Cheap KOSS boombox plays VCD!!

[yumagah]

I also posted about this at mp3.com. Target stores
are selling out the Koss MP3 boombox at $40 or so.
The box itself is nothing special sound-wise, but I
dropped in a few of my VCD's and behold, the audio
plays. Since this box is probably using the ESS decoder
chip I imagine someone could hack the hardware and
add a video out port!! BTW, it does not play SVCD, I
tested it.

[Greg12]

that sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

[vitualis]

yumagah, the player probably only has an MPEG-1 audio decoder which just so happens can read and decode the MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio on VCDs.

There is no evidence (and indeeed very unlikely) that it can decode MPEG-1 video.

Regards.

[TheInformer]

On the subject of portablility...

Isn't there an LCD screen accessory you can get for the Playstation? It connects to the PS and makes the system truly portable.

Now, if the screen has composite inputs ....

[sracer]

I picked up a Sony portable DVD player for $176 from musicfriend.com. It plays DVDs, VCDs, CDs, on CDR and CDRW media. I have done some tests and it plays VCDs virtually as well as my Pioneer DV-434 (which surprised me considering Sony's track record for poor VCD playback)
It also has some cool audio circuitry that simulates virtual home theatre setups (5 speaker, 6 speaker, etc.) which sounds awesome with my full-cup headphones.

Although it doesn't have an LCD screen, I've found alternative screens.

This first picture is the Sony player attached to the GameCube Mobile Monitor.



This second image is the Sony player attached to an Action 5507 5" Color TV.





_________________
Movie Collection (DVD / VCD)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: sracer on 2002-01-14 16:37:53 ]</font>

[next]

sracer - looks good. Have you tried the output to regular TV? How does it look?

[sracer]

Yes. I have connected it to my Toshiba flatscreen TV and it looks extremely well. Almost as good as my Pioneer.

[bilbogod]

Dude - I just love the pic of the Lord Of The Rings c.d. in the background... we wouldn't be showing off here would we...
Btw - I never seem to read about people using portable vcd players, why not?? Theres hundreds of them and there dirt cheap...

[porto]

hello,

this sony thing sounds nice
does it really recognize ordinary cdr's brands like Philips, Fuji etc?
42/43cm standalone Sony's don't, that's why I ask.

is this player regionfree or could it be made regionfree?

thanx! Davy

[yumagah]

The ESS MPEG decoder chip is used in the cheap NAPA/Adam diskman-type VCD players.
It is also used in the Sony boombox which plays MP3 files, tho I don't know if that boombox
will play VCD's like the Koss does. (The hardware is there, but who knows about the
firmware). Since the Koss box has very probably this same chip or one similar to it, it
is quite possible that the chip inside has the necessary hardware. But actually wiring it to
output a video signal is another story... I wasn't totally serious about that. It's just kind
of fun to put a favorite movie on VCD in and listen to it. I have some concerts and musicals on
VCD and they play like music cd's. If the VCD has more than one video clip on it, the forward
and reverse buttons on the Koss jump between tracks. Otherwise nothing works except
play and stop. It's just amusing on a cheapo box like this.