back to article US magazine to display Harry Potter-style moving images

Aside from dishing out news about celebrities and TV shows, US magazine Entertainment Weekly has inked plans to add video displays to its pages. From next month, the publication will run a series of editions with Video-in-Print (ViP) LCD screens integrated into its printed pages, a move thought to be a world's first. The ViP …

COMMENTS

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  1. Robert Ramsay
    Pirate

    sod all that...

    can you hack them? I for one would love one (or twenty) of these things if you can actually use it for something...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    A desperate move from a dying industry

    What a waste of space, cost and materials.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    "Harry Potter-style moving images" ... FAIL!

    This really is fail, the fact that its 1/4 inch thick and actually a hole cut into the page, they should be done for false advertising!

  4. Christian Berger

    Success if it's hackable

    The idea itself is obviously bullshit, but having cheap computers with decent displays and lots of CPU power is great.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    (untitled)

    Oh lord, can't get away from the animated ads even in a paper these days then :-(

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only in America...

    Only in America would there be any question over "how much they will cost". It's sad that there are elements of any society so obsessed with technology that there is even the merest glimmer of a possibilty that they would pay extra for something with an added advert....

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Adverts

    A quick spell in the microwave before reading, maybe, to disable the ads?

  8. Paul Charters

    I like that idea...

    Microwaving it sounds like an awesome idea. Peace from all adverts in a magazine...

    ....now I just have to find a magazine interesting enough to read.

    It does just appear to be a screen jammed in a book-like cover. The button bit looks like the same-old technique that's been used in childrens' toys for years. Maybe I'm missing something.

    Anyway, the video-paper idea has been around for a long time before Harry Potter, at least report with some technical respect and mention Minority Report instead.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    weekly?

    Why is it that, in a world where environmentalism is on the up, a company thinks it's a good idea to use throw-away electronics?

    Unless the whole issue is electronic (as if we don't already have that) then what exactly is the point? Reusable e-readers/e-books are surely the way forward if people want electronic "news" on the go, not a mishmash like this.

  10. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Hacking ...

    My thoughts as per Robert and Christian.

    If this does force the price of LCD down further and gives those of us playing in the field of embedded controllers something better than Nokia 3310 LCD's or hacking keyfob digital picture frames and cheaper than current commercial offerings I'm all for seeing them succeed. Win-win for those who get excited by shiny things and those who want to use or repurpose them, those not interested can just move along, nothing to see here.

    Colour LCD's have become ubiquitous over recent years and prices have plummetted as a consequence. This is just another step along the road. Who knows what new ideas and innovations may follow.

  11. N Ward
    Thumb Down

    Can you recycle them?

    Sounds like a lots of waste to me...

  12. Joe K
    FAIL

    Pathetic

    Like mentioned, this is a sad attempt from a dying medium to replicate something of the one thats replacing it.

    With everyone using the internet, iDevices, and huge-screened mobile phones now, this (expensive?) advert displayer is the very epitome of pointless.

    Its as if they don't realise that we're not impressed by seeing video on a small LCD anymore.

  13. SmallYellowFuzzyDuck, how pweety!
    Badgers

    Meh, well not bad maybe.

    So you can just flick past them like every other advert?

    It's a clever little gimmick using technology that is still evolving and will one day be everywhere and very very irritating.

    Still would be cool for things like maintenance manuals watch a nice video of how to change a part for a car maybe, but for advertising no.

    As other people have said, can they be hacked? That would be great I could put a film on it and watch it on the train.

    El Reg, still awaiting the "Meh" icon.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    lame

    this is obviously the lamest thing I have ever heard of.

    There was a gentleman on the radio championing his idea - and he genuinely sounded like he believed in his product (no wonder after spending something like 10 years developing it, so he said ... wtf, who pays for this?!)

    Not only will it not sell a magazine (except as a moribund collectors item), it is the epitomy of waste.

    I can't believe it has come to this.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    @AC 09:19 GMT

    Check your math - 2.7mm is a bit over 0.1 inches, considerably thinner than 1/4 inch.

  16. Anonymous John
    Unhappy

    I want one tp play with!

    And California is a few thousand miles away.

    Still, I suppose they'll turn up on Ebay.

  17. David Gosnell

    Harry Potter

    Why does every article on this mention Harry Potter? If any of the writers had actually read what they referenced, they would know that the newspapers etc in that series are magical, not technological. Surely there are some better examples from science fiction to cite?

  18. Tony Smith (Written by Reg staff)

    @David Gosnell

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

    And for fanboys it doesn't have to be very advanced at all...

  19. Lottie
    Thumb Up

    Ad Free

    It would be interesting to see if it could eventually follow a software system where buying a more expensive subscription could give you a magazine without annoying ads?

