converting video formats (For Hasbro's VideoNow) I know the

[gman1339]

I can't believe this thread is still alive. I just wanted to post that it looks like lordsmurf may have gotten what he asked for so long ago. The B&W VideoNow is on sale this week at my local BigLots for $15.88. They also have the carying case for $2, the VideoNow light for $2, VideoNow headphones for $2, and a few titles for $1 or $2 (depending on how many discs are in the box. They only had the silver and purple models at my BigLots.

Gman

[thyrson]

I have been working on the video format as well and have determined that it is a 4096 color format, 4 bits each for RGB, and is ordered as such

RBBGGRRBBGGRRBBGGRR
BGGRRBBGGRRBBGGRRBB
RBBGGRRBBGGRRBBGGRR


I still need to play with which elements are used for each pixel but have been able to retrive images

For this Image I use two elements then the element from the row below that coresponds ie

RB..BG..GR
..G....R....B

BG..GR..RB
R.....B....G

[VideonowDude]

I have a VirtualDub filter that converts to VideoNow Color tracks and breaks it into tracks at specified frames. Includes docs for how to modify the player for 5" discs and how to burn the resulting files to disc. I've made about six discs so far, very happy with it.

I'd like a couple of beta testers before posting it here, please send me a private msg if interested.

[VideonowDude]

Here is the VideoNow Color file format:

Each audio track is taken as a byte sequence. The first track is special: I dont know why, but you have to copy it from a pre-recorded disc for the player to start up. After that, a track starts with N bytes of header, usually but not always zeros. N varies, I use 2500 in my encoder. N must be a multiple of 10. Then frames follow, each frame is 19600 bytes total, consisting of:

240 bytes of 0x81, 0xe3, 0xe3, 0xc7, 0xc7, 0x81, 0x81, 0xe3, 0xc7, 0xNN
120 bytes of 0x00, 0x00, 0x02, 0x01, 0x04, 0x02, 0x06, 0x03, 0xff, 0xNN etc (see a real disc for this pattern)
40 bytes of 9 0xFFs, one 0xNN (NN=audio byte, see later), some kind of sync
19200 Video of frame

Audio is every 10th byte, starting after the N bytes of header. It is stereo, 17640Hz, Stereo, 8-bit unsigned.

Video is 18 frames per second. There are 160 scanlines of 120 bytes per frame, with a nibble per 'pixel'. 'Pixels' are strange though, being RGBRGB for even scans, GBRGBR for odd ones (see good diagrams in earlier posts). If you take these as triangles, you get an effective resolution of 144 by 80.

The disc is run at exactly double speed. CD-Rs work great, CD-RWs fail badly. I haven't got a minidisc to work. The last track is never played, so is 4 seconds of black on the discs I looked at.

[maxedroom]

VideoNowDude,

Have you tried to use your algorithm above on files from the sample disk that comes with the VNC? I tried applying the above RGB nibble matrix to a file from that disk ant the colors wern't quite what I would expect. Also, how many bytes are in each row of frame (image) data?

[VideonowDude]

Yes, I have a player application that I used to verify the format. I based this on the demo disc and a Wiggles disc. The Wiggles disc was particularly useful to nailing the RGB details as the final frame of Track 2 contains a great selection of primary colours. I used that, along with a magnifying glass, to get to the Eureka moment.

Each scanline is 120 bytes but remember as the audio is mixed in that is only 108 video bytes, which translates to 216 nibbles. There are 160 scanlines per frame.

I'll try and draw the 'triangles':

Line 0: R  GB R  GB
Line 1: GB R  GB R

The nibbles are 'backwards': on the first byte of an even scanline, the low nibble is red, the high nibble is blue.

[VideonowDude]

I started a new thread for Color discussions, at https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1242142, suggest we move this conversation there.

[Smee]

Does anyone have a copy of MyStuffNow.exe?? Since they have gone out of business it seems it is impossible to find this program. All links point to their dead site and I can't find any archive anywhere on ftp nor www. Much appreciated.

Smee

[Smee]

First of all, I would like to thank Greg, Lolo and everyone else who contibuted to the B/W VideoNow thread. I have sucessfully made my first CDR using the instructions found here.

So, just to let you folks know, you may want to check your local BigLot stores. I just bought two VideoNow B/W units for $15.88 each. Not bad.

Converting the video was easy, but just to recap. I transferred a 22 Minute Max & Ruby episode from my TiVo to a PC, converted the the file to an Mpeg, then used a program I have for my Palm to convert it to an AVI. This took about 10 minutes. Once done, I ran VirtualDub and converted the AVI to a B/W AVI file using the instructions found in the VideoThen archive. Once done, I converted the AVI to a WAV using VideoThen. That whole process took about 30 minutes. The last step, which took about an hour, was to convert the WAV file to BIN/CUE files using VN Movie maker. The result, a VideoNow CD that boots every time.

Thanks guys!! BTW, can anyone mail me a copy of the VideoNow logo from a regular VideoNow CD? I would like to add those when I create the CD but the units sold at BigLot do not come with any demo disks.

Thanks!!

Smee

[reggiereg1]

This is a good thread with useful information. My question is how are you purchasing the blank PVDs? I would like to watch my regular dvds on this unit , is it possible?

Thanks in advance

[EwanG]

My question is how are you purchasing the blank PVDs?

Not purchasing blank PVDs, but rather purchasing blank CD-Rs, and then either modifying the player to be able to play a full-sized disc, or cutting the disc to fit the player. While the latter is possible, the former is preferred.

