Movie Cart

[+Gemintronic]

How do you use these for games?  Is there a way to  load a new 4k bank with a command or something?

[+rbairos]

3 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

How do you use these for games?  Is there a way to  load a new 4k bank with a command or something?

They only play mvc files.
You can create your own mvc file and put it on the sdcard.
I have step by step tutorials on my youtube page.

 

Cheers

[+Gemintronic]

15 minutes ago, rbairos said:

They only play mvc files.
You can create your own mvc file and put it on the sdcard.
I have step by step tutorials on my youtube page.

 

Cheers

 

Had to ask even though it's clearly out of scope.  A way for homebrewers to access all that storage is tantalizing.  Even if its something simple like a way to access sections of video for a Dragons Lair type game

[+rbairos]

2 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

 

Had to ask even though it's clearly out of scope.  A way for homebrewers to access all that storage is tantalizing.  Even if its something simple like a way to access sections of video for a Dragons Lair type game

It's definitely possible.  It can emulate 2k for sure, possibly all 4k.  Just need a chip programmer/firmware update and a bunch of new code.

[+sfish]

In case anyone is interested, I've set up an account on The Internet Archive to collect Movie Cart compatible public domain movies. To get started, I've converted 19 movies from publicdomainmovie.net using all the default settings in the Touch Designer encoder file in the Movie Cart GitHub project. The only change I made was to remove all the zooming and cropping so that you can see the entire movie from start to finish. 

 

The intent of this project is to provide people an easy collection of freely distributable movies encoded for the Movie Cart. If you would have preferred to encode any of the movies differently, that is certainly an option you can create for yourself with little effort when following the instructions provided in the Encoding a Video - Intro tutorial on YouTube. 

 

Here is the repository: https://archive.org/details/@pdmcmp

 

I intend to keep adding to this collection, so if you have a link to a public domain video source you would like to have added, feel free to send it over to me and I'll look into encoding and including it with the other movies. Hopefully someone will find this useful or even valuable. 

[JetmanUK]

11 hours ago, sfish said:

In case anyone is interested, I've set up an account on The Internet Archive to collect Movie Cart compatible public domain movies. To get started, I've converted 19 movies from publicdomainmovie.net using all the default settings in the Touch Designer encoder file in the Movie Cart GitHub project. The only change I made was to remove all the zooming and cropping so that you can see the entire movie from start to finish. 

 

The intent of this project is to provide people an easy collection of freely distributable movies encoded for the Movie Cart. If you would have preferred to encode any of the movies differently, that is certainly an option you can create for yourself with little effort when following the instructions provided in the Encoding a Video - Intro tutorial on YouTube. 

 

Here is the repository: https://archive.org/details/@pdmcmp

 

I intend to keep adding to this collection, so if you have a link to a public domain video source you would like to have added, feel free to send it over to me and I'll look into encoding and including it with the other movies. Hopefully someone will find this useful or even valuable. 

Firstly, thank you!

This is exactly what I was hoping for, a resource of free content that is ready to go. As I live in PAL land can I ask if you will be encoding PAL and NTSC versions?

Thanks again.

Edited August 13 by JetmanUK

[+sfish]

1 hour ago, JetmanUK said:

Firstly, thank you!

This is exactly what I was hoping for, a resource of free content that is ready to go. As I live in PAL land can I ask if you will be encoding PAL and NTSC versions?

Thanks again.

Glad to do it.  

 

Sure thing. I can encode them in PAL as well and will start working on that today. As you can imagine, the encoding and uploading can take a while, but I'll upload them as I go so you'll see some PAL-licious content showing up soon!

[JetmanUK]

11 minutes ago, sfish said:

Glad to do it.  

 

Sure thing. I can encode them in PAL as well and will start working on that today. As you can imagine, the encoding and uploading can take a while, but I'll upload them as I go so you'll see some PAL-licious content showing up soon!

Thank you. That's great.

 

Perhaps for the few people out there who are using their PAL console on an old CRT which only supports 50hz, I'd say it's best to encode all PAL content as standard PAL rather than PAL60. This is good for obvious compatibility, but also there is a benefit of more lines in the picture and therefore slight increase in detail/image size, but at the cost of a slight increase of flicker.

