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

[NightWing]

Could be due to taking more data bandwidth for color.

[mastersmurfie]

nightwing wrote:
Could be due to taking more data bandwidth for color.

Very possible...and probably entirely likely...but why not use the smaller disc size, sell more of em, and make more $$$$

Anyway, it was fun participating in this forum and I think the next flavor will be even more exciting. In living color....

To be continued...

LoLo

LoLo...VideoNow is now in "living color"...

time to get the programming shoes on again...

[LoLo]

Wow,

Blast from the past...

Well, right now I'm in the middle of mid-terms but as soon as I can get a player and disc I'll be on it. I'd imagine that greg might be working on something already. The resolution sounds like it might be a bit better with the larger screen. And since it is in color we will not have to worry about converting it over to b&w so that might save us time during conversion.

LoLo

[cubbleyum]

I emailed mystuffnow (the videonow conversion software $19.95) here is there response


We have an early production unit of the VideoNow color player and are
working through the issues. It's too early to say when MyStuffNow will
support the new player or how much the upgrade will cost. It looks like
Hasbro has added extra logic to the new player to prevent it from playing
Mini CDs so we may be looking at more than just a software upgrade. Would
you be willing to purchase blank discs from us if we had them manufactured?
These discs would match the physical characteristics of the new color PVDs.

[impmon2]

Looks like I'd have to get a hold of the new player, take it apart, and see if they can handle standard 5.25 CDs

Hopefully they didn't change too much from the B&W player.

[GregSmith]

hello all,

imho, the new disk size is to accomodate all that additional data. the old displays were just 80x80x4 bits = 3200 bytes. this new one is 216x160x8 bits (guessing its 8bits per pixel) = 34,560 bytes - more than 10x. so there is no way its the same format as the b&w version.

if data isnt compressed, that would require 933MBytes for 30 minutes of video (15fps) - and that doesnt count audio. a standard 5.25 inch disk stores about 650MB of data - and the new disks are only 3.5". so they arent just streaming it. i bet it is stored in some proprietary compressed form. very likely just run length encoding. it *could* be mpeg or svcd - the logic chips for them might be pretty reasonable by now. it might even be a real dvd player using a smaller disk size. which makes one wonder *why* buy it?

i wont be working on reverse engineering this product.

i just bought my daughter a real personal dvd player. they are $120 now and i expect the prices to drop even more - perhaps down to $99 by christmas (edit - they are $100 now: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2164725&cat=162710&type=19&dept=...162710%3A62056). i found exactly the one i wanted and it was $156 at walmart. 5" display, full dvd player. lithium ion battery and charger.

given the low price for real personal dvds there is no good reason to buy a VideoNow device. even if the price drops to $50 (which it will by christmas) you still have to pay $7.50 - $15.00 per video. and you dont have much of a choice as to which videos you get. with a true personal dvd you have a much larger selection and the prices for videos are about the same. (blockbuster sells previously viewed dvds for $7.50-$15.00)

greg

[cubbleyum]

I got my videonow color today. It does not come with a demo disc... The screen quality is comparable to the Apex PD-450 screen type... Also it will not fit fullsize cds only the original and the B&W discs... However you can now fast forward and rewind color and b&w discs.... Also 3.5 discs don't work even using Mystuffnow software... Also there will be two types of color discs.... Original Color discs and the new Extended Color discs which I think means they use different compression.... Anyway I hope anyone of you create software for this player.... Also the b&w discs are scaled up to the full screen size... and the screen is diffently bigger than the old one.... I await your comments and possible progress on tools...

[cubbleyum]

I also have a bit more of news to share.... I used a toothpick to hold down the lid button and booted up a Original B&W disc and when it got to the menu I swapped it out with a 3.5 inch disc and it worked just fine but if you hit the previous button it locks up the player... When the player locks the laser is trying to read the edge of a 3.75" original disc... since a 3.5 disc is smaller the laser couldn't read it... So to make a long story short... 3.5" discs work using a swap method... My theory is.. is that the new player reads the outside edge before it boots the disc and if its less than 3.75" it won't boot it.... this is just my take on it.... Also the makers of mystuffnow says that the new videonow color has some kind of anti 3.5" disc thing I mention this in an earlier post.....

