Sony debuts DVD Walkman
Sony will offer Japanese consumers a Walkman-branded portable DVD player on 1 June, the consumer electronics giant said today. The tablet-style device sports a 7in LCD and a bundled recharging station with integrated stereo speakers.
The player, dubbed the D-VE7000S, weighs 775g and measures 19.3 x 13.6 x 3.3cm - roughly the same size as a DVD case. The screen is a 480 x 234 job with a 180° viewing angle, Sony claimed. It has a pair of built in 450mW speakers and the usual earphone socket.
The Walkman can handle any DVD and CD disc, including recordables and rewriteables and the newly announced DVD+RW dual-layer format. It can read and playback MP3 files on data discs. It supports Dolby Digital and DTS audio tracks.
The built-in battery takes three hours to take on a full charge, Sony said. With the backlight on, you can watch discs for around three hours - if you can still see the screen with the backlight off, you'll get seven hours' playback duration, the company said.
Sony did not set a price for the D-VE7000S, but it's expected by local newssites to retail for around ¥35,000 ($296/£168/€243).
Sony will offer Japanese consumers a Walkman-branded portable DVD player on 1 June, the consumer electronics giant said today. The tablet-style device sports a 7in LCD and a bundled recharging station with integrated stereo speakers.
The player, dubbed the D-VE7000S, weighs 775g and measures 19.3 x 13.6 x 3.3cm - roughly the same size as a DVD case. The screen is a 480 x 234 job with a 180° viewing angle, Sony claimed. It has a pair of built in 450mW speakers and the usual earphone socket.
The Walkman can handle any DVD and CD disc, including recordables and rewriteables and the newly announced DVD+RW dual-layer format. It can read and playback MP3 files on data discs. It supports Dolby Digital and DTS audio tracks.
The built-in battery takes three hours to take on a full charge, Sony said. With the backlight on, you can watch discs for around three hours - if you can still see the screen with the backlight off, you'll get seven hours' playback duration, the company said.
Sony did not set a price for the D-VE7000S, but it's expected by local newssites to retail for around ¥35,000 ($296/£168/€243).
[break=Panasonic Offers $100 DVD Player With Upconversion/HDMI]
Panasonic offers high-definition DVD upscaling for $100
Following Samsung's lead, Panasonic will be offering a $100 DVD player with the ability to upconvert the picture to 720p/1080i, according to HDBeat. Though this is not Panasonic's first upconverting DVD player, it is the first to be priced at the $100 level from the company.
The DVD-S52 is just a regular DVD player with upconversion. It features standard component video output and digital/analog audio outputs along with the addition of an HDMI output for high definition televisions that accept HDMI input. The output resolution through HDMI is limited to 720p but the player also supports 1080i through component video output.
Audio features include Dolby 5.1 Digital and DTS decoding and the DVD-S52 supports DVD-R, CD-R, and CD-RW media only. It would have been nice to see them expand support to all DVD formats but what more can we expect from a $100 device? The DVD-S52 supports the standard MP3, WMA, and JPEG file formats and also adds MPEG4 playback capabilities which many other DVD players do not have.
With Blu-ray and HD-DVD players entering the market we should be seeing current technologies getting price-cuts, especially lower end DVD players such as Panasonic's DVD-S52.
Samsung also has a $100 DVD player with upconversion and HDMI output which supports the full array of DVD media as well as VCD and SVCD movie formats. It however does not support MPEG4 playback. Toshiba is also in the running with its SD-4980. Choosing between the three, for me at least, would come down to the supported media and file formats.
Following Samsung's lead, Panasonic will be offering a $100 DVD player with the ability to upconvert the picture to 720p/1080i, according to HDBeat. Though this is not Panasonic's first upconverting DVD player, it is the first to be priced at the $100 level from the company.
The DVD-S52 is just a regular DVD player with upconversion. It features standard component video output and digital/analog audio outputs along with the addition of an HDMI output for high definition televisions that accept HDMI input. The output resolution through HDMI is limited to 720p but the player also supports 1080i through component video output.
Audio features include Dolby 5.1 Digital and DTS decoding and the DVD-S52 supports DVD-R, CD-R, and CD-RW media only. It would have been nice to see them expand support to all DVD formats but what more can we expect from a $100 device? The DVD-S52 supports the standard MP3, WMA, and JPEG file formats and also adds MPEG4 playback capabilities which many other DVD players do not have.
With Blu-ray and HD-DVD players entering the market we should be seeing current technologies getting price-cuts, especially lower end DVD players such as Panasonic's DVD-S52.
Samsung also has a $100 DVD player with upconversion and HDMI output which supports the full array of DVD media as well as VCD and SVCD movie formats. It however does not support MPEG4 playback. Toshiba is also in the running with its SD-4980. Choosing between the three, for me at least, would come down to the supported media and file formats.