MP3/MPEG4 Player for GBASP

[Readykilowatt]

News:

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/avp/index.html

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20041215/nintendo.htm

Pictures:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20041215/nin_9732.jpg

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20041215/nin_9767.jpg

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20041215/nin_9724.jpg

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20041215/nin_9716.jpg

[PC-Engine]

Pardon my language, but that is just too f*king sweeeet!!! Check out that SD card. 8) Now I don't have to use my SD -> CF adaptor to watch my MPEG4 DVD encoded movies on my SP and DS anymore. :twisted:

I love how compact it is too so much smaller than the SP movie player. GO NINTENDO! Looks like iPod is gonna get some competition. 8) Thanks for the heads up RK.

[Evil_Cloud]

I understand it makes use of SD cards, the same kind the DS uses?

So... if you could hook it up to the Nintendo DS, a new range of multimedia features is enabled? :)

[PC-Engine]

I understand it makes use of SD cards, the same kind the DS uses?

So... if you could hook it up to the Nintendo DS, a new range of multimedia features is enabled? :)

The DS carts do not use the SD form factor. The DS carts are slighty bigger than SD cards too. Also yes you can use this device with the DS too. A couple of weeks ago I purchased a Lexar 1GB SD card for a mere $50 after $20 rebate. Lexar just reissued a the same rebate for the SD cards recently and they expire Dec 12 so if you want one get it quick. Keep in mind these are not the high speed 32X cards so if you need really fast write speeds then get the 32X cards which also have $20 rebates though they're slighty more expensive. :)

There is an aftermarket GBA MP3/movie/picture player that's been available for some time, but its kinda big because it uses CF cards so it sticks way out of the GBA cartridge slot. This OTOH is a lot smaller, uses SD instead, and is available from Nintendo so it won't have the little bugs like the GBA movie player. I'm sold on this neat little gadget.

[london-boy]

$50 for a 1GB card?? My god... i won't even try to imagine how much a 1GB MemStick Duo is gonna be...

[rabidrabbit]

1Gb MemoryStick Pro (not Duo) costs up to $600 :shock:
I guess there is not yet a DUO version of 1GB card, but a 512MB DUO card costs up to $300 (Sony branded, SanDisk should be considerably cheaper) so it's safe to expect a 1GB Sony MS Duo to cost at least $500

The Memory Stick rices really need to come down to the competitor levels, I don't think the MemorySticks are that much (if any) more advanced to justify the ridiculous prices.
It's good to see SanDisk (and oters) making MemorySticks too, that should bring the prices even lower.

[london-boy]

1Gb MemoryStick Pro (not Duo) costs up to $600 :shock:
I guess there is not yet a DUO version of 1GB card, but a 512MB DUO card costs up to $300 (Sony branded, SanDisk should be considerably cheaper) so it's safe to expect a 1GB Sony MS Duo to cost at least $500

The Memory Stick rices really need to come down to the competitor levels, I don't think the MemorySticks are that much (if any) more advanced to justify the ridiculous prices.
It's good to see SanDisk (and oters) making MemorySticks too, that should bring the prices even lower.

:shock: $300??? My god, i did think they were expensive, but not THAT expensive...
It's ridiculous, Sony should really put their heads into making things a bit more affordable, i really do not believe a MS costs more than any other card to produce, so that price is totally unjustified.

[pcchen]

It's very sweet but unfortunately Nintendo wants to make it a limited web-store only ware. The estimated price is, however, very sweet at only 5000 yen.

It plays ASF format MPEG-4 movie, at 352x288 1.5Mbps, and SD-Video files.

More impressive is the battery life, 4 hours estimated for movie playing, and 15 hours audio playing (with LCD off, 8 hours with LCD on).

[PC-Engine]

Darn! Hopefully some import shops can get them.

[rabidrabbit]

Correction: The MemoryStick prices were a bit off (those sites I checked are asking way too much, or were a bit out of date).
I checked Sony Style webstore and they sell the 512 MB Memory Stick Pro DUO for €90, that'll be about $90.
OK, enough of this off-topic, this is a Nintendo SP/DS topic after all.

[Fruitfrenzy]

It plays ASF format MPEG-4 movie, at 352x288 1.5Mbps, and SD-Video files.

If it is limited to ASF format MPEG4 then it is pretty much useless. Nobody uses this combination of file format and compression. Even Microsoft who own the ASF format don't support their MPEG4 codec anymore.

MP4 or AVI would have been a much more sensible choice in my opinion (unless they intend to restrict customers ability to encode their own content).

[max-pain]

It plays ASF format MPEG-4 movie, at 352x288 1.5Mbps, and SD-Video files.

ASF is a media container (file format) not a video format.

