VideoNow: The Real Worst Video Format!?

Video Now was another portable video format in the early 2000's with weird PVD discs that are slightly smaller than a DVD. Speaking of smaller this is the worst video resolution being at 144x80!
Can you believe this was released through Tiger Electronics!?
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#VideoNow #TMNT #StarWars

[@wiibrockster]

Early 2000's electronic media players are somehow fascinating yet absolutely horrible at the same time

[@shenloken2]

Yet also very cathartic. We had some bad times during the early 2000’s; but nothing lije it is now.

[@sorasong9708]

But they have charm from the era they were released in.

[@wiibrockster]

@@sorasong9708 They do. I remember owning a few GBA video cartridges and watching them on road trips

[@sorasong9708]

@@wiibrockster I miss the 2000s.

[@MrBrassBalls]

Garish colors and rounded corners as far as the eye could see.

[@UJEvans]

"it tried" I never get tired of this guy's delivery. Even on the most miniscule lines.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

"It tried." And it failed miserably!

[@caucasoidape8838]

That Solo joke though.

[@spaghetnoodle6441]

0/10 for having no dingo pictures movies for it.

[@phelous]

Hopefully I can find one of the Dingo Movies on DS at some point.

[@satan3950]

@@phelous I'm actually curious to see how that looks.

[@Grey_Warden_Invasion]

They would have been a perfect fit. Their quality wouldn't even have changed in the slightest.

[@MrBrassBalls]

Dingo considered it but ultimately decided against it because the Video Now XP lacked the processing power for slide puzzles.

[@GINTegg]

@@phelous I'm not convinced those actually released but I would love to be proven wrong.

[@BugsyFoga]

Fun story : i once went to a garage sale and found a video now disc for fairly odd parents , and i got it foolishly thinking it would work on my computer.

[@Code7Unltd]

it's easier now since people figured out that VideoNow discs are just Stereo with one audio channel for low-res video and another for the monoural audio. Also explains why VideoNow was never Stereo.

[@troin3925]

Actually, VideoNow had an official software that allowed you to make your own discs. I never knew about this until I saw another video talking about VideoNow.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

Of course this all was in an era before DVD quality was not only the norm but quickly surpassed. Within a year after this player (and I think even that juice box one that he showed) you had the PSP that was capable of playing video of essentially DVD quality on its screen. of course it wasn't originally anywhere near the price of these cheap things but the quality was undeniable as was it's portability.

[@BigEOT3]

“Younglings, they’re coarse, rough, they get everywhere.”

[@saramations]

And irritating.

[@wstine79]

"I love these VIDEO NOW players. They are convenient to watch while you're hunting down walking, talking Turtles." - BONESTEEL

[@ChaseMC215]

Somehow it's always Bonesteel that gets these things.

[@CthulhuianBunny]

"What is Shredder's real name?" Which one? There were three different Shredders in the 2k3 series. You have Ch'rell, the renegade Utrom, Karai, who donned the armor in the 4th season, and Tengu/Mystic/One True Shredder, who possessed the original Oroku Saki from 4th century Japan.

[@phelous]

There's also Virus Shredder from the internet.

[@Amesang]

@@phelous Makes me think of Kilokahn from _Super Human Samurai Syber-Squad._

[@reptile1677]

@@phelous ah yes the shredder that was made when ch rell downloaded his mind onto the internet for some reason

[@gracekim25]

Virus shredder? Dang it Shredder!

[@Zxzero36]

Oh God I remember as a kid wanting it so bad, the things you'd get when you didn't have cable. Then the color one came out later.

[@jamesburke2759]

No shit hey. i wanted one so badly. now kids have full HD all day superfast on demand anything in their pocket and they still don't seem happy. We came from a different time where Honey i shrunk the kids style inventions gave kids hope.

