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iPO at CES - iLink Enables Any iPod to Play Video, WMA Audio, More [UPDATED]

Friday, January 6th, 2006 at 1:25 PM - by Staff

LAS VEGAS -- Valor Multimedia on Friday unveiled iLink, an interface that enables any iPod to play video, display photos, control the MP3 player with a wireless remote control, and even listen to music in WMA format, something currently unsupported on the iPod. It connects to any home or car audio or video product, according to the company.

iLink supports the DivX, Xvid and MPEG-1, -2 and -4 video formats as well as JPEG, BMP and GIF images. Like color display iPods, iLink can display photos as a slideshow accompanied by music. iLink also charges the iPod while it's in use.

A company representative told iPod Observer at the Consumer Electronics Show that iLink sells for US$149 and will work with any iPod -- even an iPod shuffle -- except the iPod mini. Users simply manually transfer content to their iPods and then use the iLink to play it back, relying on the MP3 player simply as a storage device.


Valor's iLink on display at CES

6 comments from the community.

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DrShakagee said:

member since 14 Jun 2001 with 941 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:26 pm

Sounds like a company that is asking to be sued. Apple won't like them adding features to their iPod, and Sony will not like their use of the iLink trademark.

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MOSiX Man said:

member since 20 Jun 2001 with 558 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:57 pm

Actually, IIRC, Sony holds a trademark on 'i.Link', which may be different enough from iLink, to save Valor from a lawsuit from Sony.

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macslut said:

member since 03 Sep 2004 with 61 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jan 06, 2006 4:34 pm

I don't think Apple would sue them either. It sounds like this device is a media player in of itself and that it really only uses the iPod in disk mode to dock with it. Files are stored on the iPod and played through the iLink device.

I once ripped a DVD to an iPod Shuffle and then mounted it in disk mode to a PC hooked up to a monitor. I did this to show that the throughput of the Shuffle was great enough to support quality video. This device doesn't sound like it's much different from the PC set up I did, except it's smaller and dedicated.

iSee sounds like it's the same kinda thing.

I think we're going to see more and more products coming out that allow the iPod to dock to them as storage devices wherein the 3rd party product is the smart/controller/interface/i/o.

The larger the capacity of iPods that come out, the more demand for these products there will be.

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dhp said:

member since 22 May 2003 with 182 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Sat Jan 07, 2006 1:41 am

MOSiX Man wrote:
Actually, IIRC, Sony holds a trademark on 'i.Link', which may be different enough from iLink, to save Valor from a lawsuit from Sony.

So someone could market an i.Pod? Don't think so.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sat Jan 07, 2006 1:51 am

"will work with any iPod -- even an iPod shuffle -- except the iPod mini"

This can't be right. They must have meant, even the mini, except not the shuffle. clearly the device uses the dock connector, and the shuffle has no display capability.

Duh.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 16, 2006 10:02 am

is it possible to play wma format on the ipod 60gb?

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