sracer

I'm a big fan of portable media players, so when the iPod Nano was released I was very interested in its capabilities. The form-factor is excellent for a portable device, but the screen is a bit small and there is no supported capability of playing video. (there's some unofficial software on the 'net that will allow the Nano to play certain formatted video)

Enter the Gameboy Micro. This little device has a vibrant screen and a form-factor that makes it highly pocketable and portable. I picked up a GameBoy Movie Player cartridge for a mere $15. This add-on enables Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance/SP, Gameboy Micro, and Nintendo DS devices to play video, display photos, music, text ebooks, and NES and GB/C game ROMs. The company provides an extensive software suite of tools for converting media for playback on a Gameboy device.

Although I plan on occasionally playing some games on it, I wanted to see how well it works as a portable media player.

The first pic shows an Audiovox smartphone, Gameboy Micro, Gameboy cartridge, and Gameboy Movie Player cartridge.



Converted media is copied onto a Compact Flash card (they make a Gameboy Movie Player that accepts SD cards too), insert the CF card into the GMP (Gameboy Movie Player), and insert the GMP into the Gameboy. When powered on, a graphical interface is displayed....



The icons are self-explanatory and the entire interface is customizable.

I used the supplied conversion software to convert an episode of Seinfeld for playback.

The photo doesn't do the screen justice. The resulting image is surprisingly sharp and bright. The quality of the video is NOT as good as that of my smartphone, but given the simplicity, speed, and ease of converting video for playback on the GMP, it is VERY good and acceptable. Photo display on the Gameboy is even better than video playback... bright, vibrant, and crisp.

Next up was audio playback. I took my CD Soundtrack from Twin Peaks and converted it for GMP playback. I also converted a few existing mp3 files which only took a few seconds per file.



simply use the file selector on GMP to traverse to the first song, and hit play. GMP will play all music in the folder. Essentially, physical location of files determines the playlist.

Quality of the audio was surprisingly good. It doesn't compare with a high quality MP3 player, but it is definitely acceptable and any lack of quality is not distracting.

On to text-based ebooks. I downloaded a .txt ebook from Project Guttenberg and loaded it up. GMP text display was crisp.



When exiting the ebook, I was prompted to save a bookmark. If you have more than one book, each one has its own bookmark. Very nice!

Of course game playback is excellent....


A sleep timer can automatically turn off the unit when playing music or video.

I'm quite impressed the the combination of the Gameboy Micro and GMP card. Although I could play music, display images, play video, and read text on my Windows Mobile Smartphone, I like the ability to have a second multimedia device. Movie conversion for the Gameboy is even easier than it is for the smartphone. (and THAT is very straightforward to begin with)

I am also impressed with the support that the company is providing. Firmware updates add new capabilities to the card and improve the quality of support.

If you already have a Gameboy Micro or a Nintendo DS, a little $15 investment opens up a whole new world of opportunities. Or if you are trying to justify buying a Micro or DS, the GMP might just help push you over the edge. (I do not recommend the GMP card for the GBA or GBA/SP due to the lack of backlighting on the GBA and the dim backlighting on the GBA/SP)
-----------------------------------------
Update: 2/13
OK... this thing officially sucks. After a few successful attempts at encoding .vob files, the conversion software now refuses to work them any more. After it ceased working on .vob files, it wouldn't encode ANY sources (mpg, wmv). Rebooted and mpg and wmv encoding works again... but .vob still doesn't. Uninstalled everything, reinstalled... still no go.

The formats required for GMP can only be created by using the supplied software. If the software worked consistently, then it wouldn't be a problem. But it has been too flakey for me to be worth investing the time into.

Looks like I'll be sticking to my smartphone for portable media. The Micro is nice for playing GBA and NES games, so I'll stick to using it for that.

jeffdsmith

Cool info, thanks. I'd like to see Nintendo introduce the Play-yan over here considering its size advantage.

OldBoy

is that the original "Contra"? i didn't know they had that for GBA...can you still get it somewhere? and does the 99 lives trick work?

sracer

Yeah, the Play-yan would be a very welcomed addition.

darkside

I use my Play Yan with my GBM all the time. Excellent video playback quality and you can take it anywhere. The Play Yan doesn't have the ability to play roms, but its very compact and does a great job with video and MP3s. I have it loaded with Myth Busters episodes right now.

sracer

What's with the user interface on the Play-Yan though?

sureAV421

Damn, thats sweet as hell. How is the emulation performance? Which systems are there emu's for?

darkside

Very basic, but easy to use. You get either a stick man or Mario theme (Mario theme has to be downloaded and put on the SD card) and the music is all listed by track. No playlists or albums. The only thing kind of cool about the music player is there is a little minigame you can play if you can time your A button presses while the music is playing.

Movies are listed on a separate menu with a small image thumbnail to hopefully help you remember what each one is.

Controls are very easy. Start is you pause button, up and down is volume, left and right skips through the video or song. Holding start puts in in sleep mode. In video mode L and R can boost brightness, but this is not needed with the micro. In music mode I believe you hold R and get options to adjust the sound like adding bass boost. I haven't used it for music lately though.

sdcrym

So where does one obtain one of these devices for $15?

BigPete

It was only 30 lives, and I believe he said this thing plays original NES roms too.

mick0016

Where can I find this thing for $15?

sracer

Just do a search for "gameboy movie player" on eBay. Any reputable eBay seller (1000's of feedback) will do. Just make sure to get "version 2" (it's the red and white card)

sureAV421

how far does that cartridge stick out?

sdcrym

It seems like every item at that price has about $10 shipping.

Baron Of Hell

They sell it at play-asia and lik sang, both good places to buy stuff from. I have bought imports and this player from one of them.

uli2000

is the SD version the same as the CF ver. 2?

Gallant Pig

Does it play movies that are natively encoded in Divx? So there's no extra/special encoding invovled?

sracer

Nope. The Gameboy Movie Player requires conversion to some Gameboy-specific format. The Play-Yan player however might play DivX files.

darkside

I know the Play Yan doesn't. They have to be in MP4 like quicktime, the PSP and the video iPod use or they won't play.

WhattheFFF

I assume this will probably work with the DS lite, anyone have an idea?

darkside

Yes, all of these work on the DS as GBA carts.

WhattheFFF

how big of cards does it accept? will it accept a CF microdrive?

Gallant Pig

Thanks. That, to me, takes all the usefullness out of this device.

sracer

I can see where that would. I regularly set up batch jobs to convert TV shows and movies to wmv format for my phone so it's no different for me. to launch a different program to play them on the Micro.

Baron Of Hell

Even if it did play divx files you wouild still have to convert the file to a smaller size to be able to play it just like any other device. The only real downside to me is that it will be in format that only the gameboy can read and not one most devices can use.