Play Yan - Specification

Nintendo of Japan has released the specs for their upcoming media-player for the GBA and Nintendo DS.

A few weeks ago, Nintendo of Japan announced the Play Yan, Nintendo's own media player for the GBA and Nintendo DS. As said back then, the cartridge would accept SD-cards as input and be capable of MPEG-4 and MP3 playback. Now Nintendo of Japan has released more specific facts on the Play Yan.

For video playback, MPEG-4 video is in use. MPEG-4 videos consist of two different parts: the video itself and the sound accompanying the video.

Video - Different resolutions are possible, since the Play Yan accepts five different settings: 128x96(Sub-QCIF), 176x144(QCIF), 240x176, 320x240(QVGA) and 352x288(CIF). - As for bitrates, the Play Yan accepts a whole range from 64kbps to 1 Mbps. - Frame rates are said to lie between 6 and 30fps (frames per second).

Sound (G. 726) - Sound in the MPEG-4 videos must have a bitrate of 32kbps. - The sampling frequency of the sound lies at 8kHz.

Besides the video playback, the Play Yan is also capable of MP3 music playback: - The file format is, of course, MP3 (MPEG1 Layer-3) - Bitrate can vary: 32k, 40k, 48k, 56k, 64k, 80k, 96k, 112k, 128k, 160k, 192k, 224k, 256k, 320k(bps) are accepted, with CBR (constant bitrate),VBR (variable bitrate) and ABR (available bitrate) service types. - Sampling frequency will be either 32kHz, 44.1kHz or 48kHz. - ID3 tags are supported. ID3 v1, v1.1, v2, v1/v2 combinations and v1.1/v2 combinations are all compatible.

Of course there's also the question on the maximum time you can spend with your Play Yan. When played on a GBA SP, Nintendo claims 4-hours of movie or 16 hours music playback (starting from a full charge). The Nintendo DS owners among us will be able to watch movies for 5 hours, or listen to the same music for 20 hours.

The Play-Yan will (officially) only be available for sale from Nintendo of Japan's webshop from February 21, 2005. However, our sponsor Lik-Sang also accepts pre-orders for the Play Yan here

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FacebookPosted on 19-01-2005 by Dennis

Comments

Will this be USB then or will you require a card reader like the other movie players?

Andrew, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
NoJ only stated a cardreader for PC and/or a cardreader built in a DVD player. No USB mentioned...

Dennis, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
dont you use SD cards and have stuff on that and play it from the cards...

cubeenigma, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
yes, but you need someway to get the stuff <i>on</i> the SD cards.

Dennis, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
Dennis, my friend, do you know if this comes with an SD card? If so, what "size"?

ezekiel, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
Erm, to tell the truth, I didn't understand any of the "specs". The numbers, they mean nothing to me. So uh will someone translate that and tell me if it plays movies decently and music of iPod quality? Thanks.

ryuuslayer, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
my skoo has a whole bunch of sd-card-readers, ill juss jack one from the skoo...=) (shhhhh) that is, if i ever get Play-Yan.

NiNe9cEnTs, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
What the **** is a SD card reader? Sorry I am an uninformed layabout.

ryuuslayer, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
I'm guessing that they will do that thing they do to port movies onto none-widescreen TVs. i.e., "This movie has been modified to fit your T.V." Now it's going to be, "This movie has been modified to fit your DS/GBA" That's my guess anyway.

ryuuslayer, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
I tested the 240x176 resolution on Dr Divx. The results are spectacular compared to GBA movie player that uses CF cards. Stay away from that piece. I have owned if for a month and I regret buying it. The play yan is well worth it

duxsyagrius, 30-11--0001 at 00:00