Since Hitachi's press conference at CES, we've been anxious to get some time with the company's Hybrid DVD/HDD camcorder. It's the world's first camcorder to record both to a hard drive (8GB) and DVD-R (30min), and from what we understand "world's firsts" are very important things.
After spending a few hours playing with the Hybrid, we have a verdict: it may live up to its promises, but it certainly doesn't meet our assumptions. Hit the jump for the full story.
General Handling
The Hybrid fits perfectly in your hand, with the DVD drive serving as an excellent grip. Swapping between recording modes is as simple as turning a dial and waiting anywhere from 5-15 seconds, depending on whether or not the function has been used since turning on the cam. The 2.7" screen is bright, sharp and colorful, with the option to turn all white and serve as a light in dark shooting environments.
Sure the lens barrel is a cheap plastic, but the entire package as a lot more solid that the demo unit we held at CES.
The DVD/HDD/SD Advantage?
Aside from all other points, the main premise of the Hybrid is that one can shoot multiple formats and transfer between them with ease. For instance, your family is enjoying your daughter's first dance recital. Grandma flew in from out of town, but needs to leave right after the show to take her medicine or something. If you shot the recital to the hard drive mode, within a few seconds you can begin dubbing that recital to a 30-minute DVD. (If you remembered the AC plug). That part works (though it took me about 8 minutes to burn 8 minutes of video on the 1x DVD drive). The tricky part is when you shoot your daughter's dance recital with the DVD mode. You can just back up the MPEG2 file to your camcorder's 8GB hard drive, right? Nope.
You also can't back up video to the SD card from either the hard drive or the DVD. But don't forget to pack that SD card anyway, because you can't take photos without it, despite having two other storage methods built in.
Picture Quality
While the 16:9 ratio makes for footage that's happy on my TV, the video is subpar at best. For the most part, colors appeared washed out, with springtime purples muddied to make us crave winter. The best moment was from one of our vibrant yellow tulips, but even within acceptable exposure levels, texture detail from the pedals was lost almost completely.
Most of the blame falls on bad MPEG2 encoding. Slowly panning a flowering bush became a smear of pixels, and my dvd collection tended to ghost before I hit the horror section. Yeah, that joke was horrible, but I'm leaving it in.
But considering the Hybrid will only run you $450 at most retailers, the image quality falls within the designations of its price range. Still, dubbing DVDs is just salt in the wound when the picture isn't all that great to begin with.
Sound Quality
Audio playback was surprisingly clear at mid to high ranges. Low ranges, such as background traffic, were emphasized a bit too much. Camcorders never have great mics and the Hybrid's could be a lot worse, so this one should suit most users.
Bundled Software
The bundled software is all but unusable—so bad that it's not worth expounding upon. And unfortunately you need something to grab those MPEG2 files from the camera since it mounts as a DVD onto your desktop (even if you are in the hard drive mode). I ditched their software and ripped footage through MPEG Streamclip, which is really a fantastic piece of freeware for those who need to edit DVD content.
Conclusions
Despite its limitations of sharing footage between recording methods, the Hitachi Hybrid is a decent solution for those looking to make in-camera DVD dubs. Plus, one can edit their clips, group together playlists and even add some limited transitions without ever leaving the comfort of a their LCD.
Despite having absolutely no use or need for a DVD camcorder, I do appreciate the idea of a multi-format camera. Unfortunately, the Hyrbrid is not the multi-format wonder device it could so easily be. For $1000, this would unquestionably be a pass. But since it retails for $599 and runs $450 or so at most online retailers, the Hitachi Hyrbrid DVD/HDD Camcorder might be worth a look if you are a movie theater bootlegger or very proud soccer mom. – Mark Wilson
Hello there. Mark's on some holy weekend quest of some sort, so I'm writing today, while Matt Buchanan, NYU wonderboy, and your own Travis Hudson are taking care of tomorrow. If I wasn't here, I'd likely be watching Lisa kick my ass in Guitar Hero 2 on XBox. Growing up in Tokyo, she's kind of awesome at video games. So, no biggie.
