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It’s been a while since we’ve been impressed by a portable DVD player…as in forever. But with a slight design alteration, the Philips PET830 gives some hope to a formerly dead end of electronics.

Add in DivX, MPEG4, MP3 and WMA support and the PET830 is almost as good at playing media as the laptop you’ll purchase instead. No pricing info yet. – Mark Wilson

If streaming your iTunes music via Airport Express isn’t for you, then perhaps the iHome iH21 is more your fancy. Consisting of a dock and matching speakers, the iH21 let’s you beam your tracks to the basement, the kitchen, and even your bedroom.

Plus, the speaker is water-resistant and remote control-friendly, meaning your music’s safe even during your wet and wild orgies. Too bad the same can’t be said of the rest of your furniture. – Jason Chen

Product Site [iHome]

It’s not your average shelf system stereo because it a) has a DVD player, and B) rocks a tube amp. Beautiful an glowy, and very soulful for a big CE company like Philips. You know all about pretty glowy things, because of those Ambilight HDTVs I love so much, don’t ya? Yes you do!

The speakers look to have around a 1 inch tweeter and 4 inch woofer. The remote clearly steals some ID from the RAZR’s central nav pad. I’d take one…if I had bookshelves to perch em on.–Brian Lam

It’s nice to see dudes get what’s coming to them. The 21-year-old man who was shot by two gunmen while waiting in line at Wal-Mart for the PS3 is fine now, but the two idiots who shot him have been caught. Kotaku reports:

William J. Robertson, 20, and Andrew Patnaude, 17, were arrested about 4 a.m. on several charges including attempted murder and robbery.

The victim? Even after being blasted by a shotgun, his “only concern was getting those Playstation 3s.” It’s a shame that he only wanted the PlayStations 3 to scalp later. – Jason Chen

PS3 Shooting Victim Has no Regrets [Telegram via Kotaku]

We’ve been hearing reports all over the place of people’s Wii straps breaking and their Wiimotes smashing into their 61-inch TVs. If this guy is any indication of how these dudes are playing Wii Sports, we say no frickin wonder!

Tip: Don’t try to serve like Pete Sampras unless you can actually hold on to your Wiimote. – Jason Chen

Looks like Wal-Mart is looking for a slice of the movie download business. Starting next week it’s launching its own movie store. The way it works is you buy a DVD at the store and then log onto the Wal-Mart website to get your download (each DVD will have a sticker with a URL and promo code that you punch in to get the process going). Then for $1.97 you can download a version of the movie that’ll play on a portable media player or for $2.97 you can download a version for your PC/laptop. Cough up $3.97 and you have the right to play it on either of the two.

According to Wal-Mart, this gives buyers the freedom to choose what they want. Personally, I prefer to rip copies of any movie that I own and play them where I want, but that’s just me. The service is kicking off with the Superman Returns DVD. Wal-Mart is also working on a more traditional download service, but those details are still under wraps. – Louis Ramirez

Wal-Mart Launches Digital Movie Downloads [via CNNMoney]

If you’re looking for a pair of 2.1 USB speakers without the .1, the Logitech Z10 Interactive Speakers should do fine. Thanks to the woofers mounted on the back of the satellites, the pair replicate bass well enough for people who don’t want to get cardiac arrhythmia every time they listen to a Snoop track.

The sound was a bit flat, but the reviewers preferred it that way. The main draw, however, is the 160×43 LCD display on the right speaker.

The same LCD that’s on the Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard gives you “current track information, your latest POP3 emails, the time and date, your current CPU and RAM utilization, a countdown timer, and a stopwatch.” There are also a bunch of mods for the G15 LCD, where you can find on the mod websites below.

There’s also support for all the major media players—probably not the Zune—and you can even set radio favorites on the thing. You’ll most likely be using the touch-sensitive buttons that control standard playback, volume, and power controls more, and they’re definitely slick looking. They’re $149 on Amazon, which isn’t bad but a bit more than the older Logitech Z-2300s that come with a sub. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Amazon]

Logitech Z10 Interactive Speaker System Review [Everything USB]

G15 Mods
G15 Forums

We wouldn’t try this at home—since our 360s are working just fine—but if you’ve got one that’s throwing up the 3 red lights, this may be a solution.

