CDX/Multi-Mega & VCD

[TVC 15]

Ok so, cut to the chase. My girlfriend bought Initial D (the live action movie) last week on what appears to be VCD, probably a Hong Kong release. Realising neither my PS2, nor Macbook would play VCD video (or at least with the macbook in parts which is not conductive to watching a movie!) I checked wikipedia for a solution.

Apparently my PS2 can play VCD, which is most likely incorrect, or as with wikipedia it does not document how you would actually watch it, is it via 3rd party software for example. Anyway I concluded it would actually be quite fun in the near future to pick up a VCD card for my Saturn and maybe watch it that way.

Anyway what confused me the most is that the CDX is identified on the VCD wikipedia page as being able to play VCD, after a quick Google search my results were inconclusive. So the question is can the CDX play VCD or is this another poorly researched wiki article, the mega-cd has no such facility for playing VCD so I don't understand how the CDX would.

[Chilly Willy]

The SEGA CDX cannot play VCDs. Maybe there's another console called the CDX out there... or maybe the person writing that article has no idea what they're talking about.

There are homebrew players for the PS2 that can handle VCD level video, but not VCDs directly. You'd have to convert the VCD to DIVX or XVID first, then a player like SMS can play the result. The best way to play VCD is on a PC.

[Shai'tan]

link to the wiki

[TVC 15]

Ha, thought so, well it was worth checking.

Heres the link anyway, just scroll to the bottom where it says 'Hardware and Software support'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_CD

Apparently, the Sega CDX is listed as being able to play VCD 'natively'.

Mostly likely a load of bollocks then.

[Chilly Willy]

The writer may have confused VCD with CD+G.

[Svengo]

I used to have a stack of VCDs that I played on my Dreamcast. There are a couple of homebrew VCD players that work fairly well for it that you simply burn to a cd and throw in your Dreamcast.

[grimm]

I use a 3DO and a VCD module for my VCD needs.. awesomeness..

[Lastcallhall]

I used to have a stack of VCDs that I played on my Dreamcast. There are a couple of homebrew VCD players that work fairly well for it that you simply burn to a cd and throw in your Dreamcast.

Do you happen to know what programs you used? The ones I had used all had a delay in audio...

[kgenthe]

VLC on the Mac will play VCDs.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[Svengo]

Do you happen to know what programs you used? The ones I had used all had a delay in audio...

It's been a while but I think I tried several until I found one that worked fairly well. From memory I recall VC/DC and GypPlay though I think there are others including some commercially released ones that I'm told work much better. I remember that if the VCD wasn't formatted the way the player seemed to like you would get some weird audio/video issues. I had more luck with some commercially released VCDs that I had.

[Zz Badnusty]

VLC on the Mac will play VCDs.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

VLC for any operating system will play VCDs

I imagine most any modern media player will play Video CDs

[TVC 15]

Yeah initially I tried most of the obvious options, like VLC and MplayerX, VLC worked fine but for some reason I couldn't select mono sound (some vcd's often have two language tracks one in each channel, from which you have to pick either L or R as mono to get the track you want) so I was stuck with two language tracks playing over each other, that and I really wanted to watch this as easily and simply as possible rather than mess around with TS files. Mind you I guess I could have another crack at it, surely their must have been something I've been doing wrong.

Anyway once I eventually have the cash I think I'll fork out on a VCD card for my grey Jap Saturn. Might even see if I can get my GF to search for one when she goes to hong kong this summer, though to be honest she's not very clued up on gaming let alone getting a very uncommon and very specific item for the old Saturn. I've seen one or two on evilbay, but their in Hong Kong, so I have no idea if their not knock-offs or the real deal.

[Zz Badnusty]

For the language track issue with VLC is it possible to to just go into your computer's audio controls and turn either left or right output to zero?

For the Saturn VCD card, there are number of versions available.
I have the 3rd (final) version from JVC and it supposedly has features which the other cards do not. There was a page on the net explaining the differences.