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I just got a bunch of ECW dvds that I bought off of someone on Craigslist for an unbelievable cheap price. So, when I start going through and watching them, I found out that about half of them aren't even DVDs, but VCDs(Video CDs).
Wont the Saturn, and/or Dreamcast play VCD's? What do I need to make my American Saturn, and/or Dreamcast play VCDs? Are there any other consoles that are compatible?
Feel free to discuss anything else related to VCDs here.
The Saturn needs a MPEG encoder card to play VCD discs, and the Dreamcast needs a boot disc for VCD playback. The PC-FX also plays them, and Wikipedia says the PS2 does, but I've never heard of this.
Also, kudos on the ECW vids! Old tapes are hard to find, so it's nice to see someone stored them on a digital format. :)
EDIT: I forgot to mention, if you really wanted to, there's methods of extracting the MPEG-1 files off of the VCD, allowing you to burn them into a standard DVD. Theres a bit of file manipulation involved, but at least you'd have a choice on how to watch the videos.
Almost any DVD player plays VCDs.
The 3 in my house won't. Niether will my PS2.
I kind of like the idea of being able to watch ECW on my Saturn. Tell me more about this Mpeg encoder card. Expensive? Ultra rare? Will I need to have my Saturn region modded? What about Audio, and Video quality?
ECW?
I could try a video CD in my 3DO if that helps...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guntz
ECW has a lot in common with Sega. They were a wrestling promotion that ran out of Philadelphia, and competed with the WWF, and WCW. The ECW was attractive to a different type of audience than the WWF, and WCW, with much more violence, blood, and overall sleaze(cursing, skanky women, beer, and cigerettes et al.).
The ECW management made a lot of bad decisions, and the company failed to compete with the WWF, and WCW, and went out of bussiness in January of 2001, even though they still had a lot of very loyal fans.
They're fairly tough to find in the wild, but they usually don't go for more than 30 or so, at least, the ones I've seen haven't. No mods are needed, just pop it into the back of the Saturn, same place the battery goes. By default, MPEG-1 video tops out at 352x240 in NTSC mode at 29.97 OR 23.976 FPS, which us comparable to VHS quality in SP mode. Audio is encoded in an MP2 format at 224 Kbps at 44.1 kHz (CD quality).Quote:
Originally Posted by shinobimusashi
Saturn MPEG cards are $20 to 25, plus shipping but don't worry about that as despite their metal casing they're quite small and light (VMU equivalent). Go with Sega or Hitachi brand (ie since the Hi Saturn has these inbuilt you should be getting the same thing). All Saturn equipment works universally on every make of console--except possibly for some rare exception like the Samsung and software problems like the Derby Stallion's. It plugs in above the battery. Its gaming uses are exceedingly negligible.
edit = ninja'd.
Wow. ECW on my Sega Saturn. That is beyond awesome.
The events I have are
Living Dangerously 98
Heatwave 98
November to Remember 98
Anarchy Rulz 99
November to Remember 99
Why wasn't this tech used/promoted more back in the day? Can the 64, or PS1 play movies?
Probably the best option would be to simply stick them into your PC, extract the video using something, and then reburning them using X-to-DVD as dvd discs.
Almost all consoles which can play VCDs need some sort of encoder cards. You can buy them for the 3DO, Saturn, and I believe Amiga as well.
It was...throughout Asia. The next gen just caught up too fast for it to be worthwhile, chiefly in light of maximum CD length for films. I've never heard of the PS1 doing so, probably because it was made as cheap as possible solely for gaming; the Saturn coming afterwards tried to include VCD compatibility for home photos and karaoke (watching films on it seems to have been secondary by far and on VCD in general to belong more to continental Asia). VCDs use MPEG1 encoding, hence the card you need, and the PS1 I believe JPEG nor was its parallel i/o port ever provided with such a thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by shinobimusashi
If you're on a lot of forums you should be able to find a US gamer with one who doesn't want it, especially if he's not a Sega first type, since it's only used for tiny amounts on a few JP games--few of them even anime--and it's only needed for the Lunar MPEG edition (no English language release) which isn't really an enhancement over the Playstation version.
If memory serves me correctly, there's a homebrew app for the Dreamcast that allows you to play VCDs; never used it though. Modded Xboxes can run them if you have XBMC installed.
