Onkyo is better known for its fancy home entertainment equipment than its portable gear, but don't let that stop you from taking a look at the Wavio MP-1000J, a portable 2.5-inch hard drive with AV outputs. Imagine how many times you wished you had a way to transport some highly illegal Xvid to your friend's house but had no way of putting it on the big screen (horrors!). You're too cool for an iPod, so bringing the actual hard drive is the next best thing.

The Wavio enclosure is able to output in 480p, 720p and 1080i. You can even hook the Wavio up to your car's AV system thanks to the 12V car adapter that's included. It goes on sale in Japan next week sans hard drive, naturally, for around $125.

This oddly named hard drive enclosure with AV outputs looks promising enough—drop the price a bit and then maybe we'll talk. – Nicholas Deleon

Press Release (in Japanese) [Onkyo via I4U News]

9:27 AM on Fri Oct 6 2006
By Gizloco
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9 comments

Comments

pete at 09:45 AM on 10/06/06
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Ya, but what file formats does it play?
I'm betting all the "HD" output (720p, 1080i) is just upscaling. It takes beefy hardware to decode the current HD compression schema - I doubt this can decode VC1, or MPEG4 at HD resolutions.
mofo at 09:45 AM on 10/06/06
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Anyone else smells a Sony Vaio logo infringement lawsuit?..
sirtalis at 09:55 AM on 10/06/06
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Onkyo has been using this logo for a while now on simple 2.5" HDD casings, and I always wondered de same thing Mofo.

Ship me a unit by the way!
Xaltotun at 10:11 AM on 10/06/06
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Hey, I have had the Mediagate MG-25 (Google it to see it) for a couple of years now, and it's been doing exactly what is described here.... So this Onkyo thing is nothing new under the sun. They're kinda late to the party, um?

The Mediagate is very stable, has had very few glitches, plays most downloaded content (all in the public domain, bien sûr) without problems. I have even used this to rip a few Zone 2 DVDs (I have a Zone 1 player) and play them on the TV without needing to buy another "all zone" DVD player.

Yes, the HD stuff is upscaling. I have not tested it myself, but I am told it looks stunning.

I even have two now, as I thought I had lost mine and bought another one... Guess the second one will go on eBay.....
bdo at 11:53 AM on 10/06/06
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This same thing has been available for well over a year now from Mediagate - http://www.airlinktek.com/english/prod_mg25.htm

Got mine at Fry's last year for $80. after rebate.

Formats:
Movie - MPEG 1, 2, 4 (MPG, MPEG, AVI, M2V, DAT, VOB, etc) XviD (Except GMC, Qpel option applied)

Music -MP3, OGG Vorbis

Photo -JPG
magicroundabout at 11:55 AM on 10/06/06
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This has been done a couple of years ago (maybe more) by a Greek company called Unibrain. The iZak (http://www.unibrain.com/Products/iZak/iZak.htm) has all the above features plus supporting iso movie files, fully customisable GUI and sporting a cool, credit card sized remote *and* looks better too! Price $229 (incl. 40GB HDD).
goodevans at 12:02 PM on 10/06/06
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I just bought a cheap-assed version of this in Maplin for €66 (maplin is like an English Radio Shack, maybe a step up). Brilliant. Took it on holidays around france with me, had films to watch for the wee one wherever we were. Plays xvid, divx, mpeg2 vobs, everything. Not HD obviously, but progressive scan so the quality is pretty good.
krazydonutboy at 12:13 PM on 10/06/06
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wavio? vaio? i wouldnt be suprised seeing this on some korean bootleg junk, but onkyo? they certainly dont have to drop down to the level of tricking people into buying thier stuff. i think they deserve to be sued. sadly.
whistler40069 at 05:05 PM on 10/06/06
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I want to totally Know WHAT the Name of the 66 euro product goodevans bought!! Thats even better! well, 66euro is not so much different to paying for the Onkyo but damn! I was a ComputerUSA the other day asking if they had something like this and they looked at me like a human talking wierdly to a dog. I WANT one! Amazing, why the hell rip dvds all the time when you can just move it over to your tv then your parents then your friends then delete the crap and fill it with more Crap ;)