Is there any change of getting an FMV module?

[leofoe]

Subject sais it all. I got an Amiga CD32 that I would like to have an FMV module for. I know that expansions for this machine are very rare and expensive. But... who knows.

[alexh]

No games use FMV. All it enables you to do is play dubious quality / origin MPEG1 VCD films which you can do with almost any DVD player.

Save your money and get an SX1 or an SX32, or some more CD32 games.

[marcfrick2112]

alexh wrote:
No games use FMV. All it enables you to do is play dubious quality / origin MPEG1 VCD films which you can do with almost any DVD player.

Save your money and get an SX1 or an SX32, or some more CD32 games.

Oooh, those are fighting words...First, there are many sites that offer original VCD's at good prices...on the latest releases, the quality is almost equal to DVD. (Variable Bitrate) Second, most current DVD players will NOT play VCD's, just check any major electronic store, if they even mention it..... I had to hunt for a VCD-capable DVD player for my dad, it took weeks to find. Third, the FMV module for the CD32 is reported to offer the best quality playback of VCD's of any available player. I'll admit, there are too many poor-quality, pirated VCD's out there (mainly from China), but that is no reason to dismiss VCD's, or the FMV module for the CD32. P.S. if anyone has an FMV module, I would like to buy it  :-D

[CLS2086]

This module is also good to play MP3  ;-) .
I got mine a few month ago for 50 €uros mint in box in France on Ebay  :-D .
But I prefer Sega Saturn and it's FMV card.
Strange that you buy an incompatible DVD player, here they are all (except XBox and PS2..)
Are you sure your VCD was well burnt ?
are you that was not a V.CD DigitalVidéo on CDi ?

[marcfrick2112]

CLS2086 wrote:
This module is also good to play MP3  ;-) .
I got mine a few month ago for 50 €uros mint in box in France on Ebay  :-D .
But I prefer Sega Saturn and it's FMV card.
Strange that you buy an incompatible DVD player, here they are all (except XBox and PS2..)
Are you sure your VCD was well burnt ?
are you that was not a V.CD DigitalVidéo on CDi ?

Well, I own two Sega Saturn's with video cards, so I like it also  :-) Second, very sad, but in the US most DVD players just will not not play VCD's....these machines will not even play ORIGINAL VCD's...let alone burned discs. (The DVD players that do play VCD's, will play burned discs fine, I just use 'Nero 6' Copy Disc function, even make picture slideshow discs for my compatible DVD players, and Saturn)
And, I think that the discs for CDi are just ordinary VCD discs, MPEG-1, for certain....most models of the CD-I have add-on 'FMV' cards just like the CD32 or Saturn.

[Jupp3]

No games use FMV.

Cannon Fodder CD32 uses FMV, but I guess that's it.

(too bad it also nukes EVERY other save in flash memory when saving...)

[alexh]

marcfrick2112 wrote:
on the latest releases, the quality is almost equal to DVD. (Variable Bitrate)

My ARSE it is :-) No offense. Either you are going blind, you have a very small telly.

Maximum VCD resolution = 352x288 (PAL)
Maximum DVD resolution = 720x576 (PAL)

This means that NO VCD can get within 50% quality of DVD.

DVD = MPEG2
VCD = MPEG1

This means even if the DVD is half resolution 1:1 quality wise the VCD data will be much bigger.

DVD = Dolby DTS
VCD = Stereo

This means no surround effects :-(

VCD =  700 MBytes/disk
DVD = 9000 MBytes/disk

I think you can se where this is going cant you ;-)

marcfrick2112 wrote:
Second, most current DVD players will NOT play VCD's, just check any major electronic store, if they even mention it..... I had to hunt for a VCD-capable DVD player for my dad, it took weeks to find.

Where have you been for the last like 3 years?

The reason that early (or Ultra cheap) DVD players dont play VCD's is that they dont read ANY CD. You need a different laser to read the different disks. However the price of a dual laser diode is now the same, if not less than just a DVD laser diode.

Third, the FMV module for the CD32 is reported to offer the best quality playback of VCD's of any available player.

Heh heh. I think you must have been away for a while. Very early DEDICATED japanese VCD players didnt meet the MPEG spec and to save money had really crappy video encoders on the output. But todays DVD players all meet the MPEG spec (or they wouldnt be able to have the logo on them) and they all output RGB.

IMHO you should save the money you were going to spend on an FMV cartridge and get some decent hardware that will improve your Amiga experience. Which usually are (in this order)

RAM.
Hard drive.
WHDload license.
CD-Drive.
Accelerator.
More RAM.
Network Card.
Scandoubler.
Graphics Card.

But then that is just me.

[CLS2086]

He lives in the USA, no luck for him ! (but we can send him ). He won't get XVID/VCD/DIVX/DVD player with PAL/NTSC/RGB/Component/Svideo output for 30 Euros at the supermarket.

VCD can have dolby surrond ProLogic 1 & 2 encoded stereo sound track  ;-) .

Pure "Digital Vidéo on CDi" are not VCD compliant ! They have the same MPEG1 output bitrate, but vidéo got a different size and sound is in different stéréo mode.
They were made just before VCD for a very short time.
And the best of all, they use a "different" Table of Content for their OS/9 internal system, that nearly none of the actual DVD player can read...

[alexh]

He won't get XVID/VCD/DIVX/DVD player with PAL/NTSC/RGB/Component/Svideo output for 30 Euros at the supermarket.

They dont have them in USA?

I've been recommending these Umax Chili DVD-2400X they do absolutely everything and sell in UK supermarkets for about that price.

[leirbag28]

@alexh

No games use FMV. All it enables you to do is play dubious quality / origin MPEG1 VCD films which you can do with almost any DVD player.
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Your wrong.............Cannon Fodder and  Video Creator and SCALA MM300  use the FMV.......Video Creator use it extensively and mixes graphics with the music Video MPEG.  Quite awesome.  THis was the MAIN reason I purchased a CD32.

