There have been many rumors lately about a potential video iPod that's around the corner... However, what about the existing mobile A/V solutions? We took the RCA Lyra RD2780 for a spin, the audio/video recorder/playback jukebox that's currently selling for only $219 at Geeks.com.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-06-28
Member since:Oh sorry I didn't click on the Read More link. I just went to the review site. Anyhoooo, the point is that these video players are solutions looking for problems and RCA is a tired brand. They went nowhere with the Lyra MP3 player, and they're going nowhere with this video device.
RCA should perhaps partner up with movie studios - imagine if they got a deal with Universal Studios so that movies are preloaded on these devices and once you're done watching them, return them to the Blockbuster store and get another machine with another movie. It's like renting videoplayers with the movies instead of just renting the DVDs.
Member since:1997-10-01
Why would you want this instead of a PDA or PSP? You would want a jukebox for the built-in hard drive, I'd guess.
On the other hand, I have a Palm Tungsten T3 and a 1 GB SD card that I load up with rips of full-length kids' movies (the Incredibles, Porco Rosso, etc) and when my kids are feeling antsy on long trips or at a restaurant I bust it out. I compress the movies down to about 2 MB, but they look fine on the small screen. And at 2 MB, I don't miss the hard drive much. On the other hand, I don't have it loaded up with music. I've got a seperate iPod mini for that. Pluses: compact size, convenience, PDA functionality Minuses: battery life isn't great (though it's probably comparable to the life of this RCA unit).
Member since:2005-06-28
Sure, but as I write in the review, the advantages --except the large hard drive-- is the TV-out capability and the ability to record audio/video from any source.
PDAs can't record audio/video from an external source. You will have to use a TV card (that has access to the cable/satellite box), then have software that records for you (usually not found on Linux or Mac as easily as for Windows) and then use something like PocketDivX to re-encode the video to QVGA so most PDAs can run it full speed or without ugly resampling.
As you can understand, this is quite some work. An A/V jukebox, like the Archos and this Lyra allow you to record from a TV with a push of a button.
Member since:
Member since:
With Sony's PSP or any PocketPC machine around, why would I want a jukebox?. My Dell Axim lets me run Mpeg videos just fine (using the free MpegTV player).
The only one that will stand a chance in the video jukebox market is the video iPOD and because it's Apple. RCA, Creative, iRiver and other pretenders can just hope for a single digit market share.
It's like the iPOD market, Creative/RCA/iRiver added tons of features like FM, voice recording, broadcasting and bunch of formats like ogg, atrak, etc but they're going nowhere while the iPOD just keeps gaining marketshare because its Apple. I'm pretty sure if Apple sold iPod to HP or IBM, it would lose its charm and sex appeal in 20seconds. Apple was wise to sever the HP relationship because HP's got a old man smell about it.