Pioneer’s DV-420V upscaling DVD player somehow makes MP3s sound better

Pioneer already blew out its good stuff this morning, but it saved this gem for a little afternoon delight. The DV-420V 1080p upconverting DVD player not only makes your existing DVD collection look its best, but it’s the first deck to feature “an exclusive MP3 encoding capability for supreme music portability.” Oddly enough, those are pretty much the only details we’re given on the subject, but the front-panel USB port enables playback of DivX files and JPEG shots if you find that of interest. We’re thinking not, so you can feel free to save your $90 when it ships this summer.

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Pioneer’s DV-420V upscaling DVD player somehow makes MP3s sound better originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s DVD-H1080 looks like a large pebble, plays DVDs

While Samsung‘s design may be changing in the Blu-ray player department, its latest DVD player pays homage to last year’s DVD-F1080. The all new, very pebble-like DVD-H1080 touts the company’s Touch of Color design, weighs just over two pounds and is only marginally bigger than the DVDs it will one day play. As expected, the deck features 1080p upscaling to go along with the USB host function which adds support for DivX, MP3 and JPEG files. There’s nary a word on price, but it should be landing at your favorite (and least favorite, for the record) retailer in the first half of 2009.

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Samsung’s DVD-H1080 looks like a large pebble, plays DVDs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Roku digital video player adding Amazon Video On Demand

Roku owners looking to go discless are one step closer, now that Amazon Video On Demand will be available on the box after a free software update in early 2009. Fulfilling the promise of more “big name” providers to come, flicks like The Dark Knight, Pineapple Express or any of Amazon’s 40,000 other titles can be purchased and played back to the TV for a 24 hour window. The bad news? Max bitrate is an h.264 compressed 1200Kbps. Not bad if SD only is your bag, but we’re even more eagerly awaiting another Amazon VOD HD rumor.

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Roku digital video player adding Amazon Video On Demand originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Win a Big Box of Awesome from BenSpark!


Ambient Fire DVDNo, no, it’s not a box with me in it.

Fellow photog and all-around cool guy Drew has decided to clean out his collection of fun stuff by giving it away to one lucky winner! Here’s a snippet from the supplier of awesome himself:

This is a box of mysterious stuff that I collected, amassed, was given, begged, borrowed and stole. This is a box of Awesome that I am going to give to one lucky reader. I’ll be revealing a few of the items that are in the box in the next few days. There is a lot of stuff in the box. You can already see that there is a T-Shirt in the box. Are there more? What else is there? How can you win?

The answers to these questions can be discovered by simply entering the contest and waiting for the winner to be announced.

Go on now, why are you still here? The Big Box of Awesome awaits!

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