[@Zxzero36]

@@jamesburke2759 At least those kids don't have to deal with subpar electronics like this. Would have been excited to have something like the phone but yeah I watched cartoons and could be recent with my friends so was happy despite it.

[@jamesburke2759]

@@Zxzero36 i would not call stuff like this sub par. it was new, it was different, it for kids. at the time it was still much smaller and more affordable than a DVD player. Its also been more than 15 years and they still work. My iphone 3's battery has expanded and ruined the phone forever. That's sub par in my opinion. I grew up with a fuzzy handheld black and white TV that got 3 channels so picture quality and audio quality isnt a big deal back then. yeah DVD players might have been cheap back then but the movies were hell expensive. My first second hand dvds cost me $10 each in 2004 and i had to wait another year or so before I saw another at a market or garage sale cheap enough.

[@coffeebeans5460]

I remember watching Spongebob on this in school when I was 5. I also didn't have cable at the time; this and PBS Kids were my only sources of entertainment. 😔

[@Grey_Warden_Invasion]

@@jamesburke2759 Well, not just kids nowadays. There already were more than enough kids back then who would always get the newest and best and most expensive stuff but still they were never happy with it and only demanded more and newer things.

[@Llirik_Kuynorov]

"We've actually never seen Jedis fight before. We've always seen young droids, and crippled half-boys...ah" - George.

[@reptile1677]

That’s not what he said

[@wstine79]

These take me back to when I worked at Toys R Us between 2000 and 2003. The R zone, which is where they keep the video games and electronic items, was cut it with a bunch of video formats that went nowhere. This also included the Hip Clips.

[@troin3925]

Actually, VideoNow was very popular back then and I even owned a color and XP model as a kid, though I never owned the original black and white version (I didn't even know that existed back then despite the color discs originally having the word "color" in the title which semi-confused me).

[@TheMGMfan]

You mentioning the R-zone caught me off guard because I thought you meant the Tiger R-zone, that shitty Virtual Boy wannabe that was basically a Tiger LCD game with the games being on separate cartridges that you put on your head to make the game be like a hologram or something, at first, when I'm pretty sure it was discontinued by 2000; kind of fitting, since the video itself was distributed by Tiger.

[@Karmy.]

I had an XP

[@sonic8005]

@@TheMGMfan I grew up in the 90s and remember seeing a commercial for that one. It came and went a long time before 2000 though and a long time before this. At least a long time from my point of view as I was a kid back then.

[@KyogresHideout_Vegito2121]

I actually loved Video Now as a kid. Of course nowadays it's completely obsolete and only serves a funtion as a bit of novelty/time capsule of the 2000's.

[@jbiehlable]

" It's completely obsolete " Just like the comments on Topic videos.

[@troin3925]

@@jbiehlable What does that have to do with this?

[@jbiehlable]

@@troin3925 KZbin turned off those comment sections.

[@Froggievilleus]

Time for another episode of "Let's look at technology that we saw at Toys R Us but never saw anyone actually buy" Next week - Hit Clips!

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

I think one of my cousins bought a GBA video...

[@5roundsrapid263]

Techmoan already did a video on Hit Clips.

[@eatatjoes6751]

@@5roundsrapid263 I had one as a kid for some reason.

[@Caarajack]

According to Business Wire’s news article from May 2004, VideoNow Color’s retail price was 75 USD in fall of 2004 and discs cost $8.99 each, $16.99 for three-packs and some future releases planned to be under $5. Even that GBA Video’s sound is more metallic and gets distorted, oddly I heard it had wider frequency spectrum with some bass into it which is absent in hollower albeit clearer VideoNow format. The VideoNow Color player’s design seems to be rather cheap and because the media is stored on optical discs they might become unplayable if scratched so GBA Video cartridges were more durable and Game Boy Advance also supported games. As a parent I would have invested into a portable DVD player which would play already wider amount of content that can be played on home machines too.

