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Juicebox Hacking

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-you-can dept.

magic_user writes "Now that Mattel's JuiceBox can be had for $12 (Target, WalMart), this seems like a perfect toy for hackers. I've found a picture frame hack but what I'm really looking for is a way to play my own videos on it. It runs uclinux so this shouldn't be too hard, right? "

4 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Arm port of Debian by James_Duncan8181 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Get the ARM port of Debian on there and compile mplayer to an ARM target. Failing that use the debian port of Xine. Does this rate a /. article?

    --
    "To any truly impartial person, it would be obvious that I am right."
    1. Re:Arm port of Debian by WouldIPutMYRealNameO · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't think it will be quite that easy. The CPU in this thing is an ARM7 with no MMU - which is why it runs uclinux instead of regular linux. That means that you can't just drop regular packages onto it. I think that you need to custom locate (in memory) each package that you want to run, and compile it yourself. I could be wrong - but it certainly isn't going to be as easy as just running Debian on it.

      --
      Damnit - I wanted my nick to be "WouldIPutMYRealNameOnSlashdot"
  2. Re:Noisy website by LetterJ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    See, the fact that you can even hear sound from your PC at work is a foreign concept to me. Everywhere I've worked, hooking actual speakers to a workstation would get you smacked down pretty quickly. If you actually need the sound, they've invented tiny speakers you can temporarily strap to your ears that let you hear the sound without anyone else having to.

    I'd never even think to warn about the sound on a site because I don't have publicly audible speakers connected to any PC I own except the one in my home theater.

    --

    The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
  3. Easier and Better - Hacked VideoNow Jr by ewanrg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Rather than hacking the JuiceBox, you might want to consider getting a VideoNow Jr and hacking that instead. There are filters out there for VideoDub, and if you don't mind a bit of dremeling, you can get it to accept a standard CD-R (get the silvery ones like Sony).

    You can put up to 35 minutes of encoded video on a CD-R at a decent quality (18fps) and sound.

    Why go this route rather than a portable DVD player? Somewhat cheaper, don't have to hold the unit folded open (big plus for my handicapped daughter) and RUGGED (bigger plus for my handicapped daughter). We've dropped ours numerous times on the concrete driveway getting her out of the car, and the unit skips and then keeps playing.

    Of course we're not total idiots, so we've bought a backup unit for the eventual day that the driveway is harder than expected :-)