When Mini-DVD tried to go big.

Very entertaining! If you haven't seen Catwoman, watch the last 2 minutes and you've caught the highlights ;-)

With physical media being so cheap nowadays, it's a bit of a wonder to me why someone hasn't tried to market something like this again. Just a bit of fun, like the mini records. If they sold in blind bags/random gachapons they would do quite well I'd think.

Ironically cat woman just got voted the 4th worst movie by total film this month. Number one was Cats

I have a whole shelf of UMDs which are reasonable quality for Sony PSP. Never knew about these though!

I've just purchased tom and jerry on mini dvd, why must I spend money on absolute nonsense?

Another excellent effort, Mat. Cheers!

Ironically I bought a clearance "cake tin" of the small DVD-R discs only the other day as mostly nostalgia to put some music videos on. Now I have seen (owned) a "commercial" release, but I'm not 100% if it was fully legit now. Lethal Weapon 1 (PAL) and in a cardboard sleeve which at the time I assumed to be a promotional giveaway. (Like a gas-station or clip 3 tokens and "just" pay S&H promo) I ripped it and it was using Mp2 audio at some lower bitrate (160-192Kbps??) and 3-5Mbps video from memory. I bought a legit DVD and ripped it again so I'm not sure if I still have the rip. The small disc is long gone. But on this devices tiny screen, 2Mbps even in mpeg-2 would be as good as 9Mbps.

I'm doubly-amazed when you introduce me to a media format that was released during my adulthood. The fact that someone as tech-mad as I am completely missed it really amplifies the abject failure of the team that was tasked to promote it! (That is, I'd heard of mini-DVD as a camcorder format but was unaware that movies were being released in the format...let alone dedicated players.)

This was definitely a flop if a majority of people didn’t even know about this during its (presumably) limited production run one and a half decades ago when full sized portable dvd players like you’ve shown could be had for around the same price

I have a very vague memory of these. Next up for Warner (I think) was pushing HD-DVD -- and yes, early HD-DVD's were better than early Blu-ray's. That's the hill I'll die on.

really well edited!

Since Mini-DVDs were used in camcorders, these really do remind me of the prerecorded 8mm movies that they released. Would the camcorders have been able to play back the prerecorded movies? I'm struggling to figure out what they thought the appeal of these were, especially compared to Sony's UMD movies, which came out around the same time. They were also seriously flawed, but way better than this in terms of quality and value, since your "player" was also a game system.

You're only comparing the bit-rate from Catwoman's opening credits because they are in the same aspect ratio? What you're forgetting is that the widescreen version is 16/9 anamorphic widescreen, whereas the full-screen version is actually a 4/3 frame containin the black bars as part of its picture... So yeah, you'll never get the same video either way so you might as well compare ANY part of the movie. :-) P.S. I love Catwoman because it's SUCH a bad movie!

Since the edit to split the disc in two is so sloppy (not to mention the lack of chapters), I'm going to guess that this was done by Warner Home Video very grudgingly, and that rather than re-encode the video, they just split their existing assets at authoring stage. The bitrates you observed are definitely in the normal range for a commercial DVD of the period; clearly no consideration was given to how these discs would be used. Any idea whether the subtitle tracks and 5.1 audio made it onto these discs? 5.1 audio would be a ridiculous waste of space, and you'd never be able to read subtitles on a screen like that, but it would make as much sense as anything else about these discs.

Woo! I'm in the credits! I feel so important and entitled now... :) I can't see how this one escaped product development, either...a small subset of titles, played back in 4:3, awkwardly split across multiple discs with no chapter skips, played on a tiny-screen player with a tinny speaker and no video out, that may not have enough juice to get you through some films? Sign me up, son! Fascinating as always, Mat. Don't recall ever seeing this format and its players, but I think any sane consumer faced with a choice between that or a standard portable DVD player wouldn't have to expend much brain power arriving at a decision, especially since the latter could play both sizes of disc. It's kind of sad, though, I like the form factor of the mini-CDs; have one Mac game demo from the late 90's that arrived in that format. Guess that inner divot on the loading tray will continue to gather dust. Thanks for the video, well done! P.S. - Kudos for choosing "Spy Game" for your comparison with Video CD. Great Redford flick, if you're ok with all the frenetic Tony Scott cuts and editing. :)

As interesting as always, and a few good LOLs as well. What more could one ask for on an overcast Saturday afternoon? :-)

Mat, loved the video. Just thought I'd tell you that I was watching your video about the plane tape player and while you were playing the music tape, my phone popped up with the name of the song. It is Autogenic Training Music by Autogenic Training Specialists.