Sure is. You can find it at the usual places. Works pretty good from what I remember.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Jackal
Ah, so it's wrestling then. I had a feeling it might be that... But I thought it couldn't be. I guess I was wrong...Quote:
Originally Posted by shinobimusashi
No way the N64 can play video CDs. The N64DD is in fact in essence a proprietary Zip drive. The console never saw an optical disc in it's entire life. As for the PS1, well yeah it can't play them either, but other people already said that.Quote:
Originally Posted by shinobimusashi
The ps1 can play vcds with a vcd adapter,i used to watch vcds all the time back in the day on my ps1,their is also a special ps1 which can play vcds out the box.
Other systems which spring to mind,cdi,amiga cd32,3do,panasonic q
Interesting on the PS1 note... Source?
The one I'm finding more than others is the Gammars card:
http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad...vcdgammers.htm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guntz
Unless you have a Doctor V64 copier attached, then it can.
Also..
http://pwa.wrestlingx.net/wrestlerim...y/sandman4.jpg
To the OP: Unless you absolutely must/want to watch your VCDs on your old consoles (which you shouldn't be doing anyways, in order to preserve the life of the aging CD lenses), stick to watching them on your PC. A regular CD drive + a program like VLC Media Player will do just fine.
Playstation will easily play vcd's which are encoded using STR video files.
Without purchasing a VCD Adaptor you can use a PC and encode your files into STR format with Virtualdub and Sony Movie Converter.
source:http://www.freewebs.com/freegamesfro...cdtutorial.htm
You will only get 35 minutes of video per disc in Playstation native format, this using 320X240. I recommend buying the VCD Adaptor for higher quality MPEG1 Video that is on par with VHS quality with 352x288 and you won't need to convert your vcd on pc, you can insert the VCD immediately into your Ps and enjoy MPEG1.
Buy yourself a cheap DVD drive for your PC. Those go for literally nothing on ebay and are extremely easy to built in (four screws, two cables).
Using your PC you can copy the .dat files off from the VCDs, rename them to .mpg and play them on your DVD players.
The law allows you to make back up copies for personal use.Quote:
Originally Posted by shinobimusashi
Sorry guys, the disc drive on my PC is out of order(won't even open), besides my CD burner stopped working years ago.
Furthermore, don't you guys know that burning copywritten material is against the law!?! Lets hope Vince Mcmahon isn't reading this thread.
What about this device I found on Ebay? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saturn-Japan...91495045423724
Will this work for my American Saturn without any mods?
+1. Sandman was awesome. The guy couldn't wrestle his way out of a paper sack, but he was still entertaining as hell, especially back in the old days of the original ECW.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoVamp
That was one of my favorite ECW moments, and one of my favorite moments in the history of wrestling. At the time that it happened, all of the ECW's top guys had jumped ship to the WCW, or WWF. The Sandman had been in WCW for the past year, and his return that night was very unexpected. I couldn't believe it.
One of the biggest regrets of my lifetime was not experiencing the ECW live back in the day. I had a few chances.
I appreciate everyone's advice about how to extract the video files, and watch them on my PC, or a DVD player, but I would rather track down the real DVDs of these events than do that. They aren't that expensive, or rare, and I could probobly get them at the same price as a new disc drive. I don't have the tools, time, or the patience to take my computer apart. I'll just stick it in the shop whenever I feel like I need my disc drive fixed, at the moment I hardly ever have a use for it(My computer is in a room that is set up with another television, DVD player, and a stereo). I just use my pc for surfing the web, and Email primarily.
I was just amazed at The idea of actually watching ECW on my Sega Saturn. That is what I want, and I was just joking about burning being illegal. I can see someone is in super serious mode this morning.
Your link's expired.
This is it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saturn-Japan...item43ab661f2e
Do you know if that will work on my American Saturn?Quote:
Originally Posted by StarMist
I'm unaware of any Japanese component that won't, and vice versa. The only thing altered about the US console is its bios--you can probably even change the menu screens to Japanese, as I can my Japanese console's to English along with French and some others (the menus being what you see with the power on and lid open). Last I searched for any more compatible software for the thing (also called a movie card) I crossed a few other forums (US) where it was quite improbable every owner of a movie card owned a JP Saturn. I would say 99% chance, with that 1% margin only because I'd be speaking for your sake rather than my own. You might ask the seller linked, even if you buy from someone else, as he exports a lot and must have been asked before--just note he's in Hong Kong, don't address him as a Japanese. If you're really hesitant ask synbiosfan or Spaceflea, between their Saturn collexions they should know.
