When Mini-DVD tried to go big

[@ROCKSTAR3291]

that's the most 2000's looking device, so round and silver...

[@johnt3500]

Everything had rounded corners and was made of silver-looking plastic in the 2000's, because they thought it looked futuristic and "millennium"... Just google "2005 laptop" or "2005 camera" , you will see.

[@I_am_sj8]

@@johnt3500 yes actually... There's a common design of everything that came after 2000 till 2010 i guess. Silver plated plastic with rounded design and unusual thickness. Those looked ugly though. I prefer old classic metal designs instead of these ugly silver platings

[@brucewayne-ej3cx]

I'd say late 90's look

[@frostedbutts4340]

And once they get worn the silver paint comes off to reveal ugly gray

[@AgentXRifle]

2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee WK Yeah... very 2000's!

[@testpleaseignore]

He bought two copies of Catwoman for this review... My God he is really making personal sacrifices for artistic expression in his videos

[@mediocrefunkybeat]

Press F to pity.

[@spidermonkeynr1]

Worst movie and cgi ever

[@Wheel333]

So bad it's good.

[@robertgaines-tulsa]

The movie was probably cheap. I've never seen the movie myself.

[@annother3350]

@Zak Jansen Bagpuss was about Garfields mum

[@zanizone3617]

"Those Ron Weasley movies". This video is full of gems.

[@2005Bener]

@@Ndlanding stepson 😂😂

[@Catcrumbs]

@@Ndlanding If by any chance you're interested, one of the main failings of the Harry Potter movies is that almost all of Ron's positive moments are written for Hermione instead, completely gutting Ron's character. It's possible Techmoan was hinting at that.

[@Catcrumbs]

​@@Ndlanding I read the first four books as a young teen and enjoyed them. I gave up halfway through the fifth, but later pushed through to the end of the series once the last book was released. Those later ones are just too long for what they are. I think I watched the first movie and it didn't make me want to watch any more of them.

[@VK2FVAX]

HP gives me gas.

[@KillerQueen_87]

Yeah, made me chuckle ^^

[@Movie_Games]

For the times when you're away from home and you just NEED to watch Catwoman.

[@ian_b]

Who hasn't had that moment?

[@bamikroket]

Or for when on the bog. I can imagine it works great against constipation.

[@Ruff64]

this comment reminds me of Scott the woz

[@studentNEET319]

Either than beating the 'meat' i don't think people watch catwoman

[@somerandomguy6749]

THANK YOU my ex gf thought it was weird.

[@mackinblack]

He bought 2 copies of Catwoman for this video. Thats 80% of the total sales for all catwoman dvds ever sold...

[@MNTwinsGeek]

The other 1/2 copy sold was a miniDVD with the second disc missing.

[@Doomishhs]

@@MNTwinsGeek some random crackhead on craigslist.

[@elenaphisher244]

I have it on dvd, mini dvd, bluray and itunes.

[@Alexander_l322]

@@elenaphisher244 you need all that cat woman in your life do you?

[@emiel333]

No the first copy covers 100% of the sales. The second copy is specially made for his channel.

[@PANDORAZTOYBOKZ]

Part of me misses the novelty of having to pick a couple DVDs to bring on long trips to play in my bulky portable, clutching it for dear life so that it doesn't skip when we hit a pothole. Now I can watch practically any movie I want on my phone, and I just never do it. There's something special about a dedicated player where you can't get distracted by 90 other applications and messages.

[@A2theC]

Throw away that devil spawn and get yo self a dedicated vcd playa 😎

[@SteveBrandon]

I had a portable DVD player that lasted the best part of a decade until I dropped it and cracked the screen. It still technically works but I have to plug it into an external screen to be able to watch anything which defeats the purpose of having a portable DVD player. I'm still considering getting another portable DVD or Blu-Ray player even though I have laptops that can play DVDs. The form factor for watching DVDs on a longer bus or train ride is better than having to hold a phone for a long time since you can put most portable DVD players on your lap or a fold out table if available and angle the screen upwards (plus a lot of older anime I like that I have on physical media isn't available on streaming services, which I can't use on a bus anyway as my phone doesn't have a data plan).

[@solarwalkman]

**iPod video noises**

[@megatron8561]

Thats why i still occasionally use an mp3 player

[@123sleepygamer]

I feel the same way about the OG PSP. Sure it had lots of issues but I remember having Kill Bill vol 1 on UMD and some other movies I can't remember. I fondly remember playing games or watching a bit of a movie late into middle school during bus rides. Until it got stolen :/

[@omertalas3706]

Even Halle Berry doesn't have two copies of "cat woman".

[@Aidenkong523]

I don't think she has, or wants one

[@edwardphilibin3151]

Halle knows the kind of movie she made. She showed up in person to accept her "Razzie" for Worst Actress. If she does own a copy, it's to clear out the stragglers at a party. The same way Carrie Fisher claimed she used her copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special. 😉

[@ConstantGeekery]

Being able to skip forward at 128x is something of a blessing when the mini-DVD in question is Catwoman.

[@bitterlemonboy]

Why?

[@kentuckycryptid]

​@@bitterlemonboyBecause the movie is considered one of the worst of all time.

[@SouthernRebels94]

​@@kentuckycryptidCatwoman isn't one of the worst of all times Catwoman when it first came out on DVD after leaving the theater it made 100% of all sales in theatre and on DVD with good reviews.

[@kentuckycryptid]

@@SouthernRebels94 If you say so. I remember hearing that it was absolute dogshit, but I might be wrong. Who knows? I heard Hideo Kojima praised Joker 2, so I don't know.

[@elainejsta]

Nothing’s more mid-2000s than standing in the Hot Topic looking in bewilderment at an Invader Zim episode on mini-DVD.

[@notsunnydaysahead]

Then after that going home to turn on the tv knowing that Michael Jackson was innocent

[@nightshade-o7g]

@@notsunnydaysahead Michael Jackson was not innocent

[@wariogamingexe7795]

@@nightshade-o7g don't call yourself michael jackson.

