VideoNOW PVD Reverse Engineering

Zoc_All_Alone writes "In mid-July, Hasbro released the VideoNOW, a portable media player for kids. The disks are specially encoded ~3 inch audio CDs. We have started a project to reverse engineer the format, and have made considerable progress. More information about the player can be found at the Hasbro website."

But does it run Linux?

[mmoncur]

The VideoNOW Linux Project can't be far behind.

I'm sure Hasbro will nip this in the bud as soon as they realize someone could market their own shows for it. (Or, god-forbid, porn!)

standard formats

[shird]

After reading through the couple of updates they have, I get the impression that the format is actually a standard used somewhere but these guys just haven't figured out what it is.

They seem to be wasting their time grabbing frames and converting from jpegs etc. They should just try work out what the standard is. Afterall, why would the developers of the VideoNOW spend the time and money developing some new format when there are heaps out there already. They are already using a non-standard CD size to stop people just playing the discs on their own machines, and people wouldn't pay $8 for a few b/w low res cartoons to play on their own machines anyway. - so why use a propriety format?

Standard? Hah, don't make me laugh.

[pr0ntab]

It's just video in the standard duh-duh format, replacing the right audio channel. It's uncompressed, and the screen is 80x80, so there's only so many combinations of fps, bit depth to choose from. I wouldn't call it a standard, it isn't really encoded at all. The bitmap data is just, kinda there, like PCM audio.

They don't list an extraction step, but I assume it's CDDA. The mysterious packets in the audio track "left channel" might be used to help that extraction process on a cheap playback device, or provide error correction information that would normally be present in a Yellow Book format.

I don't think there's any standard out there for cramming video in an audio channel in a strange packeting format with a hack to read timing information out of the other channel. These seem like very hardware-oriented, cost based design decisions.

Re:Why?

[EverDense]

I hope you get sued and you go to jail.

Why is it that whenever someone disagrees with the motives of a story on SlashDot, they have go
to extremes in what they perceive should be the punishment?

These guys are not doing anything too hurt Hasbro's ability to make money.
Even if they were, why should they go to jail?

I bet the Hasbro executives are quaking in their boots "Oh no, the geeks are trying to get at
our super secret mini-CD codec".

You are a twonk!

Work for Hasbro, do you?

Re:Why?

[PaulK]

I hope you get sued and you go to jail.

Unless you are posting to slashdot using your original IBM PC and a 300 baud Hayes modem you are a hypocrite.
Reverse Engineering has brought you most everything you use in your life, from your television to your sneakers.

Since reverse engineering is legal, neither criminal or civil penalties apply.

BTW, being sued does not lead to incarceration.

It is a feature

[Chuck Chunder]

in the same way that a wart on the end of your nose would be.

Even my cellphone has a bigger color display

[Anonymous Coward]

and that is right now 65k+ colors , by the time you figured it out my 2003 cellphone is going to seem old, oh and it cost me nothing (0$) with my talkplan

Re:standard formats

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, you do have to buy a proprietory drive; a VideoNOW player. The discs are a non-standard size, being slighly larger than the 3" CD's you sometimes see. Playing one of these discs in an ordinary CD/DVD ROM is possible but tricky, as you have to place the disc very carefully in the correct place so that the drive can engage the disc properly.