Anything that can be done with a GBA other than GBA games?

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BrunoPuntzJones

BrunoPuntzJones

Lifer
Feb 24, 2001
14,513
4
81
Curious. I have a 512MB Sandisk CF laying around. Well not laying around, it's in my Muvo. I don't really need an mp3 player, so was going to sell the Muvo and the CF card (already have a 256MB for my camera).

I was curious if there is anything I can do with it as far as the GBA goes. It'd be kinda cool to be able to use it like a EZ Flash cart, but I'm guessing I can't.

I read that I can do some movies or something on it. What about MP3s?

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-7t-70-3bw-4-14.html

Someone pointed me to that on another forum, can play mp3s and videos, but how well?

Edit: Edited title. I've come across some other cooler stuff that doesn't involve CF cards. Just makes me more curious.

I found that this thread has the guys that created the afterburner making an overclocking mod. Speeds up games and can be turned on and off (either by software or hardware, not final yet). So a good start for those doing emulation stuff. Doesn't cause too much heat, and battery life is about the same as normal.

1.5x to 2.0x overclock. So going from a lowly 16mhz to a blazing 24mhz is sure to astound :p

Doesn't work well on flash carts yet, that's what that thread was about.
 
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eelw

Lifer
Dec 4, 1999
10,347
5,497
136
Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones
plus bettery battery life no?
Click to expand...

I get around 7-8 hour (until red recharge light comes on ) video playback time using my GBA SP. So using the Movie Player reduces battery life by over a hour as compared to using the GBA SP to play games.
 
BrunoPuntzJones

BrunoPuntzJones

Lifer
Feb 24, 2001
14,513
4
81
Originally posted by: eelw
Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones
plus bettery battery life no?
Click to expand...

I get around 7-8 hour (until red recharge light comes on ) video playback time using my GBA SP. So using the Movie Player reduces battery life by over a hour as compared to using the GBA SP to play games.
Click to expand...

That kicks the hell out of a PDA. Lower res, but not nearly as compact or convinient.

How is the compression on the movies? Says it has to be converted to GBA playable format. Like I have a TV Tuner card for the PC and could record shows, then throw them on the GBA and watch them at lunch (or work if I was really ballsy). Like a 100MB MPEG would be converted to what size GBA and at what quality loss? Or does it not work like that.

Quality of the MP3 player part?
 
A

anno

Golden Member
May 1, 2003
1,907
0
0
this is really very interesting to me..

my brother in law was recently diagnosed with a particularly bad cancer and is looking at many many hours in doctors offices and hospitals so I'm getting him an SP for his birthday coming up.. ebooks and mp3's and movies.. that'd be mighty cool.

is it easy? they're all really stressed right now just dealing with this and keeping on top of it.. and not all that inclined to put their energy into learning new hard trivial stuff, and I'm too far away to do that for them..
 
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eelw

Lifer
Dec 4, 1999
10,347
5,497
136
The proprietary format is the biggest downside of using the GBA Movie Player. The EBook reader uses standard ASCII text files. So no problem here. The Music player, it only takes like 5-10 seconds to convert each song. So it's a minor nuisance to convert your existing CD/MP3 collection for use on the Movie Player. The biggest problem is converting video files. Unless you have a fast computer, it will take a long time to convert AVI/MPEG files to the format used by the Movie Player. There are 2 conversion modes - fast and normal. On my P4c 3.4GHz, using Fast conversion, I can convert around 10-15x playback time, but file size is much larger. Using Normal conversion, I can only convert between 0.75x - 1x. The file size is about 2-3MB/minute.

In terms or quality, it's actually quite good. Video size is 240x160. You can try to convert so files right now. On the link I provided eariler, you will find the conversion software. The video quality will be slightly better on the GBA that the video preview window when converting the file.

In regards to audio quality, it's no CD/MP3 player. But audio quality is definitely better than something dubbed to an audio cassette. So this device will not be replacing your CD/MP3 player. But instead of carrying multiple devices, the GBA Movie Player can be used as a suitable replacement.
 
BrunoPuntzJones

BrunoPuntzJones

Lifer
Feb 24, 2001
14,513
4
81
Very cool. And yeah I'm just trying to cut down on devices. Could get rid of my Muvo if the MP3 quality is decent. I mean most of the time you aren't listening to the MP3 player when it's dead quiet. Normally some noise going on anyway, so that's not super important. The movie thing is killer though.

Could just convert some movies or tv shows over a few nights if I was going out of town or something.

Know of anything that lets you do more stuff like emulators or PDA functionality? Would be great if there was a whole line of products to expand the usefulness of the GBA. Like an attachment that had a keyboard on it and use it like an address book/calander. Wouldn't require much processing power.

But this movie player is the only thing I've come across :(
 
dud

dud

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2001
7,635
73
91
And yeah I'm just trying to cut down on devices.
Click to expand...

The proprietary format is the biggest downside of using the GBA Movie Player. The EBook reader uses standard ASCII text files. So no problem here. The Music player, it only takes like 5-10 seconds to convert each song. So it's a minor nuisance to convert your existing CD/MP3 collection for use on the Movie Player. The biggest problem is converting video files. Unless you have a fast computer, it will take a long time to convert AVI/MPEG files to the format used by the Movie Player. There are 2 conversion modes - fast and normal. On my P4c 3.4GHz, using Fast conversion, I can convert around 10-15x playback time, but file size is much larger. Using Normal conversion, I can only convert between 0.75x - 1x. The file size is about 2-3MB/minute.
Click to expand...


Guys, I can do all of this very simply on an IPAQ (an old 3635 to boot). Is the only reason you are trying this is for the Gameboy feature? My IPAQ (when I was using it) was the best MP# player I've ever owned. The sound quality was superb. The IPAQ was great as a movie viewer too. I could encode video to just about any resoulution I chose and the unit would play it back without difficulty. Gameswise it played some of the best games out there (most of which were freeware).

The price on these older units is really low too.
 
BrunoPuntzJones

BrunoPuntzJones

Lifer
Feb 24, 2001
14,513
4
81
Yeah I'm using it mostly for games, anything else is just gravy. Since it's for games, the button layout and useablility are most important, just can't do that with a PDA. Had a Dell Axim 400mhz. It was cool, just not what I wanted.

Did that IPAQ have good "controls?" The Axim sucked.
 
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