What is a VideoNow Videodisc Player PVD?
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- Опубликовано: 19 окт 2024
- This horrible quality children's video disc system has a certain charm to it to this day.
Check out my entire channel of rare and bizarre electronics from Edison Cylinder Records to Video Discs on Floppy Records.
I remember seeing an ad for this when I was a kid and wanting one so bad. It's amazing how much technology has moved on since then.
Hahahaha I still remember when I got mine for Christmas
In the 70's and 80's, we had stuff like the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer or Kenner's "Give-A-Show" Projector that used 8mm film to give us a few minutes at a time of a cartoon or whatever else they could license to stick on these cartridges or reels to show to our siblings and schoolyard chums. I remember seeing these VideoNow thingys at a Kmart once. GameBoy Advance had something similar with it's "GameBoy Video" carts.
A more than sane appraisal. Thank you. I remember and see the same thing here.
Holy smokes I remember the Fisher Price movie viewer I had when I was 5 years old back in 78'
It really had better picture quality than this electronic abomination. No sound though.
I am very glad that you made a video of these! I remember seeing a kid with one in the bus when starting Space Camp 2003 in fifth grade! I thought it was so cool and state-of-the-art to have a portable video player.
Thanks Mr. CassetteMaster! Yeah, portable video disc for the world's youth. I guess they thought children don't see in HD, which is reflected in the video quality. lol
This reminds me of the Fisher-Price PixelVision, a children's camcorder that recorded really horribly low resolution black and white video on an audio cassette.
rperlberg Imagine if they had bundled a camera with it? Haha.
I used to have the PXL 2000 camcorder. Cool device tnough. I would create funny videos using the looney tunes audio tracks from my cassette recorder .
I wonder what the resolution and compression is like versus the Pxlvision, given that _it_ had to run the tape at something like 10x normal speed?
I mean, 25 minutes or so off an 8cm disc with normal audio on one of the two channels, that's just 1x speed (...or is it 25 minutes on the 12cm version and maybe just ~8 minutes on the 8cms, so about 3x speed?)
44100 x 16 bits = 705.6kbit/s, which isn't that terrible, if it uses some kind of MPEG or other similarly advanced coding, and a less than CIF video resolution. If it's not compressed, however, then it'll have to run a really low resolution and framerate... 705.6 / 15fps (still good enough for cartoons, or pretty much anything on a high latency LCD) = 47.04kbit per frame = 48169 bits... so 240x200 in 1bpp, 192x125 in 2bpp, 160x100 in 3bpp greyscale (probably enough to give the illusion of full dynamic range video with a bit of dithering), or possibly 120x100 in 4bpp...
And of course it might use some kind of semi-lossless, low computational load compression like Cinepak or similar, might be enough to up that to e.g. 160x120 in 4bpp at 20 or even 30fps...
Possibly that's why the colour one had to use 12cm discs but maybe doesn't offer any improvement to the running time - it has to run the disc 3x faster in order to give similar overall quality but with colour video. Maybe even stealing some of the audio bandwidth (as it would after all only need 1/3rd of the total space... and you could knock that back to e.g. 29400hz in 12bit PCM instead of 44100hz in 16bit - most TV programs, particularly those engineered for monophonic analogue broadcast, not making any particular use of the additional headroom or resolution - to save half of what it does use anyway. So the colour one might therefore have 5.5x the data rate of the monochrome. Keeping the same resolution and framerate, that bumps our bits per pixel up from 3 or 4 to somewhere in the 16 to 22 range. But really all we need is 15, maybe even 12, so that allows a little extra resolution, or a higher framerate, or just provides for some additional slop in the rather token compression where artefacts might otherwise start becoming a little too apparent.
@@databitscan you buy American idol highlights from season snoopy come home and Nickelodeon 3 Disc Pack SpongeBob Squarepants All Grown Up Rocket Power off ebay just for your videonow collection please
Gee I wonder what the xp is trying to look like...