You weekend readers are loyal in a fierce way that doesn't revolve around procrastination in the cubicle, and I appreciate that a ton. So I'm taking requests today. I'll be here for the next 6 hours, so drop me an email, or leave some love in the comments.–Brian Lam
P.S. Psychic news tip for weekend warriors: The embargo god will drop 3 pieces of news on Sunday night. If you're going to be up anyhow, drop in at midnight if you're into GPS, gaming, or portable media player. Fun stuff, but nothing that can't wait til Monday morning if that's past your bed time.
Friends at Kotaku and Engadget are claiming this unconfirmed video is of the XBox360 Spring Update. There's lots of detail here...unconfirmed detail...but the most important unconfirmed tweaks are:
•Unconfirmed integration with MSN messenger by way of friends list and on screen chat pop ups
•An unconfirmed live download mode that puts the console into Jedi sleep
Off the record, let's be honest: It looks real to me...unofficially. But until official confirmation, it's all officially speculation. Got it?–Brian Lam
Really? Saturday? Yes today -- or at least very soon -- the N95 superphone could be launching as early as tonight. The signs: Last week, Nokia started handing out European variants of the N95 Superphone to US journalists. Today, we have tips from readers claiming that that Nokia is going to be launching the model from their US flagship stores in NY and Chicago for $750.
That's good. Because I have one here, and it is the most powerful handset I've ever used. Period. I'd called it fat, but I guess that makes me a chubby chaser. It's imperfect but I really like it.
I've had mine for a few days. Typically, we'd spit out a review within 24 hours. Not the N95. I get the sense that the complicated device will require another few days before I unlock its secrets. But for now, on this Saturday, I think I can manage to make some headway without the normal weekday distractions holding me back. For now, a gallery, which I'll post in a bit.
We will be receiving our first shipments of Nokia N95 in the flagship store tomorrow. Please contact us if you are interested in having us hold one or making arrangements to have the device shipped to you. The price is $749.99+ tax
Joe Cxxxxxx
Nokia Flagship
543 N Michigan Ave
Chicago IL 60611
Every since Kotaku informed me of Sega's next generation robotchicken, I'd been hunting for a vid. (Who said they left the hardware biz?)
The fuzzy wuzzy bots are modeled after a 4 day old chicks, because that's when they're the cutest. And that's before they've turned their peeping noises into early morning crowing, and before they've learned to peck your eyes out. I suppose it's also easier to program the AI for a newborns. The robot, which goes on sale in Japan later this month, is already sold out online (according to a friend who I begged to order one for me). It reacts to petting, doesn't shit, doesn't need to be fed, so some would call it the perfect pet. But it doesn't grow up into something you can deep fry, so I question the point of it all. Sigh. Video after the jump.
Imagine you just bought yourself a shiny $750 N95. First thing after unboxing it, you'd take a nice good look at the hardware, every side, from nave to chop, front to back, top to bottom. Likewise, we'll start our hands on of the N95 with a guided tour of the phone's beefy hardware. It's a nice phone, but it is big and it feels cheap at times.
Check out the gallery for a tour and hit the jump for more details about what went right, and what went wrong.
It's fat.
OK, let me qualify that statement. It's smaller than the N93, and it's length and width aren't bad, but it's thicker than mostly any other modern phone without a QWERTY.
* Length: 99 mm
* Width: 53 mm
* Thickness (max): 21 mm
And the plastic feels cheap. It isn't up to the build quality of an aluminum Moto or Sony Ericsson. Delving into the usage scenario, the thing is powerful, with a 5MP camera, a true GPS receiver, loud speakers, a fairly bright autodimming 2.6-inch 320 x 240 pixel screen. I mention all this because battery life is abysmal: 4 hours of talk and 10 days of standby? Try one day of standby with sporadic usage. Phil Torrone recommends a mintyboost battery pack. More complaints that aren't Nokia's fault -- the video call camera obviously doesn't work without US carrier support, and the HSDPA high speed data band runs at 2100Mhz, which is Euro spec. So, you're stuck with EDGE and, thankfully, the excellent WiFi 802.11B/G implementation. (Which supports uPNP streaming to other devices on your network.)
Some more errata: Button presses are fairly 'ok', the media playback buttons need more tactile feedback. and there's an honest to god headphone jack on its side.
One GripBag Holders, which give you a firm handle on grocery bags you can loop into its carabiner design, are a special invention to me. Here's why:
Contrary to popular advice, I live to go grocery shopping when I'm super hungry. Pulling armfuls of food off the shelves into my waiting cart never feels more satisfying, and I usually end up with the kind of splurge food that I love but would otherwise avoid. (Chips a Hoy, and Lay's Jalapeño Kettle Potato chips, I'm talking about you.)
