Gizmodo: combo

Funai (Sylvania, Symphonic and Emerson) Will Sell HDTVs With Blu-rays In 'Em

Jason Chen — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:20:00 EDT

Funai, whose subsidiaries are more familiar to us as Sylvania, Symphonic and Emerson, is planning on selling LCD HDTVs with Blu-rays on-board starting summer 2009. The company's previous successes in recent years with combo units (TVs with VCRs and TVs with DVDs) totaled up 40% and 20% of their sales in the US respectively. So how much will this low-end brand charge you for the all-in-one experience? CrunchGear says the target price for a 42-inch will be between $1100 and $1300. Keep in mind that's a price for something launching a year from now. [CrunchGear]

Update: Funai also took over the Phlips TV brand in the US, which means you might be seeing this under their name as well.

Passive Technologies Blu-ray/HD DVD Combo Media Center

Jason Chen — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:00:51 EST

We haven't heard much of the UK-based Passive Technologies, but if they keep rolling out with stuff like this lifeStation HD media player, they may yet become a common name—at least in the UK. The player features a HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player, Windows Vista, up to 1.5TB on-board storage, multi-room Crestron support, 1080p HDMI out, RAID and HDCP. We can't find a price on this thing, but since it's from the UK it doesn't seem like it has CableCARD tuner support—which means you're better off looking for something does have CableCARD if you're looking to use this to record your shows as well as watch movies off of. [Passive Tech]

VinylDisc: Hey You Got Vinyl on My CD

blongo3 — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:30:56 EDT

The concept behind VinylDisc is valid, that there are people out there who want to hear their music in pristine digital sound, yet are still drawn to the eclectic analog nature of vinyl, yet want it all on one disc. And they've even found a band who wants to try it out. British rockers Fightstar will be the first band to use the odd format. However, the downer is that the vinyl side only holds three minutes' worth of audio. Three minutes! So lets get this straight, we get another new format with two outdated audio sources, and they still have the cajones to tell me that the cool part only holds three minutes? Next! [Digital Trends via Ubergizmo]

Seagate Momentus Laptop Hard Drives Have 256MB On-Board Flash

Jason Chen — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:20:21 EDT

Seagate's latest Momentus notebook hard drives feature 256MB of flash memory and come in sizes of 80, 120 and 160GB. The point of the on-board NAND flash? To speed up performance by caching frequently used data in the NAND instead of reaching onto the hard drive every time. By storing boot information in there, it helps reduce Windows Vista startup time by 20%, and reduces power consumption by about 40%. And these figures will only rise in the future as BIOS and Vista device drivers improve. [Seagate via Digital Trends]

Weird Combo of the Day: iPod Car Kit and a Diamond Watch?

Charlie White — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:30:00 EDT

Kelton from Albuquerque sends us today's Weird Combo of the Day he found at a local Macy's store: It's an iPod car kit that includes a free watch spangled with the cheapest rhinestones this side of the Rio Grande. How tacky!

This should be an especially grating entry into our pantheon of combo-weirdness, especially for those Gizmodo-reading sociopaths who begin to foam at the mouth at the mere sight of a wristwatch.

Anyway, what will those zany marketers think of next? You're invited to send us a pic of your fave weird combo of the day, or take a look at this hilarious rogue's gallery of strangeness, showing weird combos of days gone by. – Charlie White

Thanks, Kelton!

The Final Word: LG Super Multi Blue Officially On Sale Early February

Jason Chen — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 13:15:29 EST

If you are still confused about the LG HD/BD Dual Disc Player getting canned due to HD DVD compatibility issues, here's the final word on the release. It's coming. Early February. F' Shizzle.

The official statement from LG is that you will be able to go into Best Buys, Circuit Cities, Comp USAs, and other stores and pick one up around February 4, like we said before. If you're lucky (and your local Comp USA employees are dumb), you may have already seen it on shelves.

Confusion ended. – Jason Chen