Home	Forums	What's new	Resources

Making a Saturn "Video CD" (not a real one...)

IBarracudaI - Jul 20, 2002

		IBarracudaI		Jul 20, 2002
			I've been wondering for a while, if it would be possible to encode a movie to saturn cinepak format (this part I know it's possible) and then use, some small size game with a cinepak intro, replacing that file with the encoded movie. Even better than that is to encode a movie in saturn's truemotion, but I couldn't find a codec for pc which could compress a video file, I've only found decompressors. Well, my question is? when a game plays a fmv file, does it matter if the size of the file is the same?? if it is encoded at the same bitrate?? same resolution?? This way we could watch movies with saturn, not at a great quality, but it would be nice?? Anyone has any ideas about this??

		Vic Viper		Jul 20, 2002
			I once had the original codec (duck.dll) but to encode a sat movie you need also a sound codec ... I could play saturn movies on windows media player ... But got no sound at all ... Bad I lost the zip with the codec (I downloaded it from duck corporation itself long time ago ... They sold the company and changed the name. Nowdays that download is not available anymore ...

		antime		Jul 20, 2002
			On2... bought Duck Corp. and are selling the True Motion 2X codec for $250. Searching Google for "duck codec" should give you quite a few hits where you can download at least older versions of the codec. According to Virtualdub's docs, the PC version of FF7 installs a decode-only version of TM, maybe that's of some use to someone?

		IBarracudaI		Jul 20, 2002
			Thanks for help, I will look for a truemotion codec. But I think the main problem is in the game playing it, I fear that saturn games, will won't play a movie with a different size, or resolution. This way, the challenge is not encoding the video material, but playing it using a saturn's game. Another way to play videos on saturn was to write a simple app that only played a cinepak/truemotion file, is it possible using SGL?? Does anyone has some docs regarding this issue??

		M3d10n		Jul 20, 2002
			I think Turemotion games woudn't have much problems with videos in other resolutions... you can find different-sized videos in the same game, sometimes (DraculaX, Suikoden). You could also encode the video thinking ahead on what game you'll use. Pick a game where the video size makes you happy (like Fighters Megamix, that uses full screen truemotion). BUt I think you should focus on finding the codec first, then the problems will be real, and not pure speculation, like what we're doing here.

		AmyGrrl		Jul 22, 2002
			I've done some cinepak encoding myself... and have had pretty good sucess... I managed to replace a small video called 'The Han Solo Affair' it's a little lego man video about 4 minutes... anyways.. I replace the intro video on my Shining Force III CD... and my Saturn does run the video pretty good with out problems..... I've tried using a large size video abiut 15 minutes long... with no sucess at all... the only thing I can think of is that I set the quality to 100% and maybe the Saturn can't handle that.. and I've also been reading that the cinepak video.. has to go a certain byte seqence to be read from the CD.. or something... can't remember right now... so this could also be a factor as to why I have had limited sucess....

		IBarracudaI		Jul 22, 2002
			I have also encoded a cinepak video file, but I just couln't get it played on a saturn, I've overwritten the intro movie on Virtual Open Tennis, made an iso file, appended the bootstrap area, and it just kept crashing! When You used that 15 minutes movie, at what bitrate was it?? (you can see it on the propreties tab) the original shinning force 3 intro is at 248KB/sec without the soundtrack, maybe this is near the maximum bitrate saturn can handle, as it it a 2x speed cd-rom, which reads near 300KB/sec. Try to encode that movie at a target bitrate of +- 240 KB/sec, to see the results. But what I really wanted was to find some docs with info about playing a cpk file using SGL, so that I could create a "simple" app, just to start the movie... (even better was to find info about playing Truemotion files, but I've been searching on the net for the tm2x codec downloadable version and couldn't get anything...).

		CyberWarriorX		Jul 22, 2002
			You can't play an cpk file with -just- the SGL. It appears there was another add-on library which provided cpk playing capabilities. Where do you get this library? I have no idea. Of course, you could always try writing your own. On the other hand, I discovered at one point that SBL provides a number of functions for playing mpeg files if you wanted to go that route. Of course the documentation is so poor and no sample sources are included, so you would have plenty of "fun" trying to get something working. Cyber Warrior X

		antime		Jul 22, 2002
			I believe those MPEG functions are for using the VCD card, notice how they seem integrated with the CD subsystem.

		CyberWarriorX		Jul 22, 2002
			I don't recall implying they weren't. Cyber Warrior X

		MasterAkumaMatata		Jul 25, 2002
			Hehe, that would imply it would be useless since the Saturn requires the VCD card for MPEG playback, and if you already have the VCD card, there is no need for code, right?

		CyberWarriorX		Jul 25, 2002
			Yes, unless of course you wanted to make a game or something. Cyber Warrior X

		vbt		Jul 26, 2002
			Can someone give me the codec please ?

		wonder_k		Jul 31, 2002
			i think saturn can hadle about 50 mips or something around that. so it might be possible to develop an software mpeg-decoder (at least for lower-bitrates). when i think of my old 486... it could play usual VCD Mpeg-files, so why not saturn? ok, i'm asking too much...

		AntiPasta		Jan 1, 2003
			Its been done on some games using CRI's SoftDec... wasn't fullscreen tho and I don't remember which games, I've got my sat just 5 days ago... sorry for reviving the old thread by the way, but I thought it interesting enough

		Daniel Eriksson		Jan 1, 2003
			If anyones still interested, there is a TMV-player for pc here on SegaXtreme at the Misc section.

		IBarracudaI		Jan 1, 2003
			hehe my old post... well I'm still thinking about this... but as those cinepak libraries seem to be missing in action ( ), I guess our only option is to write a software decoder, in SGL... We could try to follow some cpk decoder for pc... (or MPEG decoder.. but I think it's harder...)