We don’t want to spoil the ending, so just watch. And if this doesn’t work for you, well, you got some s’plainin to do to Microsoft. – Jason Chen

YouTube [via Digg]

The last time we looked at the Helios H4000, we thought the combination of multiple format support, 1080p upscaling, and low, low price made this an incredible buy. Now that i4u got their hands on one, we can definitely say this is worth your money.

The H4000 is solidly constructed, with a metric asston of outputs. HDMI, component, composite, S-Video, VGA, 5.1 surround audio, optical audio and coax audio makes the back more holey than Jesus’ beer mug.

Upscaling DVDs to 720p (they didn’t have 1080p) looked fantastic, and was dramatically better than just a standard DVD player. In addition to great image quality, the fact that you can play back all of your BitTorrented movies, TV shows and British Comedies on a $169 player makes this a great deal for HDTV owners. – Jason Chen

neodigits Helios H4000 1080p Upscaling DVD Player Review [i4u]

Microsoft brought its bigs guns to New York last night (including Peter Moore himself) as they taunted a crowd of energetic gamers, overweight journos, and greasy hipsters with visions of sweet HD downloads. The show had a few celebrities in the mix and our agile videographer Richard Blakeley caught some of the night’s prettier faces (we’re talking about the games of course) in case you weren’t there. – Louis Ramirez

We get a demonic baby, Japan gets a revelation while brushing, and Europe gets exploding furniture that touts the benefits of High Definition? It’s hard to say which region is the winner—I think we’re all losers here. – Jason Chen

PS3 Films

We haven’t been too keen on the whole HD Radio concept, but at $175 the Accurian HD Radio is the least expensive model available, so we bit the bullet and checked it out.

For those not in the know, HD Radio is essentially a new digital radio format that makes your standard FM stations sound sharper and clearer (like CDs) while also improving the sound of your AM stations (making them sound like FM stations). The problem is, with the satellite radio twins taking center stage, HD Radio has been treated like a red-headed step child. Nevertheless, we called in Accurian’s new Tabletop HD Radio. Looks-wise, it’s no different than your standard radio, the build is plastic and toyish. More impressions and unboxing after the jump.

Click through for the unboxing.

Reception on the Accurian was excellent from every corner of our apartment and finding HD broadcasts in the NY area was easy (you can also look them up on HD Radio’s website). Sound-wise, however, we weren’t that impressed. Yeah, it was better and clearer than our static-ridden analog radio (what isn’t), but after comparing it to our non-HD Tivoli SongBook there just weren’t enough features on the Accurian to sustain us. Adding insult to injury, the Tivoli sounded just as good, if not better, than the HD Radio.

As much as we tried to like HD Radio it lacked the excitement of when we got our first XM tuner. We like that HD Radio displays artist information (as does satellite) and we enjoyed discovering the few local HD broadcasts in our area, but until pricing on the players goes further south, it’s best to save your money.

– Louis Ramirez
Accurian Tablteop HD Radio

Japan’s Twinbird is coming out with a gadget that wirelessly streams TV all throughout your humble abode. Called the Zabady (which is Yiddish, I believe, for “wild” or “crazy”), it’s comprised of a 7-inch screen that sports a 480×234-pixel resolution and a corresponding dock. A/V sources like TVs and DVD players are plugged into the dock, which then uses Wi-Fi to spit the image out to the 7-inch screen. Think of it like a Slingbox, but for short distance location shifting.

The inclusion of Wi-Fi may be impressive, but it’s all for naught if the screen is rubbish. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page (in Japanese) [Twinbird via Akihabara News]

There are only a couple products that I will swear by: caramel apple pops and Logitech Harmony Remote—and lucky for you today’s Dealzmodo is about one of my favorites. J&R Music has some pretty good discounts on Logitech Harmony remotes.

• Harmony 880 for $160 after $90 of instant savings.
• Harmony 890 for $270 after $130 instant savings.
• Harmony 550 for $100 after $50 of instant savings.

Free shipping is also included. If you have even somewhat of a complex home theatre system, I would recommend a Logitech Harmony remote. –Travis Hudson

[Via Dealhack]

Word broke last night that Microsoft will add downloadable movies and TV shows to the Xbox Live marketplace. How about a video (taken by Giz’s very own Richard Blakeley) of Mr. Xbox 360 himself Peter Moore delivering the good news? – Nicholas Deleon

Press Release [Xbox]