Don't worry about leaving the card either, those don't exactly fly off the shelf.
The housing may need to be removed to install it.
To end the debate about ps1 playing vcds i made a vidya to prove it lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0zo0...el_video_title
Just a couple notes about Saturn VCD cards.
From what I've read, The third edition of the JVC card is the best one for the Saturn. It has odd capabilities like scaling (yeah you can zoom in on the pixels) and some other features the original JVC, Sega, and Hitachi cards do not have.
Yes, it will work on any region Saturn.Quote:
Originally Posted by shinobimusashi
You may discover, when the VCD card is inserted in a (US) console, then the system will not accept a 4-in-1 cart in the cart slot. I have to take the 4-in-1 cart out before the system will boot the VCD disc.
He still is entertaining as hell, you should see some of the Shoots he did with Raven, its comedy gold man!!Quote:
Originally Posted by shinobimusashi
Seriously track down RF Shoots with Raven and or Sandman, its so fucking funny to watch, both of them forgot half of what they did and just help each other remember it all.
Raven : Remember the time i stole your doormat?
Sandman : Yeah I do, and then when i visited you in Philly you made sure to keep it inside but close enough to the LOCKED door to show me you had it! >_<
or the one with Francine & Tammy Sytch, Francine is fucking awesome! (and still gorgeous) she has many funny Sandman stories,
like the one where he was drunk as fuck and tried to board the plane, and he was pointing to Francine (who was further in line then him) yelling THAT'S MY WIFE I NEED TO GO TO MY WIFE!!!
and then they wouldn't let him on the plane, so she said he had a concussion because he's a pro wrestler! :D
aah good stuff, I'm so happy I recently transferred all my wrestling related media to my home server, 500gb's worth of stuff.
Oh you should definitely see the Raven/Sandman shoot stuff and Raven/Dreamer, and Sabu's shoot, the first one!
Early DVD players used to play VCDs just fine. It was around 2002 that they stop supporting the format due to licensing issues. I remember back then, I was converting a lot of my VHS tapes to VCD and they would play fine in my Apex DVD drive (remember that company!?!). Not only did they play VCD, but also SVCD and even XVCD.
All computer drives will read the discs. Just open media player and select the .DAT file and it will play it. As for consoles, I used my Dreamcast to play them via a homebrew app. However, I seem to remember it having some hiccups during play back.
Speaking of ECW, I remember watching their weekly show on a local indie TV station. It was great. My friends and I would watch it every week and talked how much better it was than the other two (both of which we also watched). The ECW the WWE runs now (or do they? I don't watch it anymore) is NOTHING like it was. It's basically ECW in name only.
I used to get Import Godzilla movies, from the 2000 series on VCD. if memory serves there was a media player for the Dreamcast that let you watch them on it.
I said it once and I'll say it again, if you got the money just get a Media Player, then you can either :
A) Put a HD in it (some have space for an internal HD)
B) Hook up an external HD (via usb or whatever)
C) Play media from SD cards or USB sticks.
D) Stream your media from a server or your PC.
VCD's and Dreamcast media players were fun to toy with in 2001,
There's no real sense in stressing your laser for media that can be played much better by a Media Player.
Better to keep your console fit for the actual games.
But what if it's a game that uses VCD technology?Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoVamp
http://codsource.com/v1/images/stories/arrow-up.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by TrekkiesUnite118
I have a Saturn with a JVC MPEG decoder card. I find that I have to have the system's region set to JP to use it for VCDs or Photo CDs. And yes, the Doctor V64 can also play them.
VCDs are way below VHS quality no matter what anyone else says. VCDs are not interlaced, only 320x240. That's it.
Yeah, but for games like Lunar the FMVs do look much nicer.
I guess. The FMV on Lunar MPEG Edition (or whatever it is called) didn't really strike my fancy. There are lines in the video, as if it had been scaled. Kind of like when you shrink/downscale something a bit and the lines don't quite match up.... or they shrunk it by deleting a few lines here and there. It doesn't look right and it is 100% the video's fault, not the Saturn or the card.