Walmart toys clearance - VUGO $50,CD Walkman $10, etc...

[Vinman]

anyway, anyone find any VUGOs in Ottawa/Kanata ??? I want to play with one...

There was a stack at Orleans, and I *almost* bought one today. The "mystery file formats" was the deal-breaker, as it looks to be more hassle than it's worth.

P.S. It looks nice, kinda like a Gameboy Micro.

[newuserquebec]

Bought one today.
I will try it tomorrow and let you know if it is worth it depending on the hacks i find.
As it is it does not look good enough...we will see.

Bought it at 50$ expecting to go down more... and ask for a price warranty...

Any one one has found hacks?

[jshebib]

good review here, obviously this is not the best product, given that you need a computer to convert the file formats into VUGO format:

Review:
VuGo Portable Multimedia System

Linuxslate.com


20 November 2005

I just saw these in WalMart for the first time today. Being a member of a family that travels allot with young children, my eye is always out for ways to entertain them. Given that I am also very gadget happy, and sort of cheap, the thought of a small, inexpensive, flash-based media player got several of my neurons firing at the same time. That rarely happens. Have no fear though, it didn't last long.


VuGo by Tiger.


I did a few quick Google searches on the device, and found -- Very little. I found several product announcements, all of which were very similar. These included "Specifications" such as:

"Record or download TV shows, music or photos"
"Easy to use"
"File management software makes it easy to store and access your VUGO favorites on the computer."
These are Features, not Specifications, folks !! I never could find simple specifications such as the screen resolution. That includes checking the box, VuGo.com, and did almost an hour of Google searches. I finally found a post stating that the VuGo was essentially the same device as the ZVUE Media Player (Link Below). The ZVUE pages do have specs, and list the resolution as 160 x 240.

With such poor information available, I then had my last incentive to go buy one -- I could write a review !

Buying one was somewhat interesting in itself. Here are some different prices I saw:

WalMart: $124.?? (I guess 124.88, isn't everything $xx.88 at WalMart?) Sorry I did not remember it exactly.
List Price, as reported by various product announcements: $119.95 (Gee, WalMart is selling over list !)
Target.com: $99.95 (Sale Price)

In Target - Price on the Peg: $119.95
In Target - Scanned Price: $119.95
In Target - Price at Register: $99.95 (First time I ever saw the scanned price and the register price be different.)
"Out of the Box" Experience
Physical: OK, for $99 I don't expect a whole lot. The case is just plastic, but the feel is kinda nice, all things considered. I really like the form factor, and the back of the unit is contoured to be better to hold.


Back of Unit is contoured for grip.


The buttons are cheap feeling, (more on that later) but well located. It's a fraction the size of any portable DVD player. I kinda like the fact that it runs on AAA batteries - no worrying about charging, or how many charge/discharge cycles you have left on a battery pack that costs half the price of the device. If you want to watch more while traveling, AAA cells are available almost anyplace. Also, the SD/MMC card slot has a cover, and does have the push-to-eject feature. This is important to both those who bite their nails down to blood, or for those who like to keep their nails really nice -- OK, I guess the nail bitting and blood bit has no part in a review like this, but I do have a pet-peeve about expensive gadgets that lack this simple feature.



Top of VuGo, Showing (Left to Right) the Headphone Jack,
Power Button, SD slot and cover (open) and the Volume buttons.


The left side has the AV input jack, and the screen adjustment. The right side has the USB port (same style as seen on many inexpensive Cameras, MP3 Players, etc.) and the DC power jack. Someone reported that their DC power plug fit very loosely in the machine, and would fall out or loose contact - sometimes while recording. I can say that this is NOT a problem on my unit once the plug is fully inserted.

Power Up: The first thing you notice is the screen. Sorry to say, but it is terrible. Given that a PlayStation Portable (PSP) costs twice as much, and the screen is more than twice as big, it is (IMHO) fair to expect at least similar quality over the smaller area. Forget it. The brightness is fine, and the contrast is easily adjustable by a (analog) wheel on the left side, but I can see why they won't readily tell you the resolution.

First Tests: So the Box and website says:

The following media file formats are supported by VUGO:
- Photo: BMP, TIF, JPG, GIF, PNG
- Video: WMV, ASF, MPG-1, AVI
- Music: MP3, WAV

And it has a SD card slot right? So a good quick test would be to stick some JPEG's, MP3's, and AVI's on a SD card and pop it in the machine right? Well, this didn't work. The VuGo reported that there were no Movies, Music, or Pictures. OK - let the VuGo format the card, and then try - perhaps there is a specific directory structure or something. Sure enough it does create 3 directories, music, movies, and photos. So I re-copy the files to the appropriate directories. Still the VuGo recognizes none of them !!! What they mean is that the PC (or Mac) Software supports those file types NOT the VuGo. IANAL, but I think we are getting really close to false and/or misleading advertising here. I was really hoping for a nice, small inexpensive media player that would play standard file formats.