[@crackedwindowproductions]

Or on your GBA

[@girliboi]

Side note: The "only 1 available" notice on Amazon doesn't always mean what you'd think. It frequently just means that there's only one left from a partnered seller priced at $8.45 (or whatever). Once it's purchased, then the new notification immediately reads "only 4 available" at $8.46, etc.. I've noticed this more with discontinued furniture stored at Amazon warehouses (where many smaller retailers are unloading dead/discounted stock, but each were less likely to have stocked up on large quantities).. Of course sometimes it really does mean that there are "only X available", but let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if we see 'Chamber of Secrets' minis ticking up or down 1¢ on Amazon Prime for the next hundred years..

[@makara80]

That suspicious 5 star Amazon review by a ‘D Deremer’ is far too glowing to be genuine and reeks of ‘I work for the company that makes this crap’! ;)

[@redpheonix1000]

And also the fact that they mention the full name of the product, capitalization and all, multiple times instead of just referring to it as "dvd player" or something. Although, to be fair at the time, buying blank Mini-DVDs to record your own movies onto wouldn't be that bad of an idea!

[@EtsuMatsuya]

Or it is a bot, so many bots on Amazon/Yelp... Google seems to do a better job of filtering them, but even they have a bot problem. Which is why I tend to look for one or two-star reviews and see what they say. You often get more helpful one or two-star reviews than you do from 5-star bots/paid spokespeople parading as customers.

[@PatRiot-]

We don’t live in the 1950’s so I don’t think mentioning “beautiful color” is exactly relevant haha

[@inaz1963]

Samsung was caught buying favorable reviews a few years back.

[@philismenko]

I bet his middle name is victoe

[@moonchild4806]

"it's like taking a patent on a kick in the groin" Lmao

[@aetech2000]

@@kruleworld oukokouk ok lko ok o🍐🤪🥝🤪

[@Darth001]

Made me laugh also

[@Korium84]

But a football in the groin is a football in the groin.

[@reeffeeder]

It's so true. The packaging is the worst. Thank God for modern recyclable packaging.

[@jezusmylord]

Ron Weasley and the popular kid is my friend Ron Weasley and fuck they almost killed my sister Ron Weasley and a grown ass man slept in my bed for many nights Ron Weasley and i made 2 girls like me despite being ginger Ron Weasley and fuck they almost killed my father Ron Weasley and fuck they almost killed me Ron Weasley and they killed my brother : (

[@frostdachshund9618]

“Will not give up its contents without a knife fight” That’s amazing

[@Talia.777]

😆😆😆

[@ENCHANTMEN_]

"six hours and five pints of blood later..."

[@naota3k]

2:45 I'm glad that he censored the word "crappy" in his review. Wouldn't want to soil the internet with that kind of terrible foul language.

[@NewSonyWonderHappyMadisonFan]

And the selection wasn't even crappy either. Yes there were some awful stuff released on the format but there were also some critically acclaimed stuff too.

[@Dang_Ol_Username]

I love the early 2000's look of that mini dvd player. Reminds me of Winamp and Windows XP.

[@vikab8929]

Ah yes, the small screen video players. For 3 or 4 years in the mid 00s, when I first left my parent’s home, I didn’t have a television, so anytime I wanted to watch movies away from my desk, I would load them onto my iPod video and watch them on that tiny screen, believing we had reached technical nirvana, being able to take our movies everywhere on a small device

[@ReginaTrans_]

I was 17 in 2006 and I was amazed at downloading full Simpson’s episodes on my Sony Ericsson phone while going to my HS social service on a 2 hour bus trip every Thursday

[@spugintrntl]

I had an RCA branded mp3 player that was technically video capable in college. I have a distinct memory of watching bootleg Eddie Izzard videos on the postage-stamp sized screen in bed, thinking it was really cool for some reason.

[@JakobMoscow]

We did!

[@Doomishhs]

How??? My ipod touch (original) couldnt put movies on itself.

[@vikab8929]

@@Doomishhs LOL you would download the movie to your computer first, then put it in itunes, then sink your ipod to itunes, having made sure to select the movie in the list of things to move over

[@MrWestergard]

Apparently there's a mini-DVD on Mars! The 2007 Mara rover carried a mini-DVD full of fun bonus content basically for future Mars explorers to look at including the text of Ray Bradbury's Mars Chronicles

[@philismenko]

Now I want to be the first person to read that copy of it on mars

[@fixman88]

Yeah...and it's glass too.

[@JustAWanderer17]

BS

[@RacATheFurious]

"Ron Weasley movies" took me by surprise, had a good laugh :D

[@advancedflea]

Initially I thought "Did Ron get his own spin-off movies??"

[@larshanselmann6514]

Hahahaha me too, because i was so confused. My english is not the best, but that was funny 😂😂

[@flemngo5117]

I love me some ron weasley movies

[@inwalters]

Pretty sure that means he was a Ron/Hermionie shipper back in the day

[@RustyTube]

I remember when the second movie in the series (Chamber of Secrets) came out, I asked the salesperson if Rupert Grint was in it, as I was not going to buy the DVD otherwise (there was some rumor at the time that they may use different actors in the second movie). That was because in the first movie I found Harry woefully underacted, Hermione overacted, but Ron perfectly acted. They have since grown as actors, but back then that was all I had to go on to decide whether to buy the DVD.

[@LadBooboo]

8:30 I totally wasn't expecting Mat to pull out a D12 single mini cd

[@nitelite2850]

My band is one of their best songs

[@ArchangelExile]

I was too focused on the HD DVD vs Bluray war to remember miniDVDs.

[@oldm9228]

A yes, I remember when I, a cinema connoisseur, was finally able to watch Catwoman whenever I so pleased. A revolution.

[@Sashazur]

Meow!

