Dreammovie: Dreamcast VCD, my first impressions

[Gunstar]

I recently received my Dreammovie MP3/VideoCD player from Lik-Sang in Hong Kong. It can also be purchased from Innovation1 via the net, like Lik-Sang, but they are based in New York; they are also $10 more expensive. I payed $26 for mine, plus $6 for International Priority.

 

http://www.lik-sang.com/catalog/product_li...hp?category=32&

 

http://www.innovation1.com/

 

There are two versions; one that is colored to match the standard colored 'off-white,' but is only for VCD's and the version I bought which plays MP3 CD-R's as well, mine is silver in color. They both have a remote and a controller port module as well as a cdsingle sized cd for the required driver software.

You load the player or "menu" disk first, then swap for the video or MP3 disk. select the file and press play. At first I thought it wasn't working...I also purchased a Star Trek box set including all seven movies with the trio; Kirk, McKoy and Spock: I, II, III, IV, V, VI and Generations. Naturally I wanted to play my favorite first; 'The Wrath of Kahn.'

It wouldn't play, I tried numerous times. Then I started trying the other discs and they all played fine. It seems that disc one of "The Wrath" is bad. I can only watch the second half which starts right after the first major conflict with the ensign that Scotty carried in who dies. ERRRR!!!

I'm going to see if I can get it replaced of course.

 

As far as the movie quality, I can easily compare it to VHS quality for video, I would also compare it to DirectTV digital satellite, which is also in the Mpeg-1 standard in many cases, like VCD (DVD is Mpeg-2). Sound quality is true cd quality, in Dolby surround, like it claims, to my ears. Movies can be had for between $5 and $12 dollars on the net, including the latest up-to-date theatrical releases. It's a popular format in many parts of the world. They are PAL format, mostly, but the Dreamcast plays them just fine on my old NTSC Coaxil TV I have in my bedroom. Supposedly twenty four lines of resolution are cut from the top and bottom of the picture (Pal VCD is something like 320x248 and NTSC can display 320x224 of those lines of resolution-both are interlaced, so there are no visible scan lines like when watching FMV on a Playstation), but I don't notice any loss of picture when watching. These particular movies are pan-and-scan, although I think letterbox is available with some movies, like the Star Wars Special edition trilogy which is available in both. As with some movies and shows on DirectTV, there is sometimes some artifacting of the picture in more or less solid expanses, like the black of space, but it's not bad at all really. Most movies are on two or more VCD's, 74min. per disc. Some double sided discs may be available for some movies. CD-i movies are also compatible, since they are VCD.

 

If you haven't already made the leap to DVD, or you want an extra possibility of movies for the bedroom, ect. and own a DC, this is an inexpensive way to have something better than VHS. Of course expect to be buying movies for it, but I think it may also be possible to make backups of DVD's in the VCD format, over two cdr's. I made the VCD leap because I have not yet made the leap to DVD, myself, although there is the XBOX DVD in the house, but that's not mine and I won't have it forever. so it was a cheap substitute for the meantime, for my bedroom (as well as a VCR) and DVD players are available that are VCD compatible for my collection in the future.

 

Similiar products are available for the Saturn and Playstation. Of course the 3DO also has a rare add-on for VCD too. Faqs on all of these are available at both the VCD sites and the site to buy the DC movie hardware.

 

http://www.vcdgallery.com/best_buy.htm

http://www.videocds.com/

 

Gunstar

[Lemmi]

...I also purchased a Star Trek box set including all seven movies with the trio; Kirk, McKoy and Spock: I, II, III, IV, V, VI and Generations. Naturally I wanted to play my favorite first; 'The Wrath of Kahn.'

 

Gunstar

 

 

I bought this exact same set to play on my CDI, but my Wrath works

 

And i did the same thing i played The Wrath of Khan as its my fav as well

 

 

and Thanks for the detail in describing the dreamcast VCD player

[tiggerthehun]

"From Hell's Heart I stab at thee - for hate's sake I spit my dying breath at thee!"

 

Yeah, Star Trek 2 was awesome... I'm not a big Trek fan - but Ricardo Montaban was the best bad guy EVER!!!

 

I'm sure you all know this, but that line was taken from "Moby Dick" - which is why the camera zooms in on that book earlier in the movie.

Also, all the men in "Kahn's crew" were recruited from the ChipnDale dancers... (Trying, I guess, to keep up that "superior genes" look.)

 

Finally - I love the way Kirk says "I don't like to lose!"

 

 

But to keep on topic - thanks for the VCD updates - had heard that it was possible to play 'em on a dreamcast - but I didn't know how. Fortunately, my old dvd player plays vcds as well - still have a HUGE stack from when I was teaching in China, and movies were 8 quay a piece... that's about 80 cents!

 

"His was the most... human..."

[JagMX]

but I think it may also be possible to make backups of DVD's in the VCD format, over two cdr's.

