If you’re interested in watching videos on your Saturn, here are a few tips to get you started. Through this tutorial you’ll gain a working understanding of the technical limitations of video playback on the Sega Saturn, and learn how to use some new tools to create a bootable Cinepak video disc.
It’s 1992. The CD-ROM has given Sega’s developers more data capacity than they could reasonably fill with game data alone. Audio and video production reaches a crescendo as teams look to CD audio and full motion video (FMV) to supplement traditional gameplay, and to fill the remaining space on a disc. Storage may have been abundant, but system components still presented significant limitations.
As a result, FMVs were heavily compressed, and audio quality was downgraded. Cinepak was a logical choice for Sega at the time. It was popular in PC games and was developed with the streaming limitations of CD-ROMs in mind. They also had experience with the Sega FILM format for Sega CD, an offshoot of Cinepak compression.
I recently spent some time experimenting with scaling full HD video down to the resolution of a Sega Saturn after some exciting new video utilities became available. After liking some of the results I was getting, I set out to package a “Cinepak edition” of the new 4.5 hr Sega Rally doc from Pandamonium Reviews in 57 parts, across 12 discs.
Using my favorite Saturn Utility, CPK Player created by TrekkiesUnite118, creating the actual disc image was a breeze. When paired with VirtualDub2 and Sega FILM Tools 3.0, users have access to an end-to-end Saturn video encoding solution for Windows. You can fill most of a CD-ROM with 320x240p Cinepak video by simply running a batch script that outputs an .ISO. This disc image will boot on all established ODE’s, as well as Action Replay cartridges and emulators. CPK Player boots to a basic media player interface that plays .CPK clips, similar to how retail games load FMVs.
When I needed a break from editing, I’d make these short video clips that look like the controller layout screens you see on demo discs. It was fun to try and make these video discs feel more like loading a game. CPK Player has controls for chapter skip, pause and restart. It also has a few display configurations to choose from, like anamorphic 4:3 and letterboxed 16:9 modes:
First, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the basic workflow for VirtualDub 2. Many tutorials are available online, but all you need to do is import and export media files, change some settings and apply filters. Depending on the source video you choose, your filter settings will vary. Import your source video and load a Resize filter. Below are my settings for the 1080p source Sega Rally review. It’s displayed as anamorphic 4:3 to avoid cropping. This gives the video a squished look, which CPK Player then can scale to letterboxed 16:9 using the “_169” suffix, after the file name (ex. 01_169.cpk). I’d recommend letting CPK Player to do the letterboxing for 16:9 content, if you don’t want to crop.
For anamorphic 4:3 (pictured):
- Set Aspect ratio to “Disabled“
- Set New size to “Absolute” and “320×240“.
- Set Framing options to “Do not letterbox or crop“
For cropped 4:3 :
- Set Aspect ratio to “Same as source”
- Set New size to “Absolute” and enter “240” for the y value. Leave the x value alone.
- Set Framing options to “Letterbox/crop to size” , and choose “320×240”.
Once you’ve converted your source video to the desired resolution, be sure to lower the frame rate to 30fps or below. For this project, I chose 15 fps in order to push for better video quality. Next, you’ll encounter the first limitation, the length of a single clip. In order to fill an entire disc with video, you’ll need to cut it into smaller pieces of around 5 to 8 minutes. You’ll want to do some testing to find out where the limits are for your source video. Pushing it too far tends to result in hanging video streams with looping audio. To export a section from virtualdub, set the boundaries with the [Mark in] and [Mark out]. When you export, it will only render the selected frames, allowing you to maintain a single master session.
Under the Video tab, select Compression. You need to be mindful of the video bitrate, here. The Saturn CD drive has a soft limit of around 290Kb/s of bandwidth for video and audio. Limiting the target data rate to 250 KB/s is a good place to start testing, but the quality value may also be adjusted. You do not need to force keyframes using this method.