 

I use my S-Video modded light sixer with an LG OLED, via a Retrotink and I didn't really notice the higher flicker when I tried 50hz PAL instead of PAL60. Also, as it a video file you don't have to use game mode on your TV so you can use some of your TV's filters to smooth out the image like you would when you play a DVD anyway. I'd recommend all PAL users stick to PAL instead of PAL60 for Moviecart.

 

Edited August 13 by JetmanUK

[Bomberman94]

6 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

Perhaps for the few people out there who are using their PAL console on an old CRT which only supports 50hz, I'd say it's best to encode all PAL content as standard PAL rather than PAL60.

Are there PAL-people using such an old CRT that does only support 50hz - must be very old… 😉

[JetmanUK]

1 minute ago, Bomberman94 said:

Are there PAL-people using such an old CRT that does only support 50hz - must be very old… 😉

I'd say there will be an edge case double figure level of Atari users over here. Not many, and not me.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Is around 60 considered very old?

[Bomberman94]

3 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Is around 60 considered very old?

For a TV - i would say yes 😮

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Just now, Bomberman94 said:

For a TV - i would say yes 😮

The TV is maybe 25 years.  

[Bomberman94]

Mmh, we can ask here if there is someone that: uses PAL norm, owns the MovieCart and has a TV that can’t display PAL60. If there is no one we can treat ourselves the best PAL signal. OK for everyone?

[JetmanUK]

1 hour ago, Bomberman94 said:

Mmh, we can ask here if there is someone that: uses PAL norm, owns the MovieCart and has a TV that can’t display PAL60. If there is no one we can treat ourselves the best PAL signal. OK for everyone?

PAL60 is the best for games for sure, every PAL game should be PAL60....

 

But this is a video file format, using PAL at 50hz it's still much higher than DVDs/Blu-ray's, and results in a larger picture size than PAL60. I encoded the same clip at PAL and PAL60 and discovered this myself.

 

Your TVs features and filters that you use for other content can be used as input lag is not an issue with watching video, and I'd advise should be used if you are using a modern set, just to get a more pleasing picture. I see no degradation in quality, but I do see a larger picture. 

 

EDIT:

A little bonus, a PAL file is slightly smaller than a PAL60 file too, again this was my experience when I encoded the same movie in both formats. 

Edited August 13 by JetmanUK

[+sfish]

Quick update: Please test this PAL version of His Girl Friday which has just been uploaded to the movie collection:

 

https://archive.org/download/his-girl-friday-1940-movie-cart/his_girl_friday_512kb-PAL.mvc

 

If this works for you, I will continue encoding the movies I've uploaded already as PAL and get them uploaded as soon as possible.

[JetmanUK]

Will do. 🤟🏻😊

[Bomberman94]

4 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

PAL60 is the best for games for sure, every PAL game should be PAL60....

 

But this is a video file format, using PAL at 50hz it's still much higher than DVDs/Blu-ray's, and results in a larger picture size than PAL60. I encoded the same clip at PAL and PAL60 and discovered this myself.

 

Your TVs features and filters that you use for other content can be used as input lag is not an issue with watching video, and I'd advise should be used if you are using a modern set, just to get a more pleasing picture. I see no degradation in quality, but I do see a larger picture. 

 

EDIT:

A little bonus, a PAL file is slightly smaller than a PAL60 file too, again this was my experience when I encoded the same movie in both formats. 

When it comes to >video file format< I didn’t know that - thanks for the heads up!

[JetmanUK]

14 hours ago, sfish said:

Quick update: Please test this PAL version of His Girl Friday which has just been uploaded to the movie collection:

 

https://archive.org/download/his-girl-friday-1940-movie-cart/his_girl_friday_512kb-PAL.mvc

 

If this works for you, I will continue encoding the movies I've uploaded already as PAL and get them uploaded as soon as possible.

I just played it, no problem here.

[+sfish]

3 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

I just played it, no problem here.

Excellent. Onward through the fog! 

[+rbairos]

Okay, for anyone interested, I'm all setup again.
I'll be putting some more up for sale tonight  7:00 EDT
https://www.tindie.com/products/lodefmode/moviecart-atari-2600/

[Bee]

While checking back on this, I found another thread on 2600's in tv and movies.  It would kinda be cool in my opinion to make a montage on a Movie Cart.  Looking for the next batch.  & Thank you for making the product!

