USB

It's no secret that we're big fans of Oppo's line of universal players; in fact, we suggested last year that the company's BDP-93 would likely be the last disc player you'd ever need to buy.

Well, we were wrong. The just-announced BDP-103 ($499) and BDP-105 ($1,199) replace the BDP-93 and 95, and add enough new features to the enticing Oppo package that we just might have to rethink our position.

I recently got back from three weeks camping/backpacking in South Africa. For anyone who knows me, my using those verbs in the same sentence as “I” will be rather shocking.

Only sporadically near power, and often on the go, I was, with some careful preparation (and ongoing trial and error), able to use my iPod, watch TV shows and videos, and take over 2,000 photos, all without tech incident.

So with the summer travel season upon us, follow these tips and don’t miss a photo, track, or clip.

The writing may be on the wall for the CD and for physical media in general; but we're still seeing interesting disc players emerge as we enter the format's end times (of course, we could be totally wrong about that; vinyl certainly hasn't gone away, and nor has innovation in the turntable arena). But simple CD-playback devices may be a thing of the past.