[@TheMGMfan]

Investing in a DVD player makes far more sense in hindsight, but I believe they were a lot more expensive at the time, since this was when DVDs were still a relatively new format, so it makes sense to create a cheaper format meant for kids at the time; I don't think everyone made the jump to DVD just yet in 2003 anyway; certainly many, but it still might've been too expensive for some, not that I can really speak with experience, I was an infant at this point of time.

[@troin3925]

@@TheMGMfan Portable DVD Players were too expensive at the time. Even though I had portable DVD players at the time, I also owned VideoNow. I was a kid when these were out and they were very successful (at least here in the US).

[@GeoNeilUK]

I always wonder why XVID (name used deliberately to safe confusion with the useless DIVX format that was only available in America) never took off as a retail format. An AVI burnt to a CD was pretty nice compared to a VCD, especially as you could put an entire movie on one disc and there were actual DVD players that had DIVX (the other, useful DIVX that you could get outside America - aka XVID) support. It didn't look _quite_ as good on a CRT as a DVD (at least, not the discs I ...produced, a professional master probably would have looked better) but it was a shame that the only use for the format was "hobbyists" producing these discs because CD-ROMS were cheaper and easier to get than DVD-ROMs (and there was only one type of CD-ROM, no +/- bollocks here!)

[@troin3925]

@Aly H I had multiple portable DVD players as a kid (I say multiple because I would end up accidentally breaking them for one reason or another and I would end up learning what I shouldn’t do and now I’m a neat freak with them and other stuff in general).

[@ExtremeWreck]

@@GeoNeilUK XVID sounds interesting. It sounds like one of those pre-KZbin Poop things.

[@nitro-verse5311]

I remember I had this. I thought it was so cutting edge at the time boy was I stupid

[@troin3925]

Well if you wanted a cheaper alternative to the portable DVD player at the time, this and GBA Video were the best compromises.

[@forestreflection2066]

Well u weren't at the time iPhones weren't a thing yet and DVD players and portable DVD players were expensive and easy to break if u were a kid so u did the best decision at the time. At least that's what I told myself when I look back at my sonic x gba video cart and my videonow color which I still have both of them.

[@timthememer2785]

I forgot for a second that Solo existed and was like 'wow Phelous really loves his own dumb joke'.

[@phelous]

It's one of those things that just sounds really stupid when you say it out loud, haha.

[@johnalogue9832]

Steve Jobs: "I fixed portable electronics! All you gotta do is get rid of almost EVERY BUTTON." VideoNow, an intellectual: "Press Fast Forward to Play."

[@tommydeonauthstheouterids9641]

VideoNow is braindead.

[@chaliceohearts4658]

I used to have a Video Now Color (the same exact one shown in the video). Even though it had poor video quality, it was the first portable video player I had as a kid. I remember one time there was a really long power outage at my entire neighborhood that lasted several days, so the only thing I had to entertain me was my Video Now.

[@Crazyreviewer123]

I did something similar when I had a power outage for couple days good thing I carried spare AA batteries for my videoNow XP it was a good temporary solution to entertainment during power outages

[@vampiricpig1392]

The Star Wars footage is so pixelated not even the KZbin copyright robot can tell what it is

[@Shadamyfan-rs8xc]

The announcer of the trivia game sounds REALLY bored.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

Fun fact: When I was finally selling my VideoNow to a second hand shop, the system exploded upon testing. What a shoddy product!

[@brianhebert6152]

It was such a 2000s product that it WTF Boom'd itself.

[@SHINOBI-03]

I have a slight feeling telling me Phelous is really into the Star Wars prequels

[@phelous]

Totally fixed all the problems with the Star Wars universe, I watch them all the time.

[@otakunthevegan4206]

I am a Prequel defender myself, We all know the most heartfelt character in the Saga is Child Slave Owning Wato.