Portable DVD Player or GBA Hanheld Console
you can rip those CDs as audio and remove the intro scenes by removing reorganizing tracks. If I remember right, there is one track to tell the player its a video now disc then all the other content are just tracks.
Thanks for the demo! These VideoNow players and discs wind up now and then at my local thrift stores and I was wondering how well they worked.
Wow this brings back memories from my childhood! I remember having a Green B&W VideoNow back when I was 5 or 6. The older of my two younger sisters had a Purple Color VideoNow (to my disgust she had the color one), while my youngest sister had that VideoNow Jr you showed.
+Reed L - sounds like a family of VideoNow'ers!
+databits Haha exactly right!!
I think one format I prefer from about the same time was the Gameboy Advance Video. Basically it was a series of game carts for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance which carried a few full episodes of TV shows. Again most of the shows were half-hour cartoons but they did come out with a few movies (the first two Shrek movies and Shark Tale). Also, there was no way to make your own videos, unlike the VideoNow.
Thanks for your comments. Yes, I have seen the GB Advance SP. The video carts for that system was a pretty cool concept although Nintendo dropped it fairly quickly.
That was such a scam. They were like $25 each for the same four episodes never watch anything else. I remember our Walmart had tons and they didn't sell well even late in the game when they were all put on clearance they were there for a long time and never really shrunk until they all simply vanished.
I got the Billy and Mandy one at toys are us and for some reason I think it was $27. I had $20 and I remember having to go back out to the car asking for more, it's one of the biggest financial wastes I still think about to this day. If I had that $27 today, I'd go buy Chinese food with it and be totally happy.
@IAmNotAFunguy You can even make your own GBA Video files to play on an emulator or anything else like that using a Windows application named Meteo.
Had one that was spongebob themed, the sound quality was bad, and some episodes weren't even in color.
Those few episodes. That was because those were probably meant for the 1st gen one which was black and white only
VideoNow has backwards compatibility, so a Color or XP can run a disc for the original black-and-white device, no questions asked.
@@PhirePhlame that's literally what I said.
In my personal opinion, I have nostalgia for the videonow.
I don’t recommend anyone buying this device.
It was outdated back when it was new, outlived its purpose years ago, and it’s obsolete today.
Despite all of that, I still love this little thing.
By the way, if you had fond memories of this toy back when you were kid, just hold onto these memories, they’re almost certainly better than the reality of the product itself.
My nephews (which are now in college) had a Color ViewNow back in the day (around 2004-2005). I found it was slow and heavy, and the video quality and screen size were terrible, but my nephews loved to watch SpongeBob SquarePants episodes over and over again. And, to be fair, the machine had two strong points: it was durable, and it used AA batteries, so my sister wasn't bothered with chargers or having to charge batteries overnight. Also, while not a cheap toy, its price was reasonable.
Hey, I remember these. I used to have one of those VideoNow players when I was a teenager.
The XP was to compete with Gameboy Advance Video which came out just after the release of the Gameboy Advance SP. If you've never seen one, look it up. It's basically the gaming console equivalent to the VideoNow XP. I also had a system as a kid called a VideoNow Color that came out before the XP. It wasn't horrible, but the black and white version (that didn't even have a backlight) was pretty horrible. Nice video! Great nostalgia rush watching this. I was around 10 or 11 in 2003 (ish?) when these came out.
Thanks for your comments, Ryan. Yes, I have seen the GB Advance SP. The video carts for that system was a pretty cool concept although Nintendo dropped it fairly quickly.
I mean VideoNow XP would be your only option if you didn’t have Gameboy Advance, SP or Micro.
I work part-time at a local thrift store and at almost any given time we have 3 or 4 VideoNow players and a bunch of VideoNow discs in our DVDs aisle. People DO buy and donate them all the time too
That blue player looks awfully like a shrunken version of a (screen-less) portable VCD / MP3-CD player thing my brother had back in the early noughties... That was rubbish too. But at least it could play regular 12cm CDs, and made a reasonable attempt at replaying standard MPEG encoded video and audio... through headphones or an attached TV (even if a little LCD thing)
>some seconds later
"Tiger" in the bottom right corner of the screen. Figures.
