Playorama crank-controlled video player

What you’re building

Playorama is an open-source video player for Panic’s Playdate that uses the crank for variable-speed playback, reverse movement, and frame-by-frame scrubbing while paused. A pauses, B opens the menu, Up toggles the track bar, and Left/Right select playback speeds; the crank reaches up to 4×. The release includes a demo video, so the player can be tested before converting personal media. Custom video must be encoded as .pdv, while matching audio must be supplied in a Playdate-readable format with the same base filename and placed in Playorama’s Data folder. The expected outcome is tactile, crank-controlled monochrome playback on real Playdate hardware. Media preparation is the main constraint: the online encoder emits only .pdv, and Playdate cannot read the .m4a produced by one documented macOS encoder from an app Data folder, requiring audio conversion.

Key steps

1. Download the latest Playorama release and obtain the Playorama.pdx bundle.
2. Sideload the PDX through Playdate’s supported USB or account-based sideloading workflow.
3. Launch the included demo and verify pause, menu, track bar, speed selection, crank scrubbing, and frame stepping.
4. For custom media, encode video to .pdv and convert audio to a Playdate-readable companion format.
5. Enter Data Disk mode and place video and audio with the same base name in the exact Playorama application Data folder.
6. Restart Playorama, open the custom video, and use its Log system-menu option to diagnose file errors.