[@wiibrockster]

@@phelous They were pretty good for world building

[@latviandragon2718]

@@wiibrockster their was alot more to them then just that, the problem is with phelous and many other content creators which were on this prequel hate train is that they will always lie about the films quality

[@zoisite_moon2828]

I’ve watched both the Prequel and Sequel Trilogies. All good movies for what they set out to do, especially in regards to worldbuilding. The Prequel Trilogy is pretty goofy in terms of acting, sure, but I do appreciate what it was going for.

[@remem95]

Is it weird that "How will the disc even fit in there" is a question I had, until you actually showed the weird perfect fit disc drive?

[@MissAshley42]

As someone who used to work in a toy department in the early 2000s, the packaging on these tech things always cheesed me off. Only a few items could fit on a peg, they rarely stacked on shelves well, and they drew blood far too easily. Burn in hell, early 2000s tech tchotchke packaging!

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Oh, big time!

[@TheBonkleFox]

"can you believe this was released through tiger electronics!?" yes, yes i can.

[@kingvinoda3896]

In 2004 this would have been amazing to have. Kids today can't know how good they have it when they can watch anything they want on their phones

[@hammerman1758]

I remember that a lot of Nickelodeon shows (notably SpongeBob) had releases on the VideoNow, with some consoles even coming with a SpongeBob episode as the default film/show it shows. I also had a vague memory of watching several SpongeBob episodes on it at one point, and while the audio quality is better, the video quality is barely a step above GBA Video.

[@sunnycooper9440]

I remember growing up, I really wanted one of these. My parents bought me a portable DVD player instead.

[@johnshea7871]

Much better choice despite being more expensive the quality was a lot better than this garbage

[@Casanuda]

Guess your parents actually loved you.

[@nerdsman567]

I remember seeing the commercials for Video Now when I was a kid, but I never owned one. Never would we dream that, one day, we'd be able to watch videos in better quality on the internet . . . On portable phones, no less!

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

My, how technology marches on...

[@BagOfMagicFood]

I remember those commercials, some girl would yell, "I want my VIDEO NOW!" and the narrator would be like "Only plays VideoNow discs in black and white" and there'd be like a clip of black-and-white Spongebob stepping around like in a Game Boy game

[@gregzotter6189]

God, it looks worse than a bootleg!

[@felineki]

That horribly pixelated ad for the toy lightsaber made me start laughing uncontrollably for some reason.

[@MutaScale]

It's weird, looking at the GBA Video and VideoNow footage back to back. Reminded me of comparing footage of the VHS and Video CD of "The Hunt for Red October" back to back.

[@jamesbounds]

The 2003 Turtles series needs a full DVD or Blu Ray release.

[@jacksonteller3973]

we finally got one last year

[@weirdotzero7065]

Fun Fact about the Story of Star Wars discs. I guess the VideoNow format bombed so hard that the Story of Luke and Anakin discs were converted over into a Walmart exclusive bonus disc you got when buying Episode 3 on dvd.(and yes. The video quality on the dvd was far higher. still in 4x3 tho)

[@PikaTheProsperous]

Question: Which Turtle is the brains of the group.... “So easy! It’s…” Question: ….In the Next Mutation? “...Uuuh…”

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

**Brain* *Dead* *Jingle* *plays**

[@Gilby1385]

Venus de Milo... I guess?

[@toon4thought]

I had my parents get me an original VideoNow, a Color, and an XP when each came out. Man, did I have bad taste.

[@BugsyFoga]

I was more Gba video kid growing up.

[@jsc315]

I was that teenager that had to try and sell these to you at both failed Hollywood Videos attempt at Game Stop called Game Crazy. I literally sold 1 of those.

[@jbiehlable]

@@jsc315 That was crunk, Homeslice.

[@brodiecrain13]

Omg, I had one of these as a kid and used it to watch Transformers armada

[@pokemario6456]

Oh god, I remember having one of the black-and-white models as a kid, had some Spongebob episodes. Thought it was the coolest shit to have portable video like that. Times were very different...