Recording Some Video: (UPDATED): The VuGo can record video and music directly from any line-level source. Given the failure to play standard media types off the SD card, I thought I'd try recording some analog video. After a first test of recording a few minutes of The Weather Channel, I have since given the Vugo a more thorough test. The "Octopus" cable included with the VuGo makes connecting the VuGo for recording very straigtht forward. The VuGo has a manual record mode and a VCR-like timer. I manually recored some cartoons for the kids. This worked, but I have several complaints:

During the recording, the sound came out of the VuGo speaker at a very high volume, and I was unable to turn it down or off.
With the quality was set to "Best", video was smooth, i.e. good framerate, but the resolution is so low that it is more an impression of a picture than actually watching what was recorded. It is fine for a child to watch a cartoon on, but that is about all.
I was able to fit 2 half-hour cartoons in the built-in 128M Flash, and 2 more on a 128M MMC card. I recorded them using the "Good" quality setting, and as I said, the quality was fine for a cartoon. Due to the nature of compressed video, you can record a lot more cartoons than you can "real world" video in a given amount of memory. (I suppose you want me to explain this in 5 words or less.)
I had some difficulty adjusting the volume during playback. After some fiddling, I found that I had to press the - Vol button toward the right side (almost between the buttons) to get it to work. Even with this, it seemed to have very few steps of volume. There is no on-screen display of the volume setting.
There is a pause button, but no Fast Forward or Rewind. If your child (or you) hits a button by accident, there is no way to get back to the point where you were. There is also no key lockout to prevent this. You also cannot pause the video, power off the device, and then resume.

Despite the above, I will say that on several occasions the VuGo - loaded with a few episodes of "Dora The Explorer" did work very well to keep a 3 year old quiet.

VuGo's DRM: (Disclaimer: As of this writing, I have not tried the VuGo software, so this section is more of a rant than a review.) The VuGo will not work as a standard USB storage device. A given VuGo must be "paired" to a single PC or Mac. Additionally, only a maximum of 2 VuGo's can be paired to a PC. Got 3 kids? tough. The VuGo content is managed by VuGo PC software, and syncronization takes place when the VuGo is connected via USB. The VuGo software translates the various file formats into the respectiveVuGo formats. We must assume that this is done to prevent file-swapping. It's the VuGo version of DRM (Digital Rights Management). I am sure you can see the horrendous damage that would be done to our Nation if my son should swap an episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" with his friend down the street; Or worse than that -- think of the frightening possibilty that some kid may record an episode of the "Backyardigans" in the VuGo's couple pixel by couple pixel resolution, and it should get out on a Peer-To-Peer network. I am shaking with horror at the mere possibility. What's really amazing is that they may have found the one true way to make DRM that nobody will crack: Make the device so lousy that nobody will bother to try.

VuGo on the Web: Think my criticism is going to stop with just bashing the device and its software? Nope! If you surf to VuGo.com, you notice 2 things immediately: 1. It is infested with Shockwave, and 2. There's not much there.
THIS SECTION WILL BE CONTINUED AT A LATER DATE.

Also coming latter will be:

Trying the software on a Mac

[jshebib]

another review of VUGO is here, not realling information on hacking:

http://camerahacks.10.forumer.com/a/..._post2279.html


(hard to read)

[sentinel]

google turned up a bunch more info on this vugo thing (for any 'big kids' that are interested)
http://camerahacks.10.forumer.com/a/..._post2279.html

another review of VUGO is here, not realling information on hacking:

http://camerahacks.10.forumer.com/a/..._post2279.html


(hard to read)

[KsprayDad]

Looked at the box and said it could handle MP3 AVI WMV JPEG etc etc...
Didn't bother coming home and checking it out first before buying.

It has to convert everything into a proprietary format....You can't hot swap an SD full of Jpegs and Music into it. THIS MAKES IT A BIG PAIN IN THE ASS.

To convert one 1/2hour show takes near 20 minutes and the sound quality moving from mpeg1 to their format leaves huge sound problems (which their customer service rep said must be my computer's fault...'you don't have the proper codec'...um, I have XP and this is compatible with XP therefore it should use the XP built in codecs I said...they were LOST)
Conversion from AVI was just as slow but the sound was a bit better.

For 50$ I wasn't expecting great graphics or sound but I was expecting to play the formats listed on the box. The conversion process makes it worthless to me.

Also...no more are being made...when I called cust serv for above problem they said they could get me a rebate but not a replacement. I just brought it to Walmart instead.

My 2cents.

[dealtaker]

Walmart in South Common, Edmonton had reduced the price to $25 on the VuGo. But I think they are all gone.
Capilano Walmart has them on for $40. And still had at least one last night.

[Squeeky]

Toysrus has the Vugo for the same price.

http://www.toysrus.ca/webapp/wcs/sto...roductId=78607

[doublejack]

Update: the cd players (was $25, then $10) are now $5 if you can find them. I tried to return and rebuy but they would only let me return. Oh well I picked up some earlier at the lower price. Vugos still $50 and a barbie/princess DVD player with 3.5" lcd is $75.

[MTL-TechY]

i got a mickey mouse tv at 149.95$, for clearance at 50$ two saturdays ago

great price, cause it has av outlets front and back with the three rca - yellow video, red and white, sound

great tv, cheaper than cheapest tv in electronics section for 13 inch, which is like 90$, but with no rca outlets

GREAT DEAL

had the cashier asking me if any left

nope...

[mahjongmaniac]

Update: the cd players (was $25, then $10) are now $5 if you can find them.

wow... clearance price on a clearance-priced item...
u can imagine how desperate they wanna get rid of these

I tried to return and rebuy but they would only let me return. Oh well I picked up some earlier at the lower price. Vugos still $50 and a barbie/princess DVD player with 3.5" lcd is $75.

dunno if this helps but i remember a while back i bought some $10 Panny headphones for $10 (clearance price) and then a a few wks later i saw it go down to $5. I bought the $5 one and then another day i went back showing my $10 receipt and got a price adjustment. (didn't bother to return as $5 for Panny headphones were cheap enuff)