[@MetalTrabant]

And on a whole 2.5" screen... :D

[@mehhego2857]

“Ron weasley movies” had me laughing my ass off

[@dracometeors3010]

Ah the classic Ron Weaslies

[@alexcarrilloofficial]

In some parallel universe rons the main character :p :)

[@ChazZeromus]

Same 🤣

[@nothingincorporated]

yes, I spat out my sponge cake!

[@yeaaaaaaaaaaahff]

I mean it's technically not wrong, ron _was_ in all of those movies

[@francesconicoletti2547]

Maybe I live in a bubble, but the main “competition “ for this thing around where I lived would have been that VCD player. A parent wanting to keep their kids entertained would have headed for Chinatown, bought a stack of disks for next to nothing, a cheep player and that’s the road trip sorted. Copyright issues, I don’t know nothing about no damn copyright issues. Resolution, it’s better then tape or free to air what more would a kid want.

[@Amphy002]

Ah, happy memories of renting VCD .. VHS quality on a compact disc.

[@Zerbey]

They were competing with a format called VideoNow which was aimed at smaller children, they were nonstandard CDs that played a nonstandard format initially only in black and white (colour came later). Even more of a niche market.

[@AltCutTV]

If the price check in the video was anything to go by, this thing seem to have been alive around 2005. (?) Which incidentally is contemporary the Playstation Portabe, which had films on UMD. Those were really tiny, and probably used the machines lower resolution, but I remember them still looking very nice because of it. And possibly thanks to a more modern compression than DVD had. Then again, I didn't have the model that could show them on a TV, so couldn't say how well they would fare there. Anyway. UMD was also what Wikipedia showed me when going looking for these Mini-DVDs. Along with something called cDVD, which was apparently a DVD on CD... Along with regular + / - Mini DVDs. No sign of Mini-DVDs though. Formats for thoughts. :)

[@AlexGloukhov]

This was 2005, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP were already out. Why buy this for your kid when a DS much better and was basically around the same price. PSP was even able to play movies on UMD and had a vastly superior screen to this

[@AfferbeckBeats]

Yep, here in Australia everyone had huge disc wallets full of 'Bali DVDs'. Before the internet was fast enough for most people to bother torrenting themselves, someone would go on holiday to Bali and come back with like 500 dodgy DVDs and everyone would share those around and burn copies.

[@YowLife]

This looks like a Video Now player.

[@russellgroenewoud9199]

I know, right? 😆

[@extsykush]

10:30

[@extsykush]

10:30

[@dwyaneingente2899]

Yes

[@Crisp_me]

I had a blue one and I used to watch pokemon over and over and over until it burned onto the screen

[@KristianNowak]

8:53 lol the woodgrain cd burner and now the LGR song lol

[@lohs117]

I used to have a portable DVD player...I thought it was the absolute bees knees in the pre-smartphone era. MOVIES ON THE GO, incredible concept at the time I probably watched more movies on that than on my phone so far now

[@fairyball3929]

Do you remember what the brand and model of the DVD player was? I still keep my Sony DVP-FDX810 DVD player cause it's handy for playing DVDs and CDs and it can be used as a Composite Video monitor (not that I use that function nowadays).

[@lohs117]

Fairy Ball some noname China brand. But still worked great

[@souvikrc4499]

Same here, I remember watching DVDs on my portable Sony player my parents got for my birthday a decade ago.

[@yasin6904]

The last portable DVD player I got also had a tv tuner to it and a swivel screen. Honestly the most exciting gadget I’ve ever had lol.

[@yasin6904]

I’ve just thought, imagine watching a DVD with subtitles on this...

[@mattm7220]

Never in my life have I heard anyone describe that stupid packaging so accurately!

[@lunarmodule6419]

ER are full of packaging victims.

[@fixman88]

I call it 'Human-Resistant Packaging'...and I have a pair of Fiskars Utility Scissors specifically for handling those.

[@lunarmodule6419]

@@fixman88 "Take that you package"

[@gamemeister27]

@Michael Persico I believe it's cause of the ultrasonic welding used to fuse it, but I could be super duper wrong.

[@firesurfer]

They were specifically designed for big box stores as theft protection for small items. Costco, BJs, etc.

[@richkawaiipikachu]

Here in Australia we had "DVD Singles" 8CM discs that held a single episode of a kids show, e.g. beyblade, Hamtaro, Spongebob, ect, ect, ect. Just that they never had a dedicated player attached to them.

[@HippoOnABicycle]

I used to have a Linkin Park DVD single from Australia. One cool thing about it was a live performance where you could switch between the cameras at will. This was the early days of DVDs and I thought all movies released on DVDs in the future would have that feature, but I've never seen it since.

[@davidmcgill1000]

@@HippoOnABicycle I can't recall ever seeing a DVD that supported those extra angles of scenes. Does make sense for live performances, but I doubt any studio ever considered having extra cameras for standard movies.

[@SianaGearz]

@@davidmcgill1000 The problem is also when an action scene comes along.... and your optical drive is only guaranteed to deliver 11mbit/s... and a good looking MPEG-2 takes up 6-8 MBit/s... you really don't have a way to store the second angle. On the other hand if one of the scenes has very little movement, like it's a wide fixed camera shot of a stage performance, and the quality is not critical, you now can multiplex in a second video stream. So it's specifically a feature not designed for movies even from just a technical standpoint.

