"...a really cool walkman- sized unit, so for kids used to carrying their own portable audio CD player, having a portable video player --even a black and white one-- should seem pretty cool."

---from the review

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Add-ons Available Separately...as always! As with any toy priced at around $50, there are several accessories you can buy separately. Here is a small taste of them:

---Video Now's "Official" Headphones. It deserves mentioning that the stereo mini-jack on the Video Now unit is just like any walkman's; your favorite headphones plug into the socket without any problem. However, these headphones are "ergonomically designed" to match the black and silver chassis of the Video Now player. Fair enough... 

---Video Now Screen Light. Much like the old days of Game Boy, this is a sort of flashlight that snaps onto the top of the Video Now player, shining light onto the screen in dark places. Powered by its own AA battery so no power is wasted from the actual player.

---Video Now Carrier. The intrigue of this Video Now carrier is that it allows you to use the unit while it's in the bag! A window in the upper sleeve offers the ability to view the video screen, even if the bag is closed; a cute idea, if you're in an area with a lot of rain or humidity, and you want your player safe and dry. Space is also offered for up to five video now discs. The bag's designed to either fit around your belt or even strapped outside a backpack.

NOTE: This toy has since been "outmoded," via the Video Now Color.

You'll notice me going back-and-forth a lot in this review. That's because Video Now is not a bad toy for the price, and yet it's hardly the best portable video device available, if you happen to be Daddy Big Bucks. It offers video-on-the-go, yet is hardly as good as a portable DVD player. It does not need a TV antenna for use like a TV walkman would, and yet all TV walkmans these days are full color, while this unit is only black and white. It doesn't take much battery power, and yet is hardly a Game Boy Advance SP. In the end, Video Now is a cool concept...if not perfect.

Not that someone is trying to pull the wool over kids' eyes here. Hasbro even offers an official web site for this toy, whose contents are surprisingly informative. There's even a FAQ that is as tech-savvy as it is straightforward. The overall message they deliver is that this is a very acceptable toy for the price, and they're right. It may not be color, and the screen may be small, though what the hey? It's for kids, after all.

Here's a short run down of the specs. Video Now is basically a B&W "video walkman." It uses mini-discs to play specially formatted videos. The unit itself is "kid sized," at 6 1/2" long and 4 1/2" wide. The discs provide digital sound, with B&W video, on a built-in LCD screen, about 1.7" in size. The video itself is formatted at sixteen levels of grayscale, in 80 x 80 pixels. Picture quality is about the same as a classic Game Boy: black and white, and yet still an impressive picture for the price.

You may wonder what a Video Now screen image might look like. This is hard to simulate in a review, not that we didn't try. The picture shown here was done on Photoshop per the specifications of the Video Now unit, although it's not an exact representation. For one thing, while the Video Now screen is 1.7" across; the size of the image shown here will vary, depending on the resolution and size of your monitor. This photo has also been distorted, to simulate the "stretch factor" of the picture. Consider: while a 80x80 video image is a perfect square, the Video Now's 1.7" x 1.3" screen is not. Obviously, the original 80x80 image is stretched horizontally, to make a "TV" size image. In any case, this 80x80 image, stretched to 120x80, is a pretty good simulation of the actual screen, even if not exact. You get the idea.

As for the discs themselves, they are mini-CD sized, yet can include a fair share of data. Based on the length of videos tested for this review, it appears as though each disc can contain a maximum of roughly one half-hour episode's worth of video. That's good enough for a full episode of Spongebob Squarepants, or any other half-hour cartoon. Don't let the free-with-system demo disc disappoint you, either; it's just a demo disc, so yeah the cartoon clips offered are just over-glorified, 2 and a half minute commercials of the real discs, sold separately (of course).

Here are the titles available as of the posting of this review (click titles for order links). The most prominent titles are a slew of Nickelodeon cartoons (there must be some merchandising license Hasbro has with Nick TV): The Fairly Odd Parents Volume 2, SpongeBob Squarepants (3 Pack), Fairly Oddparents (3 Pack), and a 3-Pack of various Nick Cartoons. There are additional Nickelodeon cartoons, like Jimmy Neutron, though I could not find an order link for them, by the time this review was to be posted. Other cartoons, like the action-cartoon Zoids (a 3 pack), are also offered, plus popular TV shows that would interest kids, like American Idol. Currently, they're supposedly discussing a disc made to appeal to fans of Hillary Duff, which even for non-Duff fans should show how much effort is being put into this unit to appeal to the Nickelodeon age bracket.

I does deserve saying that, as with all toys, Video Now is not for everyone. Kids whose parents let them play with Dad's DVD player will likely be a bit irked that Video Now does not do as much as mom and dad's "toys" do. Sure, as adults we know why, given a difference in price of hundreds of dollars. It's all in the way you look at it. Sure, you can say that Video Now isn't as good as a DVD player or TV walkman, though it's opening price is a paltry $49.99. Regardless, it's simple to say there's a lot of better products out there...for a heftier price tag.

However, it's equally simple to compliment this toy, fair and logically. For one, it is a really cool walkman-sized unit, so for kids used to carrying their own portable audio CD player, having a portable video player --even a black and white one-- should seem pretty cool. It's affordable. It actually works. It's also a good "base unit," so to speak, in case you're hesitant to buy a child a more expensive video/TV option until you see if they can handle the responsibility, of such a costly item. If that's the case; you could get your child Video Now, first, and see how well they handle it before investing in a more expensive product.

The truth is, this is a nice unit for the price. It may be outshined by higher-priced DVD players and so forth, though it's not like children between the ages of 5 and 12 are given portable DVD players. For such pre-teen years, this is a really cool little item. Kids can watch video on the bus, in the back seat of the family minivan, or wherever else they may want to whittle away half an hour. If Hasbro ever made a color version, it'd be practically flawless. For now, this will do.

 Click on picture to Order this toy (silver).

Also available in: Blue.