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doni, if they are obviously related to the board's declared topics, patent details are fair game.
If only it had a hard drive:
SV-AV10 Audio/Video Recorder: The Whole World In Your Hands
By David Carey, EE Times
Jan 27, 2003 (3:57 PM)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030127S0053
While not yet meeting the needs of most quality-sensitive picture takers and movie makers, Panasonic's SV-AV10 clears the way for a product category that combines a camcorder, digital still camera, audio player, voice recorder and movie viewer in a versatile, pocketable package.
Housed in a diminutive, 8.5 x 5 x 2.5-cm folding case (red, silver or blue), the SV-AV10 delivers VGA (0.33-megapixel) still-image capture, QVGA (0.11-Mpixel) video recording, a voice recorder function and MP3/AAC playback, all based on a plug-in Secure Digital (SD) memory card.
As with the Archos Multimedia Jukebox and Apple iPod, the emerging theme is portable capture, playback and archive products for both audio and images. But the SV-AV10 highlights the growing competition between solid-state and hard-disk memory technologies in otherwise similar "capture/play" boxes. The SV-AV10 ships with an 8-Mbyte memory card, providing 2 minutes of video, 45 "fine mode" still pictures or 25 minutes of voice recording-clearly not enough. So, up to a 512-Mbyte SD memory card can be used with the SV-AV10 for corresponding increases in storage capacity.
The downside is that sizable storage comes at a sizable price: SD cards are still priced north of 50 cents/Mbyte. The biggest challenge for the diskless-data-vault gadget maker remains the achievement of both affordability and meaningful capacity.
Four primary assemblies are used in the SV-AV10, with the main component-laden assembly shown at right. Power for the SV-AV10 is supplied by a 900 mA-hr lithium-ion battery, and a 40 x 30-mm (2-inch diagonal) thin-film transistor color display is the lone viewfinder for the camera.
Major ICs on the main circuit board were sourced from TI, Toshiba, NEC and Samsung. Internal working memory is based on 8 Mbytes of synchronous DRAM from Samsung and 2 Mbytes of Fujitsu flash memory, both to support the TI TMX320DSC24 imaging DSP ASIC. Image capture is achieved via a VGA-resolution CMOS sensor, whose low-light performance leaves something to be desired-a sign that CMOS sensors must continue their uphill fight against their more sensitive, charge-coupled device competitors. The sensor and image coprocessor used in the SV-AV10 are identical to those used in Nokia's 7650 imaging phone.
Our cost-of-goods-sold estimate places the manufacturing cost for the SV-AV10 between $100 and $150.
DAVID CAREY IS PRESIDENT OF PORTELLIGENT (WWW.TEARDOWN.COM; AUSTIN, TEXAS), WHICH PRODUCES TEARDOWN REPORTS AND RELATED INDUSTRY RESEARCH ON WIRELESS, MOBILE AND PERSONAL ELECTRONICS.
See also http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/ewear/sd_av.asp
Correction:
Make that 'uncannily accurate' feelings.
This board is for discussion of the voice-operated MP3 player and hard drive-based portable video marketplaces and technologies. Please keep your posts centered around those subjects. That's what it says - that's what it means.
Well, let's see... if I were a psychotic sociopath whose delusions of grandeur mask inner feelings of worthlessness and impotence, I might.
Since I'm not, I won't.
Agreed, Sentinel. Fujitsu has built their Commander system around VR from Pronounced Technologies. Our VoiceNav uses Lucent's VR. It is highly improbable that Fujitsu will abandon the existing system. Our contribution is the hard drive compressed music subsystem. Our VoiceNav is not needed for it to work with the other devices; all we need do is present the text string data (from the directory, subdirectory, and file titles) to the Pronounced Technologies VTT algorithms in the Commander unit for processing. There, the data is compared to the digitized and interpreted voice input and the most likely pattern match determined.* That match is then returned to the compressed music storage unit as a request for a certain file or files to be retrieved. That file data is then read and converted to analog music signals which are supplied to the main audio unit. JMHO, of course.
*This could go in either of two ways; the voice input might be converted to text or the text strings from the music files could be converted to voice patterns. I suspect the latter method might be more reliable.
Here's a hint for you: the company owed the $515K is a bankrupt multinational currently undergoing liquidation.
But Anyway, why do you believe that EDIG owes the $515,000 to Smith Industries? In fact, I KNOW to whom those monies are owed. In fact, they are not owed to ANY landlord. Let's see if you can figure out who is owed what. (It's in the public records; took me all of 2 minutes to get to the truth of the matter.) C'mon; spend a little time proving yourself wrong.
Blackdog, I use the iRock FM adaptor; has a slide switch that selects 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, or 88.7 frequency. Usually works fine; when using it I retract my antenna to reduce external interference. It also helps to place the xmtr as close as possible to the radio. (Mine actually has a cubbyhole right under it that my player and adaptor can sit in.)