[@marsilies]

@@davidmcgill1000 There's several concert DVDs that have multiple angles to choose through, some porn DVDs as well. For movies, there's sometimes certain shots that have multiple cameras running, usually stunts, where you can only shoot it once. The 18-wheeler truck flip in Dark Knight Returns, for example, was shot from five or six angles. Those happen so fast though that'd it'd be hard to manually change angles in real time. The TV shows shot in front of an audience typically have 3 cameras running at any time, 1 wide shot of the set and all the actors on it, and 2 cameras focused on the characters speaking at the moment so they can cut back and forth. The scenes could theoretically let manual angle changing. However, what I think that they figured out pretty fast is that many people don't want to manually change angles, they want the director/editor to have chosen the best angles for them. It's also lot more work to make a multi-angle disc, even if you have the footage. Multi-angle didn't ever completely go away though. Instead of manually changing, some discs, especially Pixar movies, will use different "angles" for scenes depending on what language audio track you chose, and then change the language on the signs in the scene. So the angle doesn't chance, but the shot does. DVDs also used angles for PIP behind-the-scenes features that could be enable to see while watching the movie, since DVD doesn't have actual Picture-in-Picture capabilities (Blu-ray does).

[@Leeqzombie]

I remember getting DVD singles as the 'toy' with some takeaway kids meals. I can't remember what chains they were, but this was in Australia around 2005ish?

[@codezero7981]

Maybe it's just me but I find mini-DVD's extremely cute..

[@Roadent1241]

Mini-most things are extremely cute. So not just you XP If it wouldn't have been a pain to play it, because I never saw it have an accessories and I would have had to stick to my regular to see it anyway, the MicroGBA would have been part of my collection. But I didn't fancy trying to squint at Breath of Fire I/II or Zoids Legacy all the time.

[@chris-jj9ge]

Yep

[@exMuteKid]

@@Roadent1241 you don’t HAVE to play mini dvds on a crappy lcd you know

[@exMuteKid]

Me too, I love finding drivers on mini dvds. Adorable pocket records

[@cococock2418]

@@exMuteKidthen why would I ever use a mini over a regular m0r0n

[@trevorzane272]

Never knew this existed and never knew the story behind mini-DVDs.. As a kid I remember getting mini DVDs in Happy Meals or even Pizza Hut... I didn't know there was a device to play them on.

[@mrrandomperson3106]

I laughed out loud at that "Take it off slowly" segment! Well done!

[@fairyball3929]

I felt like the jazzy music had just been slapped into the video.

[@MysteryMii]

Fairy Ball That’s trap music!

[@fairyball3929]

@@MysteryMii o_o

[@Tonycaveman]

"Can you believe they actually have patents on this packaging? It's like taking out a patent for a kick in the groin." LOL. And here I thought I was the only one who absolutely hated this package design.

[@IrishCarney]

One of the good things about Amazon is that, not being a physical store, they don't have to worry about shoplifting (the major motivation behind these impossible packages), so they've pioneered what they call "Frustration-Free Packaging"....

[@LRM12o8]

3:10 "Ah, the blister packaging: An enormous waste of plastic, that only serves to make life so much harder for everyone who bought something new. One of the many ingenious inventions which the crown of evolution has come with."

[@annother3350]

@ So please a few shop companies, annoy 100s of millions of customers?!

[@yocapo32]

@@annother3350 Companies don't care about paying costumers, only the ones that don't

[@rich_edwards79]

My late wife used to refer to these horrible packs as 'adult-proofed' as unlike a bottle of pills, even a competent grown up would find themself defeated by them. Best case scenario is you only scratch or damage the entombed product - attempts to open excessively tricky packaging with knives and scissors no doubt leads to numerous injuries every year. I wish they'd quit it, honestly.

[@annother3350]

@@yocapo32 Indeed

[@onometre]

I'm so glad blister packaging is fairly uncommon now

[@DougSisco1]

Your description of opening the packaging was the best I have ever heard!

[@curvingfyre6810]

Can you all imagine an alternate timeline where the big pocket sized mobile device was something like this but with real money put into it? What a weird world that would have been tech wise.

[@yxcvbnmmnbvcxy544]

3:56 "Hey wanna come over and watch some Ron Weasley movies?"

[@jamesgriffyn]

Nah bruh they always cut back to that weird Harry bloke.

[@hjalfi]

That's a spinoff of the _Hermione Granger And I Told You Not To Do That_ movies, right?

[@Evelyn_Richardson]

Just Kidding Rowling is a terf

[@Darth001]

Ozma there is no need for that language here, keep your opinions to yourself

[@merylvixenburgh3947]

hjalfi she *needs* to sort out her priorities.

[@nagualdesign]

_"...color is un-real..."_ Hard to tell if that's a positive or a negative.

[@M364A]

negative

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Sounds like basically any modern TV needlessly sharpening and saturating the hell out of whatever you connect to it

[@m4rgin4l]

This is literally the first time I've heard about mini dvds

[@goishikaiganmademou]

Widely used for camcorders in the 00's.

[@MetalTrabant]

@@goishikaiganmademou Never seen any of those either... in my country there were only tape camcorders, as far as I remember.

[@goishikaiganmademou]

@@MetalTrabant I think it was around year 2006? Digital tape camcorders and Mini DVD camcorders were sold side by side in electronics stores. More people probably had digital tape camcorders in heir homes, but Mini DVD camcorders dominated in the stores. You were supposed to record on Mini DVD-RW discs that could be overwritten 500 times, and then use your PC to copy the footage you wanted to keep to full size DVD-R discs that only could be written once. Mobile phone cameras were inferior back in 2006. Still picture digital cameras didn't yet have cheap memory cards large (and fast) enough to record 1080p HD video. And most camcorders collecting dust in people's homes were old analogue VHS-C camcorders. So Mini DVD-RW disc camcorders seemed like the optimal camcorder upgrade at that time. 2005 was the year when most people bought their first DVD player connected to their TV, so camcorder discs instantly viewable on your regular TV was an appealing offer.

[@Froggievilleus]

Same.

[@tinhead9246]

Me too I think it might be a Mandela Effect

[@Islandswamp]

I remember having an mp3 player with downloaded Simpson's episodes on it thinking it was amazing. I can understand why a portable DVD player could be sweet back in the day.

[@yetravellingsonc8372]

Ah, yes, the ron weasley movies, my absolute favorites.