[@tommydeonauthstheouterids9641]

They sure were...

[@Telly2wo]

Wow, an 80p video, cause the quality definitely looks like it's worth 80 pence.

[@rubykenny8961]

There were actually a few movies put onto VideoNow. A Boy named Charlie Brown, Snoopy Come Home and Agent Cody Banks 2. they were split across 3 discs though.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

2 Peanuts movies and an MGM flick... right...

[@jayden6538]

*Agent Cody Banks 1. Agent Cody Banks 2 only got a making-of documentary that was bundled with the original VideoNow.

[@lucasgibbs4050]

Natalie Portman puts more effort in an interview than the actual movies.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Is that okay?

[@lucasgibbs4050]

@@TommyDeonauthsArchives, yes

[@AllHailDiskordia]

Don´t blame her, blame the director

[@FrenchPaul1988]

@@TommyDeonauthsArchives as a matter of fact... It isn't.

[@richardgadberry8398]

The theme song to this series sounds a bit like Jeff Jarrett's WCW theme.

[@thatonea-hole]

*TIGER!!* The company that brought us such so many "quality" portable devices. Such as tiger electronics 'games', the game com, and of course the memorable video-now. Truly we have a company on par with greats like LJN.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Geez, that's kind of an insult to LJN...

[@applepwnz]

I just looked it up and this thing came out the year before the iPod Video. I had one of those back in college and I had like 4 or 5 movies, 3 seasons of a TV show, plus my full music library of a few hundred songs. The only downside was that was the last iPod to use an HDD instead of a SSD so if you did go to watch video the thing would feel like a 747 spooling up it's engines.

[@Lukethefox]

This suddenly reminds me of when I had Attack of the Clones on VHS. Before the movie you had this special where Artoo & Threepio give you a brief history of Anakin & Luke Skywalker.

[@cartoonkelly7924]

2003, I think that was the year I got my first portable DVD player…

[@MarginalSC]

That 2000 electronics design will never cease to confuse me. Is that Apple's fault? Or Nickelodeon?

[@jsc315]

Yes

[@Poever]

Can’t be Apple. I blame Dell

[@thatonea-hole]

@@jsc315 Also don't forget TIGER! The same company that made those horrid tiger electronics portable "games".

[@karenelizabeth1590]

Apple was make beautiful minimalist designs in the early 2000s that are still beautiful today. However, they did make some nice colorful iMacs and iBooks with clear plastic in the late 2000s that other companies tried to emulate poorly.

[@WolfEntertainment]

Can't wait for Phelan's sequel review: The Juice Box Strikes Back!

[@ajzeg01]

How can C-3PO tell the story of the prequels? His mind was wiped!

[@XxStarlightshyxX]

I remember getting one for Christmas 2004 when I was nine. It stopped working correctly the very next day...

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Oof.

[@jsc315]

This brings me back to those Real Player BDZ bootlegs

[@LendriMujina]

Back when I was a kid, I asked for the original VideoNow for Christmas. After seeing the commercial, I daydreamed that I'd be able to watch any TV show I wanted anywhere I wanted. (Cut me some slack, I was seven, I didn't know how tech or common sense worked.) ...I'm still blown away that my phone over a decade later basically turned out to be what my stupid kid daydreaming originally thought the VideoNow would be.

[@eatatjoes6751]

YES. Exactly. And I was even younger than you back then.

[@byronchandler5000]

I remember seeing the commercial when I was in high school.

[@caucasoidape8838]

Me too. My little sister had one.

[@WeirdWonderful]

Kinda surprised this wasn't covered by Techmoan yet, but I guess it's a bit too "commercial" and too "normal".

[@Uncle-Jay]

My Mom got my sister's kids some bargin bin DVDs, one of them was a Sonic cartoon DVD (the 3D one) and it had probably almost ten minutes of commercials before you even got to the DVD title menu and you have to watch them every time you boot up the DVD. This kind of shit should be illegal.

