Apparently this one is well overdue, with the original retail date back in November of last year. Anyway for those of you hanging out for the D-Link DSM-750 MediaLounge Media Player it’s on sale now for US$329. This little sucker will allow you to stream just about any media you like from any networked device to your HDTV. Here are a few specs on the DSM-750

* Wireless 802.11g/n connectivity
* USB 2.0 port
* 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
* HDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite outputs
* Optical & Coax audio output
* Audio support for mp3, wav, wma, ogg
* Video support for wmv9, m-peg1, 2 & 4, XVID, H.264, avi
* Photo support for jpeg, png, tiff, gif, bmp
* 286 x 426 x 38 mm

I’m not too sure who would necessarily absolutely need one of these suckers - my media centre sits right next to the plasma. However if you prefer you peripherals neatly tucked away or prefer to have your media files spread across different units around your home then the DSM-750 could just be what you are looking for.

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With the format war over, we haven’t seen a great plethora of new Blu-Ray integrated products now that sitting on the fence isn’t an option. Neither have we seen the usual great price hikes associated with a monopolistic market. In fact Dell are now offering a laptop with a Blu-Ray drive (not burner) for under US$1000.

Their Inspiron 1525 laptop range start as low as US$879 with a Blu-Ray Disc Combo option, tack on another $200 for the Blu-Ray burner. Here are the specs on the $879 Blu-Ray player, err, laptop

* Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83 GHz
* Vista Home Basic
* 15.4 inch 1280 x 800 res display
* Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
* 1 GB DDR2
* 80 GB SATA hard disc drive
* Dell Wireless 802.11g card
* 28 Whr battery

And of course your Blu-Ray combo drive. The laptop has an HDMI output so you can hook it up to your HD home system and supports 720p.

So $879 for a laptop/Blu-Ray player, not bad, eh? Obviously the specs are nothing special, but if you’re looking for a basic laptop and a HD player then this could be a great option. Hopefully this also heralds price reductions with other Blu-Ray integrated hardware.

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The boffins over at SuperTalent have cranked out a 12.5 mm thick 2.5 inch form factor SSD with a capacity of 256 GB. With its SATA-I interface this little sucker will neatly slip into laptops sporting a HD chamber 12.5 mm wide - for those of us with a 9.5 mm wide slot, tough cookies. The drive intriguingly called FSD56GC25H sports the following bits and pieces

* 8 GB to 256 GB capacity options
* Sequential Read Rate of 65 MBps
* Sequential Write Rate of 50 MBps
* Handles shocks up to 1500G and vibrations at 16G
* Plays nicely with all OS

In another twist to this announcement the read and write speeds are nothing to write (forgive the pun) home about being outclassed by the InnoDisk SSD drive we mentioned recently which handles zeros and ones at 110 MBps and 90 MBps respectively. But of course the InnoDisk won’t slot into your laptop without the use of a large hammer.

Overall though we do take our hats off to SuperTalent, but with reservations - we’ll get really excited when they spit out a 2.5 inch drive that will fit all laptops, has super fast read/write speeds and oh yes won’t cost an arm and leg. This little sucker will set you back around US$6K - ouch! Just as well it’s only available to OEM manufacturers so the average Joe won’t be tempted.

Source: PRNewsWire

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Looking for a great little network media storage device that offers so much more? Well, the Mvix MX-780HD may be the solution you are after. Hook this little sucker up to your HD TV, link it in to your network and you can store all the media you want on its internal hard drive (user provided) and away you go. Of course that media is still available to your PCs and laptops across your wireless network. Sounds good, eh? Well it looks even better with a US$340 price tag on it too and here’s some more bells and whistles for you to drool over.

* 64 MB memory
* video support for DivX® (3/4/5), DivX® 6, AVI, Xvid, BivX®, MPEG, MPG, VCD(DAT), DVD(VOB, IFO), ISO, WMV(WMV-9), ASF(WMV-9), TP, TS, TRP
* audio support for MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, PCM, AC3, DTS decoding including down-mixing, DTS pass through
* image support for BMP, JPEG/JPG, PNG
* video outputs Composite, S-Video, Component, and HDMI1.2
* audio outputs Stereo RCA, 5.1 channel RCA, Coaxial, Optical
* wireless 802.11b/g
* Ethernet (10/100) LAN
* Hard disk support for 3.5 inch IDE(PATA) OR 3.5 inch SATA
* USB 2.0 support
* 187 x 193 x 58 mm

Well, I think that just about covers the bases. If the guys at Mvix have missed anything out then I can’t spot it. They are offering the unit with their own hard drives supplied which bumps the price up accordingly, 300 GB - US$100, 500 GB - US$170, 750 GB - US$250 and 1 TB - US$330. So $670 will get you an almost literally all singing and dancing media centre, not a bad deal in my opinion.

If you don’t believe me then check out this review over at anythingbutipod whose main complaints are about the UI and lack of support for H.264 and MKV.

Source: Mvix

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Using a couple of 320 GB platters, Western Digital have unleashed the Caviar SE16 640 GB HDD. Yeah sure, there are 1 TB versions out there, but using only two platters the SE16 is a lot quieter, cooler and sucks a lot less power than 3 or 4 platter drives. Here are a few more specs on the SE16

* SATA transfer of 3 Gb/s
* 16 MB cache
* spins at 7,200 rpm
* 25.4 x 147 x 101.6 mm

The price tag on this puppy is officially US$140 over at WD but we’re sure you can your mits on one of these at an even lower price!

Source: Western Digital

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Knoll are enthusing about their latest projector, the HDP460, which features 1080p DLP Darkchip4 technology. Apparently this projector

raises the bar when it comes to flawless, spectacular, award-winning image quality.

and

This projector delivers amazing technology and stunning high-definition.

Advertising hyperbole aside, here are some hard numbers on the HDP460

* brightness of 1600 lumens
* 5000:1 contrast ratio
* HDMI 1.3 connectivity allowing over a billion colours to be displayed
* 1080p DLP DarkChip4
* Built-in scaling support for 2.35:1 aspect ratio

Unfortunately no pricing is available and you’ll have to wait until April to get your grubby little paws on one of these suckers. However the stats match the advertising enthusiasm and the HDP460 could be the very next home theatre upgrade on your list.

Source: Knoll

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Apparently this is the largest capacity SLC NAND Flash drive at 128 GB, however the InnoDisk FiD SATA 10000 certainly looks like one of the most rugged surrounded by a tough metal case. Here are a few more specs on the tough little sucker

* Sustained read rate of 110 Mbps
* Sustained write rate of 90 Mbps
* SATA 2.0 connectivity at 3.0 Gbps
* Capacities ranging from 32 to 128 GB

2008 certainly seems like the year of the SSD and although the average user may not be interested in this specific drive, there is obviously a big market out there. Unfortunately we have no price tag on this sucker at the moment, we don’t expect it to be small, but this year we should start to see those prices tumble.

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