[@FriedlichChiller]

This must be the most sarcasm-heavy video you put out so far. And I absolutely love it. :D

[@IrishCarney]

And yet he still uses his usual mild, friendly tone - no audible snark. Which makes it even better

[@christoffer4862]

Why is the screen smaller than the mini-DVD even though the minis play the same resolution as normal DVDs? That's like the compact screen is the main feature of the player? Why?

[@Darth001]

Most phones didn't have bigger than a 3.5'' screen back then

[@kevinpersinger7957]

This was the beginning of the drop is price for those kind of screens. Alot of advances in screen technology happened at the millennium mark. By '05, we had a surplus of decent 2.5in screens, because we already started scaling screen size and resolution up. Am i the only person who remembers when 1024×768 was amazing resolution?

[@redpheonix1000]

Additionally, this looks like the kind of display that would be used in a camera of the time.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@kevinpersinger7957 No You are not the only one who remembers when 1024X768 was amazing, and for some applications it still is, which is why I have a 15in 1024X768 LCD in my homemade bartop arcade.

[@adamweb]

Resolution: Tiger handheld

[@DaveF.]

Oh wow - this just won the Internet for me this week - blister packaging: "It's like taking out a patent on a kick to the groin." - perfect

[@zorktxandnand3774]

You want the shiny prize inside this transparent fort? Then firs engage in a battle of life and death! Why does this type of packaging still exist? I am usually not in favour of banning things, just cause you do not like them, But please, can we ban these packages! Who would miss them? Well at least you get punished for buying environmental unfriendly packaging.

[@Tiagotaf]

This was the worst idea ever. Sony had already launched the UMD format, which was smaller and better in every way. The PSP is an amazing device, and watching movies in it is one of the best mobile experiences I've ever had. Even now with our solid state memory easily available and high performance mobile devices, it stills looks good.

[@CertifiedNEETClassic]

"Six hours and three pints of blood later." Ah, so that one gave up *easy,* huh?

[@Andrew_Erickson]

Imagine owning 2 versions of Catwoman.

[@GodWeenSatan]

Imagine owning one

[@Bug110]

Imagine not owning any movies on dvd

[@ericbazinga]

Or any version of Catwoman

[@andrewmontague9682]

Certainly a sucker for punishment. Bet they were cheap though.

[@_baniraaisu6711]

Our family had the vcd set :(

[@ChadWSmith]

This is why I subscribed to your channel years ago. Content exactly like this. You rock, sir.

[@HUYI1]

Indeed he does! 😂😂

[@WindowsXPFrog]

I had a GameCube growing up and was convinced this was the future lol

[@molo-molo5103]

me too

[@YiisUz]

Same

[@vico7727]

I don't know what Nintendo was trying to pull when they said the Gamecube wasn't using mini- DVDs. I literally burned Mario Sunshine on a DVD and put in my Wii and it played perfectly fine. (Before all the anti-piracy people come on me, I do own Sunshine, but tge disc got really scratched and stopped working, that's why I was burning it onto the DVD)

[@MrDmoney156]

you tried running any mini dvd movies on the Gamecube?

[@vico7727]

@@MrDmoney156 No and I don't think it would run as the Gamecube lacks the software and license needed to run them. However, in terms of sheer hardware, the gamecube should be capable of playing them.

[@KreepKarnage]

There are definitely still anti-piracy tards out in the world but I doubt anyone is going to blame you for _burning_ a decade old game onto a dvd lol

[@alfiehicks1]

@@vico7727 The Wii is fully capable of running DVD Video (and by extension, Mini-DVD) even to the extent that a DVD icon exists in the Disc Channel but is set to be invisible at all times. Seems like they were either planning to pay for the licence late into development but they pulled out, or they were planning on selling a peripheral later that would enable it, like Microsoft did with the original Xbox.

[@Quailstorm]

The GameCube optical disk drive is fully compatible with DVD-R discs, you just need a modchip for that. Some are even compatible with DVD-RW. Though the GameCube lacks software to play DVD video or music.

[@ferretman6790]

The fact he brought back the time machine after 3 years just made me so fricking happy.

[@GatCat]

The DVD is just a new age fad. I will hang onto my VHS thank you very much.

[@user-wj9xq7ig2v]

Wait 10 yrs and hipsters will be carrying around portable vcrs to thrift stores to test beta tapes.

[@romanes_eunt_domus]

With that logic, VHS is an archaic fad... Considering DVD has been commercial since the '90s, it's had about the same lifetime that VHS had but is still going strong 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@tjl2836]

jokes on you, I store my games on stone tablets

[@daze.d5462]

I miss our vhs which died along with the fire about 17 years ago.

[@josephyang3260]

You can still buy a vcr, but they’re getting pretty rare now. I ended up converting over a lot of vhs videos to digital copies. But also VHS’s probably won’t come back bc of how bad they are. By that I mean they are fragile, the magnetic tape is fragile and with age the tape will break easier, the gears in the tape will also eventually break. Videos stored on the tape will eventually degrade bc of the nature of the tape. VCRs also broke a lot bc of the moving parts. So I highly doubt they’ll bring back the VHS. A lot of my tapes have degraded a lot, which was the reason why I needed to convert most of my tapes.

[@Derpy1969]

Another product that proves the adage “just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean that you should.”

[@AtoManPL]

I'm always baffled how they expected you to buy the same movie several times for other devices like this. If only people knew DVD Shrink existed...

[@gator_productions]

Dvd shrink?

[@Intelwinsbigly]

​@@gator_productionslook it up

[@Psythik]

Wow now *there's* a throwback. I haven't thought about DVD Shrink in years! Totally forgot it existed.

