GBA Video - Worst Deal Ever?

Grave_Addiction

Grave_Addiction

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Okay, I'm sure you guys have seen the GBA Video where you can buy 45 minute cartoons of all the Nick shows. Who else agrees with me that this is the worst deal ever. These damn things are $20 a piece and all you get is 45 damn minutes!

I would consider buying some of them for my daughter if they were, say $10, but that is too damn much, if you ask me.
 
I was very tempted to get one just to watch video on gba. I agree, $10, I would have probably bought them already. $20 is stretching it.
 
yea, at first i was like..hmm..kinda cool..then i looked at the box and it said 45 minutes..so it lost some coolness...then i looked at the price..20 bucks?!!! lost all coolness, haha :(
 
[sarcasm]I think this isn't such a bad deal. I've been writing nintendo for years about doing this. If only they would use my idea for a portable game system with two screens. The cell phone companies already used my great idea for phones that can take pictures. I'm glad these companies are such pioneers and are stepping forward and making products that no one asks for or really wants. Spongebob rules.[/sarcasm]
 
The problem isnt so much that it's only 45 minutes (aprox 2 episodes basically the length of some child oriented cartoon dvds), it's that the video quality is HORRIBLE, I checked it out at E3 and the compression artifacting and the view which is a little squished because the GBA cant do normal TV resolution made me cringe.
 
[quote name='Alpha2']The problem isnt so much that it's only 45 minutes (aprox 2 episodes basically the length of some child oriented cartoon dvds), it's that the video quality is HORRIBLE, I checked it out at E3 and the compression artifacting and the view which is a little squished because the GBA cant do normal TV resolution made me cringe.[/quote]

Oh really, it's bad, eh? That really sucks. Maybe I'll buy a Video Now!
 
[quote name='Grave_Addiction']Okay, I'm sure you guys have seen the GBA Video where you can buy 45 minute cartoons of all the Nick shows. Who else agrees with me that this is the worst deal ever. These damn things are $20 a piece and all you get is 45 damn minutes![/quote]

You just don't get it.

You're not the target audience for these product. The target audience is 5 year olds who adore spongebob squarepants (or whatever) whose parents want them to sit through a car ride (or whatever) without crying.

For parents whose kids will watch these dozens of times, this is a great product. It doesn't bother anybody that you think these aren't worth buying, because you're not the one supposed to buy them.
 
I was going to ask about the quality of the picture. These things sound like a ripoff to me. Also, do these only play on SPs?
 
[quote name='eldad9'][quote name='Grave_Addiction']Okay, I'm sure you guys have seen the GBA Video where you can buy 45 minute cartoons of all the Nick shows. Who else agrees with me that this is the worst deal ever. These damn things are $20 a piece and all you get is 45 damn minutes![/quote]

You just don't get it.

You're not the target audience for these product. The target audience is 5 year olds who adore spongebob squarepants (or whatever) whose parents want them to sit through a car ride (or whatever) without crying.

For parents whose kids will watch these dozens of times, this is a great product. It doesn't bother anybody that you think these aren't worth buying, because you're not the one supposed to buy them.[/quote]You're right about that but don't you think these shoud be cheaper? At Walmart, you can get a DVD for $10 or a VHS tape for around $6.
 
[quote name='eldad9'][quote name='Grave_Addiction']Okay, I'm sure you guys have seen the GBA Video where you can buy 45 minute cartoons of all the Nick shows. Who else agrees with me that this is the worst deal ever. These damn things are $20 a piece and all you get is 45 damn minutes![/quote]

You just don't get it.

You're not the target audience for these product. The target audience is 5 year olds who adore spongebob squarepants (or whatever) whose parents want them to sit through a car ride (or whatever) without crying.

For parents whose kids will watch these dozens of times, this is a great product. It doesn't bother anybody that you think these aren't worth buying, because you're not the one supposed to buy them.[/quote]

I understand I'm not in the target audience for this product, but I still think it's a ripoff no matter how you look at it.

The Video Nows are selling dirt cheap now, and you get longer videos for almost half the price the GBA Videos are going for. On the downside, you don't get color, but I still think that's a better deal.
 
[quote name='sj41']You're right about that but don't you think these shoud be cheaper? At Walmart, you can get a DVD for $10 or a VHS tape for around $6.[/quote]

Carts are more expensive to manufacture than DVDs or tapes.
 
