Warner, Cyberhome to launch Mini-DVD Player (1 Viewer)

[ChadP2k]

Just saw on TVonDVD.Com where Warner Brothers and Cyberhome are launching a new mini-DVD player with built-in LCD screen, etc designed to play the mini DVDs commonly used in camcorders, etc.

They're also planning a host of commercial disc releases in this format, including many feature length movies. The full story is at http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=2508

This sounds like a neat concept for TV shows, etc but cramming a full length movie (like Dennis the Menace or Scooby Doo 2) onto a 1.4 gig disc? How does that work and it not look like crap

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Are they going to put an entire movie on a 3-inch disc using more compression? I guess it wouldn't look too bad on a small screen, but I don't see the point. It's possible to make 3-inch dual-layer DVDs, but I've never seen any besides the game discs for Gamecube. I don't see the point of a player that can only take 3-inch discs; Sony had a portable CD player about 15 years ago that was designed for 3-inch discs, but could also play 5-inch discs with the disc sticking out of the player!
Of course I didn't think those Videonow players would sell at all but it looks like they're doing OK- they have the movies "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" and "Snoopy Come Home", both spread across 3 discs on that format, but those titles still aren't on regular DVD!

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Another stupid idea from corporate America. It wouldn't suprise me if it came from the same people behind Divx.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Naw, it's like MP3 for your video lifestyle! As a LaserDisc user, the "small, portable" concept fails to reach me, but it makes sense for many I'm sure. These are the same people who somehow find a way to talk on the telephone wherever they are, constantly. I, on the other hand, have a telephone which is restrained from following me anywhere; if it attempts to move it will come unplugged! The smallest video discs I have are the CD-Vs, which combine a CD-single with 5 minutes of LaserDisc video in a CD-sized package; the product caught on much better in Japan than the States, and it was marginal there!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

If they're going for the "portable" thing then I'll take great pleasure in the irony of playing these on my combo DVD/LD player!

 

[ChristopherDAC]

91, 909, or 919?

 

[Jesse Skeen]

909, with DTS output, region-select and no Muckrovision!
I've always liked putting 3-inch discs in the big LD drawers. I've got some blank 3-inch CD-Rs that I've recorded old 12-inch singles onto. They make 3-inch blank DVDs now too but they're much too expensive- the ones I've seen cost more than the 5-inchers!

 

[ChadP2k]

I think the mini DVD disc concept is a good one... I just don't think a player devoted totally to them is a good idea. On the bright side maybe it'll bring the mini DVD-R prices down. Often times one episode of a particular TV show or something like that I've wanted to record has aired, and you hate to waste a whole DVD-R for a half hour show. mini DVDs would be excellent for that, plus they would be more portable on the go.

I've also found mini cds useful for storing software programs. Since many programs are updated frequently putting them on mini-CDs allows you to have all your software up to date if you ever need it without wasting a big CD for a 20 meg program, or having to constantly recompile all the programs onto one big cd. Plus you can carry an entire software library in your pocket.

 

[Patrick McCart]

This seems to be a neat idea, but the portable DVD players that have LCD screens and play normal DVD's are already coming down in price.

I'd rather see the mini-DVD format used to stuff a bunch of trailers or shorts onto DVD's to use as pre-shows before features on DVD. This way, you could turn any DVD into a "Night at the Movies"

 

[ChristopherDAC]

A neat idea, really... but 8-inch LD was supposed to be used the same way, and didn't really catch on. Manufacturing costs of the smaller discs, even the thin LD singles, were not sufficiently less than for the big platters to overcome the lack of public acceptance for the form factor. Heck, look at the 8cm CD Single -- if you can find it, that is!
Jesse: If you ever want to borrow a CD-V single, by the way, I have one I can loan you.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I've got a few CDVs, including the Pioneer promo with the Terminator 2 trailers on it. Those might've been a good idea if they'd sold for less; I thought they ought to send out ones in the mail for free with commercials on them. I thought 3-inch CDs were neat the first time around but they quickly died out (they just put out singles running under 20 minutes on 5-inch discs instead), glad to see they've made a sort-of comeback though they're not really used for music anymore.
I was thinking of getting a Gamecube system just because I thought it was cool that it used 3-inch dual-layer discs, but decided against it since there really aren't any games for it I want to play and it doesn't play music or movie discs at all.
I think this mini-DVD player will become a curiosity item much like the Sony 3-inch CD player, since they already make portable players that can play all DVDs and this one can't play the bigger ones at all. I once saw a "portable" laserdisc player at a flea market that only played 8-inch discs, wish I'd picked it up.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

What a relic that would have been! Reminds me of the old "portable" 13-inch TVs, you know, they had a handle on them. Maybe I ought to ask you for a loan of an interesting CDV instead? probably not.
I'm with you on the idea of the single-type discs though. It's a pity they weren't marketed cleverly, since they could have had real uses. I'm quite certain that when the CDV first came out there were CD players available with the video hardware in them; my father recalls seeing one in a department store which had a little screen built in so it didn't even have to be connected to a TV. I wish I could find out more about that. Now, MCA's original spec called for a "thin" LD made of something like aluminised Mylar which supposedly could be put into magazines without harm, like those sheet-vinyl records they used to put in the National Geographic, and then sandwiched between two glass adaptor plates to put in the player. As I understand it was less than sufficiently durable.

 

[Tony Kwong]

I have a ton of music CD on the smaller format. They are all CD singles from Japan. I have at least 200.

 

[Dave_P.]

Hey, don't forget the first one...the 700.

 

[Tony Kwong]

I thought the first one was the DVL-9! not to mention the 888 and the H9!!

 

[Lyle_JP]

Wow, someone actually remembers the 888, the only DVD/LD with VCD and Karaoke support, if memory serves me correctly.

The only one I ever saw was on display at a long gone laserdisc specialty store which catered to a mostly Asian clientele in the Fox Plaza building in San Francisco.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Notice that his player was one of the 3 I named [or numbered?]. The chance that an American, even a Californian outside of LA or San Francisco, would mean "DVL-H9" by "combo DVD/LD player" was small enough that I mentioned only the 3 models with some degree of market penetration.

 

[David Lambert]

The newest hardcopy issue of Video Business magazine, which started hitting subscribers yesterday, has an editorial about this unit on the back page. It mentioned that "New York Minute" will be spread across 2 Mini-DVDs.

So I guess that answers that question!

 

[Mike Wadkins]

i nearly just spat my coke over my desk i used to love doing that they look so funny !!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

The 909 and 919 can play VCDs. The 888 would be cool to have since it does CD+Graphics, but I don't know if it's region-hackable. I saw one at that same store in San Francisco a few years ago.
Don't suppose the mini-DVD of New York Minute will be 16x9, if the portable player has a 4x3 screen? I still have yet to experience an Olsen Twins movie, so might get the widescreen version if it ever gets real cheap.
BTW Warner put out a series of 3-inch DVDs in 2001 called "Tune Buddies", short programs that teach kids about instruments. I bought one of them just for curiosity's sake. I've also got a promotional 3-inch DVD with 2 music videos by bands I've never heard of, got it free at Borders. Might still buy one of these new discs if there's anything interesting on them, won't buy a pan and scan and/or compressed movie though!