Sega Saturn VCD Cards

I know there are a few Sega Saturn VCD cards, but what is the most feature packed?
Thanks

 

I think the best one is the one that comes with the Victor V-Saturn.

 

Is that the Victor RG-VC20 or Victor RG-VC3 ?

 

Both are good

here is a Saturn VCD FAQ:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/saturn/file/916393/12540

 

Ya, I just read that right after my post. I also read another Saturn GameFAQ http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/saturn/file/916393/24462 and it said, near the bottom, that I cannot use the JVC Twin Operator on a American or PAL console UNLESS I use the Action Replay... Could I use a modchip instead?

 

No, a mod chip does not affect the region of the console. It just circumvents the boot check of the disc, so CD-Rs can be played. You can however install a region switch http://forums.xbox-scene.com/lofiversion/index.php/t529060.html

 

Thanks

 

To see some really high quality Saturn Video CD footage, check out Wangan Real Arranged. tat comes with a bonus video CD. The image quality is amazing! Almost or in fact you would mistake it as DVD.

 

I made experiments with the MPEG 1 encoding myself and got amazing results myself with the *correct* settings (which I got figured out after reading some of the CD-I docummentation regarding the VCD specs).

I use a Pastel/beige 1st gen SEGA Saturn (the one from 1994) along with a Hitachi MPEG card. (The Hi-Saturn it came with broke beyond repair, sadly)

I assume they're all the same thing regarding the Video-CD playback function, correct ?

 

I did hear that the Hitachi card has the best video playback however in my Sega Saturn is the JVC card. I've never done a side by side test (I do own a Hi-saturn with VCD card) but going from that Wangan Real arranged video CD I can't see the Hitachi card preforming any better.

Yakumo

 

Some people say Hitachi cards have marginally cleaner images. Though it is very close to other quality cards. The Victor JVC cards (To my knowledge) are the most feature packed + Quality kit. The version 2.0 cards are almost the same as the 3.0 cards, except they don't have as many bug fixes. For instance, if you play a PAL VCD on a JVC 2.0 card, it will show green macro blocks on the bottom edge of your video. On 3.0 it does PAL just fine. JVC cards also support Kodak Photo CD disks, which require a special Kodak mastering software. To be honest, it isn't that great. I made a few photo CDs before and the resolution was pretty crummy. I forget what else it supports, but out of all the VCD cards, it has the most support for extra CD formats. FYI - Chinese VCD cards are crap. Don't even bother. I don't have one on hand, but I think ASSEMbler does. He can testify as to it's craptacular video quality.

 

You can also pick-up the Chinese release of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon from Columbia Tristar, or any professional movie house release on VCD. As long as it's not a pirate copy, the VCD quality from US movie companies are top grade. I really haven't been able to see any software encoders that can do as nice a video as they can. Even in dark areas, somehow their hardware encoders can clean it up. The only exception to this, that I've found anyway, is if you create a non-standard VCD which uses a variable or constant bit-rate around 2500. On a Sega Saturn, the JVC cards can playback at that bit-rate without any slowdown and you'll get super clean video. Except for the fact that at VCD resolutions, you'll start to see super clean jaggies as well. At the standard 1100 bit-rate for VCD's, you'll be hard pressed to find an encoder that can do as well as movie houses do (At least I haven't found any).

 

You might want to give Pegasys's TMPGEnc (http://www.tmpgenc.net/en/index.html) encoder a test. It's what I used on my test and I got pristine video (for VCD standards)

I know that a lot of professional game companies use or used it in the past for their videos including the likes of Konami and SEGA. (Pegasys is an Japanese company... :thumbsup

 

I've used tmpgenc before, as well as Panasonic's encoder too. While I do consider them pretty good, I found that given the same material, I still wasn't able to get as good a quality as the movie studios do. In areas of extreme action and darkness, my videos still had lots of macro blocks. Perhaps the situation has changed since then as this was during the time when VCD's were popular. (^_^);

 

Ya, I have Star Wars The Original Trilogy on VCD
So, If I had the JVC Victor RG-VC3 VCD card in my NTSC(USA model 2) Sega Saturn, would I HAVE to have the Action Replay plugged in at all times(or the region switch set at NTSC-J) for my Saturn to function? Becasuse I'd like to keep the VCD card in and have the ability to set my switch to NTSC(USA) and play some of my regions games.(it wouldn't be worth getting the VCD card if I wouldn't be able to do that)

 

I once saw a high fidelity official vcd at a record store but never picked it up. Vcd could of been a hit in the US, but due to it's ease of piracy it never got picked up here. Not to change the subject, but does anyone know how good the 3do vcd quality is?

 

No, only if you wanted to play VCDs.

 

I suspect given the price, probably as good as the Saturn ones.

 

Saturn VCD quality is impressively good. Even discs with average encoding will often play back looking better on the Saturn than on other players.

The VCD card can be plugged in no matter what, but the VCD card software will fail to initialize unless it matches the region settings. So if you have a JPN card, you can't run the VCD player unless you are in JPN mode. Of course VCDs themseves have no region codes.

VCDs didn't catch on in the US because they required disc changing + expensive hardware.

It had nothing to do with piracy as, at the time, most of the major studios were on board and CD burners were PROHIBITIVELY expensive for piracy. CD blanks were around $20 USD each.

-hl718

 

I just got my VC3 card

i used TMPGEnc to convert the videos, but i dont know what software i should use to burn the converted file, nero wants to reencode the file if i burn using it, and most other software i tried that convert and burn dont allow me to change most of the settings, such as bitrate XP