Sorry, Gil; that one's beyond me. You may want to give tech support a call if you don't get any tips here. If it's a generic problem, they'll definitely want to know about it ASAP. Have you looked in the on-line manual? ( http://www.edig.com/product-support/Odyssey1000UsersGuide.pdf )
The Music Explorer FAQs has some specific instructions re Win XP installations: http://www.edig.com/product-support/MXP_Software_Troubleshooting.pdf
Bob, the unit Eclipse and EDIG developed is the only one I have a model number for; Honda has recently announced the addition of a voice-controlled sound system that is integrated with the voice-controlled navigation system (map display) unit offered in Accord EX models. (Unsure what media the music is stored on or who the OEM is.) Honda's voice recognition comes from IBM's ViaVoice s/w; the Eclipse unit uses Pronounced Technologies, EDIG's MXP100, Odyssey 1000 and the MPIO HD100 use Lucent voice rec technology.
Yup, Bob; the future is now...
"While competitors are busy launching first-generation chip sets or reference designs for single-drive DVD recorders, LSI Logic said it is staying a step ahead with the DMN-8650, which it calls the industry's first single-chip processor for dual-drive recorder systems. The chip will enable the concurrent recording and playback of material on hard-disk and DVD systems.
Although fairly new to U.S. consumers, "the combo recorder product is hot in Japan, with about 50 percent of products sold having HDD," according to Michelle Abraham, senior market analyst for In-Stat/MDR's Converging Markets and Technologies Group. http://www.eetimes.com/semi/news/OEG20030106S0049
Although this thread is more concerned with portable hard drive-based video players/recorders/cameras, there is a growing presence of set-top or home a/v recorders that have both DVD disc burning and hard drive storage capabilities.
Pioneer Japan has announced a dual use DVD recorder / hard drive recorder set top box. The DVR-99H includes a hard drive capable of saving 153 hours of video to the unit. The unit can also burn DVDs with video fed from an external source, from live TV, or from the hard drive. The DVR-99H is Pioneer's fourth available DVD-Recording Unit. The company has one unit which has a smaller, 120GB hard drive. The DVR-99H can record to DVD-VIDEO, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD, VCD, CD-R and CD-RW discs. http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/pioneer_japan_set_top_record_11_12_02.htm
In June 2002 Panasonic announced its first DVD recorder with built-in hard disk drive . By combining a 40 GB hard disk drive with a DVD recorder, new model DMR-HS2 can record a maximum of 52 hours of high-quality video on the hard disk drive in the EP mode, 12 hours on a 9.4GB double-sided DVD-RAM disc, and 6 hours on a DVD-R disc. Panasonic planned to introduce the unit in October, and is targeting a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $1199.95. http://www.beststuff.com/article.php3?story_id=3518
You can also get the 80 GB RD-X2 from Toshiba for less than $900 http://www.discount-electronic.com/rdx2.html
Although all the above are very nice, I personally crave a portable unit sans DVD drive but equipped with a good quality integral camera/optics and S-video output plus a nice 4"-6" flip-out hi-rez display. Betcha we see several hit the market in a year or less at similar pricing.
Nice... I bound my copy in leather. (Didn't want it getting all dog-eared )
Bob, there are lotsa choices out there now, and even more in the pipe; here's a few links to get you started:
http://www.bestbuy.com/CarAudioVideo/Specials/MusicKeg10_20.asp
http://www.zdnet.com/products/stories/reviews/0,4161,2689062,00.html
Also upcoming is the Samsung Yepp YP-900 Music Jukebox
( http://www.time.com/time/2003/ces/ ) which is car-ready with its built-in low power FM transmitter that lets you play it back wirelessly thru any FM tuner.
If you want to go for the gusto, Eclipse by Fujitsu Ten is the way to go... Although not yet released, their HD1213 Hi-fidelity 20-Gigabyte MP-3/WMA Player/recorder will probably blow the competition away. Supports real-time ripping or Post 5-min recording in vehicle (128kb/s)for ripping from your favorite station while you drive. Supports WMA and MP3 formats to 320kb/s. Supposed to debut this spring. Keep an eye on http://www.eclipseb2b.com/website/newarrivals.asp or your local Fujitsu reseller. (Fujitsu Ten recently got the J.D. Powers award for highest quality CD receiver dash units.)