It is And the good thing about it is that you can keep the dvd picture quality on the 2 cd'rs

[Lemmi]

Hey i just found a big goof up in the star Trek series movies on VCD

 

Part 5 The Final Frontier on the 2nd disc, they didnt burn the end of the movie, it stops right when kirk, sybok, spock, mckoy land on that planet after going though the great barrier

 

I was wondering if anyone has this movie on VCD or CDI??? and if you could make me a copy of it

 

pretty please i will pay for the CD and shipping

[Markimus of K.]

Hey Guys,

 

Everyone keeps saying that VCD is VHS quality, but unless I'm doing something wrong, I'm not getting that impression. I've got 2 Dcasts, one hooked up via VGA and another on S-Video. When I play VCD's the picture itself is fine, the problem I have is with the frame rate. It seem to be quite low; now I assume this is because it's VCD, not DVD, it's certainly watchable but not the greatest. My question is: Am I getting this right? If VCD is better than VHS then why does VCD skip frames? A VHS of Phantom Menace looks a lot better on my VHS than on my VCD (although it's still really cool!).

 

Any Ideas?

As always,

Markimus of VCD questions...

[nashnooga]

When people were buying the psx vcd player, everyone said that it shortens the life on you laser because you are using it for about an 1 1/2 hrs. straight. Wont this cause a lot of wear and tear on your dc laser?

 

Does that vcd player play SVCDs or xsvcds?

[Gunstar]

When people were buying the psx vcd player, everyone said that it shortens the life on you laser because you are using it for about an 1 1/2 hrs. straight.  Wont this cause a lot of wear and tear on your dc laser?

 

Does that vcd player play SVCDs or xsvcds?

 

Well, I generally play my Dreamcast longer than an hour and a half anyway, regardless if it's movie or game. I think a lot of people do, there have been many a "rainy day" where it's been running all day. Same with my other systems as well, all far older, and they work fine ( except the PSX-ironic, isn't it? ). I don't see that as a problem.

 

I haven't noticed any problem with the frame rate on my DC, it looks the same as VHS or DVD to me. I've only noticed the occasional artifacting in "flat" areas of the background or the very occasional skip of the soundtrack for a milisecond. The artifacting I've gotten used too from watching directTV.

 

No, it doesn't play SVCD's or xsvcds. It plays VCD version 2.0 (the worldwide standard for VCD now) using the standard Mpeg-1 compression. It also plays MP3's though and as others have confirmed, CD-R VCD's made with other media. I would imagine that earlier versions of VCD such as 1.0 would also work.

[NE146]

I have a DC vcd player from about a year or two ago.. is this the same thing? Basically it could play vcd's but they ended up w/ a really crappy framerate. On cartoons however it fared better..

[Gunstar]

I have a DC vcd player from about a year or two ago.. is this the same thing? Basically it could play vcd's but they ended up w/  

a really crappy framerate. On cartoons however it fared better..

 

there are other, inferior versions, the faq on Dreammovie speaks of one. There are actually 3 VCD players listed at Lik-Sang alone, one, I believe the early, inferior one, is listed as temporarily unavailable. I can't vouch for the quality of the earlier version of the Dreammovie either. It's listed right below the one I have, but does not support MP3. But I think there are also more than these 3 including "shareware" ones that can be downloaded and used with a controller. Probably not of as high a quality.

 

I think it also depends on the quality of recording as well. I would imagine there are vcd's of cheap, second rate quality recordings as well as those that have been remastered for vcd. Like Lucas film THX stuff. Newer VCD 2.0 may be of higher quality than 1.0 movies from a few years back.

[Gunstar]

Some of you mentioned having 'The Wrath of Kahn' on VCD. Could I possibly get one of you who own the VCD to burn a copy of the first disc for me? The second works fine, so I only need the one.

[Lemmi]

Some of you mentioned having 'The Wrath of Kahn' on VCD. Could I possibly get one of you who own the VCD to burn a copy of the first disc for me? The second works fine, so I only need the one.

 

Can you burn CD's Gunstar??

 

if so i might have an idea

[Gunstar]

Some of you mentioned having 'The Wrath of Kahn' on VCD. Could I possibly get one of you who own the VCD to burn a copy of the first disc for me? The second works fine, so I only need the one.

 

Can you burn CD's Gunstar??

 

if so i might have an idea

 

I have a cd burner and software, yes. But I don't know the settings for burning VCD and I'm not sure if the program I have will work or if I need another burning program. I have a couple though. Disc Juggler, directcd, a shareware one, etc.

 

Also, whatever you have in mind, we may be able to do it for you with Star Trek V second disk, althoughf I haven't played that movie yet to see if mine has the same problem...Another thing; What is the best way to back up DVD's onto VCD format cd'r's? I have a couple movies I bought to watch on my brother's system and would like vcd versions.

[Lemmi]

Ahh ok,

 

i was going to send you my Wrath part 1 CD, so you could burn it, and ask you to burn me part 2 of the final frontier, mine wasnt burned all the way to the end of the movie

[Gunstar]

Ahh ok,

 

i was going to send you my Wrath part 1 CD, so you could burn it, and ask you to burn me part 2 of the final frontier, mine wasnt burned all the way to the end of the movie

 

We can still give it a shot. I've ruined enough CDR's already that a couple more won't make a difference. I have also successfully burned stuff in the past, so there is a chance...