To use it with SCALA ...just get the Demo CD 2.0 that is supposed to come with the FMV card...and find the Command that controls the Videos on the CD..you can probably see what it is in the Startup Sequence.......then copy it to your C" directory.............and now not only can you execute Any track on a VCD from SCALA..........you can also overlay Text..............even create a Kiosk with Buttons that select the Clip you want...................I made a Music Video Kiosk with it ad My CD32 with SX-1........how awesome!.  I have that command in My C: directory right now.......but I sold my FMV..........wanted to find a way to use it with the SX32 simultaneously.  It is possible if someone made a passthrough with a clockport adaptor (Jens? ;-) )



@marcfrick2112

You are right.............the CD32 does play the Best VCD playback of any system...especuilly if you have your CD32 plugged into a Genlock.it interlaced the Video and brightens it.  It is also (or was) the only other system in the world that can playback CD-i Digital Video..wich was really VCD burned differently.
and Yes...most American DVD players DO play VCD...even if it doesnt say it on the box.


@CLS2086

Play MP3??? you sure about that?  I have had different responses here about that subject matter.   I personally believe it can play MP3 wich is MPEG1 layer III audio.

and about the CD-i Digital Video CD's...............the CD32 plays them no problem.........Even games like Dragons Lair and SPace Ace can be viewed with Video Creator.  Commodore surprised PHILIPS with this trick..I uysed to buy specific CD-1 titles as they were the highest quality at the time.....Check out Forrest Gump the PHILPS version.looks superb! better than VHS for sure.


@alexh

They definitely have them...most DVD players play VCD today.Id say about 85% of them..........heck I find DVD player in the streets all the time..and they play VCD and MP3 usually.  Maybe not always MP3, but VCD yes.......it doesnt necessarily say it on the case.



Now.....if anyone wants advice on how to make the most excellent Quality VCD's.........it starts with first having excellent quality Footage...................and that can be from DVD  or a 3CCD Digital Video camera..............then Take the DVD tracks and rip them on a PC..........convert them to MPEG1 and then Use NERO to burn..........you will be  blown away by what you did not know VCD can do.......................these look better than even PHILIPS Video CD's

I took a Linkin Park DVD and turned it into Widescreen VCD............Nice!

Also Spiderman the Movie, Back To The Future, Shrek1 and Shrek2 and Kill Bill 1, and 2  , they look better than any VCD you can purchase.

[alexh]

@leirbag28

1 game (which you can play anyhow without cut scenes) and a few movies, which play on most DVD players and which the DVD versions are better quality.

I think my point is made, the FMV cart for the CD32 is NOT worth the money so far as enhancing your Amiga experience goes.

[InTheSand]

leirbag28 wrote:
about the CD-i Digital Video CD's...............the CD32 plays them no problem.........

You'll also find that ISOBuster on the PC is able to extract MPEG-1 video from CD-i discs - you can then re-encode it to a compliant 352x288 stream...

most DVD players play VCD today

This is true for PAL countries - Europe, Australia, NZ, etc... Even the cheapest cheapo players will do VCD with no problem...

Now.....if anyone wants advice on how to make the most excellent Quality VCD's.........it starts with first having excellent quality Footage

Always the case! Noisy footage is a nightmare with MPEG-1, but a good quality original will exceed VHS quality if it's encoded with decent software (like TMPGEnc).

Another thing you can do if you want tonnes of video on one disc is to encode a 352x288 MPEG-1 stream (with 48KHz audio instead of the usual 44.1) and burn that to DVD. That way you can get over 7 hours of reasonable quality on one standard 4.7Gb disc that'll play on most players (as it's part of the official PAL DVD spec)...

 - Ali

[marcfrick2112]

@alexh: Whoa, maybe you need to cut back on your caffiene , or something. :-?  OK, maybe I phrased it wrong, all I was trying to say is current VCD's look Damn good. (I am not going blind) And no matter what anyone says, in my area it is still hard to find DVD players that play VCD's. It's a crap shoot, basically. I have nearly brand-new Magnavox DVD that plays Audio-CD's,DVD's, but not VCD's....
   As for expanding my Amiga, until I get a Zorro backplane, there is not much I can add to my A1200 Tower.

[CLS2086]

@marcfrick2112 : strange. But if your are not efraid we can send one to you.

http://www.darty.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/DartyVerticalComparatorView?storeId=10001&u=2&r=12416&f=592&drct=1&fsel=1

I get 3 month ago a SCHNEIDER SDV (Magnavox/Philips highiest brand) and it plays well VCD and MP3, and can be set to english (sure) and NTSC (i think to have seen that).

For making VCD I used a lot FlaskMpeg 0.53 (for my K6-3) and the 0.78 (for my Athlon) with Panasonic MPEG1 Plugin and the free BBMpeg plugin. Then burned with NERO.  :-)

[alexh]

As for expanding my Amiga, until I get a Zorro backplane, there is not much I can add to my A1200 Tower.

Getting a Zorro backplane for an A1200 is probably (again? :-)) the wrong upgrade for you IMHO.

A1200 Zorro backplanes are only Zorro II and they dont support DMA and only a small few have video slots + chipset adapters. This drastically limits what cards you can use.

My advice would be to get a PCI backplane. A GRex if you have a Blizzard 1260/PPC or Mediator otherwise.

This will give you access to all the cards you'll want (Graphics, Sound, Networking, USB).

I would still recommend a faster accelerator, more RAM, bigger hard drive (Using SFS) or a PCMCIA network card over a bus board. They will all be better for you in terms of value for money, and impact on your Amiga experience.