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GBA To Pioneer Movies On The Run?
Thanks to the New York Times for their article discussing the rise of movie-playing add-ons for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance (registration required). The piece says that "portable video players are beginning to change where and how people watch movies, cartoons and music videos," and points to multiple GBA movie devices in development, such as Majesco's Game Boy Video Pak and TuneIn's Pocket Cinema, which will have an interface to a 3-inch CD player. With other products like 4Kids' GBA-TV in development, and the Sony PSP and Tapwave Helix portables promising movie availability, has this idea come of age, and is it reasonable to expect the public to watch "video on a screen the size of a dollhouse window, with a resolution that is no match for even a standard TV set"?
... there are these things.
Portable video is here to stay. Once you've had a wank on a mountaintop with your favourite porno, you'll never look back.
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Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
Mobile phones have had this for a while over here in the UK.
And don't forget MoviePark for the GP32; the GP32 can play DivX encoded films among other formats..
(nkt to mention Palm OS and Pocket PC and Zaurus..)
MoviePark Guide
I would be pretty shocked if a closed platform like the GameBoy, which goes out of its way to restrict development, would have a better movie playing system than a relatively open platform like the GP 32.
I suppose one of these days I'll have to go to the trouble of comparing the two, just for kicks, but I've yet to have a need to play movies on my portable game machines (I have a Powerbook for that).
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Does anyone else remember the Game Gear and Turbo Grafx 16 (portable) t.v. tuners?
If the mountain can't come on Mohammed, Mohammed must come on the mountain?
.. Type of video, like simplistic humour cartoons, and you can use low bitrates, watching adultswin stuff is quite ok even on 3650, and mmc card provides the memory. I wouldnt watch any live actor stuff though with the same bitrates. Athf and sealab rule:)
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
As a GP32 owner, I'd say watching movies on a handheld is a bit overrated. First of all, you have to buy and install MoviePark (which, btw, has pulled their product from online sales -- if you don't own it now, you can't get it). Then, you've got to compress your video to Divx 4.12. Once that's finished, you've got to copy that file to your GP32 SMC.
Other than the "neat-o" factor, it seems pretty worthless to me. If I've got an hour to kill, I'd much rather play some C64/Atari ST/Atari 800/Atari 2600 roms than watch a movie on a 320x240 4 inch screen.
Bought it from Liksang a while ago. It was designed for the original GBA so I had to do a little dremelling for my SP, but it works.
There have been bunch of ads lately in the Toronto area about all these great new games available for cellphones. I don't see how people can have fun playing games on a cellphone with a display the size of a postage stamp, but perhaps I'm just too old. I would imagine that the same people using cellphones for games would like to watch movies on a GBA.
I am one of the only people I know who doesn't own a cellphone, GBA, PDA, etc. And I don't even want one. I was offered a free cellphone through work and I declined. I guess that statement right there invalidates all my opinions on portable communications and gaming.
If you need some form of entertainment while commuting/travelling/whatever, why not read a book? I can buy 100 books for the cost of a GBA or cellphone, (provided I do it at secondhand stores) and quite possibly learn something in the process.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
(random brag-about-how-my-system's-better fact)the SEGA Game Gear has had a TV tuner for ages. It works well, and consider this: compared to a portable TV, the GBA's screen resolution is awesome. Unfortunately, the GBA only displays 512 colors/line, so that could be a problem. The GameGear had built-in circuitry for the TV tuner, so the tuner could get around the GameGear's 32colors/line limitation.
Karma: Excellent (fuck, even in the future moderation doesn't work!)
Actually the GBA resolution is comparable to a standard TV set. This is because the standard TV is interlaced, which means the number of horizontal lines is the same as GBA
Cell phone games are for killing time standing in a 15 minute line at the football game just so you can get a $6 personal pizza.
Reading a book is not very practical in a lot of places - nor is reading a book for only 15 seconds at a time before being moved/jostled/etc very enjoyable (you become very familiar with the same single sentence and lose thought continuity). But I can play my little snake game on my cellphone, pause as necessary, and the game is simplistic enough that it's not hard to resume play after abrupt stops.
Not to mention that I can stick a GBA SP and my Nokia cellphone in the same pocket and be on my merry way. All but the most compact of book form factors would fail to fit in the same space (those tiny New Testament books that get handed out all over the place are the only ones that I've seen recently that fit!)
For those who do not want to register: Here
Hiroshi Yamauchi already stated that Nintendo's next handheld will AT LEAST be 320x200 and have a higher color palette.
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=210&prod ucts_id=3397&
google is your friend :-D
Does it work with the Gamecube GBA player? This would really kick ass on my TV!
And yet movie clips on your cell phone are the Next Big Thing (at least thats what the cellphone makers claim)?
Personally, I'm in the bigger-is-better camp when it comes to video. I'd rather just wait until I was at home instead of trying to watch a movie on a laptop (or those tiny portable dvd players. eww). Right now, I'm torn between getting a really large rear-projection TV, a 50" plasma tv, or a really nice projector. (Whatever I choose, it will have to wait until I have a place to put it)
That said, coupling something like this with the "real world hyperlinking" to point at a movie poster or something and get a preview clip would be nifty. Just not trying for full-length movies or shows.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
The portable version of the Turbo Grafx 16... The Turbo Express had a "Turbo Vision" TV tuner addon also. I knew a kid that had one... from what I recall, it was ridiculously expensive and could eat up a brand new set of batteries in about 4 hours. Turbo Vision
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
I love to watch movies while laying down in bed.
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