While some of us just can’t resist endless iPhone coverage :), there are a few other things in the CE world to keep an eye on. Among them, the DVD Copy Control Association has very quietly approved CSS copy-protection technology for use in movie download services and DVD kiosks. What does this mean? It means that companies can start offering on-demand DVD burning of the movies you buy. Instead of figuring out how to transcode video for a portable media player or how to stream downloaded flicks from a PC to a TV, now you can transport media the old-fashioned way. Just take it with you on a good old DVD.
The one major downside? If you’re consumer at home (i.e. not buying from a kiosk), you’ll need a new DVD burner and a new type of DVD-R disc to burn downloaded movies.
In the endless quest to move media around, we’ve come up with a couple of “alternative” solutions in our household. (And by “we”, I have to admit I’m talking about my husband here…) First there’s the cable that runs from the old G4 Mac in our basement up to our TV in the living room. Great for playing downloaded video, but not up to the task of streaming media. Second, we have now moved a 23″ computer monitor into the kitchen that works quite nicely for online viewing when hooked up to a laptop. Granted these aren’t sexy solutions, but they do the trick.
The interesting part of this might be what it implies for enabling download services of true DVD quality content – ie. UnBox using true DVD w/ 5.1 DD audio. That’s what I would look into.
I have a JVC DVD player with a USB slot. I transcode stuff to DivX and copy it to a USB drive for TV viewing.
I usually move content to my XBMC, but that JVC sounds interesting – what model is it?
It’s the JVC TH-C60, though there are other, similar models with the USB feature.
It’s not a well supported feature, but I’ve had fairly good luck with it. It only supports a couple of video formats, so I always just transfer the file to DivX, because I know that works. It can’t handle files bigger than 2 Gb, and you can’t hook up a USB hard drive. I typically use a 1 or 2 GB flash drive. It will also play mp3s and show jpegs from the memory stick, though switching between different kinds of media on the same flash drive is kind of clumsy. All in all, though, I’ve found it to be a good solution for my needs (watching downloaded episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood the day they show in the U.K.) more convenient than burning DVDs, and probably more reliable than most wireless media extenders.
Philips also has a couple models with USB ports which DO support hard drives. I have a DVP 5980 and DVP 5982 (updated 5980). Both of which will playback MP3, JPEG and DiVX files from hard drives as well as USB flash drives. Not all USB hard drives will work though purchasing from a local brick and mortar store will allow you to exchange easily if you get a combination that doesn’t work.
As Eric stated navigating is clumsy on the Philips models (not sure about the JVC) it only displays the first 10-12 characters of the titles. I usually have to rename the files first because they don’t always sort properly.
Forgot to mention DiVX playback through USB is not listed on the model or supported by Philips but it does work. Occasionally the video will be a little ‘jumpy’ when using the USB port but not very often. It is only a USB 1.1 port so that probably accounts for the performance.