Remember the Play-Yan? To go with the release of the "Gameboy Micro," Nintendo has announced a new version, aptly named the "Play-Yan Micro."

Nintendo Corporation will release the "PLAY-YAN micro" as a new model of the "Play-yan" portable SD card AV player, which offers MPEG-4/MP3 playback functionality to the Gameboy Micro, Gameboy Advance SP, and Nintendo DS. Sales will only be conducted online via Nintendo's own site and other online stores, and cost for just the unit (no card) will be 5,000 yen. A set including the "MediaStage Ver.4.2 for Nintendo" from Panasonic costs 6,000 yen.

Accordingly, sales of the current Play-yan (5,000 yen/6,000 yen in above combination) will be stopped on September 11th. The only product from this point will be the Play-yan Micro. The Play-yan can also be used on the Gameboy Micro. While the Play-Yan itself was sold only at the sites of Nintendo and Canopus, the Play-yan Micro will also be available at other retailers. However, there are no plans for selling the item in retail shops.

The Play-yan Micro is a MPEG-4/MP3 player that features an SD card slot. It uses a game catridge-like case, and users insert SD cards that have videos and audio files on them into the Play-yan Micro, then insert it into their Gameboy Micro/Advance SP/Nintendo DS, and are able to play their files.

The external dimensions are 58.5 x 43.4 x 11mm (W x D x H), and it weighs about 16g, making it the same as the Play-yan. It also features the same external appearance, namely the fact that it has no logo markings. The biggest difference between the two units is the support for MPEG-4 (MP4 files) at the hardware level.

On the Play-yan, the only video format supported at the hardware level was MPEG-4 (ASF) -- in order to play MPEG-4 (MP4) files, users had to install new playback software on their SD cards, released on July 11th. However, the Play-yan Micro can play these same MP4 files without need for an additional program; it features hardware level MP4 support.

The files that can be played are the same as the Play-yan with the added software. The specifications are below:

-File format: MP4 (MP4 file format)
-Video format: MPEG-4 Video
-Resolution: 128 x 96, 176 x 144, 240 x 176, 320 x 240, 352 x 288 dots
-Bitrate: 64kbps ~ 1Mbps
-Framerate: 6 ~ 30fps
-Audio format: AAC (Stereo)
-Bitrate: 16k ~ 320kbps
-Sampling Frequency: 16/22.05/24/32/44.1/48kHz

-File format: ASF (ASF file format)
-Video format: MPEG-4 Video
-Resolution: 128 x 96, 176 x 144, 240 x 176, 320 x 240, 352 x 288 dots
-Bitrate: 64kbps ~ 1Mbps
-Framerate: 6 ~ 30fps
-Audio format:G.726 (Mono)
-Bitrate: 32kbps
-Sampling Frequency: 8kHz

Audio formats are the same as the Play-yan, meaning it supports the MP3 format. The bitrates are 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, and 320kbps, with CBR, VBR, and ABR support. The supported sampling frequencies are 32, 44.1, and 48Khz. ID3 tags up to version 2 are also supported.

The GUI has also been changed. The Play-yan had a mostly comical GUI, but the Play-yan micro features a "cool" GUI that is mostly green. The Play-yan itself also supported 12 minigames can also be downloaded from Nintendo's website, but the Play-yan micro doesn't support these games.

The "MediaStage Ver.4.2 for Nintendo" software that is included with the set model is the same as the previous version, but it is now on a 12cm CD instead of an 8cm one.

The playback time also sees no changes, giving you about 3 hours of video playback when using the Gameboy micro, and 10 hours of audio playback. In a Gameboy Advance SP you'll see 4 and 16 hours, respectively. Finally, the Nintendo DS will get 5 hours and 20 hours.

Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20050822/nintendo.htm

Product Information:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/play_yan_micro/