Viewsonic is getting into the media player game at a lower price point. The VMP70 is a “direct connect” media device that will play content from your choice of USB-compatible devices, up to 1080p to your display over HDMI or component cables, also featuring composite for lower-def stuff.

It packs an S/PDIF port for clean audio and supports a bunch of formats including the usual DivX, Xvid, H.264 along with some more uncommon ones like RM/RMVB, DTS, and OGG. This one is available for a MSRP of $129.99, but if you order now you’ll get special holiday pricing of $98.99.

The name makes it sound like it’s small enough for your pocket, but actually this media player from Panasonic Japan features a 9 inch screen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, along with a CD player, FM radio, an iPod dock and 4GB of internal memory. Not exactly portable.

The device also has a SD card slot and USB port for all of your audio and image files that are elsewhere. From the built in amplifier you can expect an output of 5W × 2ch.

Seagate’s latest FreeAgent Theater+ HD network media player will spice up your living room increasing the maximum resolution for video to 1080p, with support for DTS and Dolby Digital audio. If you have some RJ45 cables, you can connect the FreeAgent Theater+ HD to your home network via Ethernet, where it will stream content from different computers over the local network.

The optional 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter makes it handy to go wireless, occupying one of the three available USB 2.0 ports. The remaining ports can be connected to portable hard drives if you want additional storage. A driveless kit will cost you $150, while one with the 500GB FreeeAgent Go will retail for $290.

Ameralis Grafx‘ Tricorder PMP-09 is not only a replica of the famous Star Trek tricorder, it also functions as a portable media player. The geek in me just wet his pants a little. This baby is equipped with a 2.8″ TFT colored screen, 8 GB of memory, and a battery that can play 4 hours of video or 12 hours of music before recharge.

The device is compatible with AVI, MP4, MP3, WAV, JPG and BMP files. Sadly no browser, so it won’t detect lifeforms or Google. The media player comes in 6 versions, each with their own version of the LCARS interface, from Star Trek. The Starfleet model is shown in the picture above. There’s also Medical, Borg and Marine models. Forget the fact that the Borg didn’t use tricorders.

Western Digital has scaled things down with their latest TV Mini. It’s a mini version of their earlier media sharing device. The first thing this set-top box does is get rid of HDMI output to cut down on the size to just 3.6″ square and 0.8″ deep.

It’s capable of 1080i video playback and has RealVideo format support alongside MPEG-1/2/4, VOB and XviD formats. As far as connectivity, you get component output for HDTV, RCA and optical audio out for digital sound. It can be tucked away just about anywhere.

According to a report in Barron’s, a “veteran analyst” is claiming to have actually handled Apple’s rumored tablet-device. If you believe the report, the tablet is still on for an announcement in September with availability in November.

The analyst claims the device will cost between $699-$799 and will be aimed at users as a media player and gaming device. Apparently the tablet is just waiting on Steve Jobs to give it the final go. He also claims that other ODMs have put a hold on new products until they see what Apple has up it’s sleeve.

Brando loves to release docking stations for your SATA HDDs every couple of months. This latest unit adds H.264 decoding to the already present DivX, Xvid and MPEG-4 and outputs to full 1080p. It features HDMI and a bunch of supported media formats. It gives you a lot of options.

This new device accepts 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives as well as USB flash memory, SD, MMC, and MS cards. There’s much to like. Until you get to the price, which is $199. There are nicer looking alternatives available for about half that.

The MediaGate MG-M²TV should be a pretty versatile media player. The little box packs quite a punch and is compatible with a whole bunch of video formats including AVI, WMV9, MKV, Xvid, H.264 and RealVideo.

The MediaGate MG-M²TV will also playback your music and image file fomats easily and even offers subtitle support for watching a foreign movie. If you want to use your HDTV to it’s full potential, you can output video and audio to your HDTV at 1080p resolution via HDMI or component.

Here’s a device that stands out from the crowd. The Olevia HD Media Player, also known as the ZP-500. This media player can decode, playback and output full HD video (Amazing 1080p) via its HDMI 1.3 interface. Supported codecs include MKV, HD MPEG2, HD VC-1, HD AVC/H.264 movie and RMVB HD. You can also stream from a USB flash drive or hard drive to your new HDTV.

Yes it comes with built-in network connectivity, allowing you to go through your files from any PC screen. The Network function allows you to browse the video file in your PC, NAS which is in your room and play it on TV in the living room. Pretty awesome device.

Memorex introduces the TouchMP touchscreen portable media player. The TouchMP comes with 8GB of storage capacity and features a 2.8-inch QVGA color display and touch screen LCD with 320×240 resolution. The device plays MP3, WMA, WAV audio, WMV, MPEG-4, AVI in MP4 format video as well as JPEG images.

TouchMP also includes FM radio, support for podcast and Audible audio books. If 8GB isn’t enough for you, the Memorex TouchMP comes with a microSD card slot. It will be shipped in March for $99.99.

Twinbird has another splash-proof, portable music player available giving you more options to bring you tunes into the bathroom This one has an internal USB port to connect your thumb drive loaded with MP3 or WMA files to play in the bathroom or other damp areas that would otherwise brick a normal media player. One the drive is plugged in the case can be closed and the music can be selected from the outside.

In addition to playing digital music from a portable drive the Twinbird CD ZABADY AV-J189S also houses a CD player and an FM radio. It runs on internal batteries that can bring up to 7 hours of radio, 5.5 hours of MP3 playing or 4 hours of CD playback. It also has built-in speakers and a convenient handle on top to port it around. Internal picture of the player after the jump.

Creative is rolling out a new MP3 player today which looks like an overgrown Zen Stone. The new MuVo T100 will initially be available in Singapore at the end of October.

The Creative MuVo T100 comes in a variety of colors and serves double duty as a USB thumb drive and music player. It’s available in 2GB and 4GB sizes, measuring 25 x 77 x 8.9mm and weighing a lightweight 17.8 grams. It has a built-in USB connector and can get upwards of ten hours of audio between charges.

Toshiba is expanding its line of gigabeat MP3 players, the company announced today. It is introducing the new gigabeat T400, a flash-based player priced at around $120.

The Toshiba gigabeat T400, said the company, is its first flash player “high-end audio H2C audio enhancement technology and support for WMA Lossless audio files.” It has 4GB of memory, enough to hold up to 1,000 songs, and its rechargeable battery delivers up to 16 hours of playback. The T400 is also capable of playing video on its 2.4-inch LCD color display.

Last weekend Best Buy made a quiet release of their latest line of the budget-minded Insignia media players, one of which being the 4GB Insignia Pilot. The Insignia players have always been somewhat in the background, offering decent “Best-Buy brand” players at affordable prices, but this latest release has some competitive features at a very competitive price which should give a lot of more popular brands a run for their money.

The player supports playback of MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM, WMA Pro, OGG, WAV and Audible audio files along with MPEG4 (30 fps) and WMV (30 fps) for video. It will also support viewing JPEG still images. Users can watch video and view images on a nice-sized 2.4″ widescreen LCD and it offers up to 25 hours of audio playback on a single charge.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft made a decision to give the Zune a price cut by $50 the day Apple’s making an announcement about what many are expecting to be a new iPod. The company stated that this price cut is just part of the normal product life cycle and that some recent research indicated a 94% customer satisfaction result with the 30GB product causing them to lower the price so more customers can experience the Zune.

Does this mean we going to see a new Zune soon? Maybe that Zune phone we heard so much about?

Zune Price Cut