PSX Video CD
This is a guide to create Video CDs that can be played with a Playstation console.
Here is a list of what do you need to create video CDs that can be played by the Playstation (PSX) console.
1) A CD-R burner (any, even dated, internal, external, EIDE, SCSI etc ..., however, we recommend a rewritable to try their creations on CD-RW with emulators. In case of incorrect burning you avoid throwing a CD). An internal EIDE Plextor 8/4 / 32Ti was used for the test.
2) Software to burn the disk. We recommend Cdrwin version 3.8A from http://www.goldenhawk.com/ (for those who have a burner not compatible with cdrwin and / or not compatible with the DAO we recommend using Easy cd creator).
3) An empty CD-R, an empty CD-RW (the latter only for those with the RW burner)
4) Movie Converter, Sony utility that can convert AVI movies in STR format (manageable directly by the PSX).
5) A STR movie editor, for the test was used Strplay of Soltin software.
6) An image editor for Bmp, Jpg etc ... and the software to convert them into TIM format, managed directly from the PSX. For the test was used Timutil, a Sony utility.
7) The software to manage videos in the PSX environment.
8) Hitlice, Hitmen utility to patch and to change the PSX boot screen.
9) a fairly large hard drive (or with enough free space), I recommend leaving at least one Gigabyte free.
10) Last important thing, time and patience :))
After obtaining the above mentioned software, you can start creating your PSX Video CDs in just a few steps.
The first thing to do is to convert your movies to the AVI format (uncompressed mode). If you have the movies in another format (Mpeg or similar) this is the first operation to be performed. Do not forget that the AVI movies must have a maximum resolution of 320x240 (I'm not sure, but I guess the single movies should not last more than half hour), so you can see them full screen when you insert the CD you created in the PSX . Attention also to the size of the movie(s), which must not exceed the threshold of the content of a blank cd-r ... Small note but important :)) To verify that your movies have been converted well, load the software strplay and select the file in str format that you have compressed .. (sometimes it may happen that you do not display the movies with strplay, or that give you an error, in this case, you can always make a backup test on an empty cd-rw, check that the movie is seen with PSEmu2000 (in this case you must have at least 128 MB of ram to watch movies and in any case the sound may not be played, but do not be alarmed, on the PSX will be played properly))
At this point, load the software from Sony to convert the movies to Str format, Mc32.exe. Then the conversion screen will appears. Set everything as shown in the next figure, the most important thing is to select the Leap sector mailbox, also the only thing you need to change (if necessary) are the attributes of the frame rate. I found that some movies converted to 15 FPS were much faster on PSX, so I suggest you change it based on frame rate of the movie you have on the PC. Eventually for reasons of space you can set the audio to a lower frequency (In my tests I tried only stereo sound at 37.8 Khz).
After this step, unzip the video4.zip file in any directory, then in the "video" subdirectory insert the newly converted movie and rename it in 1.str up to 4.str. A clarification about it. After creating your own videos and inserting them in the "video" directory, rename one of the 2 files, or psxPAL.exe or psxntsc.exe (for the test the file psxPAL.exe has been renamed) in psx.exe ... Now there are various options. First of all you can go to the burning stage or you can "customize" your creation. With customize I mean the possibility to change the background of the software. After creating your background and saving it with a resolution of 320x240 in BMP format, switch to Tmutil to convert it. Select open from the above software, then open the file you want to be the background and convert it, making sure that it does not exceed 16 Bit color (maximum number of colors managed by the PSX) and has a 320x240 resolution, as shown in the picture
After converting the background in TIM format rename it in Albums.tim and insert it in the "resource" directory overwriting the one that was there previously. First you have to load the grabba.bat file (as shown in the figure)
Then load the grabba2.bat file (as shown in the figure)
Finally, load the pondat.bat file (as shown in the figure) which is used to create an image to be loaded with Cdrwin (ISO file)
Now you can either continue with the next step (of burning) or patch the image so as to insert a title of your choice. To do this, use the file hitlice.exe as shown in the figure (in your case you have to patch the CD.ISO file)
If you have noticed, with the previous command, in addition to creating an ISO, the file pondat.bat has also created a cue, to be loaded with cdrwin. Then proceed as follows (open cdrwin and load the CD.CUE file)
Ok, with these few steps you have been able to create your video CD. Once completed, insert your CD into the PSX, have fun and have fun with your creation.
Here is how the cd inserted in the PSX could appear at startup, in this case the Psemupro 2000 (the Playstation emulator) was used to capture the screen. Notice the background ..
