Is there a way to play video on a non-VCD compatible PS1?

[TheDukeOfNukem]

The other day I fixed up my old chipped PSone, swapped out dead disc drive for one from another console I picked up for a dollar, and started burning a few old favorites like Descent and the exclusive Duke Nukem games, and so on, as a screw you to the PS Classic

Anyway. I've been having a blast with it and remembered that there was that one version of the console that could play VCDs in Japan, and obviously that had a whole other board on there to handle the VCD playback, but I'm wondering if a compatible video file that the PS1 can already decode, like MPEG1 in game FMVs or whatever, were to be burned to a CD as an ISO file and loaded up as a game, if it could work?

Some say PSS is one of the files the PS1 handles for video, but then some say it's a PS2 file.
Others stick with motion JPEG and MPEG1 as being handle...able, by the PS1.

I'm rambling now, but in theory, if the PS1 has the ability to decode MPEG1 or Motion JPEG files, then it stands to reason someone could make a program that would unlock that ability, that could be burned to a CD and read as a game, and on that CD you could also store video files that could be played.

It's late and I'm tired, ignore the rambling in the middle to the end, and skip to the question, rather than the theorizing;

Is there a way to play video files on a PS1?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

You can actually buy an addon that plugs into the back of the PSX and has a hardware decoder onboard to play VCDs, they are cheap if you can find one.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/anyone-here-use-one-of-these-psx-vcd-players.511418/
The question is, why would you want to? VCDs are pretty awful quality.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Hello. Were you able to make it work? I want to burn a video on a CD as a gift to my friend so she can play it on her PSone.

Hello to you as well.
Please do not revive old threads without a good reason → "necrobumping"
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The PS1, other than the one special model (SCPH-5903) with official support for VCD, lacks the MPEG-1 decoder chip. Solving the problem with software decoding is somewhat possible to the point of a proof of concept. Still far from actual usability in sense of enjoying a movie → [PSXDEV] VCD Player for PSX (software based)

So yes, get an old PS1 with the parallel connector at the back and one of these movie adapters mentioned above. Then hope it works better than mine (took me an hour to get it working).

Spoiler

Eventually it startet playing the movie without trouble. Could jump scenes forward/backward, pause… normal playback options

One would be surprised how good a well encoded SVCD can look (far away from well made DVD-Video, but surely acceptable to watch on CRTs). Sadly I don't know of either a hard- or software solution for MPEG-2 decoding in the PS1… and the drive speed could further limit the usefulness as an additional bottleneck.
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I guess some conversion tool allowing the bring movies into a format supported by the PS1 is the most promising approach (official full motion video on PS1 can look pretty good). Sadly I know nothing about this. Also a littler bummer: such a disc isn't compatible to common stand-alone players, while next to every DVD player support VCD, SVCD and similar, extended formats deviating from the precise standards (sometimes called XVCD, XSVCD or MVCD, MSVCD or whatever letter combinations)

 

[duwen]

I believe there's a program (or used to be) that will convert vcd video to .pss, but I've never used it so I don't know how well it works or even what it's called or if it's still available.

 

[Jayro]

You convert the videos to .str streams, and then burn them to CD-R. Get a gameshark CD or similar, and boot it up. Then start the STR CD.

 

[TheDukeOfNukem]

I've been doing more digging and found a short video converted to ISO format, loaded it up quickly in EPSXE (rather than wasting a CD on it only to find it doesn't work) and it works fine. No fast forward or pause or anything, but it works, and it honestly didn't look too bad visually, but then, I have every single episode of Simpsons crushed into 6MB 3GP files sitting on my 3310 and I watch an episode every now and then with no problem.

Anyway! I have found out about .str converters, but I wonder, how would I go about converting them to an ISO format? Would I be able to just use something like Alcohol 120 to burn the files themselves to a PS1 format disc, or...?

All I have is a chipped PSone, no Gameshark or anything. Logically, burning that ISO I found to a CD will work fine as it did in the emulator, the only real question how do I take a .str file and turn it into an ISO?

 

[duwen]

The question is, why would you want to? VCDs are pretty awful quality.

Not only that, they'd be further 'crushed' by the conversion and the PSone's lesser video output.

 

[TheDukeOfNukem]

Here's a PS1 ISO version of the opening from Friends. This is more than watchable. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_GAaDjR83rLVDVsUm54SkxnY1E/view

I've found that decoder and I think that is one of the coolest things ever, however, I only have a PSone, I keep writing it that way, not to be a prick, but to indicate I have the slim one.

And to both of you, hell yes I want to. I love wacky shit like this, but if you wanna make your cringe a little stronger, you should know right now I've got that PS1 hooked up to a 55 inch 1080p tele in my bedroom with just the standard AV cables, no upscaling or anything. It's beautiful in it's own way.

 

[TheDukeOfNukem]

I've found a converter that will convert *to* .str, but it's almost midnight and I'm on a Chromebook. I'll have to fire up the Windows 10 laptop I keep around for stuff like this in the morning.

Assuming anyone wants to give me an answer between now, and when I wake up,

If I have a video converted to .str format, how can I go about turning that into a playable PS1 ISO, to be burned to a disc?

Or, can I just burn the .str directly in something like Alcohol 120 that provides PS1 formatting, to a disc and throw that in the PS1?

 

[Felipe19]

Hello. Were you able to make it work? I want to burn a video on a CD as a gift to my friend so she can play it on her PSone.

 

[chadderbox77]

You convert the videos to .str streams, and then burn them to CD-R. Get a gameshark CD or similar, and boot it up. Then start the STR CD.

How to burn the .str to cd-r though?