Why did Sega put FMV capablities in the Sega CD?

[Psy]

I was wondering why did Sega bother giving the Sega CD FMV capablities. Did the protypes not show FMV looked grainy on the Sega CD? Didn't anyone at Sega suggest formats like FLI/FLC instead? It would have ment cleaner looking animations (then FMV off the Sega CD) while being less taxing on the system (and wouldn't take up as much space on the CD)

[j_factor]

There's nothing special in the hardware for FMV capabilities. It's just naturally there, inherent in CD-ROM systems.

FMV games on Sega CD may have been hyped a lot in the west, but I don't think FMV games were ever a big consideration during the development of the system; they were more of an afterthought.

[Psy]

There's nothing special in the hardware for FMV capabilities. It's just naturally there, inherent in CD-ROM systems.

That would mean the Sega CD would have to do FMV through software, more reason why Sega should have push compressed animation instead of FMV since compressed animation formats were poping up as computer users demanded more then just a grainy stamp sized video.

FMV games on Sega CD may have been hyped a lot in the west, but I don't think FMV games were ever a big consideration during the development of the system; they were more of an afterthought.

FMV cutsceens also looked grainy on the Sega CD. Sega just shouldn't have encouraged devlopers to try and make the Sega CD do something it was horriable at (The Sega CD was no 3DO) and instead stick with what it could do well.

[j_factor]

Well I agree, FMV sucks, but... there's really not much more to say about it.

[Psy]

Well I agree, FMV sucks, but... there's really not much more to say about it.

I not saying FMV sucks, I did think the FMV cutsceens was a good idea but the Sega CD was too under powered to perform the task well. I am wandering why since computers were also having issues with FMV being taxing on systems why Sega didn't just didn't look what was going in the computer industry to get around this. FLI/FLC file formats was created by Autodesk so 640x480 animations could be run under X11 (and other platforms) without drawing too much resources (far less then running FMV) and there were other simular formats.

I wonder if Sega put a CD on the SMS would they have asked it too to run FMV.

[j_factor]

I don't think FMV was really in consideration much when they designed the system, which would be why there's no FLI/FLC. I mean think about it, when Sega CD was being designed there had only been one FMV game on Turbo CD.. it wasn't really on the radar for the hardware folks.

[Psy]

I don't think FMV was really in consideration much when they designed the system, which would be why there's no FLI/FLC. I mean think about it, when Sega CD was being designed there had only been one FMV game on Turbo CD.. it wasn't really on the radar for the hardware folks.

FLI/FLC is software, while FMV needed hardware decoders to run well, FLI/FLC could run on cheap hardware as it didn't take much of the system resources.

Thus even if it wasn't in condiseration when they designed the system, I wonder why they pushed FMV as much as they did.

[Joe Redifer]

FMV stands for Full Motion Video. It is VERY compressed on the Sega CD. Over time they improved the compression codecs so they could deliver Tomcat Alley, the world's most famous game (kidding). "FMV" is a generic term and not a particular format of anything. If you see FLC video, it is still FMV because it is still full motion video. I believe Sega used Cinepak compression. FMV has nothing to do with the hardware. There was some FMV on the TurboGrafx-16 and that was certainly not designed for the task. Whenever I play a Quicktime on my desktop, it is FMV. Whenever you watch a DVD, it is FMV. Whenever you watch TV, it is FMV.

The reason the video looked bad on the Sega CD was the lack of colors. Nothing could be done about that. That's the reason FMV on the 32X looks much better. More colors means video that is more gooder. No matter what codec they used on the Sega CD, video would always look like ass.

[atm55]

I'll have to agree, but some of the animated FMV games were not as grainy and acyually looked quite good. Granted, Revenge of the Ninja and Time Gal for Sega CD do not compare to Time Gal for Laseractive, but they did look pretty good.

[Joe Redifer]

Road Avenger is my all time favorite FMV game. I also have the Saturn version, but the Sega CD version has much better (and different) sound. The Saturn version is barely in stereo but it is still great.

[Psy]

FMV stands for Full Motion Video. It is VERY compressed on the Sega CD. Over time they improved the compression codecs so they could deliver Tomcat Alley, the world's most famous game (kidding). "FMV" is a generic term and not a particular format of anything. If you see FLC video, it is still FMV because it is still full motion video. I believe Sega used Cinepak compression. FMV has nothing to do with the hardware. There was some FMV on the TurboGrafx-16 and that was certainly not designed for the task. Whenever I play a Quicktime on my desktop, it is FMV. Whenever you watch a DVD, it is FMV. Whenever you watch TV, it is FMV.

The reason the video looked bad on the Sega CD was the lack of colors. Nothing could be done about that. That's the reason FMV on the 32X looks much better. More colors means video that is more gooder. No matter what codec they used on the Sega CD, video would always look like ass.

FLI/FLC and such formats could have gotten around the lack of colors as formats like FLI/FLC are animation formats (like Flash now) and the animators could work around the limited pallet.

[Joe Redifer]

That's what they did for Popful Mail and a bunch of others, including just about every game for the Turbografx CD. They just drew and animated them instead of digitizing them. But if they were going to use real video, then there's really not much that could be done.

[j_factor]

They could've done 'em in black and white. :P

Clerks: The FMV Game. Shindler's List: The FMV Game. Dr. Strangelove: The FMV Game. ...hot properties!

[Mendicant]

They could've done 'em in black and white. Razz

Clerks: The FMV Game. Shindler's List: The FMV Game. Dr. Strangelove: The FMV Game. ...hot properties!

SEGA could've licensed the Three Stooges, Marx Bros. and Laurel & Hardy.

[Joe Redifer]

That boxing game was in black and white. Unfortunately the Genesis only has about 5 or 6 shades of grey. Man, why did they have to limit the Genesis to only 512 colors? I wish it had at least 520 or something, witht he ability to put 69 of them onscreen simultaneously. (Quick rant: I hate it when people insist the Genesis has only 64 colors. I think these same people are the ones who insist the Sega Master System has 256 colors when it only has 64 with 16 at any given time!)