player on technabob...

Digital Trends have reviewed Panasonic’s DMP-B15, The world’s first portable Blu-ray player. So is it worth the $800 USD price tag? Well, the player does get a 7 (out of 10 I guess), but after reading the review my short answer has to be NO.

I’m not saying that Digital Trends’ review was biased or anything. From a technical standpoint,…

If you’re planning on buying an MP3 player but your knowledge only goes as far as “iPod, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, iPod shuffle, everything else…”, then you should check out anything but iPod’s guide to buying mp3 players. The article breaks down the discussion by reminding us of the essential aspects of an MP3 player, such as sound quality, physical…

With a name like U27, this all-in-one desktop audio system may sound like some sort of old German submarine, but its looks are clearly inspired more by Apollo 13 than by Das Boot.

The system combines both an MP3 player and a compact speaker system in a single conical device. Just plug it into an outlet, add your tunes on an…

Your fancy new iPod might have a touchscreen and Wi-fi, but I’m pretty sure it can’t do this. Not only does the iBird-1000 MP3 Player look like a bowtied penguin wearing headphones (I couldn’t make this stuff up), it can move its mouth and “sing” along with your music.

In addition to flapping its yellow beak, the bird has blinking…

I was checking out the bargain basement tech over on DealExtreme this morning, and came across this oddity. According to the manufacturer, what we’ve got here is an MP5, yes M-P-FIVE player.

As far as I know, there is no official MP5 file format. As best I can tell is that this is just some sort of marketing hooey, designed…

Oppo Digital, makers of the famed DV-971H upscaling DVD player has just released a new player, the DV-980H. This one claims to be the first to offer both 7.1 channel audio and upconversion to a full 1080p resolution.

The DV-980H supports Dolby Digital Surround EX, which adds the surround back speaker channels, giving the player a leg up over traditional…

Thanks to a branding deal between Disney and iRiver, digital audio players are about to get a whole lot goofier looking.

The kid-friendly Disney Mplayer features a bubbly personality inspired by Mickey Mouse’s famous ears. Playback and volume controls are cleverly integrated into the ear designs.
While the images above might give you a sense of what these players look…

This goofy digital music player from Bandai isn’t really an MP3 player in the traditional sense.

Released for the 10-year anniversary of the popular electronic pet franchise, the $115 Tamagotchi Music Fever player doesn’t connect to your computer. Instead the quirky music player can only directly import music (up to 120 minutes) from a CD player or other audio source.…

Pioneer today revealed their latest Blu-ray disc player, the Elite BDP-94HD.

The BDP-94HD is a true second-generation Blu-ray player, featuring such niceties as CEC to control other devices control over HDMI cable. The player also has full support for Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 channel audio. In addition, Pioneer has included their Home Media Gallery feature that allows…

With all the recent buzz about how Blu-ray is leading HD DVD in the high definition “format war,” there’s a new wildcard that could shake things up.

While Sony certainly has a leg up on the race with millions of PlayStation 3 consoles out there, one big road block to broad adoption of either high definition disc format is the…

This minimal CD player design looks really beautiful on the surface, with a case made from solid walnut and matching speakers to go with it. The design actually exposes half of the CD during playback, which seems highly impractical and downright dangerous.

While it certainly looks cool to have the CD stick out of the player, I wouldn’t want to…

With just about every device from cell phones to watches embedding portable media players these days, I thought it might be fun (and maybe a little bit educational) to take a walk down memory lane and examine the evolution the portability of music and media over the last 50-odd years.
Regency TR-1
Back in 1954, I.D.E.A. released the very first portable…

According to a report over at PC World, Toshiba may be announcing new HD DVD players as early as next week’s CES show in Las Vegas. In addition, price drops may be coming soon.

When asked about the possibility of upcoming price reductions, Toshiba CEO Yoshihide Fujii was quoted as saying: “At first I thought the price threshold is $499.…

The folks over at Home Theater Blog got their grubby little mitts on a Toshiba’s second generation HD DVD player, the HD-XA2 and we’re pleased to hear that the horrifically slow load times of the first generation HD-A1 and HD-XA1 appear to be a thing of the past.

The new $499 model is reported to load discs in under 20…

OPPO Digital, makers of arguably the best upscaling DVD player ever made, has just released a new version of the player, complete with a variety of new features.

The $229 OPPO DV-981HD is an updated version of the award-winning DV971H player. For starters, the 981 includes an HDMI digital output, rather than the DVI output featured on the original model.…