[LoLo]

Well if the old B&W disc work at all in the new player that means that they are using a similar data packaging method. In other words it would not be too difficult to reverse engineer this.

Not sure if I'll have any spare time in the near future but I'll see what I can do.

LoLo

[cubbleyum]

Cool thanks LOLO..... I would like to betatest anything you come up with thanks


Robert

[Supreme2k]

GregSmith, thanks for the heads-up. I picked up one of those, and it works great! My daughter wanted a VideoNow, and I said (in different words) "F***K that!"

Plus, there'd be MAJOR "double-dipping", since she has most of the NickToons on DVD. Plus, I can compile about 3 hours onto 1 DVD.

[LoLo]

Looking at Greg's math and considering his post I retract my previous post. This would be a fairly time consuming project and I agree with Greg et al.. Regarding purchasing a low cost (real) DVD player. It just makes more sense.

I doubt I'll have the time to devote to reverse engineer the format but if my wife ends up purchasing one of these things I might try, just for the heck of it. So that is a possible maybe but I doubt it...sri.

Maybe we should all just get our kids a real DVD player, sit back drink a cold one and call it a day

LoLo

[mastersmurfie]

funny story...I explained to my daughter how there might not be a way to make discs for the new VideoNow color, and she piped back (11 years old...) with "Dad, you could get one of those DVD things that you can take in the car for about $100!!!"

so...I think I'll go with GregSmith and LoLo, and get (myself) her a portable DVD player

Again, thanks to all who helped to make the conversion of the original VideoNow discs possible.

I will still be open to hosting any SMALL conversion tools that anyone might want to come up with at my geocities page (in the TOOLS section, next to LoLo's). Believe it or not, that thing still gets an average of about 15 hits per day...

mastersmurfie

[impmon2]

I agree with you, I think Hasbro may have shot themselves in their foot this time. A cheap portable DVD player with 4" display is just about $20 more and portable DVD player can play just about anything so that's easily 10,000's of commercial DVDs and many more.

I don't think I'll bother buying Color VideoNow unless they can at least sell them below $50 mark and comes with an easy DIY CVNCD plan.

[impmon2]

I went ahead and picked up a single color PVD for $10. (no player) The disc is "Dinosaur Planet" series disc 1: "Pod's Travels" I wanted Monster Garage but the local store only had Pod's Travel left :P :P. (also they have only orange player left, all the blue player are sold)

When I checked it in my PC drive (after several retries, CPVD disc just don't sit right in a tray loading drive :P) I saw 15 tracks. I then used CD to WAV/MP3 Ripper to extract them all. The first track in WAV format takes up nearly 2MB and according to WMP, it's just under 12 seconds. Track 2 is 23MB, Track 3 through 9 is nearly 90MB each (probably the main video portion), and the remainder of the tracks are small, probably some ads and promo materials.

Anyone still here that is very familiar with B&W video format want to try and crack the color version? I'm guessing Hasbro used the same idea as in the B&W version: one audio channel is for actual audio and other audio channel is for video data. It's a matter of figuring how it's encoded and figuring if there's any difference in the audio portion.

OTOH with cheap DVD players, it may be better idea to steer people toward portable DVD players rather than Color PVD player.

[cubbleyum]

I have extracted all tracks from a color disc I bought as well.."All Grown Up" It has 20 tracks.... First being 2megs, Second 5.04megs, Third Being 24.5 megs, Fourth 58.2 megs, and it goes on each being a different size.... CDRWIN is what I used to extract the tracks and much like the B&W videonow they are audio tracks....