[@starmaxs.r.i]

[FUN-FACT] technically there were movies such as Cody Banks, Charlie Brown and others that were released but 25/30 mins were squeeze into 3 Discs packs. Which was cool but I can see where it would get annoying. Because u are then limited to what to watch

[@mdo7]

Kinda operate like a VCD (movies that are 2 hours long on VCDs are break into 2 or 3 discs).

[@nobodyinparticular9640]

I need glasses for my glasses, all this blown-up tiny resolution made me extra blind

[@chopper8209]

Juice box: Pathetic.

[@thatonea-hole]

*CRUSHES JUICE BOX* That's it!

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

🎶You guys are pathetic!🎶

[@wineem69them19]

@@TommyDeonauthsArchives Your pathetic singing about these guy being pathetic...pathetic!

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

@@wineem69them19 WHAT ARE YOY TALKING ABOUT!?

[@JohnPannozzi]

I actually had this back in the day (probably still do, somewhere).

[@maxordman4100]

Fantastic review! Very silly and strange! Episode 24 of season 3 wow that is so weird! Imagine seeing that as your very first ninja Turtles episode! I would’ve been very confused! Truly fantastic to watch you review stuff like this!

[@DatWittyName]

I distinctly remember my Video Now Vanilla experience. I had a Fairly Oddparents episode that played like a flipbook and had horrible lip syncs because of the atrocious framerate, to think this is what the enhanced version looked like.

[@angelpichu1]

I had two of these somehow. And one of the absolute worst parts of it is even if you could get past the tiny screen, any sort of bumps or jerks of your hand while moving it would just stop the video completely for a couple of seconds. I think it was to protect the disc? But that also means you have to hold your videonow completely still, upright, and with no stand or else if you sneeze or your cat jumps onto the bed with you, OOPS NOW IT'S LOST TRACK AND YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOR IT TO FIND THE SPOT IT LEFT ON.

[@boobah5643]

I just can't imagine wanting one of these things, considering A) the compromises in picture quality/size and B) the fact that books exist. In the years when they were being produced, naturally; nowadays any given smartphone has a larger library, screen, and resolution.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

I had a VideoNow once, and it blew up around the time I was trying to sell it at Cash Converters. Both formats would not compare to UMDs on PSP that came a year after, and that would also be outdone by iPods and iPhones, along with Android phones and the like. Yes, streaming services would have a limit to how many programs you could download for offline viewing, but the fact that that luxury has become a standard along with the addition of numerous WiFi hotspots, just shows how far portable media has come since the 2000s.

[@mdo7]

Yep, I agree with you on your analysis.

[@LucyLioness100]

I had one of those back in the early 2000s. Don’t miss it much, but such nostalgia

[@bigshambowski]

I still have mine from back in the day. I remember having the Star Wars discs and also some Peanuts ones and some of the Nicktoons. Not the best way to watch cartoons on the go.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Yet, more cost effective than investing in a portable DVD player at the time.

[@wiibrockster]

I had one and watched that TMNT disc all the time

[@MaximumMadnessStixon]

It's really interesting to see this old video tech in retrospect. Especially given how much things have changed since then. Just a few years after this came out, my parents bought me a portable DVD player for my birthday, which was obviously a huge leap ahead, and was affordable too. I think only ran them like $100... maybe $150. (I have memories of watching _Underworld_ and _Kill Bill_ on DVD during lunchtime in high school... fun times.) And of course there have also been portable Blu-Ray players. But even that is antiquated now with smartphones.

[@trinityprothro1598]

My sister and I had these. We used them as TVs for our Barbies.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Woah!