[@Intelwinsbigly]

@@Psythik I still use Nero burningrom

[@minmogrovingstrongandhealthy]

No clue what DVD Shrink is but I did used plenty of tools that converted formats and shrink sizes of existing formats. They were actual branded softwares some were simply script codes that you EXE or copy+patch. Mostly I had devices that read and used DVD, Xvid, VidX, CD, MKV, MP4, Avi, Mov, Flash ... so converted or shrunk files so I can fit them and play onto different devices. I see zero use of the device from the video since by 2002 I already had a portable MP4 player and before that I had a portable Xvid-VidX player ... Certainly would never buy the same movie twice unless it offers major upgrades from a previous release that I can benefit from. To buy converted shrunk variations it's absurd. Even if you didn't had a PC or tools to do so you could do it at your friend's place, someone ALWAYS had access to something you didn't and things got shared ...

[@bottombarrelbudgetfilms1854]

"The Ronald Weasley Movies" lmao love you

[@Navneetvaio]

I don't know what but this man makes me chuckle everytime. What a brilliant channel. Absolutely love it.

[@pennygadget7328]

It feels like an exec had someone crunch the numbers on his passing thought of mini-DVDs, realized it was almost impossible to lose money on the idea, and they went ahead without any real expectation of success, just a quick buck. Between the existence of portable players that could play the full-size discs you already owned (usually with a much larger screen) and the minimal effort of ripping those DVDs for playback on something else (I moved my Back to the Future trilogy over to my PSP just days after I bought the thing) this seems like a format that wasn't actually intended to succeed.

[@negirno]

That would explain why they didn't bothered put the movies with a lower bit rate or use DivX to fit them onto one disc.

[@id104335409]

Every executive brain on this planet of morons ever since a monkey stood up to see further.

[@sidbrun_]

Negirno if they had used a lower bitrate then it would have looked worse on bigger screens, and they would have had a harder time marketing it as “works on most DVD players.” Personally I’d rather have a higher bitrate and 2 discs, with a wider compatibility to use on more players, than to have a lower bitrate and 1 disc. It just means the discs are future proofed a bit more, which is actually good for the consumer.

[@pennygadget7328]

@@sidbrun_ Being able to watch them on a regular player was a way to hedge your bets when trying to decide whether to buy into it and not the main selling point. A hypothetical lower bitrate wouldn't hurt compatibility, but that very real high bitrate definitely hurt the real selling point: portability and convenience. When you've got to bring along all those discs and the case(s) they go into, the whole "watch your movies anywhere" thing stops looking like a feature and starts looking like a lie.

[@johnruschmeyer5769]

@@sidbrun_ That compatibility point is a good one. By this time, the internals of the player were probably little more than a DVD-Player-On-A-Chip, so there wasn't much that had to be done from an engineering standpoint to produce the player.

[@TJ-xp7pf]

Hey Tech, I just want to send you so much thanks. In Melbourne, Australia we're in a second lockdown because of the pandemic. Not only have you entertained me during this time, you've taught me so much and have ignited a passion for legacy audio tech. I appreciate your channel a lot.

[@wimwiddershins]

They missed an opportunity with the full size DVD case. There would've been some novelty value in having mini sized cases in store displays.

[@askjacob]

Retailers would never have gone with it... The reason the packaging was the same was so they are harder to steal

[@WildBluntHickok]

When CDs first came out they were in tall boxes so stores could put them in the record bins they already had. It would be the same thing with small packaging for mini-dvd, it would just get lost in racks too big for it.

[@fixman88]

I remember back in the 90s when audio tapes had these long plastic frames attached to them in stores so you couldn't stick one in your pocket and carry it out of the store.

[@RikSandstromCalifornia]

"Patenting this packaging is like patenting a kick in the groin". Laughing my head off.

[@WigWoo1]

It's like Video now... But worse

[@lee2952]

Oh, you never had the ORIGINAL video now... Those things were 100 times worse.

[@LiakkDoesStuff]

Verified mark

[@WigWoo1]

@@LiakkDoesStuff yee?

[@adrianbongiorno9295]

It's like video now, but better

[@katlyn3248]

@@lee2952 I had one as a little kid. Man did it suck, but it was cool at the time.

[@robertsteel3563]

when I clicked on the Affiliate Link" Amazon said "Did you mean "mini dvd" warmer" and i was like: what?

[@spugintrntl]

I tried it too for kicks and giggles and just got a bunch of normal DVDs and the same message.

[@robertsteel3563]

@@spugintrntl oof lol

[@drewzero1]

It’s like a DVD burner, but doesn’t get as hot.

[@catfish552]

DVDs get much richer audio and video when they're pre-heated. You really shouldn't be watching them cold.

[@procommentr]

@@drewzero1 And it doesn't completely overwrite the disc when you burn, kinda like VHS tapes

[@FlpDaMattress]

2:20 "AOL Keyword: Catwoman" would never have figured that out otherwise

[@cjmarsh504]

Time-Warner owns AOL

[@jacknettube]

@@cjmarsh504 Owned up till this point I think, 2005-2006. AOL Time Warner was the most disastrous acquisition in the history of US economics. Several ten to a hundred billion US dollars lit on fire. Both Warner and AOL were completely different and often incompatible business cultures. I'm impressed AT&T never took notes from that, but then again once your name is cemented to the soil and you can hold the fed on the palm of your hand I bet that won't matter to them.

[@cjmarsh504]

@@jacknettube owned! Aol(past tense)

[@shiva_MMIV]

@@cjmarsh504 In fact it was the other way, AOL bought Time Warner

[@zezesilver]

I think it's owned by Verizon now

[@Dustin2112]

NOTE TO SELF: PATENT "KICKS IN THE GROIN"

[@Colddirector]

@@chrisakaschulbus4903 Didn't Mr Burns have one of those?

[@MadMorgie6318]

Patent rejected due to prior art. See: blister packs for home electronics.

[@hxrrylxdzzz1331]

Instead of buying my future kids a phone...I'll buy this for them.

[@lizzy4868]

That’s not very tpwk of u

[@Dominickudo]

This is why I like your channel I’m always finding interesting things that I’ve never seen that used to exist.

