 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2011) |
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| Media type | Optical disc |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 450 MB,[1] up to 30 minutes. |
| Developed by | Hasbro |
| Dimensions | VideoNow: 85 mm (3.3 in) diameter VideoNow Color: 4.25 in (108 mm) diameter |
| Usage | VCD/DVD/CD players |
| Extended from | CD |
| Released | October 1, 2003[2] |
| Discontinued | 2007 |
| Optical discs |
|---|
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The VideoNow is a portable video player produced by Hasbro and released by their subsidiary Tiger Electronics in 2003 as part of Tiger's line of Now consumer products. The systems use discs called PVDs (which stands for Personal Video Disc), which can store about 30 minutes (half an hour) of video,[3] the length of an average TV show with commercials (a typical TV episode is about 20–23 minutes without them), so each PVD contains only one episode, with trailers at the end to use the leftover time on most PVDs, including Nickelodeon PVDs. Video data is stored on the left audio channel with audio on the right channel, thus making it impossible to achieve stereo sound on the system, which only plays in black and white. The video plays at 15fps. Most of the shows were from Nickelodeon, such as SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents,[4] and later they released shows from Cartoon Network, such as Ed, Edd n Eddy and Dexter's Laboratory, Disney only mostly released episodes of America’s Funniest Home Videos and one PVD of each a Hannah Montana, The Cheetah Girls & High School Musical music video. A small number of movies were also released on the system, but due to the limited space on a PVD, said movies would have to be released on at least three discs, depending on the length of said film.
Hasbro also produced editing software for creating custom VideoNow Color PVDs called the VideoNow Media Wizard in 2005, which came with blank PVD media. A number of unofficial solutions are available for creating the oddly-formatted VideoNow files, including a plug-in for the popular video processing program Virtual Dub. The files can then be burned to a CD-R using standard CD burning software, and the disc cut down to the required size.
Hasbro made recordable PVDs available without the Media Wizard from their online store.[citation needed]
- ^ "Personal Video Disk (PVD) (2003 – 2006)". Museum Of Obsolete Media. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
- ^ "2003 JCPenney Christmas Book, Page 476 - Catalogs & Wishbooks".
- ^ Children's Software & New Media Revue. Active Learning Associates. 2004. p. 5.
- ^ Forgotten Media: VideoNow. 2011-09-18. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.