VideoNow
portable video player (2003–2007)
The VideoNow is a discontinued line of portable video players produced by Hasbro and released by their subsidiary Tiger Electronics in 2003 as part of Tiger's line of Now consumer products. The systems use discs called Personal Video Discs (PVDs), which can store about 30 minutes of video,, enough to store one TV episode with some space left over for additional content (mostly trailers or other advertisements). As such, the majority of releases on VideoNow were TV series, with a small number of movies split onto at least three discs each. As the devices were targeted towards children, their libraries exclusively consisted of content considered kid-friendly, mainly coming from kids' channels such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. The video is compressed, and runs at 15 fps. Audio is in mono, as video data is stored on the left audio channel, relegating sound to the right channel. The original model plays content in black and white, while later models could play content in color.
Hasbro also produced editing software for creating custom VideoNow Color PVDs called the VideoNow Media Wizard in 2005, which came with blank PVD media.
A number of unofficial solutions are available for creating the oddly-formatted VideoNow files, including a plug-in for the popular video processing program Virtual Dub. The files can then be burned to a CD-R using standard CD burning software, and the disc cut down to the required size.
“VideoNow” enters the record as portable video player (2003–2007). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what VideoNow, portable and video can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“VideoNow” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, VideoNow, portable and video provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7927788. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2003 and 2005.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “VideoNow”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow VideoNow primary sources, VideoNow archive and VideoNow research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “VideoNow”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “VideoNow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.