Thanks for the video Mat. I was assuming before watching the mini DVD discs would be like the video CDs made in Asia - really compressed to get on two regular CD discs. If thay had done that they could have got it all on one of the mini DVDs. My DVD player supports Video CDs.

Please enjoy this ISO which contains this very video and which, in theory, you should be able to burn onto a Mini DVD-R, and play back on the DVD Jr: http://home.gloveraoki.me/share/minidvd.iso

Do yourself a favor and don't watch Catwoman!

Usually when you feature little known obsolete media that I never heard of I console myself that is was either released before I was born, or in another region of the world prior to the Internet making learning about things like this easy. But for this, it was released when I was in my 20s, with my first proper job and no financial liabilities so I wasted so much money on gadgets. I also devoured tech magazines and news sites at that time. Maybe I didnt miss mini DVDs at the time, I might have just blocked them out of my memory completely.

"I really hope you’re doing fine. It can be a challenge maintaining morale at the moment, so I hope I’m doing my little bit to help with these silly videos all about nothing. It’s definitely helping me, anyway." Yes, Yes, and Great!

Yet another excellent and entertaining video, thanks Mat!

Really enjoyed the humour in this one!

Now i am intrigued, what quality would come out at the end if you take your original "big" DVD, shove it into DVD Shrink and tell it to make you a Mini-DVD? Wouldn't that have been the better option for giving media to kids anyway? I know how i kept my media when i was a kid and if i think about that i would hand my kids only backups. ;)

I really enjoyed this video, even if it is such half assed device. The jokes and sarcasm realy hit the spot! Good for you (and all of us )

Great stuff, Mat! All your videos sure work as a pick-me-up for me! I'd never, ever heard of mini DVD until now. I really appreciate your efforts to source unusual tech items like this that most us would never otherwise have the opportunity to enjoy! Thanks! 👌

Glad I saw this before it went live. Back in 2015 I did an unboxing video of the Mini DVD of Pokémon: The First Movie (which did have some special features), so I had an opportunity to improve the thumbnail. Hoping for the best!

I never knew about commercial 8cm/3inch DVDs. I knew of the format for DVD+/-R and of course I knew of the 8cm CD singles -- I even knew of the very late-to-the-game high capacity 8cm CD-R discs which held something like 1.4GB (if I'm not mistaken) but were mostly incompatible with standard CD drives -- but I never knew anyone actually sold movies on 8cm DVD. Great find.

I don't know why but this reminds of some movies they released for the GameBoy Advance. I have the Shrek 2

RIP toy's R us

A real belly laugh over the kick in the groin comment! Thanks for that :D

I was very pleased to pick up a VideoNow PVD player in a charity shop for a fiver. Presumably the staff just assumed it was a normal CD Walkman type device. The picture quality on it is indeed shocking (it came with some awful US cartoon series I hadn't heard of), almost like you're viewing everything through a gauze. Is this thing shock proof? The VideoNow certainly wasn't!

"Like taking out a patent on a kick in the groin": Great! Lockdown or not, you are at the top of your game, Matt.

That was cool, had never heard of this at all! Unrelated but as you also love the minidisc format - just picked myself a Yamaha MD-8 audio mixer / 8-track MD recorder as it appeared for cheap ($140, basically same price as decent hifi MD decks go for here) on a local auction and nobody else bid on it, might be something you might be interested in!

Video was great as always, I've always loved your weird portable video uh... Videos. The video8 is one of my favorite videos from you. I do have a question about my actual favorite video though... The dataplay. You don't have to say much, but any chance you can hint whether that will be getting a sequel anytime soon? Also, I grew up with my formative years in the 2000s and by god clamshell designs were ugly. We had so many 80s and 90s electronics I fell in love with as a kid and seeing all this 2000s stuff I should be nostalgic for just makes me cringe. Also I love how on a 2.5 inch screen you can still see how awful the 3D backgrounds are in Catwoman. What a disaster.

