There is a cool new class of digital media players out there that really appeals to me. I have 2 ReplayTV’s and I love them. They are networked with each other and I love the freedom of having my TV in a flexible digital format. I have always wanted to take it with me without the hassle of carrying a laptop, and all the accoutrement that goes with getting picture on a TV screen. Several companies now have digital media players that function like portable (playback only) Tivos, and look a lot like an external USB hard drive.

There is the Mediagate MG-25 Multimedia Jukebox, a portable MPEG-4 player, complete with IR remote control. There is a nice review and lots of pictures on Akihabara. This device supports a multitude of video and audio formats, including MPEG 1,2 and 4, Divx, MP3, Ogg, WMA, jpeg. It also has the ability to play back video in VOB containers, the format of choice for DVD’s. This unit comes without a hard drive installed.

Iomega has a device called the Screenplay Multimedia Drive. Just like the Mediagate, it is also capable of playing many popular formats. While I found one review of the ScreenPlay that states that it can read VOB containers, the information on the Iomega site doesn’t mention it. The ScreenPlay comes with a 60Gb hard drive.

UniBrain has the iZak Portable Mediacenter. Mostly the same feature set as the others, but also has the ability to play DVD’s in ISO format, and WAV files. It comes in 40, 80 and 100Gb versions. As the CNet review says, this one is more expensive, and has that annoying “i” in the name, but still a good performer.

Here’s a neat gadget for those of you looking for an easy way to transfer your vinyl to a digital format. Ion now has a turntable with a USB interface called the iTTUSB. (It’s cooler if it starts with a lower case “i”) There are a multitude of titles available on vinyl. Some DJ’s swear by it, and often many of the best tracks are instant sellouts. Here in Vegas, I have had the pleasure of meeting several very good DJ’s, and they typically carry a wide range of media. From milk crates full of vinyl to cd’s and computers to playback, mix, and organize their media.

I’m not really into the club scene, but there have been some really cool products for this market segment in the past couple of years. Many still border on pro-sumer and offer are not a robust as pro gear, but the innovation of the product evolution for a market that is changing very rapidly is impressive.

Take the Scratch Box by Serato (and distributed by Rane) I saw this a couple of years ago at LDI. I don’t personally have any need for it, but I gotta say it it’s a great deal of fun, and in the hands of the right DJ presents a host of possibilities. Scratch Live lets one use turntables (or CD turntables) to control music playback from a PC.

The Scratch LIVE interface connects almost any computer to an ordinary pair of turntables or CD players, and the software faithfully tracks every subtle movement of the stylus on the included control records. The same movement is then instantly applied to any digital audio file in the user’s collection producing a sound and feel that is indistinguishable from vinyl.

If you pick up the needle and drop it the digital file follows. Grabbing the platter and stopping it applies the physics of the motion to the digital file. Moving the needle on the control records produces the same function through the digital file. It’s fun, and allows vinyl like control over digital files.

How about the Pioneer DVJ-X1. Allows control of DVD video in the same manner as a CD turntable. Scratch, rewind, fast-forward, sample, loop, mix digital video and audio. Yet another product that held my attention for longer than it should have.

I have been doing a lot of researching and reading as of late. One of the items that has become of great importance to me is a good Serial to TCP/IP converter, or server. A good number of audio companies are still using RS-232, 422 or 485 for various forms of communication, configuration and monitoring.

It’s not a real big deal to plug it in to a computer and get things talking, however if your rig is portable, finding a laptop with a COM port is becoming increasingly difficult. If you have multiple, remotely located serial devices, getting the system talking can become more complicated. One method is to convert 232 to 485 and run the balanced serial signal to a remotely located computer. Then there’s the discussion about using a 485 interface in the computer, or adapting the signal back to 232. Multiple COM ports can be a pain, even for experienced serial gurus. Enter the serial to TCP/IP converter.
We are running more and more CAT5 and fiber with our systems. Essentially the infrastructure to support packetizing serial already exists, all that is needed is a converter. I found some good options on SerialGear.com 1,2,4 and 8 port Serial to TCP/IP servers.

VS-NetCom 111 is an industrial-strength network-based serial device server for connecting ONE RS232 device directly to the 10/100Mbps Ethernet network running TCP/IP. In addition to allowing serial devices to get networked, any host (PC Server or Workstation) without network access can also access remote serial device via adding NetCom devices to the existing serial port.

SerialGear is part of a larger company called CoolGear.com , which has sister sites, CableGear, IRGear,AdapterGear, USBGear and many others.

Coolgear Enclosures SATA Drives Infrared Serial Hardware and More!

This one is from Lighting Dimensions… Christmas Spirit. OK, But this guys neighbors have got to be a little annoyed. Check it out, a Christmas light display set to music.

Holiday Lights To Impress Any LD

It has finally been discovered ;o) that it takes a little work to rip CD’s to MP3’s that sound ok. Back in the hey-day of Napster there were many files to be had, but most of them didn’t sound very good. I guess that the general public is beginning to realize that size isn’t everything…:O|

Wired News: Old Rips: May They Rest in Peace