Problem is, when I get home, I run into my other pointless man-habit: Trying to carry 12-16 grocery bags inside the house at once. You can do 4-5 per arm, by roping them around your wrists, but then fragiles begin to pack down under their own weight; like a whale beached and slowly crushing itself under its own mass. Which brings me, in this very round about way, to the One Grip Bag Holders, that let you pile on a few bags in your hand, below the pivot point on your wrist.
I predict a total carry load, between wrists and hands, of about 16 bags total. Perfect, because making two trips to the car is something I'd rather avoid.
And if $12.99 worth of plastic is what'll take, so be it.–Brian Lam
A reader, Rusty, sent in this video of himself playing Super Mario Bros. on his Apple TV, which, in my Nintendo fanboy opinion, totally blows away those other top 5 hacks. Who cares about running XviD files—or hell, even the legit functions—when you can play Mario?
He says:
Standard ATV OS with a few hacks.
Pretty simple hack to accomplish. Just enabled shh. Then VNC, AFP and USB. Then installed Nestopia and Emulator Enhancer.
Easy only because many people have spent hundreds of hours figuring out these hacks.
So humble. Now what was that about Apple TV not being a game device? – Matt Buchanan
No fancy tech stuff here, just a plain chicken egg and paint. Granted, it's much cooler than the pink and purple pastel eggs we used to get when we younger, so if we could get those matching Wii and PS3 eggs to boot, we might just spare the Easter Bunny. This year. – Matt Buchanan
Big or small, functional or not, modern or medieval, we didn't care. If it was somehow constructed with Legos, and looked like it was capable of taking down a three-foot rabbit weighed down by Easter baskets, we grabbed it. Rabbits that large are a menace to society and need to be taken out. Some actually shoot rubber bands (or fire), which makes them even better for whipping up a little rabbit stew.
While I don't know if it's a "new form of living" as the site claims, the Sheer Kitchen "and Emotion" does promise to change the way you cook. If you're very large, probably not for the better—this bubble stuffs an entire kitchen into a space only 148 cm in diameter.
The bottom half contains a double sink, the cooking area—with four infared burners, one of which you can cook on a hot stone with—three bottle coolers, and a pull-out aluminum and steel solid table, along with a germicidal waste trolley for clean freaks. When closed, the top half glows "sensuously" or something cheesy like that.
It kind of cheats by throwing in a giant steel bookcase-type "wall unit" to hold everything that won't fit in the sphere itself, like four aluminum chairs, but since it also sports an oven and refrigerator, we'll let it go. No price, but it's more than you can afford. Gallery so you won't have to deal with the annoying entirely flash site after the jump. Think of it as my Easter present to you.
Easter is sometimes known for a fun, happy and colorful bunny spreading cheer, sunshines and rainbows across the world, but for other (me) the Easter bunny is a devilish being ready to eat my soul and steal all of my jellybeans. The only way to properly protect yourself is with this emergencydo everythingflashlight. It has a light for spotting the bunny, an AM/FM radio for playing anti-bunny music (Journey), weather radio for keep track of weather trends that Easter bunnies usually bring, a clock for keeping track of the time (obviously) and lastly, and most importantly, a thermometer for monitoring the temperature because everyone knows easter bunnies are cold-blooded demons ready to terrorize. $50. –Travis Hudson
No comment on the photos. But you know what's absurd? When journalists who hold embargoed info pretend to not know a leak when they see it, or post it as a rumor instead. Let's call the Emperor a fat naked bastard, and not lie to readers. Again, no comment on the hardware above.
Another Rumor: If there's a post with official knowledge of this hardware, it's rumored to come tonight. Or not. According to *reliable sources*.
More image after the jump.
(I've always wanted to say poppy cock on Gizmodo) –Brian Lam
Chalk up this device as another convenient way to get rid of all of those cords under and on top of your desk. This box has 10 power outlets inside and plenty of room to stack all of the spare cords. Feed the power end out the front and juice up all of those devices. Despite what the picture shows, the box is only available in beige and goes for $55. –Travis Hudson
Yesterday, in the dead of the night, Nokia launched the N95 superphone in its Chicago and NY Stores. I celebrated by giving you a tour of its hardware, as if you just plucked it from the box. Today, I ditched the Easter bunny to give you a rundown of the entire N95's complicated and rich inner workings. That's love.