> later still
Now in *COLOR!* Wow! Can you feel the extremeness of our headlong rush into... er... the latter half of the 20th century? :D
...good god, the chunkiness of those pixels. That screen was probably originally intended for use as the status screen of a home heating system or something. Nasty.
Do you know where i can get the Video Now Media Center Software? Is there any opportunity downloading it somewhere?
Does the VideoNow Jr. play regular VideoNow PVDs?
I once tried to play a pre-recorded VideoNow! disc on my Apex DVD/CD-player, and it identified it as a VCD (video compact-disc)... a format that holds quite popular in China--where Tiger Electronics makes these devices--to this day.
BTW: If you trim-out the sides of the square-shaped, "FX Color" model, it'll play DVDs without issue.
I wonder if there's any foreign language VideoNow PVD's out there? I've seen PAL format VideoNow discs before but I'd like to see VideoNow discs in Spanish or French language. Speaking of PAL formats, VideoNow is region free, right?
+rescuehero942 - spanish versions maybe?
I remember seeing ads for it on Nickelodeon Latin America back then.
I remember my brother getting one of these for Christmas when we were little.....I was so jealous. He got his VideoNow player with 3 discs. I know the VideoNow monochrome and color were a thing but i had not heard of the VideoNow XP until today. Why dont i remember this ? !
So, Tiger made those "toys", the company that made tiger game.com. I think Tiger is the expert for making horrible devices for kids...
Had one as a kid around 04, or 05. Honestly it was pretty cool as a five/six year old considering you probably wheren't going to drop a bunch of money for a portable DVD player for a kid that age.
The Playskool version actually uses flexible discs.
As for the data capacity, I’d probably have used some kind of compression…
For example; JPEG for the video (with additional delta compression between the frames), and MP3 for the audio.
They actually used that type of screen to play video ? I hated those screens when they were used in phones I would not for a second thought that it was actually used to display full motion video.
+ilcool90 - I know, it was horrible
I'm quite impressed by the quality they managed to pull out of it. Given that Tiger was probably still selling the Game.Com at the same time, whose screen made the original Gameboy seem high contrast and low latency, that otherwise Nokia-esque display is remarkably clear and wide dynamic.
this is like a 1950s tv where the box is like way bigger than the actual screen
I had one of these as a kid, the colour model!
Was OK, had almost the complete set of Mr Bean animated discs for it. Also had a couple of GBA Video cartridges which I remember being especially awesome paired with a DS, as you could could have a game and video cart in at the same time!
Hey databits, I'll make Videonow PVDs since I've bought my own Media Wizard Kit, Can I make some?
so I can make some lazytown pvds?
Sure! Make you some!
With some modding.
I remember looking at these back when i was in high school. In the end i decided against it and bought a cheap no name VCD portable player which im guessing came from Japan on ebay. Used it for years and i still have somewhere one of those 96 CD books which has heaps of movies split over several disks and like 1 TV episode per disk.
cool video,do you have a VHD player,I'll like to see a review.
Awesome Channel I really enjoy watching your videos and learning about some of the more obscure audio and video formats. Like the Wire Recorder I had heard of their existence but I had never seen one in person before watching your video demoing one of those very vintage and interesting pieces of consumer electronics history good job and keep up the good work
I very much appreciate your feedback! Thanks for watching my videos!
Your Welcome ;)
Game Boy Advance Video has inadequate picture and sound, but I still love it and I'm going to stock up on some more carts before I go to South Africa in June for my brother's wedding!
I have my iPhone, 3DS and PlayStation Vita, but those go flat in a few hours and must be plugged in when this happens. Game Boy Advance, however, runs for 15 hours on 2 of the easily available and easily replaced AA battery!
I found one at Goodwill for 3 bucks and came with a free disc. I have the trash can gray version. Model 1.