[@troin3925]

VideoNow was my childhood. Yeah, it wasn't the best, but that and GBA video (which I didn't own except my cousin), were the best, cheap alternatives to portable DVD players (something which I also had as a child). VideoNow XP wasn't even a thing originally when VideoNow Color first came out (I never had the original black and white version, only color and XP, but the original was even worse with a lower resolution and lack of a backlight), VideoNow Color discs even had an updated intro when XP came out to advertise it. The XP models also had scene selection as well. Update: You already mentioned the backlight thing. My bad. Update 2: Here in america when the XP models came out, the color models dropped the word "color" from the name.

[@SpyroTheGerudo]

Video now introduced me to Transformers Armada. It was a life saver in car rides

[@konoikurozora5851]

I feel so sad that I never actually knew about these weird things when I was a kid... We didn't have much "tech" at home, and we had a lot of VHS, so there was no need. But I'm always fascinated when I see people reviewing these things I never knew existed...

[@timklein9470]

Dude roasted Anakin almost as hard as the Mustafar

[@TheOtakuNinja69]

I remember the “Video Now” I never owned one, but I remember seeing the commercials.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Hilary Duff was in a few of em! That's enough to get me to say "shut up and take my money!" at the time.

[@DraptorRonin]

The GBA's video quality, or more specifically, how it handles color (seemingly washing out some the color), somehow makes it look better than the Video Now's. I mean, seeing the color from the Video Now's screen is like watching TV too close to the screen!

[@katenunyabizness9221]

I guess this is a step "up" from the PXL-2000 system...

[@JeffreyPiatt]

Funny thing is that Mini DVD was developed to compete with these children's video player formats as a cheaper alternative Samsung made a player called the DVD JR that was basically a DVD version of the video now that played Mini DVD's it never be took off

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

...

[@rodrolliv]

After watching this, I got the slight impression that Phelous doesn't quite like the SW prequels.

[@phelous]

It's pretty mean of me to dislike those perfect movies now that there are OTHER Star Wars movies people don't like.

[@Mattucker67]

I had the original model growing up. Considering how expensive portable dvd players were, it was alright.

[@dcflake5645]

You aren't allowed to say the prequels are bad anymore. Everyone loves them now for some reason and George Lucas should return to make more great films like them apparently.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Because the sequel trilogy is the new thing to hate apparently... or at least Last Jedi and Return of Skywalker...

[@reptile1677]

@@TommyDeonauthsArchives what was wrong with rise of skywalker

[@mrlaz9011]

@@reptile1677 quite a lot to explain

[@reptile1677]

@@mrlaz9011 ive got time

[@OnettBoyXD]

@@reptile1677 If you couldn't tell what was wrong with the film just from watching it, then you're not worth the time to explain it.

[@tacodraws5012]

This video got me so nostalgic for the Video Now I had as a kid that I found one on eBay and bought one

[@KyleRDent]

80p - that's how much a Freddo costs these days.

[@MicrowavedAlastair5390]

My brother had a Juice Box. We'd fight over it and the Ed, Edd, and Eddy cartridge all the time. Sometimes we'd watch it in Green mode. It was probably the most technologically advanced thing we had growing up, apart from our dad's old NES and the family computer. The more I think about it, the weirder my life gets.

[@Magmaster13]

I remember there was that Frankie Nunez spy movie Cody Banks 2 that had random product placement for video now, and it was dated even then

[@Cyber_kumo]

All that's missing from the mobile video format war is UMD used on the Playstation Portable

[@arekushisu100]

I distinctly remember watching Spongebob Squarepants "Band Geeks" and some Fairly Odd Parents on the original Video Now

[@Dalia1784]

I used to own the one that played in black and white with no backlight. It was hell when I wanted to watch it on a road trip.

[@MadameSomnambule]

As shitty as the video quality was, I'm betting plenty of kids got a kick out of this during long road trips. In the early 2000s, you take what you can get. But portable DVDs were a thing too, so idk

[@user-gq4hf6th3r]

Oh wow, I feel old. And I’m 23. Those things were basically my first DVD players since my mom hadn’t bought any.

