MPEG decoder card ?

[TmEE]

The Saturn I got recently had the MPEG decoder card in it...

Now, if I have that inserted, I can watch VideoCDs (I have none as of now) ?

how common or uncommon is that card ?

[mick_aka]

If its he normal PAL card they are rare, if it was complete in box then it would be very rare but not super rare, they pop up on eBay now and again.

I reckon a boxed and complete card should sell between £50-£60, un-boxed (the vast majority of them) fetch around £20.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Depends which one it is really. If its Japanese it's not really rare, but not really all that common either. They aren't necessarily hard to find, just the people that have them want a decent bit of money for them. It's a good thing I found consolegoods.co.uk to get mine.

[sg1000]

Hi,

Does the card improve saturn games in anyway shape or form ?

[nickellingworth]

IIRC Gun Griffon 1 has some MPEG movies not sure about others though.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Apr 20, 2009 19:14:03 GMT sg1000 said:

Hi,

Does the card improve saturn games in anyway shape or form ?

Most games that use it are Japanese Imports.

Here's the list I know of:
Sakura Taisen Hangumi Tsuushin
Sakura Taisen Nekki Radio Show (a.k.a. Steam Radio Show)
Vatlva
Chisato Moritaka disc
Moon Cradle
Wangan Deadheat + Triangle Love
Falcom Classics 1 (disc 2 of the limited edition)
GunGriffon 1 (Japanese version only)"

Lunar Silver Star Story Complete (Requires it)

Heres an example of the difference:

Without Card:


With Card:

[TmEE]

The card is a loose PAL one and its filling up the slot and generating additional heat as of now... I'll have to look into getting some of the games that use it so it won't be too useless

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Well, I'm not sure how well the PAL ones work with the NTSC games. Their may be some compatibility issues.

[TmEE]

I highly doubt there is any other difference than different text on each region card...

[termis]

I have the JVC twin operator card (MPEG/VCD + PhotoCD card). Earlier versions of this card were NOT compatible with PAL VCDs, but later versions could play both NTSC and PAL without problems. (And of course, all the MPEG games, since they're all JP released games anyway.)

So, I'm not sure whether Official EU released cards were compatible with both PAL & NTSC signals, considering that wasn't necessarily true with JP released cards.

As for the games, Lunar MPEG version is the only game that requires you to have the card. Other compatible games have both Cinepak/Trumotion and MPEG FMV clips stored within the CD and just play whichever version that's appropriate.

Gungriffon 1's intro with the MPEG is rather impressive. Probably the best FMV clip in all Saturn's library. However, I noticed that they took out the MPEG FMV file in the US version. I don't know if this is true for the EU version (actually, I don't even know if Gungriffon 1 was released in PAL territories...)

Lunar MPEG is goodyou can still see some compression artifacts during quick color-change scenes. (Artifacts aren't as apparent in the CG intro of Gungriffon)

Only other one I saw was Sakura Taisen radio-something bonus disc. That was rather pathetic -- tiny & small FMV.

I wouldn't pay heaps of money for the card, but I do like pimping out my Saturn to the max, so I made it a point to get the most "flexible" MPEG card out there, which was the Twin Operator 3.0 card.

[superdeadite]

The Japan only Hitachi card gives the best video quality. I have official cards from Sega, Victor, and Hitachi. You really can see a difference. But it was only sold with HiSaturns, so it's quite rare. If you want one, just buy a HiSaturn system, it should have the card inside.

[Madroms]

and there are 3 versions of the hitachi card, so you must be lucky to have the 3rd one (probably the best one)

[TmEE]

Apr 22, 2009 13:09:14 GMT termis said:

Gungriffon 1's intro with the MPEG is rather impressive. Probably the best FMV clip in all Saturn's library. However, I noticed that they took out the MPEG FMV file in the US version. I don't know if this is true for the EU version (actually, I don't even know if Gungriffon 1 was released in PAL territories...)

There is GunGriffon in Europe, I have it... as for it having the MPEG intro, I don't really know... if there weren't then what I saw last time I tried the game was quite good... I need to see if there's any difference with and without the card... I've only ran the game twice.... and with a long gap between the runs....

[termis]

Apr 22, 2009 22:03:59 GMT TmEE said:

Apr 22, 2009 13:09:14 GMT termis said:

Gungriffon 1's intro with the MPEG is rather impressive. Probably the best FMV clip in all Saturn's library. However, I noticed that they took out the MPEG FMV file in the US version. I don't know if this is true for the EU version (actually, I don't even know if Gungriffon 1 was released in PAL territories...)

There is GunGriffon in Europe, I have it... as for it having the MPEG intro, I don't really know... if there weren't then what I saw last time I tried the game was quite good... I need to see if there's any difference with and without the card... I've only ran the game twice.... and with a long gap between the runs....

Gungriffon's "standard" Trumotion FMV clip is actually damn good for Saturn standards, and can hold on its own.

That said, if you sit there and first view the standard version, and then reboot with the MPEG version, you'll notice the difference right away. (And IIRC, I think the trumotion version was also a bit letterboxed, compared to the MPEG clip, but don't quote me on that.)

Google searches indicate that some people believe that MPEG clip was also in the US CD, but never activated. But this is wrong, as I took a look inside the CD itself between both US & JP versions. The US version simply doesn't have the MPEG video files that were included in the JP version.

I'm now curious to see if the EU version did have the MPEG clip, because if that's the case, I might search out for that version...

[mick_aka]

Nothing but the Trumotion .avi vids on the EU version.