The
WD TV is still more or less the king of the tiny media player boxes, but now Viewsonic is getting into the game at a lower price point -- and minus the whole network compatibility bit. The VMP70 is a "direct connect" media device, so it will play content from your choice of USB-compatible storage, pumping it at up to 1080p to your display over HDMI or component cables, also sporting composite for lower-def fare. It packs an S/PDIF port to get clean audio, and supports a slew of formats including the usual suspects (DivX,Xvid,H.264) along with some slightly less usual ones (RM/RMVB, DTS, OGG). It's all available for an MSRP of $129.99, but
order now and you'll get special holiday pricing of $98.99. Operators are standing by... somewhere... probably.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
glenn s @ Nov 5th 2009 3:33PM
Q: What kind of engineering moron designs a digital media player without a network port these days?
A: A soon to be unemployed one.
DavidB @ Nov 5th 2009 4:01PM
It looks decent enough from a specs perspective and is obviously intended for the "not networked" home (which believe it or not is a LOT of people, just not a LOT of Engadget readers...!). It appears to have an advantage over many devices in that it claims to support EXT3 and NTFS, so an external device that supports media files larger than 4GB should work with it!