[quote name='Grave_Addiction']The Video Nows are selling dirt cheap now, and you get longer videos for almost half the price the GBA Videos are going for.[/quote]

Of course they're selling dirt cheap - probably nobody wants to buy them at the original price. How many people own the players anyway? How many people own GBAs?

Edit:

It seems hasbro's announced (launched?) a color model of their "video now" player. That will be a better value for parents - except that they need to buy enough discs to justify the initial investment.
 
[quote name='eldad9'][quote name='Grave_Addiction']Okay, I'm sure you guys have seen the GBA Video where you can buy 45 minute cartoons of all the Nick shows. Who else agrees with me that this is the worst deal ever. These damn things are $20 a piece and all you get is 45 damn minutes![/quote]

You just don't get it.

You're not the target audience for these product. The target audience is 5 year olds who adore spongebob squarepants (or whatever) whose parents want them to sit through a car ride (or whatever) without crying.

For parents whose kids will watch these dozens of times, this is a great product. It doesn't bother anybody that you think these aren't worth buying, because you're not the one supposed to buy them.[/quote]
Well technically he is the one that is supposed to buy them. 5 year olds aren't going to go and buy these themselves so they have to rely on their parents. As Grave_Addiction mentioned he would have considered buying them for his daughter if they were cheaper.
 
[quote name='eldad9'][quote name='sj41']You're right about that but don't you think these shoud be cheaper? At Walmart, you can get a DVD for $10 or a VHS tape for around $6.[/quote]

Carts are more expensive to manufacture than DVDs or tapes.[/quote]How much more could they possibly cost to make? :?
 
It's obvious that they're designed for kids other wise you'd be seen Scarface or something equally non-childlike. They're substandard video, they play okay frame rate wise but they're ugly to look at, so for 20 bucks it's a child passifier that probably wont work as well as intended when the kid gets tired of looking at said substandard video.

They probably will play in regular GBAs but if you'd be trying to watch ugly video on a player with really low visibility, you be better off just poking yourself in the eyes for free.
 
[quote name='Alpha2']It's obvious that they're designed for kids other wise you'd be seen Scarface or something equally non-childlike. They're substandard video, they play okay frame rate wise but they're ugly to look at, so for 20 bucks it's a child passifier that probably wont work as well as intended when the kid gets tired of looking at said substandard video.

They probably will play in regular GBAs but if you'd be trying to watch ugly video on a player with really low visibility, you be better off just poking yourself in the eyes for free.[/quote]

I think you're on to something there. How cool would it be if they sold two or three cart copies of kick ass movies? Sure they'd be a little expensive, but I think for $20-$25 I would buy a couple good movies. Could you imagine watching LOTR on a GBA? That would be pretty damn cool.

Although the PSP will do this way better.
 
[quote name='dcfox']
Well technically he is the one that is supposed to buy them. 5 year olds aren't going to go and buy these themselves so they have to rely on their parents. As Grave_Addiction mentioned he would have considered buying them for his daughter if they were cheaper.[/quote]

You're right, I missed that part of his post. Still, many parents wouldn't think twice about buying the thing at this price - and it would be a great present for a kid who loves whatever shows are available.

Personally, I wouldn't want any kid of mine (if I had any) watching video on a tiny screen for too long, at whatever cost.
 
[quote name='Grave_Addiction'][quote name='Alpha2']It's obvious that they're designed for kids other wise you'd be seen Scarface or something equally non-childlike. They're substandard video, they play okay frame rate wise but they're ugly to look at, so for 20 bucks it's a child passifier that probably wont work as well as intended when the kid gets tired of looking at said substandard video.

They probably will play in regular GBAs but if you'd be trying to watch ugly video on a player with really low visibility, you be better off just poking yourself in the eyes for free.[/quote]

I think you're on to something there. How cool would it be if they sold two or three cart copies of kick ass movies? Sure they'd be a little expensive, but I think for $20-$25 I would buy a couple good movies. Could you imagine watching LOTR on a GBA? That would be pretty damn cool.

Although the PSP will do this way better.[/quote]

yeah but you couldnt get through an extended edition of LOTR on a PSP without the batteries dying on ya
 
[quote name='eldad9'][quote name='dcfox']
Well technically he is the one that is supposed to buy them. 5 year olds aren't going to go and buy these themselves so they have to rely on their parents. As Grave_Addiction mentioned he would have considered buying them for his daughter if they were cheaper.[/quote]

You're right, I missed that part of his post. Still, many parents wouldn't think twice about buying the thing at this price - and it would be a great present for a kid who loves whatever shows are available.