I would like to watch my regular dvds on this unit , is it possible?

Not with any currently known tools, but I'd be interested if you find a way to burn a PROM or something that made it possible. Even then, you'd still have the size issue.

[coondog1234]

(E-Mail Address Removed due to increasing spam)

BTW ive successfully burned a videonow color disc of a viva la bam episode (The 3 mile island one where they are stranded for 24 hours on an island near a nuclear power station) using virtualdub but theres no sound can someone help me out, i dunno i may tinker with it some more and maybe play with the video settings to try and make it look as clear as commercial VNC PVDs, A BIG thank you to the author of virtualdub and thank you again to anyone who can send me a copy of mystuffnow, the reason im asking is because all web links point to www.mystuffnow.com and as you all know that site is dead so im pretty much SOL unless some one has it, maybe ill try limewire you never know, i actually had it on my old computer but it crashed and it fot reformatted with windows XP pro and its not the machine im on now lol this ones much better, well yall good luck on the videonow converting.

[Hirudinea]

I downloaded a copy of MyStuffNow.exe from the MyStuffNow site using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, I am running WIN98 at the moment so I don't know if the file works (and considering how I got it, it might not work anyway) but if anyone wants to try the file I've uploaded it to Rapidshare and have the following link to it...

HTTP://tinyurl.com/rumml

Now I don't consider this wares, as this file was free for public download, and I got it using that method, if you use it use it at your own risk and by the dictates of your own conscience.

[pcgarage]

I had always been interested in creating discs for video now (color) and searching the net I stumbled across this site. Good forum and info. Greg's videothen is brilliant, well done Greg. Now I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but there is an easier way.

I purchased the VideoNow media wizard at Target for $4.99 and installed it. Of course you only get 4 blank PVDs and it seems pricy to continue to purchase another wizard kit for the blanks. So I wondered if I could just use a standard CD-R with this program. I put my blank CD in, launched the program added a few videos and tried to create the disc. However when you click on "create disc" you recieve an error stating that the disc inserted in NOT a blank PVD. Obviously the program is coded to verify the type of disc in the CD writer drive.

Here is my brilliant idea. Insert your blank PVD as per the media wizard instructions. Create your project as you would normally, then click on create disc then you will be prompted to name your disc and verify the CD writer to be used. Click create disc again, the program will verify that the blank inserted is a PVD and then it will begin preparing data. At this point simply eject the blank PVD and insert your standard blank CD and when the data is prepared it will record to the cd no problem. I've made several this way. Perfect for Three Stooges shorts.

And it sure beats all the steps involved with Videothen. Sorry Greg.

Of course you need a modded player for the full size cd. I modded ours in about an hour using just a razor blade and the stove. I cut away plastic inside the player to give the cd room, then I used the stove to heat the plastic of the lid to soften it and bent it out and away where the Cd woul get pinched on closing. I find the one time mod of the player beats cutting down discs everytime.

One other downside is time limitation. You can get a longer run time with Videothen.

Quite an easy way to make your own Videonow discs.

[coondog1234]

Good News, Is anyone looking for the mystuffnow prog? if so try limewire, i just put it on there so its now available plus ive seen it on another site go here Http://tinyurl.com/rumml i hope i dont get banned for this but thats just a site that has the prog, and i think you have i think 30 days to dl it so go get it but i wanna warn ya the prog has a 10 day trial then its 19.95 you all know that, well heres the prog, remember Http://tinyurl.com/rumml. or try limewire, if you use this program use at your own risk, i am not responsible for damage done to your videonow player or pc by use of this program, and one more thing, have fun

Attention webmaster: this program is not warez, this program was freely available at its time

[coondog1234]

First of all, I would like to thank Greg, Lolo and everyone else who contibuted to the B/W VideoNow thread. I have sucessfully made my first CDR using the instructions found here.

So, just to let you folks know, you may want to check your local BigLot stores. I just bought two VideoNow B/W units for $15.88 each. Not bad.

Converting the video was easy, but just to recap. I transferred a 22 Minute Max & Ruby episode from my TiVo to a PC, converted the the file to an Mpeg, then used a program I have for my Palm to convert it to an AVI. This took about 10 minutes. Once done, I ran VirtualDub and converted the AVI to a B/W AVI file using the instructions found in the VideoThen archive. Once done, I converted the AVI to a WAV using VideoThen. That whole process took about 30 minutes. The last step, which took about an hour, was to convert the WAV file to BIN/CUE files using VN Movie maker. The result, a VideoNow CD that boots every time.

Thanks guys!! BTW, can anyone mail me a copy of the VideoNow logo from a regular VideoNow CD? I would like to add those when I create the CD but the units sold at BigLot do not come with any demo disks.

Thanks!!

Smee

i can rip a wav file from an original VN PVD disc give me your email addy and ill send it to you, if the file size is bigger than 16 megs ill have to make it into an mp3 b/c aol wont allow files over 16 megs and youll need an mp3 to wav converter i reccomend using dbpoweramp music converter but get version 10 because its the latest free version ok Good Luck

[lol36]

if anyone wants mystuffnow download link which isn't dead you can click link below.
http://savefile.com/files/514890

.:]{ad}[:.

[knoptop]

Through a series of events of finding an old VideoNow player and then surfing the internet for more details, I found this amazing project thread. What an adventure you'all went through to get this to work back in a time when youtube wasn't an option.

I'd like to try bring this project back to life but I wanted to see if there's anyone who was involved with this back in 2003 still connected to this.
And if so, I'd like to try to track down some of the files and things I need to try this out!