[+rbairos]

Playing multiple files on one card:

Many of you have asked for this, so I've made a patch that should give you that functionality.
After this update, press SELECT on the console to cycle between files.

The update process is very untested, but here goes.
Worst case, it can always be un-installed.
Worst worst case, contact me!

IMPORTANT: If you have one of the very early betas please do not install it. (3 or 4 of you, who were early testers).
This patch should work on anything sold from the Tindie store.
If unsure PM me.

Thanks very much!


INSTALLING A NEW PATCH:

Note: Installing a patch will replace any existing patches, so make sure you have the latest.
Select the update.frm file you require and place it on an sd-card by itself with no other files.
Insert it into the Moviecart, and insert the MovieCart into the Atari console.
Power up the Atari.
It should only take a few seconds  to update.
If successfully updated, the LED will flash 22..22..22..
If unsuccessful it will flash 33..33..33..
Turn off the Atari and remove the MovieCart PCB.

FACTORY RESET (Remove any patches) :

If a patch needs to be removed, use a thin wire with both ends exposed.
A metallic sandwich twist tie, with the paper removed from each end works well.

Remove any SD cards from the MovieCart PCB.
Insert one end through the hole labelled 'PGD' and the other through the hole labelled 'GND'.
These are holes 2 and 3 of a five hole section in the upper left hand side of the MovieCart PCB.
Verify they are labelled 'PGD' and 'GND'.
Verify the ends of the wire aren't making contact with any other points on the PCB.

Insert the MovieCart PCB (with the wire in place) into the Atari, and power up the Atari.
After factory reset, it will flash 44..44..44..
Turn off the Atari and remove the wire.
It should now power up as originally delivered.

See revised version here:

 

[JetmanUK]

1 hour ago, rbairos said:

Playing multiple files on one card:

Many of you have asked for this, so I've made a patch that should give you that functionality.
After this update, press SELECT on the console to cycle between files.

The update process is very untested, but here goes.
Worst case, it can always be un-installed.
Worst worst case, contact me!

IMPORTANT: If you have one of the very early betas please do not install it. (3 or 4 of you, who were early testers).
This patch should work on anything sold from the Tindie store.
If unsure PM me.

Thanks very much!


INSTALLING A NEW PATCH:

Note: Installing a patch will replace any existing patches, so make sure you have the latest.
Select the update.frm file you require and place it on an sd-card by itself with no other files.
Insert it into the Moviecart, and insert the MovieCart into the Atari console.
Power up the Atari.
It should only take a few seconds  to update.
If successfully updated, the LED will flash 22..22..22..
If unsuccessful it will flash 33..33..33..
Turn off the Atari and remove the MovieCart PCB.

FACTORY RESET (Remove any patches) :

If a patch needs to be removed, use a thin wire with both ends exposed.
A metallic sandwich twist tie, with the paper removed from each end works well.

Remove any SD cards from the MovieCart PCB.
Insert one end through the hole labelled 'PGD' and the other through the hole labelled 'GND'.
These are holes 2 and 3 of a five hole section in the upper left hand side of the MovieCart PCB.
Verify they are labelled 'PGD' and 'GND'.
Verify the ends of the wire aren't making contact with any other points on the PCB.

Insert the MovieCart PCB (with the wire in place) into the Atari, and power up the Atari.
After factory reset, it will flash 44..44..44..
Turn off the Atari and remove the wire.
It should now power up as originally delivered.

update.frm 1.16 kB · 2 downloads

This is a great feature, thank you. I will try it out soon. 

 

Question, will my cart be ready to go straight to this update? I only bought it from you a handful of months ago. 

EDIT: I believe it was June. 

Edited September 5 by JetmanUK

[+rbairos]

24 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

This is a great feature, thank you. I will try it out soon. 

 

Question, will my cart be ready to go straight to this update? I only bought it from you a handful of months ago. 

EDIT: I believe it was June. 

Yah that will be fine.
The ones I'm worried about were the first 3 or 4 I shipped out individually for testing before April 7th, that didn't yet work with 7800's and PAL Ataris. (video looked scrambled, audio kinda worked).