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ZVUE's $99 Video and MP3 Player

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-no-hard-drive dept.

blackmonday writes "Hand Held Entertainment's ZVUE is an MP3 player, video and photo viewer with a color screen. At the price of $99, I think it might be worth the investment for the hacking potential alone. Uses Secure Digital/MMC cards rather than Compact Flash, but looks very cool. The funniest part - you can buy cartridges (apparently in some propietary format) of low budget wrestling movies and wannabe rapper videos."

18 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. zvue announced DivX and MP4 compatibility by i4u · · Score: 4, Informative

    Zvue supports DivX video standard

    1. Re:zvue announced DivX and MP4 compatibility by Kenja · · Score: 4, Informative

      If by "standard" you mean "pay us another 70$ and we'll let you view DiVX files" then yes, its standard.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    2. Re:zvue announced DivX and MP4 compatibility by jbezdek · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's a "informative" post? Hmm. Let me give a try at some real information.

      In reality, we subjected the ZVue player to our full battery of DivX Certified tests. There are several dozen test cases that use a large sample of representative DivX video content downloaded from the Internet. We make sure that every DivX Certified device meets minimum standards of quality (e.g., no freezes on high motion scenes, good ff and rew performance, and of course high-visual-quality DivX video playback) before we allow the product to be marketed using the DivX name. A typical product goes through several rounds of testing (with major and minor tweaks to hardware, firmware, etc. along the way) before it passes all the tests. :bez

  2. Re:Too much hype... by ardiri · · Score: 4, Informative

    > Uses Secure Digital/MMC cards rather than Compact Flash, but looks very cool
    Yet another memory card format to contend with, ugh.

    va? SD/MMC have been out for a LONG time - its not news that they are being used within handhelds or portable equipment. they have been in use in both palm and pocket pc devices for well over two years now - not to mention that there are many cameras, mp3 players that use this format as well. if your going to bitch about a new format, try bitching about XD :)

  3. Wannabe - not quite by WhiteLudaFan · · Score: 5, Informative

    For what it is worth, Lil' Jon is a platinum selling rap artist. He currently is involved with 2 songs in the top 20 of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and 3 songs in the top 50 of the Hot 100.

  4. Not so good by pcmanjon · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've reviewed one of these directly from Hand Held Entertainment and it's not all it's cracked up to be, the design doesn't fit in your pocket (tested in bluejeans) very well and it only supports mp3 (not ogg)

    Additionally, they sent some of the proprietary cartridges to try out, 2 out of the 3 freebie proprietary cartridges we tested did not work.

    I wouldn't pay cash for it.

    Regards

  5. Look here by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Informative

    Look here. It is not the same site as the slashdotted one, but at least you can see what it looks like.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  6. You can play DiVX stuff too... by garcia · · Score: 3, Informative

    See here

  7. Re:Too much hype... by No_Weak_Heart · · Score: 3, Informative
    Yet another memory card format to contend with, ugh.

    And yet another video codec. ugh indeed.

  8. http://www.zvue.com/ Slashdotted by pcmanjon · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since the main website is slashdotted, heres what it says on the home-page (not much for those of you expecting specs)

    ``You can be first to get a new ZVUE!

    The new ZVUE is here now! And it really plays full motion, color video right in the palm of your hand! Order the new ZVUE! and you'll be watching the coolest new music videos, extreme sports and outrageous action entertainment--while you're on the go, anytime, anyplace!

    > Order your ZVUE now!

    For just $99.00 you can be the first to own a ZVUE--the hottest new video product in years! With your cool new ZVUE you can view full-color, high-quality video right in the palm of your hand.

    Watch our exciting, new ZCARD! videos: Hot new music videos, extreme radical sports, wild, action videos that wreak havoc and lay waste--playing now on the ZVUE Player!"

  9. PCMag Review link - also, it plays DivX by blorg · · Score: 4, Informative

    Can be found here with picture of the thing here. Apparently it plays DivX too.

    1. Re:PCMag Review link - also, it plays DivX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hi. That is a press release from the company in question. They are trying to generate buzz for their product. Unfortunately, this thing does not play DiVX at this time. It may in the future, but don't spend your money until it does.

      Anyone know what the screen resolution on this thing is & what video output options it has?

  10. Well, there is the VideoNow by MadAnthony02 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hasbro has a device called the VideoNow

    . It's only $50, but the screen is black and white. It uses mini CD's, but from what I understand from a friend who tried to hack it, the CD-Now's have the boot data written on the inside of the CD further in from where normal burners write.

    --
    I have blog like everyone else
  11. 6-8 hours video by hyperventilate · · Score: 2, Informative
    When I show it to people they notice that it looks a lot better than video on a PDA. Mine runs 6-8 hours on the AA batteries.

    Doesnt suck power. It is hard to run a flashlight for 6-8 hours and the backlight is just as bright as one- so it uses an expensive LED backlight.

    Specs are 200 MHZ ARM9 with 160x234 screen at 24 bit color. The screen uses fast fluid for video unlike most PDA screens.

    It probably runs linux already.

    Pretty easy to re-encode videos to the DIVX Handheld or portable profile if they aren't already using VirtualDub and the free version of DIVX.

  12. Here are specs by AS400+Hacker · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here is a PDF with more detail.

    ZVue Specs

    It looks a little cheap to me, but for $99 I guess you can't get burned too bad.

  13. Re:A CD-based device? by Cyberllama · · Score: 3, Informative

    Iriver has announced exactly what you're describing -- theres pictures of it on various gadget sites. It's supposed to come out in April. . .

  14. Re:A CD-based device? by Cyberllama · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's a picture/description of it:

    http://www.akibalive.com/archives/000524.html#mo re

  15. Compgeeks has them for $144.50. CF == minidrive by Linuxathome · · Score: 4, Informative

    Compgeeks has them for $144.50; you can check the site for the specs. It has MP4 capability, which is nice for you Xvid fans. For those of you who don't understand why we're griping that it has no CF slot, perhaps you'll understand better after I tell you that people have been getting cheap 4GB minidrive CF cards by cracking open devices such as the Creative Lab's Muvo2 MP3 player -- i.e. the higher capacity drives/memory cards so far, tend to be CF cards. It's still up in the air whether or not the 4GB minidrive from the Apple iPod can be used in devices that support CF Type II cards.

    --
    Linux at home