The photo above is of the N95's Lifeblog software -- one of 50 cool things worth showing you in the phone, including full GPS, media playback, podcasting, photo/video editing, etc, etc.
That's a lot to get through, but when done you'll basically have the knowledge, and virtual experience of owning the hulking but lovable beast of a phone. It's the best I can do until you can download hardware over the internet. Start at frame one, and click on through for enlightenment.
If that's too much intimacy with the N95, I'll have more impressions in the next day or two that are possibly more easy to digest.–Brian Lam
Yeah, I know you usually don't get your daily dose of Dealzmodo on the weekend, but I'm running the show today and you'll check out these deals and enjoy them! Anyway, Dell is having a massive camera sale through April 10 with savings up to 25-percent off. Check out the handy list below, compiled by the great folks at Dealhack.
StoneBridge @ Area 33, Sirius, April 7, 2007 ARTIST....: Stonebridge TITLE.....: StoneBridge @ Area 33, Sirius, April 7, 2007 GENRE.....: House SOURCE....: Radio RELDATE...: Apr-07-2007 TRACKS....: 01 LENGTH....: 126:00 min SIZE......: ~173MB QUALITY...: 192 kbps
Выкладываю на ваше прослушивание , не новый но очень красивый сет. Составленный полностью из позитивных композиций! Стиль :Progressive House Продолжительность: 61:41 Размер файла: 35.3Мб Формат файла: 80 Kbps Dj Beloff - I install happiness качать с промодиджей!
01 Freaks - The Creeps (You're Giving Me) 06:22 02 Basement Jaxx - Take Me Back To Your House 06:14 03 Tyken Feat. Awa - Every Word (Vocal Club Mi 06:12 04 Guy Gerber & Shlomi Aber - After Love 08:00 05 Dub Works - Rope N' Cuffs 07:56 06 Tim Andresen - Everybody (Ben Macklin Remix 07:31 07 Leger & Lake - Aqualight 06:26 08 Mark Knight - Susan 09:19 09 DJ Oliver & Irtaman Presents M - Fake 06:26 10 Pryda - Remember 08:31
CD#2
01 Eric Laville & J.M. Sicky - Unknown (Ricksi 07:25 02 Johannes Heil - The Magician (Thomas Schuma 07:27 03 Booka Shade - Darko (Booka's Funk Da Funk M 06:20 04 Audiojack - Robot (Original Mix) 07:38 05 Audion - Mouth To Mouth 09:33 06 DJ Rooster & Sammy Peralta - I Like It Dirt 05:50 07 Moby - Go (Trentemoller Remix) 07:02 08 Smash TV - Air 08:42 09 Misstress Barbara - Barcelona 08:34 10 Audiofly X - Mind Goes Blank 09:14
17:59 08.04.2007
Всех со светлым праздником Пасхи. Христос воскрес У кого-нибудь есть этот трэк Kaveh Azizi - Tarbiz, не из микса, а отдельный релиз.
