A DVD player that reads CompactFlash cards?

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.sampoamericas.com/products/dve631cf.html">http://www.sampoamericas.com/products/dve631cf.html</a><br /><br />After fighting the good convergence fight for a couple of years, I finally gave up on using my DVD-equipped PC connected to my TV for watching movies. It was too much of a hassle, and "cool" factor aside, it's simply faster and easier to use a dedicated player. I picked up a cheap DVD player from Costco, but was impressed with it's ability to play VCDs, MP3 files, etc. This Sampo unit takes that up an extra notch - it has a CompactFlash slot! You can put your CF card into the player and it will display your digital photos or play MP3 audio. Talk about a natural partnership! Now why won't anyone put a CF card reader on a desktop computer...<br /><br />"Sampo's revolutionary DVE-631CF is not only a DVD player, but also a digital photo playback system that allows you to easily navigate among digital pictures on your TV screen...The smart resolution converter can convert digital photos from basic VGA to multi-mega pixel resolutions to match the display capability of your television."<br /><br />It can be <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=fmCAkYMGM7w&offerid=33905.90050951&type=2&subid=0">purchased from Buy.com for $229</a><img src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=fmCAkYMGM7w&bids=33905&type=2&subid=0" /> (affiliate link).

[Kemas]

Toshiba's 5005 doesn't have dedicated CF, but it does have dedicated SD and MMC.

Kemas

[jfrancis]

Nice that it will also display JPGs from a CD-RW too.

[[Cruzer]]

Jason,

Over at FRY's Elect. they have a bare bones systems that comes with
a PCMCIA slot built in. So some manufactures are implementing this
concept into their units. When I get enough money set aside I will
purchase one.

RC

[davidbaldauff]

Here is a cheap CF USB reader:

http://www.sandisk.com/consumer/im.asp

[JonnoB]

I have a 4 in 1 similar to the ImageMate. It has it's own memory (32mb) along with CF, MMC/SD, SmartMedia slots all in a small USB adaptor. What would be nice is if PC builders threw away the floppy and replaced the drive bay with one of these guys and we can use the solid state memory cards for swapping files.

[johnm]

If this DVD play will display JPEGs from CDR, then that is all I need. The ability to do CF is just a nice plus. CF is a temporary storage medium, the first thing I do is dump these images to hard drive and then CD anyway.

This company is really bringing out some cool things.

[Dave Conger]

]
Jason,

Over at FRY's Elect. they have a bare bones systems that comes with
a PCMCIA slot built in. So some manufactures are implementing this
concept into their units. When I get enough money set aside I will
purchase one.

RC


There actually used to be a few of these sold as addins. I have seen a couple that add a PCMCIA Type I/II/III and a Type I/II slot to your computer. They connect to the system via two SCSI cables. Some of the auction sites might have them since they are an older product. Pretty decent idea I thought, but I never really found an justification for getting one back "then".

[adamz]

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=74
I don't know, Jason, I think you've downgraded your tech status with a standalone DVD player. I really dislike them. Computer/Software DVD players have many more features. I just got a Matrox G450 eTV card that integrates video capture, TV tuning, Dualhead display, and video output. It can play any video off the computer onto a full screen TV screen while retaining the computer's desktop area for anything else. And the PVR features are great for recording TV shows to your hard drive (instead of using a standalone VCR or TiVo system). Plus it's kinda cool to be able to re-encode a TV show for viewing on my iPAQ.
There's also a new All-in-Wonder card that has better features like a wireless (radio signal) remote and integrated TV listings, but I thought Matrox would have better support on Windows 2000/XP.

So does this standalone DVD player save bookmark information on the CF or anything? I don't know what kind of Computer/DVD playing setup you had before, but this eTV is really easy. It's a lot easier to click on a point in a timeline than using the fastforward button to jump to a specific moment in a DVD movie. And it's just as fast as putting a DVD in the DVDROM drive (same as you'd do on a standalone player). Plus the zooming/panning features in PowerDVD are so great!

[Jason Dunn]

I don't know, Jason, I think you've downgraded your tech status with a standalone DVD player. I really dislike them.

