Hi Tom! Yes, there are at least two "bootdiscs" out in the wild. That's aforemetioned Xing Hong VCD Player and DC Movie Player. The first is a commercial player that was cracked to work without a dongle while the latter is a homebrew player. Xing Hong has horrible output quality and DC Movie Player *apparently* plays most movies out of sync (according to a wiki that I linked to in op). Ah. Well maybe it's crackable, would be nice to get a iso of it.
Found the updated and improved Xing Hong VCD player over at SEGAbits. ( https://cloud.mail.ru/public/2tNT/N5XDybnsR ) But it requires a dongle. Anyone apt to cracking the dongle requirement?