Definitely more DUD than DVD. This format had completely passed me by, until now.

"...patent to a kick in the groin..." "...the Ron Weasley movies..." British humour in full swing! 😁 But ugh.. late 90s and early to mid-00s when everything plastic came in awful silver has to be the worst design era ever! I hated it then, and it certainly hasn't aged well seeing it now! When in the market for some new gadget, I remember occasions where the silvery plastic faux-metal casing was a dealbreaker for me. The bright shiny white plastic trend that followed it wasn't much classier - despite apparently percieved (by chavs?) as being 'luxurious' - but at least it isn't trying to pass itself off as being some kind of lightweight metal. By the way, I do enjoy your time machine sequence. It's a nice gimmick. Use it more! 👍

That time machine certainly is impressive! Nice editing; I can find no flaw in this video at all except that it IS about a flaw. I wonder who got the idea of making a portable DVD player with an 8cm drive, and couldn't be talked into using a bigger screen and/or a drive that would let 12cm discs extend outside the case like that smallest Sony Discman that you demonstrated a while ago. And the most bizarre thing is: This is SAMSUNG! They are (one of) the biggest producers in the world of LCD screens and storage chips! It kind of feels like the story about how Sony made the eVilla because they had a warehouse full of 15" CRT's that they weren't selling. In this case maybe Samsung had a warehouse full of tiny useless LCD screens that no-one wanted. But I guess we'll never know.

The woodgrain is certainly appreciated ;)

This was a great video! I had that Teen Titans DVD you showed for a moment on the screen when i was younger. I thought it was just a small DVD to be used in your normal player had no idea it had a special player for it! When's the "Techmoan Catwoman Review" coming out? Hahaha

The editing WAS very tight - well done. And on a goofy subject no less. "No bad ideas" indeed. Yeesh.

Great video - humor and all. I was missing the time machine :)

Quite surprisingly, I've never heard of this format. But yeah, I can definitely see why it failed. Especially with things like the iPod around that time being able to play movies, and later the iPhone.

Yeah; take it off. Take it off slooooowly!

I never heard of Mini-DVD. I was asking myself if there is also a MicroDVD? And yes, but it is only a subtitle file format. °o° Mat Brown, how much do you want for your time machine? ;-)

A flop format that Sony had nothing to do with? How unusual. I would've had my original PSP at this point with a much better screen, even then I only ever watched Spiderman 2 that came with it.

I was just feeling a little down in the dumps today and was thinking that a little bit of Techmoan might be just what I need. So just a moment later I get the Patreon notification on my phone. Must have switched on the "Matsignal" subconsciously. Going to shut up now and watch the video. Only got one more word to say: "Matarang!"

The sarcasm was strong in this video. It was an unexpected good laugh which brightened my day!

Just want to say I really appreciate that you use a camera that actually knows how to auto-focus (like at 4:30). Too many YouTubers these days make me question the prescription of my glasses...

🤣 Super, made my dreary Friday evening good again!

I've allways thougt that mini-dvd players with standard size dvd were this biggest joke in the industrie beside their possible use as a child entertainment toy on the backseat of a car. Until you came up with this. Thanks for the laugh. Beside that, month after the release of your aeropex video I finally gifted myself with a pair of them. THAT might be one of the best gimmicks I have bought in recent years. Thanks for this recommendation at this point. And no, as your toy player won't pair with the headseat, no mini-dvd player for me.

It's like the designers used every page in the "Designing Cheap and Nasty Consumer Electronics" handbook. Silver painted plastic? Oddly placed awkward controls? Bezel that tries to make the screen look bigger, but just makes it look smaller? Strangely off-center mounting of the DVD mechanism? Interface from hell? I think the battery charger is the best part of the whole package.

How did I not know of this?!

I was working in the home video business in 2005 and I NEVER HEARD OF THIS FORMAT!! Everything about it mystifies me... Why in the world would they make everything two discs when the screens are that small?? You can have half-resolution DVDs and still maintain compatibility! Thank you for bringing us this obscure half-baked failed cash grab. It's absolutely what I am here for!