I beat my chest, bellowing the battle cry CONVERGENCE for a few years, but let's face it: when all you want to is watch a DVD, booting up your PC, logging in, firing up the DVD player, setting the audio levels, etc. is just a pain. I also ran across a few DVDs that weren't compatible with my Pioneer DVD drive. Ultimately, it's just a pain in the ass. The TV out drivers for my ATI card are also unstable and lame... :x

Nevermind the noise and bulk of a PC... :roll:

[adamz]

Ah yes, my TV-out on the old Nvidia card was extremely unstable! And you had to go through this whole slew of settings just to turn it on. Horrible!

So you're telling me you don't keep your PC on all the time? Sounds like you're gonna lose more tech-status points for that one. :)
Heheh, just kidding.

But the convergence is getting better and better! Don't give up! You'll be back someday! ;)

[Sven Johannsen]

Now why won't anyone put a CF card reader on a desktop computer...


Because they haven't gone and bought one? This one fits a 3.5' in bay.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50121284

"Get fast data transfer to your desktop PC. Antec's DataChute PC Card Reader/Writer is the fast and easy way to download images from your digital camera or swap files from your laptop to your desktop PC"

They are on the shelf at my Compusa. I have an older model in my desktop and use it for CF card in a PCCard adapter, and have tried a wireless card in it. It works.

[klinux]

I know quite a few techies that have Tivo and none of them preferred a a PC-based PVR over Tivo - illustrating the fact the convienience beats convergence (at least with the choices that we have now)!

Nevertheless, I do plan on building sooner or later a PC based entertainment system using a Shuttle SV24 with a VIA CPU. Why? That combination is PC's version of Mac's cube - not as pretty but can be built for $500. The fact that VIA cpu does not need a fan to operate and the small cubic case is all aluminum solves the noise/size problem!

Anybody have experience with a PC-based home theater system (output to TV, not monitor and needs to have remote)?

[Jason Dunn]

So you're telling me you don't keep your PC on all the time? Sounds like you're gonna lose more tech-status points for that one. :)


Not THAT PC - I have five in the house at the moment. The PC was strictly for DVD playback... :lol:

[[Cruzer]]

klinux,

Try this on for size. I was introduced to this product at your SanDiego PocketPC group.
http://www.evation.com/irman/

Infrared man (Irman) is a small device that allows you to control your PC with the remote from your TV, VCR, CD or Stereo. Irman can be used in many ways, for example to control a software program while you are in another room. Imagine controlling Winamp with a normal remote to choose exactly the song you want. Or watching DVD from your couch while still being able to pause or fast forward.

[marauderz]

Hmm, I have a setup like this as well. Using an ATI All In One Radeon, and logitech wireless setup (which was a biatch to setup because the TV was interfering with the signal) :P

Startup speed wise... well I put my machine in hibernation so it starts up much faster then from scratch.

Instead of grab the chips, pop the DVD in and hit play it's
hit the Power swtich, grab the chips, pop DVD in and hit play.

One extra step but not much time wasted.

But I like my setup. :)

[Kunle]

Seems the link to buy.com is dead or buy.com stopped selling that model :( [/quote]

[Jason Dunn]

Seems the link to buy.com is dead or buy.com stopped selling that model :(


:evil: Stupid Buy.com! You're right, I can't find it listed anywhere. :(

There's a place on Amazon selling it (a zShop):

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/glance-browse/Y01Y3038548Y5211440/ix=fixed-price&rank=%2Ditm&fqp=org-unit-id%014%02site-org-unit-id%014%02status%01open%02title%01Sampo&sz=50&pg=1/12/29/qid=1013186611/ZS=1-12/104-0987875-1864764

[Wojo]

Jason,

I feel your pain (convergence) :cry: I used to use my PC in the living room for DVD play back. Due to the lack of quality (video and audio) I've moved to a stand alone DVD myself. The thing that I couldn't understand is that I literally had a $1500.00 DVD/PC that did not have the following features that you can find on almost all DVD players today:

Progressive Scan
Component Video
Optical
DTS

It still puzzles me that most if not all these features are not available on the PC side.

Someday Jason we will return to our "Convergence" world. I'm saving for that HDTV/Plasma as we speak :)

[James]

Not THAT PC - I have five in the house at the moment. The PC was strictly for DVD playback... :lol:


Only 5? Jason, Jason, Jason....whatever are we going to do with you! :lol:

[kettle]

does anyone else out there think that TiVo is a convergence of sorts? It is a computer and it does run Linux. I would think that counts, but it's convergence in the opposite direction.