Most of us have moved on to High Definition standards in our devices and our lives, but not everyone. And so Toshiba is not forgetting those of you who are still rocking your VHS tape collections, with the D-BW500. This media playback device will handle both the old and the new in one device.

Feel free to watch your Blu-ray movies right alongside hard drives as well as VHS tapes. Other hardware specifications include an SD/SDHC memory card slot as well as AVCHD/JPEG playback compatibility. Analog fans will say VH-Yes.

Blu-ray recorders with integrated hard drives are no big deal, but Panasonic is offering something different in their DMR-BR30 that was announced for the Japanese market. It features a slot for swappable hard drives. The idea must be to mimic VHS cassettes. It’s not a bad idea really.

The problem is that you won’t be able to swap just any hard drive. You’ll need to buy Panasonic’s DY-HDD500 500GB hard drives for $240 each. It connects via a USB connection and is only supported in this recorder. Users will be able to copy videos from Blu-ray discs or DVDs to the hard drive or vice versa. But only if you have that hard drive.

Amazon has an interesting patent registration for a gift conversion system. The idea is that you’ll end up with the gift that you really want, instead of getting socks or a sweater from your grandmother. The patent describes a system that allows gift recipients to set parameters for the things they want.

For instance “convert all gifts from Aunt Mildred,” or “no clothes with wool,” and “convert VHS to DVD,” etc. So if Aunt Boringpants buys you a VHS movie, you could easily convert it to a DVD.

Many of us have tons of VHS tapes laying around the house, even today. Here’s a great project that will help you better use them. This VHS coffee table was created using 92 old VHS tapes as the table’s base.

It’s a great way to recycle all those old VHS tapes lying around. It’s not like you are ever going to watch them again anyway, since the quality is so bad. Might as well decorate with them.

DX Antenna Japan has unveiled the DXBW320, the cheapest HDD/VHS and Blu-Ray disc recorder combo on the market today. I bet this is one combo device that isn’t sitting in most of your homes right now.

If you are in the market for one, it’s priced at 70,000 Yen (or $784). The DXBW320 features a 320GB HDD, a Blu-Ray and DVD Recorder and a VHS deck all in the same unit. As a bonus this combo device also has two Digital TV tuners. We don’t have any onfo yet on when or if this one will be released in the States.

Wayyyy back in November of 2008, we told you about the iPod Nano TV/VHS combo, which allows you to turn your old ipod nano 3g into a tiny portable television. To refresh your memory, this mini TV-set magnifies your iPod’s screen up to 2.8 inches diagonally. Your iPod connects in the back as shown.

Well, apparently this one is finally available. You can get the NanoTV 3G for about $29.50. We still think it would have been cool to slip your iPod into the VHS slot, but that’s just us.

iConvert lets you convert your old VHS cassettes to a digital format. The device is a standalone unit that doesn’t require a PC to use, which is convenient. Just connect the VHS player and then insert an SD card in the iConvert. As the VHS tape plays the data is backed up on to SD card so you can transfer it to your PC later on.

As well as a VHS player, you can also connect other devices like old camcorders. The iConvert will cost you $99.95 and is great if you have a bunch of old video cassette’s you want to converting to a digital.

Princeton has announced its PUC-AVBOX, an upscan converter that lets you playback enhanced video from your DVD player or VHS recorder onto your LCD monitor. The PUC-AVBOX features VGA, component, composite, S-Video, Audio RCA (L/R) and stereo mini jack (3.5mm) as well as support for D-Sub output and Picture-in-Picture.

DVDs and VHS are so last decade, why not improve the quality? The device supports the following output resolutions and aspect ratios: XGA 1,024 × 768 (4:3), SXGA 1,280 × 1,024 (16:10), WXGA 1,440 × 900 (5:4), WSXGA 1,680 × 1,050 (16:10), Full HD 1,920 × 1,080 (16:9), WUXGA 1,920 × 1,200 (16:10).

Panasonic has announced a new series of DVRs that will be available in September. Six models in all, these new DVRs feature a Blu-ray recorder, a VHS player (for the DMR-BR670V) and your choice of 320GB / 500GB / 1TB / 2TB of HDD.

They come equipped with the latest UniPhier system LSI that integrates new AV data compression/decompression technology. The high-end model, the DMR-BW970 should be able to record up to 320hrs of video in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 @ 12.9Mbps and supports Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD, can record on BD-RE / BD-R / DVD-RAM / DVD-R / DVD R DL / DVD-RW, and there’s also HDMI output, an SDHC card slot, the VIERA Link, and is DLNA.

The Erase-o-Matic degausser will not slice and it will not dice. What it does is erase magnetic data media such as diskettes, cassettes, VHS, zip drives etc, using rare earth magnets enclosed in a special case. There’s a larger version for larger media and hard drives.

It must be the “As seen on TV” type name that has the base version priced at $395.00. For tapes just pass them through once then rotate 180 degrees and pass them through again. A hard drive should be passed once, then rotated 180 degrees and passed again, then pass it again from the other end, rotate 180 degrees and pass again.

I knew there was a use for all of those old VHS tapes in the closet. Seven, count ‘em, seven VHS tapes are holding up this light bulb. Whether it’s old Sanford and Son shows or Star Trek the Next Generation, old television is the new way to light your home.

As the creator points out, the lamp is designed to be used with a CFL (compact flourescent) bulb ONLY. A standard bulb might get too hot and melt your VHS tapes. There’s nothing worse than a mound of melted tape. Trust me on that one. Goes well with the VHS toaster.

We aren’t sure why…this exists. We can only guess that some of you have already grown nostalgic about your old VHS cassette tapes. It’s a super easy mod, should you want one for yourself. If you love VHS so much, you can probably just pluck one of these off your entertainment center.

A little work and presto, you’ve got a USB storage device that looks like a VHS tape with a wire tail. It’s super easy. You are basically just connecting the USB cable to a thumb drive inside the tape, wiring some circuit board and that’s it. Total cost is $10-15. Video below.

As far as innovative toasters go, I’ll stick with the VHS toaster over this butter-knife type deal. At least with that one I wont accidentally toast my hand in the morning.

It’s a design concept by Kim Been that looks like a knife but is really a handheld toaster. All you need to do is run it across the bread until it’s toasted to your liking. An animated graphic shows you how you are doing, which your you should be able to see with your own eyes.

Okay. Not really. But that’s how a format war would play out with this VHS toaster. It may look like a typical Daewoo VCR, but this one takes slices of bread instead of VHS tapes.

It actually toasts the letters VHS onto the toast. It only gets better if someone makes one that toasts movie scenes onto your bread. When your VCR is toast, then by all means let it make toast. Video below.

If a Gremlin had sex with a bird, then decided to have a threesome with Keepon, then a Furby wandered by delivering a pizza and getting in on the action, this would be their bastard lovechild. It’s name is TOFU, a “squash and stretch” robot with OLED eyes developed by the boffins at the MIT Media Lab.

Tofu uses techniques of social expression that have been employed by 2D animators for ages, to explore the impact on robotics. One thing is for sure. That bot knows how to groove and puts most humans to shame with it’s dancing skills. The video above shows off his moves, which are strangely very pimp-like.