FMV question

[venom]

Could someone please tell me why the saturn has such troubles with fmv? It's grainy, low res and choppy. The psx and sat came out at the same time so why is psx's fmv so superior? I always wondered since I bought a saturn...

 

[FLEABttn]

Cause the PSX has hardware the specifically decodes FMV, while the Saturn doesn't.

 

[Raijin Z]

Not to mention it's an issue of compression, filesize per codec, and ram available.

 

[Curtis]

Quote: from Raijin Z on 6:14 am on Mar. 10, 2002

Not to mention it's an issue of compression, filesize per codec, and ram available.

Do you have any idea at all about what you just said??

 

[Ratamahatta]

I dont think he does.

 

[venom]

That was kind of foolish on sega's part to not include a fmv decoder. On the other issues, doesn't the SS have more ram than ps so that shouldn't make a difference.

 

[Ratamahatta]

The saturn has more ram than the ps

 

[Raijin Z]

Lemme break it down, as I see it.

ONE: Cinepak compression appears to leave more artifacts than MPEG would when compressing the same source.

TWO: Cinepak compression is inefficient compared to more recent codecs. For as crappy as the video is, the filesize should be smaller. Not Sega's fault though.

THREE: Saturn doesn't have a great abundance of working RAM to play with. Streaming high quality video with a 2X drive to compensate for such little available memory would be iffy.

 

[venom]

That makes sense. Even with low quality FMV Saturn is still awesome...

 

[Curtis]

Quote: from Raijin Z on 4:03 pm on Mar. 10, 2002

Lemme break it down, as I see it.

ONE: Cinepak compression appears to leave more artifacts than MPEG would when compressing the same source.

Not necessarily true. It depends what type of footage you are compressing (i.e. CG vs "live" footage). You can also assign a higher or lower data rate to the video depending on how much space you are willing to give up for audio too.

TWO: Cinepak compression is inefficient compared to more recent codecs. For as crappy as the video is, the filesize should be smaller. Not Sega's fault though.

Firstly, you negate the first sentance with the second. Of course the filesize will be larger with a more inefficient codec. Secondly, what 'more recent' codecs are you comparing to? The PSX and Saturn came out at around the same time, so the technology available was the same.

THREE: Saturn doesn't have a great abundance of working RAM to play with. Streaming high quality video with a 2X drive to compensate for such little available memory would be iffy.

[/quote]

The amount of RAM avilable is irrelivent with streaming video. That's the point - it streams off the disc, meaning other than a small buffer, the actual RAM requirements are low. How much RAM do you think your CD player has? Also the Saturn's drive is the same speed as the PSX.

EDIT: That didn't work too well...

(Edited by Curtis at 7:15 am on Mar. 11, 2002)

 

[mal]

Ikonboard doesn't seem to like too many quotes in one post.

 

[Daniel Eriksson]

In my opinion, FMV in games like Grandia and Panzer Dragoon Saga looks better than any fmv i have seen in ps games.

 

[Shinji]

FMV in Grandia on Saturn better than on PSX ???

Did you ever play it on PSX, it looks much better there.

Maybe you didn't play it with an RGB cable, there is a HUGE difference.

 

[ShinJedah]

PSX has Mpeg encoding.The first PSX's could play VCDs.Too bad they didn't keep the feature.

The Saturn has the VCD(mpeg) thingy.If the game doesn't support that the Saturn uses ecoders like cinepak and bla bla bla..the last few Saturn games used CRis Sofdec wich is the Standard for the DC also.But since the Dreamcast has more Power then the Saturn it was retouched and renamed to MPEG Sofdec.The DC encodes Mpeg videos without a special card or build in encoder,something that got much applaus at the consoles release.

 

[ExCyber]

PSX has Mpeg encoding.

Actually, from what I've heard the format is proprietary, and is closer to MJPEG than MPEG.

The first PSX's could play VCDs.Too bad they didn't keep the feature.

Are you sure about this? I've heard of specific regions getting a version of PSX that can play VCD, but AFAIK it was never part of the base console otherwise.

 

[venom]

I heard only asian psx's had vcd support.

In terms of fmv quality, Grandia and PDS are the best SS examples, but they are still grittier (sp?) and look worse image quality wise than 2nd or 3rd gen psx fmv.

Which games use the "CRis Sofdec" for Saturn? I'd like to see it in action.

 

[ShinJedah]

Yep is mean the first Japanese PSXs.They were supposed to have VCD play back....man...those 32 Bit consoles looked so cool in their import time..

 

[Gallstaff]

you wanna talk ahead-of-it's-time 32 bit, then look no further than the panasonic 3DO

 

[Denis]

>Which games use the "CRis Sofdec" for Saturn? I'd like to see it in action.

I have only one such game: it's a 4th cd from Sakura Taisen 2 Ltd. It's a bonus disc with video interviews of voice actress from Sakura Taisen and them all coded in CRI Mpeg Sofdec.

Any other saturn games with usage of Mpeg Sofdec???

 

[Curtis]

I feel that I've seen the Softdec logo on at least one game of mine, but I can't quite remember which...

In any case, I seriously doubt that it's the same version that is used in many Dreamcast games.