The discs were between the 8cm and 12cm sizes so to use standard CD-R you have to come up with a way to cut the disc down to PVD diameter. Or the player can be modded to hold the 12cm discs and 42 minutes of video can be put on. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VideoNow
What’s actually on those Star Wars discs?? Is this lost media??? I’m a huge Star Wars physical media collector so I’d love to know if there’s exclusive content on there.
Omg, the memories. I had the old black and white one and the XP color one. I would mainly watch them on the bus. The days before phones were a thing. I wonder if you can take one of them videonow discs and put it in the computer and see if it can read data off it. Maybe it's possible to rip it.
Videonow would only last a couple years before cell phones
Had a color video now painted like spongebob as a kid. It was pretty neat, although I always wanted the XP but never got one.
Reminds me of that joke picture with the young teenage boy excited next to a computer and text that says "YEAH!! We have the internet!!! Let's download some porn!!!" And underneath it says "Uh-Oh...I'm under 18, better not!" That was probably the reason for the odd-size discs and propretary video codec so boys won't be watching Apache Sunrise Dances on their VideoNow.
Not that you'd be able to actually make out any obscene details on those low rez screens.
what is the videonow jr like?
I had the XP model back in 2006 it wasn't bad then but considering the options today it wasn't that great
I think Moonshell for the DS was out by then. Waaaayyy better choice.
Aeduo true but the DS didn't have TV shows for it apart from the GBA Video cartridges.
The DS was more practical though, I never really got the point to these weird mini video players, yeah they were to entertain kids but you couldn't watch it on TV with them. My parents actually got me a portable DVD player when I was younger, yeah expensive but you didn't have weird stuff that would only work on a weird player then.
The DS was a much better buy though, it had a great library of games.
I had the playskool one as a kid, Nowadays, I still wonder where it had gone.
Had a friend in grade school who had one at recess in 2006. :))
I think it is a underrated video player.
That framerate is low enough to use an e-Paper display… If you interlace, and use a mix of partial and windowed updates.
Were there any portable Compact Disc Digital Video (VCD) players to compete with this? I'm sure that would have been much better.
+Steve Silverman - there was actually a "mini-dvd" player that used 3 inch DVD's and was far superior, but nobody bought it.
1:34 How about a backlit color display?
Is this like VCD? Does VideNow plays Audio CD discs ?
Totally different, doesn’t play CDs
Could you cut a Sound on a Blank VideoNow Media Wizard PVD?
Can you put regular DVDs in it I was thinking about getting one which one is the best to get
No.
I just got my Videonow player, and discs.
I remember these there also was a similar device made by Mattel called the Juice Box.
How do you fix the volume control. Just got mine yesterday, and the volume is at the max.
Might have to replace the volume control internally.
Just bought my VideoNow XP today
They should have used the Video CD format for VideoNow. That would have been much better.
you dont have the version I had. mine was in color and the screen was bigger. still poor quality. but still
maybe I just imagined the screen bigger because I was young
I just got a VideoNow Jr. today. I found it with a videonow 3 disc set that has nicktoons on it.
So what size are the blanks. Are the normal cdr zise or cdr gamecube size?
Hi Carl. I believe they are about a half inch smaller than a standard size CD. I've cut down CD-R's before and was able to record on them.
ok so i ordered the video now maker software on ebay and the sent me 5 boxes wheni paid for one lol crazy but owell .. i wanan se if it wil take a cdr some how .. also wonder how much time can fit on the small cdr lol
Let me know how your experiment turns out! I still have the software myself.
how much were these when they were new?
Would it be possible to get a copy of that media wizard software from you? I have had a really hard time finding a source for it. I have the same video now player and I'm attempting to write a program to export in the proprietary codec that it uses and the media wizard software would probably help me quite a bit.
My goal is to be able to use standard CD-Rs/CD-RWS with the VideoNow player.