[mastersmurfie]

In case anyone is interested, I received this in an email a couple of days ago:

Dudes, I was looking thru amazon.com for cd-r's and I
ran across ColecoVision selling MyStuffNow 4 pack
108mm CD-R's for the videonow color player, Check it
out:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002WPVRS

seems to be a 4-pack for $9.99--not a very good deal for me...

mastersmurfie

[impmon2]

I also got the same thing and I think whoever sent those PM are also the person selling thos CD-Rs. I agree with you and add to that no one has come up with a free hack for making Color PVD yet.

Compare to as low as a dollar per DVD blank that with some work could hold upward of 8 hours and works on almost any DVD players. And as someone pointed out, portable DVD player with *bigger* screen is just a few bucks more than Color player. :P

Advantages of getting DVD player over Color PVD player:
you have access to 10,000's of existing DVD.
lots of documentation on making your own DVD.
Cheaper to make your own DVD than your own color PVD.
Color PVD is about 30-40 minutes while DVD could be up to 8 hours.
DVD players will be around for a lot longer.

[mastersmurfie]

ok...received this email:

I am a technical writer and would be interested in putting together,
with you, a primmer (on mini-CD using autorun (indego rose) or similar
non printable, copyable media, even Acrobat) on the ins and outs of Video
Now. I'm talking, a difinitive work that will take the average
know-nothing and make him at least conversant in Video Now, and take the
adequate and make them a Video Now pro.

from my website...haven't answered yet...wanted everyones OK or not OK to allow use of all tools and resources that I have posted at www.geocities.com/mastersmurfie

If you all are still reading this, just let me know yes or no.

thanks

mastersmurfie

[GregSmith]

I am thrilled that someone wants to do a definitive guide on VideoNow. I would appreciate it if the author contacted me directly about VideoThen.

greg@alcorgrp.com

thanks

greg

[ctkdx69]

do you need a different drive for mini cd-rs? and i wanna learn how to do this... (IN EASY FORM)

[NightWing]

Look like the color version is heading for the possible as-is-where-is bin. KMart this Sunday will have it on sale for 43 dollars. Max of 2 per customer.

Wonder if Matel's JuceBox had anything to do with this?

[impmon2]

More likely those cheap $100 DVD player that plays anything including most burned discs nd comes with screen big enough that you don't need a magnifying glass to see.

[NightWing]

Yep.

[nils_heidorn]

Hi !
I don't know if this is something new, but i have modified the Videonow Color Player, so it can "eat" normal CD-R's.
My copy of a "real" Videonow Disc plays fine from a 25 cent CD-R now

From reading this, i understand that right now there is no way to encode anything to play on the Videonow color ( in color of course ), is that right ?

Thanks,

Nils

[impmon2]

AFAIK no one has tried. It was fine when you had a $40 player that could play but when you have an $80 player that won't work with standard mini CD-R and has screen that is smaller than a Gameboy, those $100 DVD players looks more attractive.

[HDR]

sorry if this has already been posted... is there any way to take an ISO of a videonow disc and play it on the computer?

[Roborob142003]

Now that the Videonow Color is under 50 Dollars, I was am hoping that a good programer(like LoLo and GregSmith) will help crack the Color code, i have done some testing and have the 2 MB boot logo. I have limited experience with programing,but I have succsesfully made tons of selfbooting B&W cd's and have modified my unit to use cd-rw's and have the following info...
1. The color unit looks at the 84-88 mm range for a cd to make sure that mini cd's are not used.(so my cd-rw is cut to 4.5 inches as its the size used for both color cd's and will pass the check in the player)
2. Once it reads the color boot track, its in color mode, switch cd's with a b&w one and you see cool bars of colors)
3. The audio is recorded in in both channels.

I will give more information as i learn how to figure these things out, and there is no news from MyStuffNow.com about the colr version.

Thanks to all that may help,
Robert
Norwood

[Roborob142003]

Ok, I did more experementing and found that the data is read at 2X in color instead or 1x for the B&W, also, if you slow down the cd the voices begin to slow down, not stop, and the frames refresh slower, its kinda like soing into slowmotion. I used Goldwave to play the boot track at 2x and it playes at the right pitch.

[NightWing]

Suprised with the cost of SD ram that people are not playing with the JuceBox.