[@emirvmendoza]

8:44 LGR: *salivates in woodgrain*

[@LermaBean]

"I haven't seen this film..." *PLEASE DON'T*

[@LermaBean]

@@johndododoe1411 I was referring to Catwoman

[@StephenArsenault]

This video: Set snark to lethal; “It’s like taking a patent out on a kick in the groin”

[@adamwishneusky]

I laughed so hard at that 😂

[@XOAWWY]

imagine having one of these as a kid... holy shit that would've been amazing.

[@apassionatenerd.3564]

I actually had something similar but it was a portable thing for normal DVDs, it was awesome on road trips, we also had one of those vans with little screens in the roof in front of the back seats, that was even better

[@NateMaster]

lol i aways felt like i needed one of these when i was younger haha ! good old times

[@xxzenonionnex7658]

I had one that played in black and white when I was 3

[@themindofmoment8778]

Time flies so fast,we went from a mini portable dvd player into a phone that allows you to download digital media and watch it anytime you like on the go.

[@AWalYT]

2005 me would be fuming at the fact that they didn't fit an entire SD two hour movie onto a 1.4GB disc. When your screen is about half the effective resolution you figure cutting corners in the bitrate department would allow them to entice peeps buying for their kids to provide them a "One disc = one movie" solution.

[@Δημήτρης-θ7θ]

Or even better reduce the resolution to 352x288, cutting the size to 1/4th of original, and fit the movie in one disc. Because let's be honest, these are not proper DVDs anyway (we are talking about butchered 4:3 content here). When it comes to low-bitrate DVDs, keeping the full 720x576 resolution makes sense ONLY if you want 16:9 (anamorphic) support, since DVDs do 16:9 at full resolution only. If not, there is no reason to bitrate-starve the full resolution at 1/2th or 1/4th the size when you can simply reduce the horizontal resolution or the horizontal and vertical resolution accordingly and achieve the same bitrate reduction without compression artifacts. But I guess some Hollywood contract said these have to be full resolution DVDs and not have any visible compression artifacts, so multiple disc it is (was).

[@pegcity4eva]

Remember KVCD? I remember fitting an entire movie on one CD

[@Charonupthekuiper]

I hope you have decent home security now you’ve told the world you own 2 copies of Catwoman.

[@westsenkovec]

Absolutely stupid.. Is what I thought until I saw the Looney Tunes disc

[@Wflash00]

Is this all real? Is this all necessary? Or is this a joke? Oops, wrong Looney Tune

[@stevesstuff1450]

@@Wflash00 : Nice Alice reference there! Great song off a great album..... :-)

[@ccateni28]

Like singles for albums? That would have worked great for mini DVD.

[@no1DdC]

Yeah, I would have been all over this as a kid, although I was aware of portable DVD players back then, which I thought were a great idea, if underwhelming in person. Screen quality was abysmal.

[@Musicradio77Network]

I’ve never seen a “Looney Tunes” on a Mini DVD before. It was a pack-in title for the Samsung Mini DVD player, the player that never caught on back in 2005. It has all 8 cartoons on there, 2 of them are with Bugs Bunny, three of them featured Daffy Duck, one Road Runner and one Foghorn Leghorn. No Tweety, Sylvester, Speedy Gonzales and Porky Pig on there. Thankfully, HBO Max has all the “Looney Tunes” you can get in one place. The only company that puts out the Mini DVD titles was WB. They put out all of the films including the “Looney Tunes”, “Tom & Jerry” and “Superman” cartoons on Mini DVD. Everything you see on Mini DVD were ended up on HBO Max.

[@daedalus372]

“Its like taking out a patent out on a kick in the groin.” Pure Poetry.

[@legitnessify]

Lol I love how the dvd jr came out at literally the worst era of films in film history 😂

[@notchuckproductions5029]

It came out in the 1940s?

[@notsunnydaysahead]

Actually 2000s was a very good year for film both animated by Pixar releasing hit after hit and those cheesy black movies with a bunch of slapstick was also lit too! However for TV other than Seth MacFarlane’s shows for animated TV in the 2000s it was actually pretty bad because corporate pig still had a 90s mentality and wanted to make cartoons as cheap as possible but ended up giving them an ADHD vibe

[@ReginaTrans_]

Yeah, it would’ve been great in the 90s, & early 2000s, but they made this in 2005!!!!! A year before iPod video, PSP, VGA Phones, etc, in fact mini DVD’s were created in like 1996, they took too long to create this, kids in 2006 were already watching movies on iPods, phones, Sony PSP, portable GameCube, etc etc, As a kid who grew up in the 90’s I would’ve loved this in like 1996, watching episodes of Sabrina, Garfield, or watching Lindsay Lohan’s twins movie on a real camping 🏕 at night, or Matilda at my friend’s house, etc etc, now that would’ve been great, but honestly kids in 2006 were basically already using laptops 💻

[@NathanDavisVideos]

@@ReginaTrans_ I didn't even have a laptop until the 2010s actually. Yeah we were SO BROKE, and to be honest; we still kinda are today. However I do have a laptop PC now;but not back in the 2000s. I was lucky enough to have a GameBoy Advance during that decade.

[@NathanDavisVideos]

@@notsunnydaysahead I'm a 1990s and early 2000s kid. Back then there was actually a lot of decent stuff to watch on TV and Nick wasn't as crappy as it is today (with maybe the exception of a decent show airing occasionally though; but very rarely that happens on Nick these days).

[@mr.y.mysterious.video1]

I can't live without the mini DVD player. oh dear I hope he still lives and it was only rhetoric

[@spugintrntl]

He was probably hired by the seller.

[@jamesbennettmusic]

@@spugintrntl Mr S. Sung

[@mxnjones]

mr y mysterious video I read that as sarcasm, personally.

[@jamesgriffyn]

2:40 "Open your eye's" Yup completely genuine amazon review

[@jaguarke069]

Techmoan; let's not split hairs... Me: No, no, go ahead, that's why I'm here!