Haven't seen this one before:
http://www.deltrontech.com/Enclosure/CinemaDisk/cinemadisk.htm
USB 2.0 interfaced external portable 2.5" HDD (20G, 30G, or larger)
CF Type-II Card Reader, support CF Type-I, CF Type-II, and Microdrive
Digital media player for MP3, JPEG, MPEG-I, VCD, SVCD, MPEG-II, MPEG 4 (simple profile), Motion JPEG files
DOS-like file navigator to select play-back directory/ files
S-Video, Composite Video, Stereo Audio output
LCD screen and buttons built-in for easy operation
OSD (On Screen Display) on TV for easy operation with remote control
JPEG player support Auto-scale, Zoom & Pan, Thumbnail display, Slide Show
Music Slide Show, playing JPEG slide show accompanied by background MP3 music.
Powered by USB 2.0 Bus power, AC/DC adapter or Battery Pack
emit, it's my understanding that English is one of the most difficult languages in which to implement VTT. I mean, how much extra processing is necessary to differentiate bow from bough, cent from sent from scent, etc. The other euro-languages are far less mongrelized than English; almost all have rigid pronounciation rules. It ought to be a cinch to adapt LU's algorithms to work with most major languages in the West. What might get tricky is when songs titled in multiple languages get loaded up. Not a problem for the most part in the US (other than for latinos, perhaps), but the situation may be a little hairier in the EU.
MP3 Insider: iPod killers coming soon
(Not hands-on yet; dare I say 'stay tuned'?)
By Eliot Van Buskirk
Senior editor, CNET Reviews (2/12/03)
For more than a year now, Apple's iPod has been our favorite portable MP3 player. It's more expensive than the competition, but well-designed products usually are. Even more astounding than the iPod's popularity in this country is the fact that the device still enjoys a 42 percent market share in Japan a year after its introduction. What's so odd about this? Well, as anyone who has been to Tokyo can tell you, the Japanese marketplace is usually about six months to a year ahead of its American counterpart. From video cell phones to e-mail-retrieving robots, the Far East gets the new stuff while it's just a glimmer in a U.S. importer's eye. So if the Japanese are still buying more iPods than any other MP3 player, then maybe Apple has lapped next year's competition as well.
This is a nice theory, but from what we saw at CES last month, it's simply not true. Apple is facing loads of competition from multiple sources, thanks in part to the availability of a new generation of Toshiba 1.8-inch hard drives, which cost less per megabyte than the Hitachi drives used in the first round of iPods. Here are a few of the products that will probably give Apple's player a run for its money.
eDigital Odyssey 1000
The hard drive-based players that we've seen from eDigital--the Treo 10 and the Treo 15--seemed like the iPod's clumsy, awkward cousins, due to their large sizes and clunky interfaces. But the Odyssey 1000, as its model number suggests, is about 100 times better than eDigital's previous offerings. While the Odyssey's design clearly borrows from a certain all-white MP3 player from Cupertino, the 1000 has a few tricks up its sleeve that might cost Steve Jobs some sleep:
USB 2.0: eDigital claims a file-transfer speed of 8MB per second (we'll believe it when we see it) over this port, which is likely to be more accepted by Windows users than FireWire. Plus, the Odyssey is backward-compatible with USB 1.1.
20GB hard drive: eDigital plans on offering its model for more than $100 less than Apple's 20GB iPod.
Scroll wheel: The Odyssey's scroll wheel doesn't look enough like the iPod's to warrant a lawsuit, but it's very similar.
Voice recording, FM radio, and WMA compatibility: When the iPod originally shipped, these features were frills, but now that they're almost standard, Apple looks remiss by not including them.
Voice navigation: Using the built-in microphone, you can actually make verbal requests for the songs that you want to hear.
Doubles as a removable hard drive: When you connect the Odyssey to your computer, it shows up as a removable USB 2.0 drive. http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-3219397-8-20851455-1.html?tag=st.ce.3219397.fs
Anyone found any hands-on reviews of the Odyssey 1000 yet?
A very good read, cksla. What I found interesting about the Honda ad wasn't the voice-actuated navigation system (those have been around for a while now), but rather the voice-controlled music. (Especially the way it operated so quickly, almost as if the music was being pulled off a hard drive rather than from a CD or DVD.)
This one was definitely a Honda ad; I had never seen it before last night.
By the way, Todd, this one may have gotten overlooked amongst all the clutter... http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=761287
Any thoughts on the matter?
Sentinel, I too will be around, and probably posting more, not less. The 'Hide this Poster' button is all that is required to keep the board usable.
Matt, you are still young; some things take years to validate as Truth. One thing I can perhaps give you a heads-up on is the prevalence of altruism. It has been my experience over 50+ years that truly altruistic people are an endangered species; narrow the field to matters involving money and they become rarer than chicken teeth. With regards to those who are so intent upon saving we EDIG stockholders from ourselves, Thoreau's Law is very apt: 'If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intention of doing you good, you should run for your life.' (Of course, Hanlon's Razor may give the bashers an out: 'One should never attribute to malice that which can be explained adequately by stupidity.')