[Lemmi]

Sure im willing to let you try, as i dont know anyone that has VCD's of star trek

 

if you can load java i will be in this java room for a bit if you want to talk about it abit more.

 

http://classicgaming.com/3dotoday/page5.html

[Gunstar]

Well, I watched Star Trek V and my second disc has the same problem. It stops while they are walking in the desert, i think about 20 min. of movie are missing. So this is a warning from myself, with evidence from Lemming that the Star Trek box set, at least the edition we got, are of poor overall quality as no quality assurance in the process. My Atar Trek's I&V each have bad discs. I was also initially disapointed that the discs, while in a "box set," have no individual boxes, they are in cheap 'tupperwear" style cd cases that are made o hold two discs. No Covers or cd sleeves. The VCD player itself seems to be of a high quality and I still haven't noticed any frame rate problems. Very rarely the soundtrack skipped for an instant and there is some artifacting on some scenes of some movies, but these may be do to poor quality discs rather than a player problem. Over all, so far, even with these inferior discs, I have been pleased with the playback quality of the Dreammovie VCD/Mp3.

[Lemmi]

I havent watched star trek 1 or 6 yet (ive got the CDI version of 6) but ive watched the rest and so far only my star trek 5 is messed up, and ive been playing them on my LG CDI system

 

i noticed the artifacting most when there are flat surfaces and when the special effects are intence (watch generations when the enterprise crashes on the planet )

 

I was also dissapointed in the tupperware holders as i payed $29.50 for mine without shipping, i just wish #5 was finished as the part it didnt record was the best part of the movie

[Gunstar]

I meant II&V have discs that are bad. Star Trek: TMP (I) works fine as do all of III, IV, VI and generations. I didn't notice a bad artifacting in special effects myself, only in flat areas, but I see that all the time on DirecTV anyway. There is some minor artifacting in a few areas other than the flat or open areas, but I believe that to be a result of poor quality VCD prints than the VCD technology. Because most of the time the pictures seem to be quite sharp and there doesn't seem to be any relation between when it happens (artifacting) and what's on the screen. Even the flat areas aren't as bad in some movies as in others...I think I'll just be careful about buying cheap box sets, except maybe the Star Wars movies, but those were published strictly under Lucas' control. I'm going to check on a return policy though, but I'm just not sure if I want to go through the trouble. I'm happy with 5 out of 7 movies and 1, the final frontier, I don't really care if part of the end is cut off or not as I don't watch that one much.

[Lemmi]

Weeee me gots Wrath of Kahn for CDI and its better quality then the VCD version

[Jetboot Jack]

I play back VCD and SVCD's on my PC and DVD players (Sony and Toshiba)...

 

I was wondering how the quality of the DC playback compares...

 

I'm not a huge fan of VCD's as I have some store bought movies on both VCD and DVD and I find the quality difference quite huge between the formats...

 

Low framerate, lofi audio and blocking are apparent on all my titles...

 

sTeVE

[Bob Bytchin]

I also have numerous VCD/SVCD's (not store bought), and although the quality doesn't even begin to compare to a real DVD, there is nothing like watching my kids' eyes light up when I pop a CD-R into my DVD player and suddenly the screen fills with a movie that hasn't hit the theater...or is just hitting the theater. Taking 4 kids and a wife to the movies is no cheap prospect...so watching the movies at home with our own sodas and popcorn is the next best thing. Sure, the quality isn't top-notch...but it suffices.

[Jetboot Jack]

Moral high horse warning....

 

Bob Bytchin - you're a thief - I'm not impressed, are you the kind of guy who copies video games too - do you like stealing other people's work???

 

If you wanted a BMW would ya steal one if ya couldn't afford to buy it?

 

sTeVE

[Bob Bytchin]

Let's see....what VCD's have I got in the past year?

 

1) Jurassic Park 3 - bought the DVD when it was released.

 

2) LOTR - bought the DVD

 

3) Harry Potter - bought the DVD

 

4) Vanilla Sky - bought the DVD

 

I wasn't promoting the copying of DVD's. I was just making the point that because movies are so damn expensive to go to at theaters these days, that the difference between the quality of VHS/VCD/DVD doesn't really matter. I'm glad you have high morals...that's very impressive. I notice that you didn't bark at the others who actually paid money for VCD's from companies in Hong Kong. Oh sure, I would put money on those VCD's being legit. The difference with me is that I didn't pay money for them.

[Jetboot Jack]

You're right Bob - no one should support piracy - its bad for everyone...

 

Didn't mean to pick on you...

 

Everyone on this thread who is buying or trading stolen material - just think about what it would be like if someone stole the stuff or services you provide in your job...

 

And no there is NO excuse, I've watched many sofco's go bust over the years as greedy little warez fools spread software without a moment's hesitation to the implications...

 

Please think about the harm you are causing, its the trade in stolen materials that makes industries like games, movies and music so over protective and maintain high prices...

 

sTeVE