+Brian Ebling
Will your program export the videonow videos to a media file like .mp4 wmv mpg that can be played on a PC? How about the ability to play frim the disc or file like if I ripped a VideoNow disc to wav or MP3 I could feed it into your program and it spits out a video file of the content that can be viewed on a PC.
It's been quite a while since I worked on this project, but I was able to successfully play the video from the VideoNow discs on PC. I haven't perfected the audio, but it should be doable. As for exporting the video to .mp4 or another format, I'm not sure if I would be able to do that. It would be quite easy to add the ability to save each frame as an image file though. If you're interested, I may start working on the project again as long as I haven't lost the program I was working on.
Brian Ebling
That would be great if you could start again on this. The video doesnt need to be an MP4 just something I can play on a PC like AVI something simple.
If you can get this working you're the man.
If you want I could report bugs but maybe just tell you what's happening. I'd love it if there would finally be a way to rip these discs. Is this project for the black and white discs or the color discs? I don't think you need to worry about any legal issues as this whole videonow system is obsolete so I doubt hasbro will care. maybe limit who you give copies to like me as I'm just a fan. not a big co like hasbro.
So Yes I'd love it if you continued this project. I have some of the other Videonow tools I can give you and maybe it will help you I have VNRIP and VNCD I think. Just a few tools I found online but I can't get them to work but maybe you can rip them apart and use them in your program.
Let me know if your interested.
Feel free to message me at snarshooter@gmail.com
I added the ability to dump all of the image frames from the Video Now discs, it took about 5 minutes for a single black and white disc, so it's not exactly fast, but it does work. The program I made can only handle the black and white discs, but if you were able to rip a color disc and send me the files, I may be able to write another version of the program for color discs. The audio files are posing a slight issue since there is some sort of timing information in the right audio channel overlayed on the actually audio but I should be able to sort it out, it'll just take some time.
The programs you mentioned may help me.
Could I make a Regular Show pvd? If so, I’ll do Replaced!
Yes you could! You just need the video file.
Ironic you should burn the RCA CED Selectavision logo to the CED of compact optical video-disc formats! XD
But I shouldn't laugh... as I've burned a DVD of the Magnavox Discovision demo, to use as a test disc for any newly-acquired video equipment.
Great minds think alike!
HOLY CARP I WAS WATCH YOU???
why didnt movies comeout with videonow??
I still have some nostalgia for the videoNow I had all of them except for the videoNow jr.a few years ago I found a case of 6 spongebob episodes but my old videoNow color fix was tossed so I could never use the discs. I did find a blue videoNow XP in blue at goodwill a month ago which turned out to be broke down completely it would not turn on oh so signs of operation and it had Duracell batteries dated from 2015 one that leaked even with new batteries it still wouldn’t turn on. I took it back and am trying to find a working videoNow color or XP to enjoy again.j
Do You Know How To Convert The PVDs To DVD Format?
+Guillermo Cabrera I don't.
how do i burn a PVD disc to pc?
There is apparently a plugin for VirtualDub that lets you make VideoNow discs, and there are details about the format here: pvdtools.sourceforge.net/format.txt
I still have mine. I have the black and white player, the color the XP and a bunch of disks mostly non animated shows like America's Funniest Home Videos and Monster Garage. I just wish there was an easy way to convert the videos to and from this format without the media wizard software and I dislike how the program locks you to using the provided discs for content.
Yeah, the video is in a proprietary format. Perhaps someone will figure out how to "rip" a PVD.
databits .
It is encoded as CD audio and will play in a normal CD player but it will just be noise. There is a chip or something inside the player that converts this noise on the fly to audio and video data. I am surprised no one has made a program that can read these discs. I did find a small program but It doesn't work very well and is hard to use. I wish all you had to do was put a disc into your PC and tell it to rip the tracks or you could feed it a wav or MP3 of the noise from the disc and it would convert it to video and audio. I know it's pointless but It can be done.
