music video

An e-dictionary to watch and listen

As so many electronics manufacturers try to cram as many technologies as possible in a single product, it's not surprising that the "convergence" bug has spread to such boring devices as electronic dictionaries. To wit: South Korea's Atree is combining a 100,000-word English-Korean dictionary with a video and MP3 player, according to Electronista.

Perhaps even more important, the combo gadget can also tune in digital TV broadcasts, which is a must for the many viewers who are hooked on Korean soap operas. For that reason alone, it wouldn't be a bad idea to expand … Read more

MXPlay mashes up with Firefox

Today, MXPlay--the digital-music player that focuses on customizing and enhancing your playback sound, while also letting you mash up streaming audio with Web videos (covered previously)--launched a Windows-only add-on for the Mozilla Firefox browser. Called MXPlay Web, the Firefox add-on part is a simple orange MXPlay button that sits in your toolbar. Whenever you navigate to a Web page that includes MP3 files, the button transforms into a musical note. Click that note, and you can "play" that Web page in a pop-up music player.

After you select "Play this page," MXPlay Web will list all of the available MP3 songs on that Web page. You can then mark any of your favorites and save them to a personal playlist. Unfortunately, once you create that playlist, MXPlay Web somewhat randomly puts them into an order that you cannot change manually.

Just like the full app, MXPlay Web lets you customize the sound of the music using the same unique graphic interface. Drag and drop the head icon (the listener) and each of your available speakers to a specific location on the screen, which affects sound levels and direction. A blue circle in the upper left lets you control the size of your virtual room, and the bars in the upper right offer three levels of reverb.… Read more

New music...and as always, it's free

The crew at Download Music is always on the prowl for great new music--we do the heavy lifting so you don't have to--and as usual we've dug up some cool and groovy stuff to get you through the weekend and beyond. For starters, we've got a brand new track from R&B hero Jill Scott; a couple of laid-back French-pop-styled songs from Dean & Britta, former members of Galaxie 500 and Luna; and the first pop album from hot electronic DJ and techno artist Matthew Dear.

You can catch quick reviews and song samples from each … Read more

Download.com Music video report

What are the cool kids spinning? Not that we at Download.com Music are all that "cool." OK, well, maybe we are a little. Whatever you want to call us, you can't deny the music in our latest Download.com crew video report--produced by our good friends at CNET TV--is rather tasty. Bjork chimes in wth a brand-new track, along with former Pulp maestro Jarvis Cocker, rising hip-hop star Phat Kat, and the crazy dance rhythms of Bonde Do Role.

Three music video search tools

With this morning's news of Last.fm launching a video service, we thought it would be worth mentioning a few resources that are out there for finding free music videos.

MusicTonic is a very slick search tool that mashes up various pieces of artist information like photos, album art, news stories, and a video playlist. It ties into a few online services like Flickr, YouTube, Last.fm, and MyStrands, among others. It's a lot like Foxytunes Planet, which we looked at in January, although there's no integration with any jukebox players.

Middio is a simplified music-video search … Read more

Mash up audio and video with MXPlay

There are a number of great digital-music players already on CNET Download.com--iTunes rules the roost because of its compatibility with iPods; MediaMonkey is fantastic for free music management and playlist creation; JetAudio Basic is packed with features for burning and broadcasting via JetCast; the classic free player Winamp now provides Internet TV and music videos; and Quintessential Player, my personal favorite player, is the perfect size for those who prefer a light system footprint.

A new digital-music player called MXPlay focuses primarily on one facet that most of the current software doesn't even mention: sound quality. Designed mostly for streaming audio, MXPlay augments even the lowest-quality 96kbps music streams to provide a more full-bodied sound for your favorite tunes. Also, a unique graphical interface lets you position your virtual speakers and audience to tweak the sound of your songs to your heart's content, and a built-in browser lets you both surf the Web and add photos and videos to create your own music mashups.… Read more

Mog sheds beta status, launches Mog TV

Mog, the music recommendation tool and social network left beta this morning and launched a new video channel called Mog TV. The video service scans your music library and offers YouTube music videos that it thinks you'll like. There's also a kitschy feature called "The Magic Button" that can randomly bring up content related to your musical tastes. The button has been placed site-wide, and can be found on user profiles, Mog TV, and artist pages. The only bummer here is the need to install the Mog-o-matic software on your machine for access to personalized recommendations, … Read more

Joost scores a dance partner

Sure, the Internet is abuzz with news about the "YouTube killer" that several major media companies just announced yesterday, but let's not forget that other supposed YouTube killer, Joost. The broadband video start-up from the founders of Skype and Kazaa, which announced a major content partnership with Viacom last month, has a new deal that's sure to excite the party animal and nightclubbing crowd.

Joost, which is still in private beta, announced Friday that it's partnering with dance music hub Ministry of Sound's broadband video division, Ministry of Sound TV (MoSTV). When Joost launches … Read more

'Bling Player' tries to live up to name

It seems strangely appropriate that an item named the "Bling Player" would be found on a site called Shiny Shiny. Or maybe it's just redundant. Either way, we're suckers for all that glitters so here it is.

The self-proclaimed "iced-out" player from MediaReady tries to live up to its moniker with a skull-and-crossbones design encrusted with crystals (how original). But like the Average Joe who tries to compensate for his shortcomings with expensive clothes, the $200 Bling is rather ordinary inside with 2GB of memory, an FM tuner and voice recorder to go along … Read more

YouTube does sound with AudioSwap

It's a common problem: your point-and-shoot camera's microphone picked up nothing but wind while you were at the park shooting a video of people flying kites. The solution? Wipe over the track with music. But putting licensed music over the videos not only requires video editing software, but also the digital rights to publish. YouTube has rolled out a new service called AudioSwap which hopes to quell both of those problems.

To use AudioSwap, just pick a video you've uploaded and browse the provided audio list. You'll get a preview right away, and with the click … Read more