GBA Movie Player Promises Books, Music and Videos

Feb 24 2004, 4:00am EST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Story by:

Aries J. Galindo

I love my GBA SP! It provides me with hours of entertainment and it goes with me everywhere. So when I first heard that someone had produced a plug-in unit that would allow me to play full-length movies, listen to music and even read e-books I couldn't resist testing it out.

Let's visit the tech-stuff first: the GBA movie player is a little unit that plugs into either a GBA or GBA SP cartridge slot. It is equipped with two slots so that you can install a Standard Compcat Flash card AND a game cartridge. Granted this adds a little bulk to the movie players size but not much weight. There is a switch on the player that let's you choose game or movie function. Oh and you probably shouldn't switch between the two functions while the SP is on. One thing I noticed is that you should have a game cartridge installed even if you're playing a movie. Without it, you may notice screen freeze. One more thing before I go on, the GBA Movie Player comes with only the unit itself so you will need to purchase the CF separate but there doesn't seem to be a size limit so you can utilize the smaller memory cards or go 1 GB and higher. The compression on the files were exceptional. Files that were 600-800 MB easily compressed down to only 30-50 MB!
The GBA Movie Player accepts three types of content: movies, music and e-books. Movies and music are converted utilizing the included Window's software. I'm a Mac user so there were a few extra steps required to make some of the conversions particularly with DVD's. The conversion software that comes with the unit says it can convert DiVX, AVI, Quitime, Real and MPEG video formats. I'll have to take their word for it.

E-Books are just .TXT files dropped directly onto the card. Unfortunately it doesn't accept PDF files or books converted with Microsoft reader formats. So that means you can read most ebooks that are public domain but not those purchased online. The font is pretty standard on the GBA so its not exactly easy on the eye's but good in a pinch. A nice bonus is that you can listen to music AND read at the same time.

Music controls are pretty basic and the sound isn't bad considering what audio capabilities the GBA's have in general. The downside is that there's no playlist support and if you've got a mp3 player unit this really can't compete.

Overall, the GBA Movie Player did pretty much everything it advertises and in some aspect did quite well. You shouldn't expect miracles after all as wonderful the GBA SP's are they are limited. Is it useful? If you've got the CF's available and a media reader to put content on the cards then this unit might be worth getting. Otherwise expect to pay $40 for the Movie Player, around $30 for a 128 MB CF card and between $5-$30 for a card reader. That's still cheaper than buying a laptop or a pda with similar capabilities. The GBA Movie Player is sold at Lik-Sang.

We also reported about the GBA Pocket Cinema a while ago.

where to buy

Buy from Amazon

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Luigi Lugmayr
Luigi is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at ml@i4u.com. Luigi posts regularly on LuigiMe.com about his experience running I4U.