[max-pain]

This chip looks very good:

http://www.alphamosaic.com/products/VC01/VC01.pdf

[Captain Chickenpants]

Has anyone any experience of the non-nintendot player http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=246&products_id=3983&

Will it handle really huge jpeg files? Whats battery consumption like, whats the video quality/framerate like?

CC

[PC-Engine]

Has anyone any experience of the non-nintendot player http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=246&products_id=3983&

Will it handle really huge jpeg files? Whats battery consumption like, whats the video quality/framerate like?

CC

Just download the software and try it out for yourself.

http://image.lik-sang.com/download/gba-movie-player-update13.zip

[Guden Oden]

MP4 or AVI would have been a much more sensible choice

AVI doesn't specify any particular compressor, you could use pretty much anything including uncompressed or MPEG1/2/4 or WMV9 etc...

[Kalin]

I think Fruitfrenzy meant the ASF format is a bad choice, not the MPEG4 compression...

[thop]

That does look pretty sweet. Not interested much in video but mp3 is nice.

[Fox5]

Guess nintendo thought the 3rd party devices to do this were getting too popular....(the mp3 player plus flash carts, personally I have a flast cart and it's no bigger than a normal gba cart, and holds 32MB of data.)

But lol at the headphone jack on the cart, I'm guessing this is like some of the things released for the gameboy color late in its life where the gameboy just provides an interface and the hardware is all on the cart. The gameboy would definetely need additional hardware to decode mpeg4 with good quality.(well, maybe, caimans codec http://www.caimans.net/gbavideo/demos.shtml is pretty good, but the nintendo cart seems to have additional hardware since battery usage is much higher)

[Ty]

How is the audio quality? My GBA is really bad (I hear lots of hiss), my SP is barely tolerable but I wasn't sure if that was due to the hardware or simply the samples used in the games I have.

[london-boy]

How is the audio quality? My GBA is really bad (I hear lots of hiss), my SP is barely tolerable but I wasn't sure if that was due to the hardware or simply the samples used in the games I have.

Cotton buds? They're cheap nowadays. :wink:
KIDDING!

[PC-Engine]

But lol at the headphone jack on the cart, I'm guessing this is like some of the things released for the gameboy color late in its life where the gameboy just provides an interface and the hardware is all on the cart.

I think they added that standard headphone jack for two reasons.

1. Convenience to the person buying this product.
2. Audio quality since it doesn't need to be piped through the GBA's noisy circuitry.

Regarding the cart, yeah I think half of the circuitry is in the cart. The VC01 is a coprocessor that works with the GBA's ARM7. You also need the GBA's screen for navigation.

That Alphamosaic VC01 chip is pretty nice though with 1MB of SRAM on chip. Their logo is pretty cool too a segmented digital numeric LED.

[pcchen]

It plays ASF format MPEG-4 movie, at 352x288 1.5Mbps, and SD-Video files.

ASF is a media container (file format) not a video format.

That's why I wrote "MPEG-4." :)

[Deepak]

So, is it bec'se of PSP being projected as a multimedia device??

[Ty]

Cotton buds? They're cheap nowadays. :wink:
KIDDING!

Heh, actually I've tried many semi-decent headphones to no avail.

[Kalin]

IGN gave the thing a try at the Panasonic Center in Tokyo.

As somewhat expected the video playback is lacking, sound is mono-aural, slow back/forward skipping... they seem to like the music playback though. Sound is good, volume is good, interface is nice. Also it automatically turns off the display in 30sec - this should make for 10+ hrs average until the battery dies ;)

Pictures inside: http://ds.ign.com/articles/573/573999p1.html

[Evil_Cloud]

IGN gave the thing a try at the Panasonic Center in Tokyo.

As somewhat expected the video playback is lacking, sound is mono-aural, slow back/forward skipping... they seem to like the music playback though. Sound is good, volume is good, interface is nice. Also it automatically turns off the display in 30sec - this should make for 10+ hrs average until the battery dies ;)

Pictures inside: http://ds.ign.com/articles/573/573999p1.html

They should co-operate with Panasonic to bring the device to Europe. Maybe by even adding a small and cheap HDD on seperate batteries... ;)

[london-boy]

Still waiting for those coin-sized hard discs to be affordable and in mass production. Anyone remember those?

[Evil_Cloud]

Still waiting for those coin-sized hard discs to be affordable and in mass production. Anyone remember those?

Wait five years, or less.

[jarrod]

I checked Sony Style webstore and they sell the 512 MB Memory Stick Pro DUO for €90, that'll be about $90.
€90 is about $120 actually.

At the US Sony Style store they sell a 512MB MS Pro Duo for $134.99. The high speed version is $154.99.