To All: I have requested that I be removed as moderator of this board. I will not be associated with what it has become.
How do you manage to inject manufacturing into "de-emphasize marketing its own branded products"? EDIG does not manufacture products, that task has always been outsourced. That's the problem with all you self-appointed saviours; you always shoot yourselves in the foot by exagerrating and distorting to extremes that most find either laughable or pathetic.
Not so fast there... in actuality, what is stated is that e.Digital will receive NRE fees for design and development services, as well as revenues for the manufacture and delivery of Eclipse-branded audio products.
Salient point of the above is the use of the term 'will'. Such usage (as opposed to use of the term 'may') indicates that an agreement for our designing and manufacturing of Eclipse-branded products exists. The conclusion that no firm product order from Fujitsu exists is not credible given the available evidence. The only thing that is a certainty is that no royalty-based revenues have yet been recorded. (Which is no big surprise since the product isn't expected until March at the earliest.)
Lickily, some folks seem to hold a differing view:
Although no one could accuse Apple, let alone Jobs, of being shy about product promotion, it's a different story when it comes to its engineering and building processes. The company has always been tighter lipped than the Pentagon when it comes to releasing design chain details.
But that hasn't prevented some companies from satisfying their curiosity about what's inside the advanced MP3 player. Some serious reverse engineering and discussion within the electronics industry unearthed unusual details of Apple's development process.
It turns out that much of the underlying iPod design was performed by outside companies. The Cupertino folk haven't given up on their heritage of design excellence—they're just bowing to some inevitable directions in consumer electronics by borrowing from established experts linked together for what may be the first design chain for the iPod.
http://www.designchain.com/coverstory.asp?issue=summer02
A further note re false iPod claims:
It seems that that there are only three design houses approved by PortalPlayer to incorporate their platform into production devices. Should AAPL again choose PortalPlayer technology for a future iPod design, EDIG would certainly be in the running to get a piece of the action.
My thanks to D.inkie and TWOMIL for demonstrating the proper way to dispute a posting. The post in question will remain deleted due to the unqualified (and unsupported) claim re iPod.
From the Strictly FWIW dept:
Saw a Honda commercial tonight for the new Accord - dude in it tells the sound system to play a tune and that tune starts playing - tells it to display a map showing the nearest ice cream store (or something like that) and the map appears on the display.
It's like deja vu all over again.
OT: Sheesh... y'all still don't get it. If a post is off-topic, it gets deleted. If a post is for an individual and of no consequence to the rest of the board, it gets deleted. (Use the Private Reply feature instead.)
They will only have it if we give it to them - as soon as they realize that their disruptive agenda is failing, the odds are quite high (IMHO) that they will slink (or be driven) back under their rocks. If no one responds to their innuendoes beyond a well-reasoned refutation, their mission is frustrated.
Gil, I almost hate to use the phrase (brings back bad memories) but 'Stay tuned'.
ucansee, a little indulgence in OT posting can be tolerated; only those that go overboard will be suspended. I made numerous pleas in the past for posters to stick to the topic at hand; they were disregarded and further steps became necessary. If some can't make the adjustment from the ruleless chaos of Raging Bull to the more orderly environment here, they have only themselves to blame.
LawyerLong/others: Don't waste your time getting on Matt's case - he is responding to my request for help in getting this board back on topic. Few have paid any heed to my requests to keep OT stuff off the board; it's time for more strenuous measures. There are plenty of other venues for posting garbage (RB, Clearstation, Yahoo, etc.). Fact remains that this is NOT one of them.
I could just as easily claim that the SEC is taking an interest in you for the exact same reason.
What But actually said was "This issue is also a matter in which the Securities and Exchange Commission has an interest..." That got that post deleted, as he has been unable to offer proof that the SEC indeed has an interest in the subject issue.
eDigital Odyssey 1000 User comments
"Look out IPod...Odyssey is schooling you!" Bob Woodson on 12-Feb-2003 07:02:56 am
I just bought an O-1000 from E.digital's website and all I can say is wow! As an IPod owner, I feel stupid for ever thinking that noone could surpass it. It's far more advanced, has loads of features, VoiceNav (no need to train your voice, just speak!) is unparalled, and it's way cheaper than the IPod. It's a little larger and heavier, but only minutely so. I've dealt w/ E.digital before and their support is fantastic. IPod will be playing catchup now, buut I don't see how they can beat this for the price.
http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-6342420-1318-20845399.html?tag=st.ce.6342420-1304-20845399...
It's basically an MXP100 that also receives DAB (digital audio broadcasting, the terrestrial equivalent of Sirius or XM satellite radio) programming.
A little Maycom goodie emit steered me to:
http://www.emaycom.com/kor/products/source/dp-21.htm
see also http://www.eurekadab.org/frame.htm