Personally, I wouldn't want any kid of mine (if I had any) watching video on a tiny screen for too long, at whatever cost.[/quote]
Same here. The idea itself is a good idea but it should have been better thought out. But like you said, some parents wouldn't think twice about picking it up for their kids. Personally, I'd love to see a first party TV tuner for the GBA.
 
[quote name='dcfox'] Personally, I'd love to see a first party TV tuner for the GBA.[/quote]

That would rock so hard. Maybe an idea for the DS. It would also be nice if they had AV connections so you could hook up a DVD player and use the screen.
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']
yeah but you couldnt get through an extended edition of LOTR on a PSP without the batteries dying on ya[/quote]

We still dont know what the final battery life will be like on the PSP by the time is ships. It could be better (or worse) than the first esimates when it comes down to real time playing. But since the movies would come on Sony's own UMDs I'd suspect there'd be a way to conserve power so it COULD play a 3 hour movie by using variable bitrate playback on scenes that dont require as much detail.

Right now I own a GP32 game system and can watch movies and anime on the go on it as I see fit at a much better resolution. The major pain is reencoding dvds into AVi files that fit on 1 or 2 128mb smart media cards, but if you download videos from bit torrent they're like half way there. It just seemed like a better deal than the clunky 3rd party GBA video player they sell at lik-sang or similar sites and even THAT was better then these because even though you gotta pay 60 bucks for it atleast you could watch whatever you wanted.
 
[quote name='Grave_Addiction'][quote name='dcfox'] Personally, I'd love to see a first party TV tuner for the GBA.[/quote]

That would rock so hard.[/quote]

Yeah, especially if the gameboy player supported it... imagine the possibilities...
 
[quote name='Alpha2']But since the movies would come on Sony's own UMDs I'd suspect there'd be a way to conserve power so it COULD play a 3 hour movie by using variable bitrate playback on scenes that dont require as much detail.[/quote]

All non-trivial codecs use variable bitrates.
 
[quote name='eldad9'][quote name='Grave_Addiction'][quote name='dcfox'] Personally, I'd love to see a first party TV tuner for the GBA.[/quote]

That would rock so hard.[/quote]

Yeah, especially if the gameboy player supported it... imagine the possibilities...[/quote]

Whoa, that's too much to think about right now. You could, like, watch tv on a tv, but through a Gamecube that's playing a Gameboy Advance system. Damn that's crazy. :shock:
 
[quote name='Grave_Addiction'][quote name='eldad9'][quote name='Grave_Addiction'][quote name='dcfox'] Personally, I'd love to see a first party TV tuner for the GBA.[/quote]

That would rock so hard.[/quote]

Yeah, especially if the gameboy player supported it... imagine the possibilities...[/quote]

Whoa, that's too much to think about right now. You could, like, watch tv on a tv, but through a Gamecube that's playing a Gameboy Advance system. Damn that's crazy. :shock:[/quote]

Haha I was thinking he was talking about the Snes super gameboy(it is called that right?).
 
Video quality is decent - people point fingers at Nintendo. Don't do that, point fingers at Majesco.

They gave away free headphones, though..
 
[quote name='Sartori']Video quality is decent - people point fingers at Nintendo. Don't do that, point fingers at Majesco.

They gave away free headphones, though..[/quote]

I point my fingers at the Little People of America!

Banquet2003.jpg
 
yeah, but you can buy a spongebob DVD for 12.99 and it has 10 episodes. The perceived value of this tiny 2-3 episode cartridge is very low and makes you feel like you're getting ripped off. Plus you can watch them on TV for FREE. My kid's seen these episodes a hundred times, do I doubt the'd hold his attention for more than 5 minutes. If they weren't made for nintendo, I'd expect them to be in bargain bins near you in the next 3-4 months.
 
I always thought Video Now was a big ripoff. Black and White and the discs aren't that long. I think each disc only has 2 episodes on it which is 22 minutes compared to the GBA movies 44 minutes. The GBA video isn't really that bad either. I mean its not great, but it sure beats Video Now. Its just a cool little bonus, and supposedly they are going to have better quality vids eventually. I, also, heard awhile ago they were working on releasing movies for it.
 
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