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ZVUE's $99 Video and MP3 Player
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Mar 04, 2004 01:55 PM
from the still-no-hard-drive dept.
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."
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Awsome gadget! (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/~GMontag/journal/ | Last Journal: Friday November 23, @02:49PM)
Maybe I could use it for the OBD-II [obdii.com] display?
PCMag Review link - also, it plays DivX (Score:5, Informative)
My Own Low Budget Rap... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.loscreepers.net/)
I' think I must be dyin,
Today sure hits the spot
cuz I got my first article posted on slashdot!
Can I get a hell yeah?
Re:My Own Low Budget Rap... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.fruitsofinsanity.com/)
Re:My Own Low Budget Rap... (Score:4, Funny)
My web server is die'n
The CPU's too hot
cuz my site got posted on slashdot!
Too much hype... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.dragonswest.com/ | Last Journal: Monday November 05, @07:35PM)
Yet another memory card format to contend with, ugh.
Pretty hyped site. Little on useful information. :-/
Re:Too much hype... (Score:5, Informative)
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
Re:But I've already got CF (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Six inch floppies? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Too much hype... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.covenantspice.com/)
SD is great when the card has to be as small as possible. Some devices that use SD would have to be quite a bit larger in order to use CF instead.
CF is "memory for the masses." If space is not the issue, then CF fits the bill. Because it is larger, you can fit a microdrive in the case. And if you want solid state, the case will hold a larger die and/or multiple dies in one package for storage galore.
If both SD and CF were almost the same size, I could see the reason for your gripe. But one is smaller/expensive and the other is larger/versatile/cheaper.
Re:Too much hype... (Score:4, Informative)
(http://shoesfullofdust.f2o.org/)
Hmmmm..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Why can't you just USE the damned thing?? (Score:5, Funny)
I bet it could be used as a pretty neat MP3 and video player too!
Low Budget Porn Cards (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Low Budget Porn Cards (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.angelfire...epublican/index.blog | Last Journal: Thursday July 27 2006, @12:00AM)
I just don get it... (Score:5, Funny)
Hot new music videos, extreme radical sports, wild, action videos that wreak havoc and lay waste
Who the hell uses the word "radical" anymore? WTF are "wild, action video that wreak havoc and lay waste"
Ugh.. just lame...
--D3X
NeoX3.com: The One Site for Free Adult Entertainment... [neox3.com]
Finally ! (Score:2, Funny)
I hope their video players... (Score:3, Funny)
Five comments, and already slashdotted. Sigh.
=)
a bit small? (Score:1, Interesting)
Does not the detail as such become less apparent. Maybe when it has a bulit in projection device it may become fully useful. So far it just seems a mp3 player.
zvue announced DivX and MP4 compatibility (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.i4u.com)
Re:zvue announced DivX and MP4 compatibility (Score:5, Informative)
Re:zvue announced DivX and MP4 compatibility (Score:4, Informative)
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.
great... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.secexp.com/ | Last Journal: Monday July 07 2003, @03:41PM)
---
How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.
You can be first to get a new ZVUE! (Score:1)
(http://www.djesi.ba/~aidin | Last Journal: Friday July 23 2004, @08:30AM)
Full Color! High-Res! on a 2" x 2" screen :( (Score:2)
(http://slashdot.org/~GillBates0 | Last Journal: Tuesday July 10, @04:36PM)
I'd rather have a bigger screen at the cost of some color and video quality. Does it atleast allow me to stream video out to a bigger monitor/TV? The FAQs and other pages don't say anything about it.
Re:Full Color! High-Res! on a 2" x 2" screen :( (Score:4, Funny)
I'd rather have a bigger screen at the cost of some color and video quality.
Hmm.... Looks like I've found a buyer for my 5 year old 10" black and white TV. In fact, I'll sell it to you for the same price as this gadget, just 100 bucks.
Hmm.. (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Thursday January 11 2007, @06:30PM)
<p>
How would these be any different from big budget wrestling movies and non-wannabe rapper videos?
<p>
Though I'm imaging somewhere at a demonic alter representatives of the RIAA/MPAA are asking for guidance on how they can let out the lawyer dogs on this thing. I can see it now... "Well, it can view video and play muisc and well we control all things video and music, but we don't control this, therefore it must be abliterated!"
<p>
Also at this demonic alter Darl McBride is an alter boy(toy)
<p>
Loading ... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://shoesfullofdust.f2o.org/)
Are they using this gadget to power their site?
A CD-based device? (Score:4, Interesting)
Imagine one of those little round MP3-CD players, except it has a small color screen instead of 2 line LCD-readout, and it property display video files,
Does such exist? Am I the only one who would be interested in it?
Re:A CD-based device? (Score:4, Informative)
What's in a... (Score:1)
(http://www.wikipedia.com/)
For $99 it's definitely (Score:4, Interesting)
where's the beef^H^H^H^Hspecs (Score:2, Funny)
Why does the low battery indicator come on after I put in fresh batteries and use them for only a short time?
Depending on the type and brand of battery, the low battery indicator may come on while there are still hours of battery life left. You can continue to use the ZVUE until the batteries actually run down. You should also be aware, that when the batteries are low, the ZVUE may not operate properly.
huh?