read more at ClubMusic.DJ - ClubMusic Community
1. Angel Eyes - Noisia & Shanodin 2. The Yearning - Unknown Error 3. Come Back To Me - Klute 4. After Life - Desimal 5. Postmodern - Teebee & Form & Mike Engine 6. Tsunami - Teebee 7. Auroral Storm - Infuzoria 8. Forever - Seba 9. With No Light To Guide My Way - CLS 10. It's Always About The Girl (Lomax Remix) - Autumn
1. Route 33 feat. Alex James - Loking Back (Seamus Haji and Paul Emanuel mix) 2. David Penn & Camilo Franco - Come With Me (original mix) 3. Pillbox - Pounding Your Soul (Mirage and Soul Dub) 4. Martin Ten Velden - Wish I Could (Vox mix) 5. Solu Music feat. Kimberley - Fade (Dj Ivo Dub mix) 6. iio - Is It Love (Martin Accorsi Vocal mix) 7.Hard Fi - Cash Mashine (Funkagenda's Chiken mix) 8. Groovewatchers - Bugbear 9. Jean Claude Ades feat. Stephanie Coker - Calling (original mix) 10. Fedde Le Grand - Put Your Hands UP for Detroit 11. Gabriel & Dresden - Dust In The Wind (original mix)
Label: Groove Armada (White) Format: Vinyl, 12", White Label Country: UK Released: 21 Mar 2007 Genre: Electronic Style: House, Electro, Disco Quality: 214 kbps
Tracklist: A1 Get Down (Mix 1) A2 Get Down (Mix 2) B Get Down (Mix 3)
Label : DMC World Genre : Lo-Fi/Disco/Funk Bitrate : 195 kbps avg Playtime : 01:12:34 (106.MB) Rls date : 2007-04-03 Store date : 2007-04-02
//Если кто-то не знает.. серия Back to Mine это любимые песни музыкантов, под которые они отдыхают, пьют пиво, общаются с друзьями.. На сегодняшний день вышел 25ый диск из это серии от моих любимцев - Royksopp Если вам не чужда музыка 80ых - вэлкам :)
Track Listings 1. Born Under Punches - Talking Heads 2. Sphinx - Thumann, Harry 3. One More Round - Kasso 4. Ma Quale Idea - D'Angio, Pino 5. Above And Beyond - Winter, Edgar 6. Take A Chance - Mr Flagio 7. Charleston - Oldfield, Mike 8. That's Hot - Jesse 9. Legs - Art Of Noise 10. 3am Give Me - I Level 11. Dirty Talk - Klein & MBO 12. It Ain't Easy - Supermax 13. Could Heaven Ever Be Like This - Muhammad, Idris 14. Night People - Dalton, Guy 15. Get Closer - Dore, Valerie 16. Can't Be Serious - Ginny 17. I'm Never Gonna Let It - Funkadelic 18. It's Been A Long Time - New Birth
01. Sneaky Sound System - Ufo (Original Extended Club Mix) 02. Tv Rock Vs Dukes Of Windsor - The Others (Tv Rock Main Room Mix) 03. Roman Pushkin - Fat Bottom Girls (Main Mix) 04. Manuel De La Mare - Genres (Original Mix) 05. Melleefresh & Deadmau 5 - Cocktail Queen 06. Tube & Berger - Rock'N'Roll Queen (Groove Rebels Remix) 07. Tiesto - In The Dark (Dirty South Remix) 08. Splitter - All Alone 09. Swanky Tunes - Ever You (Hard Rock Sofa Punk Mix) 10. Josh Wink - Higher State Of Consciousness (Tv Rock & Dirty South Mix)
01. Ajello - I Wanna Be Italian Too (Club Mix) 02. Two Rabbits With Red Eyes - Good Bit 03. The Sounds - Tony The Beat (Rex The Dog Remix) 04. Mark Ronson - Stop Me (Dirty South Remix) 05. West Indian Girl - Hollywood (Mark Sgarbossas 86 Club Mix) 06. Dope And Dusted Vs. Christopher Robin - Electric Guitar 07. The Black Ghosts - Anyway You Choose To Give It (Boy 8 Bit Remix) 08. Para One - Midnight Swim (Surkin Drowning Mix) 09. T.A.K. Project - Hippy Punk (Swanky Tunes Remix)
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
spacedim's journal
Since 
That part works (though it took me about 8 minutes to burn 8 minutes of video on the 1x DVD drive). The tricky part is when you shoot your daughter's dance recital with the DVD mode. You can just back up the MPEG2 file to your camcorder's 8GB hard drive, right? Nope. 
Really? Saturday? Yes today -- or at least very soon -- the 
Every since Kotaku informed me of 
One 
No fancy 
Big or small, functional or not, modern or medieval, we didn't care. If it was somehow constructed with 
While I don't know if it's a "new form of living" as the site claims, the Sheer 
Easter is sometimes known for a fun, happy and colorful bunny spreading cheer, sunshines and rainbows across the world, but for other (me) the Easter bunny is a devilish being ready to eat my soul and steal all of my jellybeans. The only way to properly protect yourself is with this 
No comment on the photos. But you know what's absurd? When journalists who hold embargoed info pretend to not know a 
(I've always wanted to say poppy cock on Gizmodo)
Chalk up this device as another convenient way to get rid of all of those cords under and on top of your desk. This box has 10 
Yesterday, in the dead of the night, 
Yeah, I know you usually don't get your daily dose of 
