High Quality FMV Playback on 5th Generation Consoles (NOT Streaming Animation)

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I don't know how you can tell that either of those Mega Man (Rockman)X4 videos were shot on real Saturn hardware. Their both 720p and look about the same quality.

The one I posted has overscan borders and has interlacing and composite artifacts. Yours is ridiculously clear with no overscan borders. The flicker transparencies don't look transparent and the dithering isn't blending. So either yours is a very clean RGB capture, or it's emulated.

[gamevet]

The one I posted has overscan borders and has interlacing and composite artifacts. Yours is ridiculously clear with no overscan borders. The flicker transparencies don't look transparent and the dithering isn't blending. So either yours is a very clean RGB capture, or it's emulated.

It looks like a really clean RGB capture. I didn't go past the intro FMV to notice the interlacing issues with your version.

Just look at the quality of Joe's captures of real Saturn hardware.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcDA...odZG6C6wuRGTuA

My S-video capture of Sturmwind doesn't have overscan borders or interlacing artifacts either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phN9...xLOIKxchkWX_Bw

[goldenband]

How about Krazy Ivan?

http://youtu.be/yGFuvK6ay9E?t=1m14s

[Barone]

Another big update!

Thanks for the awesome suggestions, guys! As usual, my assine criteria didn't allow all suggestions to be included but I think most of them were valid.


@gamevet
The difference between yours and Trekkies' videos was pretty noticeable IMO. By the way, that "King Arthur Pendragon" YT channel is from a Brazilian guy which sucks big time IMO.

D doesn't look that good IMO. The PS1 version seems to be a bit smoother than the others (the Saturn one seems to be the worst IMO) but the coloring is really poor IMO. The frame rate and overall quality just don't impress me.
Enemy Zero on the Saturn was a big improvement IMO and I have included that one.

@Trekkies
Those Cinepak intros look pretty bad IMO. Yes, they're almost fullscreen or fullscreen but the colors look awful in some instances, the artifacts are everywhere, etc.
However, I'd have added Saturn's Lunar 2 intro (from your previous suggestion batch) instead of PS1's (which I also didn't include) if the video didn't have the very same artifacts (more noticeable in the boundaries of the characters and such) of the PS1 video.

OTOH, Riven was a A+ suggestion IMO and I need to make some appointments about that:
- Again, that guy behind those Battle of the Ports videos is a Saturn fanboy and his videos while interesting/useful can be a bit misleading due to his bias. Some of his comments are pretty off/half-assed too.

- In the case of Riven (and some other games too), I think he chose a poor "calibration" for his PS1 capture. I will not say he does that on purpose but he seems to calibrate his stuff to the Saturn first and then use the very same settings for the PS1 or something like that.
Compare the other PS1 capture I've linked, which seems to be from the NTSC version, and you'll notice two things: 1) the other guy, unlike the Saturn fanboy, didn't sky rocketed the brightness and/or gamma adjust in his capture and it looks much better IMO; 2) The other capture doesn't look nowhere near as green-ish as the one from the Saturn guy. It can be due to PAL and NTSC differences too, but the fact is that it does look a lot better IMO.

- If you pay attention to the intro/first FMV sequence of Riven, you'll notice how high is the brightness of the PS1 version. Yes, it IS less colorful than the Saturn version (which is interesting, by the way, since some other intros also seem to be specially colorful on the Saturn; cool that the better palette also made difference in some FMVs) and the contrast balance of the video IS also better on the Saturn. BUT I think the guy screwed up with the PS1 version by setting the brightness/gamma that high. It would have been better to have some parts of the game occluded than the whole thing screwed up like he did IMO.

- Still in the intro FMV of Riven, the lower frame rate is the Saturn version is noticeable in the book segment.

- Some parts (look at the third and forth links I've related to the PS1 version) look REALLY bad on the Saturn version in comparison, with bad frame rate/noticeable stuttering and filled with video artifacts. HOWEVER, other parts (look at the Saturn version related links) seem to be pretty consistent on the Saturn, in similar situations, with lower frame rate (not bad by any means IMO) but with the noticeably better coloring and contrast balance as trade-offs.
IMO it indicates that the bad parts in the Saturn are due to the fact that it uses only 4 CDs instead of 5 CDs like the PS1 version, which the Saturn guy tried to present as an advantage (pfff) of the Saturn version.

- The good parts on the Saturn look really impressive IMO, especially for the video window using the same size of the PS1 version and without noticeable artifacts.
The comment he made about the resolution being 640 x 480 on the PS1 I'll have to check, especially for the video sequences - I think only the stills are using that resolution if that much.


About Policenauts, I don't see any clear improvement over the 3DO version regarding the FMV quality. The Saturn version artifacts make me feel sad (yep, I'm assine about artifacts) and the PS1 version looks like the 3DO one, despite its hardware advantages regarding video playback and, actually, the coloring/contrast in the 3DO version seems to be a bit better (that may be due to the different encoder chips and/or schemes, etc); that's why I've included it only for the 3DO until now.
But correct me if I'm missing something, please.


@goldenband
Thanks for another good suggestion.
Looks like Psygnosis really knew how to use the PS1 hardware.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I think some of the Cinepak ones are the result of bad upscaling. But that's all I could find at the moment. For example the Lunar 2 one is stretched to widescreen and blown up with Composite artifacts everywhere. It makes it look far worse than it should. I remember a while back someone had a full playthrough on real hardware and the FMV quality was much better. Same with the Madden 97 one. I can try capturing that one tonight and see if it looks better.

The key thing with Policenauts on the Saturn though is that there's more FMV sequences and they run at a higher framerate. Though the latter may be harder to see with Youtube compression.

Another good one for the Saturn would be the Sonic CD intro in Sonic Jam (among other clips):



Skip to about 2:20.

[spoonman]

Just about every game on the CD-i which utilizes the Digital Video Cartridge will look very good since it's MPEG-1 compression.

One of my favorites is Mutant Rampage


It also has some of the best looking ports of FMV games such as Dragon's Lair 1&2, Space Ace, Mad Dog McCree 1&2, Who Shot Johnny Rock, Microcosm, etc..

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I noticed you had Dragon ball Z Ultimate Battle 22 in the PS1 list. Here's the Saturn equivalent if you're interested:



Sailor Moon SuperS isn't too bad either. The CGI intro is horrid for multiple reasons, but the animated scenes are decent:

[gamevet]

@gamevet
The difference between yours and Trekkies' videos was pretty noticeable IMO. By the way, that "King Arthur Pendragon" YT channel is from a Brazilian guy which sucks big time IMO.

Like I said, I did not watch his video past the opening FMV sequence. I believe the one I had posted was an RGB rip, while the one he posted was from composite video.

I've had my scart cable for my Saturn for 3 or 4 months now. I've been procrastinating on getting a scart to RGB box since then though.

[Folco]

Saturn

Desire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC9krM2k8hI

PC-FX

Kishin Doji Zenki:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kwYUpByTsU

[Barone]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

I've added a couple of Saturn games (gotta love TrueMotion) and two PC-FX games.

[j_factor]

How about Syphon Filter 3?

[Nuxius]

Definitely Psychic Force, some of the best quality FMV I've ever seen on a PlayStation. One of those games that made you think you started your VHS player up by accident.

[Barone]

Updated with the latest suggestions.

Psychic Force's intro looks damn awesome for 1996 IMO.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

The link for Vatlva is the same link for Tengai Makyou.

[Barone]

Fixed, thanks.