*****
It shouldn't be that hard since they have an app the converts TO the PVD format. why can't it happen the other way around? All I want to do is watch the media that I have on my PC and not just on my VN players.
I have the the same blue 1 with zoids i had the burning Softwere but cant find it
Seems like the format is similar to NBTV, just higher resolution than 32 lines haha.
There is apparently a plugin for VirtualDub that lets you make VideoNow discs, and there are details about the format here: pvdtools.sourceforge.net/format.txt
+Kelli Halliburton - that's pretty cool!
+Kelli Halliburton
I saw that and I was once able to make a disc for the color player but I gave up on that since it was too much work just to burn a disk for these. But I want to do the opposite which is to rip one of these discs to a video file on a PC now I know that's pointless but I believe it can be done.
"I know that's pointless"
Would be useful for the demo disc shown in the video
Nice why they're boasting about color video in 2005.
Ah yes, the weird world of portable video before smartphones.
VideoNows should have been LaserDisc players.
i just used a portable dvd player ,and would take one over a pvd any day. bigger screen ,plus mine can read sd cards aswell as flash drives. and takes video in so i can plug an xbox into it.
devicemodder Yay for DVD!
databits totally... i never owned a videonow
i wonder what would happen if i burned a porn video onto a regular 3 inch cd and stuck it in the video now...
devicemodder The machine would stop playing and the words "this content is not suitable for children" would appear on screen. Then the batteries would explode.
Cool nice stuff.
I'm here making pirated bootleg VideoNow PVDs and then sell it to eBay and Amazon without Cops sending me to Jail
I only ever had two discs for mine. a cartoon, and then the Amanda show. I loved the Amanda show one. it's funny because I was young I didn't even think or care that it was poor quality videos
mandie willingham I had Drake and Josh. That's all I remember. Maybe Spongebob too
mandie willingham I had Catscratch Spongebob Chalkzone and Avatar but I broke them all :/
The XP is trying to be a Gameboy Advance SP.
"Cool can I watch?
N-O."
xD
+Myles Collins-Wooley NO!
Hey! I Made Nickelodeon's newest cartoon show, It's Pony Volume 1 VideoNow PVD. Should I make more?
I found a VideoNow 12v car charger at a thrift store for £1.49. How could I say no?
One of the competitors or the only competitor is the GBA video cartridges
once found a Aiwa set in the trash .
I am 100% certain some genius took those blank disks and put porn on them
I use to have the one that u have in your hand it was red I got when I was little
You sound like the guy from the PS2 Eyetoy Demo
+Alaine Gozun - is that good or bad?
+databits Weird Actually
+Alaine Gozun - Weird runs in my family.
The Zombie Block
Tommy Dee what
I can remaster that RCA logo. Maybe.
bought original b/w one today for $2 video is so bad i love it
+Alan Deuel - It's so bad it's.....bad? lol
Video now xp is kind of ripoff to the Gameboy sp.
They stopped making these when the iPhone came out
Damn, this was my first RUclips comment on this account ↑
Even as a kid I would have rather had a portable DVD player and just watched the discs I already owned on the go. I don't know who this product was aimed at, I worked at Wal-Mart when it came out and it sold for about three months and then we couldn't move the overstock to save our lives. This was a fad product if ever I saw one.
I have a brother and sister who were the exact age this product was aimed at and they just used my $90 portable DVD player when they went on trips and had no problem with it and they got to watch the stuff they already loved in stereo!
This format was pretty useless.
Have to agree.
Even The Video Cd Format Its Better
Dude, The Graphics from this system sucks. I can't Spongebob and Fairly Odd Parents in Black & White neither.
That Player is like cheap DVD Player dressed up like a Game Boy.
I remember watching drake and josh on these as a kid
Good times!
6:33 I seen one for free so I msg the person if I can pick it up 😊 I have never seen this 😊
Oh, god! Why? :)
Even gba video is better
NO
YES
These failed for a reason.
What was the reason?
Proprietary format which kinda sucked on the resolution end, no support to think of.
ewww tiger