0 to Crapdotted in 4 minutes (Score:1)
Okay, so I couldn't load the article yet (already crapdotted) but I have issue with this line from the lead:
Wow, the content is so...exciting! Sounds like disposable technology to me. But I agree with blackmonday: it could be very promising in terms of hackability. Sure wish I could find the EULA though--I bet a whole karma point that it expressly prohibits any alteration. Sad world--we can't even play with our toys any more...
Wannabe - not quite (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wannabe - not quite (Score:5, Funny)
(http://rin3y.livejournal.com/)
Lil' Jon : Pardon me, sir, but will this post reflect negatively upon my karma rating?
Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny.
(brief pause)
Lil' Jon : What?
Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny.
Lil' Jon : What?
Mod : It depends on if the other moderators find it funny.
Lil' Jon : What?
Mod: (-1, Troll)
Lil' Jon : OKAYYYYYY!
--riney
(a-skeet skeet skeet skeet)
Can we get some specs? (Score:2)
As a side note, this is only good for hacking if the internal components are amenable to it. Would be fun to do stuff with this...
Look here (Score:5, Informative)
Not so good (Score:5, Informative)
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
Sharing photos without a computer (Score:2, Funny)
(http://www.samba-choro.com.br)
..low budget wrestling movies ... (Score:3, Funny)
hacking (Score:1)
You can play DiVX stuff too... (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.lazylightning.org/)
ZVUE Development Community (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.googlecommunity.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday June 12 2004, @01:12AM)
Cybiko is a low-cost, hackable handheld computer released at the end of 2000. Forum leaders may soon expand the boards to officially cover the ZVUE - it's a logical step from the Cybiko computer.
Feel free to discuss the ZVUE in the Development boards. [cydevr.net]
Page text, for those that couldn't read it : (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 01 2005, @10:40AM)
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
---
Please try the following:
If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.
Open the www.zvue.com home page, and then look for links to the information you want.
Click the Back button to try another link.
Click Search to look for information on the Internet.
HTTP 400 - Bad Request
Internet Explorer
http://www.zvue.com/ Slashdotted (Score:2, Informative)
``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!"
Trademark security through obscurity (Score:2)
I mean the least they could do in this day and age of barely literate slashdotters is throw us a hyphen for clarity's sake.
Hackable? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.erik.rainey.name/)
Slashdotted (Score:1, Redundant)
(http://pg-solutions.com/)
pretty snazzy (Score:1)
(http://seanism.com/ | Last Journal: Monday September 06 2004, @08:12AM)
Here are specs (Score:2, Informative)
ZVue Specs [bmrd.com]
It looks a little cheap to me, but for $99 I guess you can't get burned too bad.
The IMPORTANT question is: (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.bigroom.org/wordpress)
...how long will it take for someone to reverse-engineer the format so that we can make our own SD/MMC cards with our own video (space-shifted from our legally-purchased DVD's [yes, I'm serious...] or 'home video'.)?
That is the specific feature that'd make it useful to me. I have no need of a special proprietary-format-only player where the low-quality proprietary video cards cost as much as full DVD's, especially when portable DVD players seem to be obtainable these days for only $50-$100 more than this player is selling for.
(Hmmm...what's the capacity of the SD cards with the proprietary movies on them? Can they be erased and used as normal SD cards for other applications?)
How much memory? (Score:2)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Friday October 01 2004, @07:19AM)
Compgeeks has them for $144.50. CF == minidrive (Score:5, Informative)
(http://linuxathome.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday March 15 2005, @03:19PM)
zvue.blogspot.com has more info (Score:1)
http://www.i4u.com/article1225.html [i4u.com]
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/index.php?topi c_id=4675 [digitalmediathoughts.com]
but... (Score:1)
how long (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Monday June 14 2004, @01:58PM)
MPEG4 coming to ZVUE (Score:1)
However, their site says that in a few months, you'll be able to buy a firmware upgrade for a "reasonable price" to allow it to play Mpeg4.
Thanks, I think I'll wait to see if the reasonable price is more than the original cost of the unit before I get into this.
Add a Mini Harddrive? (Score:2)
(http://www.labowicz.com/blog/ | Last Journal: Tuesday June 28 2005, @04:04PM)
Get a Gamepark32 (GP32) instead (Score:1)
(http://candyaddict.com/ | Last Journal: Friday July 29 2005, @09:26AM)
It does everything the ZVUE does and LOTS more and it has a huge developer following and TONS of apps you can DL for free like console/arcade emulators, MP3 players, PIMs, etc. ) Brian
Battery Life? (Score:1)
Re:Why not? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://dailybugle.net/blog/)
He didn't say it was hackable, just that the chances were good.
Potential adj.
1. Capable of being but not yet in existence; latent: a potential problem.
2. Having possibility, capability, or power.
3. Grammar. Of, relating to, or being a verbal construction with auxiliaries such as may or can; for example, it may be hackable.
Re:Mirror (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Friday February 11 2005, @12:42PM)
Re:Mirror (Score:1)
(http://www.koach.com/)