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Eclectic Electronics is a blog containing technology news and information about home theater, deals and some random comments.
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Star Wars R2-D2 droid fitted with eight retro gaming consoles, sound system and projector
A PopSci reader, probably out of boredom, decided to convert a life-size Star Wars R2-D2 droid cooler into the ultimate mobile retro gaming system — complete with its own sound system and video projector.
The R2-D2 houses a Xbox, PlayStation 1 & 2, Sega Genesis, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, GameCube and Dreamcast (I may be wrong but those are the controllers I recognize). The other peripherals are probably for specialized game genres.
While it’s a cool looking idea, I frankly can’t imagine where the game media would go. I mean, all I see are controller ports on the front. The R2-D2 droid has also been fitted with a sound system along with a projector on its top dome (pretty much the same as the real Star Wars counterpart).
It would’ve been nice to see the thing in video, actually working.
[via PopSci]
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Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (DVD/Blu-ray) to be released on November 3, 2009
More concrete details for the 5-disc DVD/4-disc Blu-ray release of Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition has been released by Warner.
The Ultimate release of Watchmen also includes Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic which can be purchased separately in DVD or Blu-ray format.
What your essentially getting with this Watchmen release is a longer movie, with the animated Tales of the Black Freighter woven seamlessly into the movie for added depth to the plot/story, and a couple of additional features here and there.
The DVD release will come in 5-discs while the Blu-ray will come in 4-discs. Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut is scheduled for release on November 3, 2009 which is a full month early from the initial December 2009 announcement in the flier.
[via Warner Home Video]
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Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player gets 1080p capability, HDMI port, network connectivity and DTS 2.0 decoding
Seagate, well-known hard drive manufacturer all over the globe, has updated its FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player in the form of the FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player. Subtle change in product name but definitely some worthwhile addition in feature set.
Seagate’s FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player plays pretty much all files you can illegally download over the internet think of, including popular formats such as DivX, DivX HD, XviD, XviD HD and MKV.
Also a step up from the Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player are 1080p capability, network connectivity and DTS 2.0 decoding.
It has composite, component and HDMI ports for video along with stereo L/R, optical and HDMI audio output. The device also has 2 USB ports — one on the front, one on the back — to connect more hard drives in addition to functioning as a FreeAgent Go dock (think VHS or Betamax tapes but inserting a FreeAgent Go instead).
The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player is readily available via various shopping channels and retails for $149.99 barebones (media player only) or $289.99 with a 500GB FreeAgent Go. A WiFi adapter is set to ship on October for $69.99.
Technical Specifications
The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player now supports even more Audio/Video and sound formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (VOB/ISO), MPEG-4 (DivX® /Xvid formats), DivX HD, Xvid HD, AVI, MOV, MKV, RMVB, AVC HD, H.264, WMV9, VC-1, M2TS, TS/TP/M2T, JPEG files up to 20 megapixels, BMP, GIF, PNG and TIFF. Audio formats supported include 5.1 channel surround sound, where available, and popular digital audio formats including: AAC, MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, ASF, FLAC, WMA, LPCM, ADPCM, WAV and OGG. The FreeAgent Theater+ player also offers support for SAMI (smi), SRT and SUB subtitles. To download and transfer content to a Seagate FreeAgent Go portable drive using a Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 operated PC, a 256MB RAM and an available USB port is required. Mac computer users must be running Mac OS X 10.4.11 or 10.5.6 or later and have an available USB port. FreeAgent Theater connects to any TV with composite, component video or HDMI connection and stereo, optical S/PDIF or HDMI audio connection
Though visually minimalistic looking, the Popcorn Hour is a much better investment, considering you can use a standard 3.5-inch hard drive (which definitely costs a lot less than a similar-sized FreeAgent Go) in addition to having Blu-ray expansion capability.
[via Seagate]
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Apple revamps the whole iPod family for 2009
After doing some price cuts on its now previous generation iPods, Apple has updated its iPod family for 2009.
The 5th generation iPod nano looks similar to its previous generation, with a slew of new features such as: FM tuner (an iPod first!), built-in camera for video recording only, slightly larger screen and integrated pedometer software for use with a Nike+ kit.
The latest iPod nano is available in seven colors (silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange and pink) plus two Apple Store-exclusive colors: yellow and red — 8GB costs $149 while 16GB costs $179.
Practically the most versatile iPod to date is the touch. It can serve as a portable media (music and video) player, pocketable mini computer — it has WiFi and a great application pool, and portable gaming device.
– 8GB for $199, 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399.
What makes the iPod touch extremely popular is that it uses the same operating system as the iPhone. You can practically refer to the iPod touch as a crippled iPhone.
Also, the iPod touch comes with iPhone 3.1 software pre-installed. For a list of features, read here.
The diminutive 3rd generation iPod shuffle which if you remember, unfortunately has a proprietary control chip but Belkin has gone through loops and found a way around it.
The iPod shuffle now comes in five colors (black, silver, pink, blue and green) — 2GB for $59 and 4GB for $79; plus a special, limited edition, fingerprint-scratch-magnet polished stainless steel edition that’s only available via the Apple Online Store or Apple Retail Stores — 4GB for $99.
The classic-looking iPod, available in black or silver) has been updated to feature 160GB of storage instead of 120GB for the same price tag of $249.
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Pioneer BDP-09FD: World’s first THX-certified Blu-ray Disc Player
Constructed with the highest-grade components and electronic circuitry, the Pioneer BDP-09FD THX-certified Blu-ray Disc Player surely can put a dent on your wallet. The device is certainly no slouch in the weight department, coming in at a whopping 30 lbs.
The enclosure is mostly made from solid steel and aluminum, which should be a given because of the price tag. The BDP-09FD is also BD-Live ready, has a rear ethernet jack, and features the company’s KURO linking technology.
“Pioneer recognizes THX as the industry benchmark for rigorous, unbiased testing and endorsement of high performance home theater products,” said Russ Johnston, executive vice president of home entertainment business solutions group at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “As true A/V specialists, our engineers have worked relentlessly to craft a full line of products that rival the movie theater experience, which not only meet Pioneer’s strict principles for faithful reproduction of content, but now feature THX certification.”
I hardly believe that the $2,200 MSRP for a BDP-09FD will make Blu-ray movies look and sound a lot better. Without a doubt, this would definitely look great in tandem with Pioneer’s current top-of-the-line A/V receivers.
[via Business Wire]
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