    Of course, one could just wait until the batteries drain at the moment, but in future it could be a real annoyance.

    Mind you, I can see a real advantage to this sort of tech if it gets some serious development money. Imagine a guitar mag that can show a quick clip of the writers fingers on the frets or even a tattoo mag that is able to give a full 360 degree video of someones body work!!

  20. ThaMossop

    Hmmmmm...

    Could we one day see cross SCREEN script vulnerabilities where ads can be hijacked?

    The school kid could one day be telling his/her parent he/she is studying the book from school, but the video inside has been replaced with something less/more educational. ;)

    All this is assuming this thing is programmable/hackable, cheap enough and this actually gets taken up. If it is, in fact, environmentally unfriendly, expensive, non-reusable, etc, then well...

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I don't understand

    If you want to watch moving adverts, why not just switch the TV on?

    Assuming you have one, of course -- and thankfully, I don't. Because apart from the adverts, there's very little time left for programmes.

    Couldn't they just give away a mobile phone instead ?

  22. Peter2 Silver badge

    Re : can you hack them?

    That was my first thought when I saw this on the BBC website. They said it'll have a mini USB connection so you can recharge it, which suggests that you might be able to access the data on the thing in which case they;ll become just like VCR's and tapes were back in the day. A bit of sellotape over the write protect hole to make them writable again and you have a usable bit of media.

  23. Simon Ball

    @Tony Smith

    Wouldn't Minority Report have been a better reference? There were entire video-in-print newspapers, and breakfast cereal boxes with embedded moving images.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spys!

    Fit a linked camera in the outer cover and you no longer have to cut two eye-holes!!! Perfect!

  25. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    2 years wasted...

    "From next month, the publication will run a series of editions with Video-in-Print (ViP) LCD screens integrated into its printed pages, a move thought to be a world's first."

    LCD technology? What a waste of two years R&D; AMOLED tech could achieve WAY better results at a much lower price, providing flexible screens, lower power usage and better quality.

  26. Dick Emery
    Paris Hilton

    One word

    Porn.

    Paris because she knows where the money shots lie.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Wireless power up

    And if we can get this powered up by this wireless transmission of power thing that people seem to be talking about... oooh, possibilities...

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well I can't see it becoming popular

    Cool and all, but we have the internet for these things. And I've got better things to do than watch adverts.

  29. Ross 12
    Thumb Down

    @Lottie

    You could just... read the online version? that has no doubt got embedded videos and more adverts than you could shake a stick at

  30. Gavin McMenemy

    What's happened to E-ink?

    Rather than full lcd screen? I just don't get it.

    Why are we not talking about digital books that you download magazines into?

    As it is - I cannot believe how much waste this will create.

  31. richard 69
    Thumb Up

    the start of something great

    no negativity here, i think this is the start of full e-ink sheets that download news wirelessly, a la minority report, looks like some superb potential. it doesn't always have be about advertising, try and look beyond that people...

  32. A J Stiles
    Paris Hilton

    @ AC 11:17

    Your maths is correct, but you're forgetting that there are somewhat less than 25.4 millimetres to the inch when describing television screens and the like.

    Paris, because she's probably heard a few tales of exaggerated inches too.

  33. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    competant but not impressive.

    OK so 2.7 mm is *quite* thin relative to laptop LCDs.

    And the battery has to be quite thin too.

    Yes hacking it may give some useful applications.

    But will it change the world?

    No.

    It's a competant implementation of conventional technology manufactured in the conventional way.

    With the conventional costs and quality issues.

    It is extremely unlikely to be anything other than a very occaisional item.

    I guess they figured that full motion video was the most important item and anything that got the job done could be improved.

    To those who wonder, why no eInk. Lack of colour and poor speed. Its objectives were always different.

    The ideal for this would be paper batteries (as seen in Isralel) backed by printed transistors. Although it seems no one has printed a display tech (organic LEDs?)

    However that brings us back to the poor transistor speed (IIRC 100Khz to <5Mhz) requiring some *very* clever architecture to deliver a decent refresh rate.

    They'll probably aim to get the company snapped up by some big corporate and split with the loot.

    But as a technology success.

    Fail.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Science fiction version

    They were in Firefly.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I can just see these commenters'...

    ...likely thoughts had they been discussing the first PCs. "Computers in everyone's house? What a waste! And see how useless they are? 2kbytes of RAM! No display! You can't even DO anything with them without learning a whole new language! This will never catch on. LAMEST IDEA EVER! FAIL FAIL FAIL!"

  36. JC 2
    Stop

    Not Cost Effective - Except To Get The Word Out

    Americhip's advertising dept must be throwing a lot of money into this campaign, don't expect to see embedded video players in your typical dirt-cheap publications any year soon.

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