[@SKINIOX]

My grandma got me this for car rides when I was a kid. Taking me down memory lane. For the time it was perfect

[@vwlssnvwls3262]

I watch this, and I cannot help but think of those kids who wanted one of these for Christmas, and how much fun they must have had for the first couple weeks of having their mini DVD player. Then it probably was put into a drawer or closet never to be touched again. Kind of a bitter sweet thought.

[@larrylentini5688]

My cousin had something like this when I was a kid and we used it on the school bus to watch the same two episodes of SpongeBob over and over again because that's all we had for it.

[@totallynotahuman9933]

Was it the videonow

[@cheaterman49]

Hahahaha, "related formats: HD DVD", even Amazon is like "you're looking for odd media aren't you?" :-D

[@jarkkehhh213]

Should have thrown in "Gameboy Video" in that

[@coolrandomstuff76]

"its like a patent on a kick in the groin"

[@Qce-i6d]

This is like a REALLY early beta build of a smartphone.

[@millabasset1710]

When my family took me on a road trip from Massachusetts to Florida, we hooked a mini CRT TV up to a cig lighter, and I was using the Wii's motion controls playing Red Steel and Twilight Princess very awkwardly, helped during boring states like the Carolinas

[@WilliamHaisch]

The dancing logo at 9:30 looks like “DUD Jr”. Lol. My thoughts exactly!

[@JackTheGen]

Yes the time machine is here today Haven’t seen that in a bit

[@hifiteen49]

ah, of course I don't remember them. They were from 2005, a year before i was born.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

I love how they don't use the official DVD logo. I wonder if the official DVD spec doesn't allow for DVD-Video discs to be 8 cm...

[@andrewgwilliam4831]

I doubt that's the issue. Maybe it's just another cost-cutting aspect?

[@RaduTek]

The Mini DVD boxes have the DVD Video logo on them. The player doesn't have it though, and that's probably because it can't play 12 cm DVDs.

[@mongoliancarrot]

We had a Mini DVD camcorder - I thought it was well suited for that format, as you could play your travel videos in your regular DVD player and watch them on TV when you got home.

[@beeboi648]

This video seems more sarcastic than the usual ones, I love it

[@unnamed715]

I love how he just casually displays a D12 disc. xD

[@henntendo]

“Tried”.... this is gonna be good.

[@jimmyjimjims7483]

I remember having the "VideoNow" player which was just a DVD Jr with horrendous resolution lol

[@EpicB]

I remember seeing the VideoNow in store around probably 2006. I never asked my parents for one.

[@MLGPRO-dx8fg]

@@EpicB 22 here, I had one as a kid around 2005 and 2006, and despite the resolution being shit, I quite enjoyed it. I had Scooby Doo, Neds Declassified School Survival Guide and a few other really fun shows.

[@EpicB]

@@MLGPRO-dx8fg I'm the same age actually. I did see the VideoNow in Walmart around 2006 but I never owned one.

[@Joseph11OG]

My friend had a video now and yeah it was pretty crappy. Not as bad as the GBA video carts. I remember my parents buying me a few of those and they had atrocious compression and resolution.

[@MLGPRO-dx8fg]

When you're a kid you don't really notice how bad it is

[@u0aol1]

Watching a flip up CD ejection mechanism has always been so satisfying for me, this one was quick with a nice little bounce at the end. Wonderful. 4:43 for those interested

[@MK_1Ultra]

I had this and loved it when we would go camping. Perfect for the times the portable television got no service or we were in the cabins at night.

[@IrishCarney]

Back when portable TVs were a thing... sigh...

[@taradaves3096]

"Can you believe they took out a patent on this packaging? It's like taking out a patent on a kick in the groin"

[@johncastle6887]

What’s a patent

[@biooooooo1]

@@johncastle6887 a patent is: hggggggcg cgccv vyctc vujg jdrfydr6ttdtf 5r55fyf ft5 tdrddtft yg gub fhfg ctfg cgccv yfg fhvvh t Smith got Gibb gir guy ghbb hh boy his ho hbj gir no bk his high vjghvhv vgvtg vgvvhvhghvyvv vgvgvgfftftgvygygyvyv

[@johncastle6887]

cemar ick I had to use Google Translate, but thank you, now I know what it is

[@Connie_TinuityError]

@@biooooooo1 thank you very useful

[@mrtnsnp]

9:29 I read that as "dud jr.", which probably sums up the experience.

[@bobblum5973]

"As always, thanks for creating good content." Seriously, thank you. The mini optical formats have always been interesting to me. I have a mini-CD with a few songs on it, it came free in a carton of Coca-Cola as part of their "Sounds of Summer" promotion. I always wanted to have a mini-CD drive, they would have been perfect in the mini- and micro-laptops from Toshiba and others. Then of course there were the mini-CD business cards in odd shapes, some were flat on two sides and rounded on the other two.

[@fixman88]

Sony actually made a Mini CD player; it could play full-sized CDs too but they would stick out the side. Techmoan actually made a video about it if I remember right.

[@mycoboto]

I remember back in the day there were these weird shaped mini cd roms in like promotional oatmeal and granola bar boxes that had 1 level game demos on them :edit the 3 people that liked this welcome to club of legendary individules

[@speedwaynutt]

In Australia we actually had Full Games in our Cereal Boxes

[@mycoboto]

@@speedwaynutt thats really cool we would have to either send in a lots of boxtops to get the full game or just buy it in store, but these ones would have just like one or two levels from an actual game but what always got me was there appearance, a disk way smaller in circumference and way thinner then an standard cd but on each side of the disk it was flat so it more resembled a rectangle with round ends they sounded like a paint mixer when they would turn in the drive but somehow they worked and didn't screw anything up lol

[@evansn79]

"you wanna watch lord of the rings?" "sure" *pulls out my 35 disk mini dvd lotr box set. *