Hasta La Gadget!

For those who haven’t upgraded to a Blu-ray player yet, your patience has been rewarded. Onkyo has introduced the DV-BD507, a Blu-ray player that goes beyond just showing movies.

This player support BD-Live (Profile 2.0) which provides enhanced interactivity when connected to the Internet. You’ll get additional and updated content instantly when viewing supported discs. Use it with an optional 1GB (or greater) SD/SDHC card and you’ll get picture-in-picture capabilities when viewing the main feature.

The DV-BD507 includes several other high-end features, including 1080p video playback, multichannel audio over HDMI 1.3a, and scaling of lower-definition sources to 1080p. It can also play standard DVDs and CDs, as well as AVCHD clips from an SD/SDHC card or DVD-R/RW.

You can pick up the DV-BD507 now for the list price of $449.

I interviewed famous comedians, chatted up comic legends, got yelled at by a Vulcan, and ate my weight in Southern Californian burritos… But after all is said and done, I can’t really think of a better or more appropriate way to have spent the final day of Comic-Con than having a quick chat with Adam West. The former Gotham City billionaire is hilarious–insanely hilarious, with an emphasis on insane. In fact, a quick conversation with West led me to suspect that his mayor role on Family Guy isn’t entirely fiction. Holy typecasting, Batman?

Unlike a certain Mr. Nimoy, when I told West where I worked, he didn’t call the cops. Instead he asked if I was sure that I wasn’t from The Onion, and whether or not I would feature transsexuals in the video. When I assured him I wouldn’t, he happily took a couple of minutes to chat–and to plug “Adam West Naked,” a DVD that promised to shed some light on the actor’s days as a caped crusader.

For the record, I didn’t pick up one of his $40 signed photos, but I did promise to plug his Web site. You made my day, Mr. West, it’s the least I could do.

Considering that we’re still waiting patiently for any company (we’re looking at you, Call/Recall) to produce a commercially viable holographic storage solution, we’re required to tackle Millenniata’s newest assertion with a sprinkle of skepticism. The claim? It’s specially lubricated, fortified and homogenized Millennial Disk is said to last some 1,000 years, making it the world’s finest and most longevous archive solution. If it’s legitimate. We’re told that digital information is carved into layers of hard, “persistent” materials, and somehow, those carvings are able to stay fresh and readable for more years than you care to count. Still, we reckon the robot apocalypse will be in full effect by the time 3009 rolls around, so even if it only lives up to half of its claims, we’ll still be impressed.

[Via Slashdot]

Filed under: Storage

Millenniata’s Millennial Disk should last longer than you, your memory originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s some 60 percent smaller in size, but other than that Sony’s new VRD-MC6 DVDirect looks and acts an awful lot like the previous VRD-MC10 and VRD-MC5: it can take 1080i video with 5.1 audio off your Handycam’s drive or Memory Stick and shoot out an AVCHD DVD that plays back on compatible Blu-ray drives like the PS3. If you’re not into the all-Sony seamless end-to-end HD experience, you can also bring in SD video over FireWire, composite, or USB to churn out regular old DVDs with automatic chaptering and custom menu backgrounds, or you can go totally old-school and just drop in an SD card full of photos and MP3s to generate a slideshow. Yeah, it’s not nerd heaven and you won’t be editing Oscar-winners here, but at $230 it’s a pretty painless way for everyone else to archive and share their videos. Ships in September.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video

Sony’s latest DVDirect camcorder-to-DVD recorder creates AVCHD DVDs with 5.1 sound originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I should tell you that there’s talk of turning the Cheap Geek column into a network sitcom. So far it’s just me talking to myself, but I think that qualifies.

1. You don’t need a new computer to view Blu-ray discs. Just update your machine with this internal drive from LG. A high-def powerhouse, it views and burns Blu-ray DVDs, and even shows HD-DVDs. If you bought some HD-DVDs before that format lost the war, you’ll still have a way to view them with this drive. NewEgg.com has it for $179.99 with free shipping.

2. You won’t believe what $40 will get you from Staples.com today. It’s selling refurbished Brother MFC-665CW printers for $39.99 after rebate, with free shipping. Yes, this multifunction has looks that only an office manager could love, but it provides printing, faxing, scanning, a built-in answering machine, and WiFi (802.11b/g) connectivity. It’s everything your office needs for a super-low price.

3. Sometimes the deals in this column cost a bit of money (like the HDTVs), but here’s one everyone can afford. Meritline.com is selling an iPhone screen protector and cleaning cloth for $0.69. To get that price, you’ll need to enter coupon code MLC262010. It even gets free shipping. Now that’s a deal.