' playback time. The device also offers a TV out connector. It ships with a pair of stereo earphones.

The HVP20 goes on sale in Japan on 22 November. Sony has yet to set a price, but it is expected to retail for around ¥50,000; ($460/£275).

http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/products/picture/large/PCVA-HVP20.jpg

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/33912.html

[Mike AI]

That is awesome.... I love SONY products!!!


:rokk:

[girlgeek]

Originally posted by Mike AI@Nov 12 2003, 09:51 AM
That is awesome.... I love SONY products!!!


:rokk:
Me too. That 31 hours of video will certainly come in handy on those trans-Atlantic flights. :okthumb:

[confucy]

girlgeek, one of the interesting topics you had on your blog was the comparison of computers a few months ago. What laptop are you using these days? Are you an Apple Geek?

I never thought I would consider anything other than a Sony or a Toshiba, but there are some fantastic choices to consider.

[girlgeek]

Toshiba has been putting out some real crap lately, their quality assurance has gone way down. If you buy one, buy a warranty.

I have four laptops. As I have said earlier, I primarily use my IBM Thinkpad X31 running XP and FreeBSD. I have a Apple 15" G4 Powerbook, a Gateway Solo running RedHat, and a Dell running Win2K. I like all of them, but the IBM is only 3lbs, so it gets the most use.

For regular use, the Apple OS still wins in my book. You can't beat its stability. That's probably because OS X is based on a FreeBSD kernel. However, I live and work in the real world, and Windows is a necessary evil.

[Mike AI]

Check this out http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...er_031112140212 (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031112/tc_afp/japan_it_sony_computer_031112140212)

As I said, I love Sony!!

[girlgeek]

Are you trying to sweet talk me? Between you and Hell Puppy, what's a girl to do? :inlove:

It sounds good, Mike. I am a big fan of lightweight notebooks, even if I have to sacrifice a little power. If I want to do some real powerhouse computing, I can always go to my desktops.

This one sounds sweet, but I hate that they dangle these new products and don't give any of the spec details on announcement. At least let me know what kind of CPU it's going to run, so I don't wait for something to come out and just end up disappointed.

[Hell Puppy]

Soon we're going to need a batman utility belt for geeks without even counting the laptop:

cellphone
pda
mp3 player
video player
gameboy advanced sp
minidv or microdv cam
elph or similar for quality stills

and of course they all use different types of media and different size batteries, so you gotta have a place for those too!

[girlgeek]

Originally posted by Hell Puppy@Nov 12 2003, 07:54 PM
Soon we're going to need a batman utility belt for geeks without even counting the laptop:

cellphone
pda
mp3 player
video player
gameboy advanced sp
minidv or microdv cam
elph or similar for quality stills

and of course they all use different types of media and different size batteries, so you gotta have a place for those too!
:blink: :blink: :blink:

What? You mean you don't have yours, yet?

/me wanders off to ponder Hell Puppy's dilemma...

[Hell Puppy]

The real fun is having to turn all of this stuff on for the security folx at the airport...