[@WeirdWonderful]

Also the GBA video looks a LOT better, so I'd feel ripped off if I got Video Now and then saw this. Plus the longer playtime.

[@Zetswe_Nox]

Ok I had one of these but weird thing. It had zoids and bayblade disks like multiple zoid and bayblade packs. Those were the ones I had I thought it was ok helped when my family moved from PA to SC

[@francescov.3610]

From the point of view of someone who was a child in the late 90s early 2000s, The VideoNow was a VERY novel concept way back in the day. The idea that you could play spongebob episodes on the go as a kid was just mindblowing and every kid at my school begged their parents for the VideoNow for christmas or their birthday when it was announced. We didn't really care that the video quality was bad, we could play episodes of our favorite Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network shows where we want, when we want and we weren't tethered to TV sets hoping that the next re-run would be an episode we liked. It was basically the pre-cursor to on-demand streaming. Of course, once the 2010s and 2020s rolled around and all the sudden, you could stream Netflix, Hulu, Paramount+, HBO Max, and Disney+ on your cell phone....Yeah, VideoNow and GameBoy video died a swift death.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

As much as I feel the PSP was the first and last truly good affordable mobile media player (before smartphones took over that market completely) the sad thing is and was nothing beat a portable DVD player. You could cheaply burn your own movies onto it. Until SD cards and smart media got cheap enough and big enough that was pretty much the best option you could get for the money.

[@mdo7]

Yep, that's true. I'm amazed how watching video on the go has changed for the last 2 decades (I just turned 35 years old by the way, I feel so old). About the portable DVD players, I agree they're the best but not everybody are able to afford portable DVD players back then, and I believe the price range is from $40-$300 back in early 2000's. And when it comes to the brand, buyers beware (please recall Facebook didn't become mainstream until late 2005-early 2006's ish, and Twitter didn't exist pre-2006) because they didn't have enough information to know which portable players was the best. Also keep in mind, a lot of people back in early 2000's didn't know about the difference between SD and HD (HD wouldn't become mainstream until I think 2007/2008), and resolutions like 240p, 480p, etc.... because lack of proper information back then compared to today. So that's why GBA Video, and VideoNow, and the fore mentioned PSP video was the alternative and I assumingly cheaper ways to watch video on the go. The VideoNow and GBA Video were not the best when it comes to video resolution quality, but were affordable compared to buying a high-end portable DVD players. But that's how it was back then.

[@RyukoDragonHalf]

Man, I remember seeing these in stores back then... I knew they weren't much of anything, but WOW is this bad! Thanks for braving this realm of video format for us! That Juice Box thing is a new one... will you review that one out of morbid curiosity? X3 Also RIP your DS top screen, that hurts! XD;

[@xxTC-96xx]

Wow I actually remember the ads for this as a kid, and yes I wanted one because I was desperate for some portable media player on long car trips XD glad my parents never got it

[@otakunthevegan4206]

I had one of these, it was the color model too, hard to believe this is what we watched before HD tablets and phones. A real blast from the past to be sure, but a blast I do not want to get caught in again.

[@RetroGaming-gp2ef]

Imagine this thing had some DingoPictures videos on it

[@tultsi93]

Where those trivia questions made for toddlers? Because I can't imagine any school age kid playing those games without getting bored.

[@DetectorCliche]

Phelan sounds like Number 24 from Venture Bros if he was a KZbinr

[@mousefriend8635]

I can't stop laughing now at that mental image, thanks.

[@ajzeg01]

Seeing someone hate on the prequels is weirdly nostalgic.

[@devanhinskey9001]

I remember owning the original B&W VideoNow AND the later color model! Being the SpongeBob fan that I was at the time, the main discs I had for the system were SpongeBob episodes. Also had a couple episodes of “Dinosaur Planet” for the color one. Yeah, they were shot, but I was happy! Until I got my first portable DVD player...