This is the Hitachi Wooo (yup, right number of ‘o’s!), a gigantic 50 inch plasma HD-TV that comes with one or two tricks up its sleeve. Obviously it comes with the usual you’d expect from a top-end HD-TV – 3 HDMI ports, 10,000:1 contrast ratio and various audio out jacks.

But its real star turn is the addition of a removable 250GB hard drive included within the HD-TV itself. Add to that an SD/MMC card reader and the ability to plug the hard drive directly into your PC or even car stereo (?!), and you have an innovative new way of transferring your media. Not quite media streaming, but an easy way of moving your TV programmes and films around with you, nonetheless.

More details and pictures of the Hitachi Wooo HD-TV after the jump.

The removable hard drive is based on the new iVDR (the awkwardly-titled Information Versatile Disk for Removable Usage) standard. This is aimed to provide a ‘universal hard drive’ that can be slotted into any device that uses a hard drive. Current scenarios envisage moving your content-filled hard drive between your PC, HD-TV, car navigation system and even a mobile audio-visual player (i.e. a PMP).

Personally, I think the ability to transfer your content wirelessly is a much better option, be it via DLNA, Bluetooth or even good old Wi-Fi. However, for archive purposes, or using your media outside the home (in your car or PMP, for example), a hot-swappable plug and play ruggeed hard-drive is a great idea.

As far as Hitachi’s Wooo is concerned, you can use its hard drive to record your TV programmes or films, with the hard drive helping the Wooo act as a PVR. The Wooo has onboard analogue and digital TV tuners, enabling you to record one TV programme onto the hard drive while watching another programme on a different channel.

You can then remove the hard drive, plug it into your PMP, and watch your recorded TV programmes while flying across the Atlantic (for example!).

You can also buy iVDR hard-drives (or cartridges, as they’re known) pre-loaded with films – and with up to 250GB to spare, you can get over 5,000 movies on one cartridge (apparently, though this figure seems a little high!). Hitachi has partnered with Warner to do just this.

The Hitachi Wooo release date is April 20th, in Japan only at the moment. How well the iVDR concept will do, we’ll just have to wait and see, as despite the vision, there aren’t that many iVDR-equipped gadgets out at the moment with which to swap your iDVR cartridge to.

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The thing that distinguises the KiSS 1600, though, is the addition of an upscaling DVD player.

More details of the LinkSys KiSS 1600 WMP media receiver after the jump.

The LinkSys KiSS 1600 comes fully loaded with a plethora of codecs. For video, it supports DVD, WM9 HD, H.264/AVC, MPEG-2, 4, DivX 3.11, 4, 5, Nero Digital and XviD, while for audio it supports WMA, WMA9, AAC, MP3 and Ogg. Like the Digital Entertainer HD, it also comes with a USB slot for pulling in content from a USB stick or MP3 player.

These media receivers are becoming more and more popular, but hte manufacturers don’t seem to have yet figured out exactly what combination of gizmos we want them to come with. The Digital Entertainer, for example, is fully loaded with all the medi support you culd wish for, and connectivity options coming out of its ears, enabling it to connect to virtually any TV or audio set up you might have. But it doens’t have a DVD player, which the KiSS 1600 clearly does.

The question you have to ask yoursewlf, though, is do you need one? Most people already have a DVD player, so in some ways it’s simply redundant technology. However, it’s controllable via the same remote control used to command the KiSS 1600′s media streaming abilities, meaning you only one remote control for media streaming and DVD playback.

If reducing the number of remote controls appeals to you, then the LinkSys KiSS 1600 might be for you. If not, price becomes the over-riding factor, and at £265 (approx. $500), the KiSS 1600 is some £50 more than the Digital Entertainer. You pays your money, as they say!

[Source: Gizmodo]