VCD

Hi there;

I was wondering if anyone knows any sites where I can get a VCD Boot Disk, and I was wondering if this wrecks your warrenty...
 
It won't wreck your warranty because it doesn't modify your DC, but (as a player) the DC is a lousy VCD player...at least with the software that is out there now.

http://www.lik-sang.com/catalog....

They should have it back in stock soon.
 
3rdMan is right, DC is a lousy vcd player, I used it for a while, but those days are gone. Bad fram rate is something I never experienced on the system before I played Vcds on it.
 
The playback on the boot discs is bad yeah but if u use Gypplay its way better (it must be burned on the same disc as the vcd tho)
 
Ummm...the "boot disc" doesn't effect video playback at all. Gypplay is the only non-commercial VCD player, and unless you selfboot it, you need a boot disc to run it.

Either way, it still runs crusty (well on PAL dreamcast, anyway...)
 
The DC should be able to handle MPEG/VCD movies fine. The problem with bad frame rate stems from the media the movies are stored in, typically 74 or 80 minute blanks, coupled with the software decoder used. The DC was made to read off GD-ROMs where the pits are much smaller than that of 74 or 80 minute blanks, thus a lot can be read quicker given the same Constant Angular Velocity as that for 74 or 80 minute CDs.

I've seen FMVs on certain DC games that run at 3.2 Mbit/s and playback is smooth. DC FMVs are composed of essentially a high bit-rate MPEG-1 video component multiplexed to ADX audio, differing from regular MPEG/VCD movies in that a different format for audio is used (i.e., MPEG/VCD uses MPEG Layer II audio). Perhaps the audio component of MPEG/VCD movies requires more CPU power to process than regular DC FMVs. AFAIK, MPEG/VCD audio are much more compressed than ADX audio found in DC FMVs.

Curtis: I think Boddah was referring to the VCD boot disc, not the boot disc that made history.
 
The poor frame rate could also be attributed to the fact that the VCD "boot disc" is an HK product, and HK products aren't known for their amazingly high quality or anything.

ADX audio takes much less time to decompress than MPEG layer-2. The compression of ADX isn't as tight, however. ADX is just really a proprietary ADPCM method. I still think that with properly optimized code (even C code) a DC could handle VCD or even SVCD quality MPEG.

Another reason for the slowness would be the method that the video is rendered. I'm sure that the official library for MPEG video (MPEG Sofdec) takes advantage of the PowerVR's hardware capabilities like the tile accelerator and YUV. I doubt the unofficial product does, it probably just makes a framebuffer, decodes all in software and copies it to the display, skipping frames all the while :p
 
I just picked up a VCD card for my Saturn and I'm pretty impressed with it. It's defeintly better than the DC as far as playback is concerned...smooth framerate and good audio.

It also gives some nice features like slo-mo, freeze frame, zoom, etc.
 
I paid WAY to much for it....80 bucks! On top of that , it was used even though they never said that it was! Buy-rite was the place and if that is the way they do business, it'll be the last time I buy from them.

I had some trouble getting the item to work, but once it worked, it worked great.
 
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