Temporarily exceeding this soft limit is sometimes possible, but stuttering and freezing is likely if pushed too far for any length of time. This applies to CD-Rs, ODEs and even emulators, which are designed with actual hardware specs and compatibility in mind. Additionally, if you find your video is looking a little overcooked with compression artifacts, consider lowering the framerate and putting the savings towards an increased video bitrate.
For audio, you’ll generally want to be at 22.05khz 16-bit mono. Stereo audio is rarely worth doubling the audio bitrate for, but it can be nice when music is the priority. Dropping the bit depth (Precision) to 8 tends to add noticeable hiss, but it can be effective when paired with a 44.1khz sample rate for music. The audio bitrate would remain the same either way. Halving or doubling the sample rate or bit depth results in a corresponding change in both the total data and the streaming bitrate.
The Nyquist Theorem states that the highest audio frequency we can output is half of the frequency of the sampling rate. This means that with a sample rate of 44.1khz, you can hear a max frequency of 22.05khz on playback, which covers the entire range of human hearing (think every CD you’ve ever listened to). A sample rate of 22.05khz by contrast, would allow for a max frequency of 11.025khz, which is closer to half the range of human hearing (the lower half). That said, 22.05khz 16-bit mono still sounds quite good, is rarely noticeable as lower-quality unless directly compared to higher sample rates, and is common for PCM audio playback from memory on the Saturn.
We’re now finished configuring Virtual Dub and are ready to export our Cinepak video file. If done right, your video and audio output settings should look like the image above. Name your clips according to the file name conventions mentioned on the CPK Player resources page and select “Save.” Files will play back in alphanumeric order, so consider using numbered file names from this point forward to ensure your clips play back in the desired order.
Next, load Sega Saturn FILM Tools and navigate to the MovieToSaturn tab, recently added in v3.0. Select the Source Video File, and select Create FILM File. Take note of the Bitrate data. Video Bitrate is an average of the video stream alone, while Max Video Bitrate show the peak value reached. If using these settings, the audio bitrate should always be constant ~43KB/s.
Be careful of running the Total Average Bitrate too high here. If you see averages exceeding 280KB/s with peaks above 300KB/s, it’s likely to have issues with playback. I find it useful to add the Max Video and Audio Bitrate together to get a Max Peak Bitrate. In this case, that value would be 287KB/s. When starting out, it can save some troubleshooting if you just keep your Max Peak Bitrate below ~290KB/s. With these values, I’m getting consistently high video bitrate (but not the highest), while keeping any spikes under the limit where they won’t cause issues. Of course, part of the fun is learning where you can get away with pushing these soft limits to get clearer results with fewer compression artifacts. Thankfully, testing tends to be consistent. A clip that causes a crash often fails in the same way each time, and a clip that works once is likely to work every time.
You’re ready to place your .CPK files in the /cd directory in /CPK_Player and run the build.bat file. Check the /out directory for your new disc image. Nice! You now have a self booting .ISO that will play your own Cinepak clips on the Saturn! This can be converted to Bin/Cue if needed with disc tools such as AnyBurn.
Additional Tips:
- Be curious about testing the limits of your video clips
- Overlay a number somewhere in the video to help keep track of which clips you’re on.
- If you have access to a 16:9 monitor, try creating an anamorphic 4:3 clip without the _169 suffix. This will behave like regular anamorphic video, allowing your tv to scale the image to full screen.
If you’d like to download my repack of the Sega Rally Documentary, head over to the release page on SegaXtreme.net. Watch the original documentary and many more on the Pandamonium Reviews Youtube channel. You can also check out my Sega Rally remix of “Ignition”, featured in the review and Follow me on Twitter.
Thank you to @TrekkiesUnite118 and @PandaMonium for the tools and inspiration to put this together. It was a lot of fun. And remember, you must watch Sega Saturn!
Thank you very much!!! This was exactly what I was looking for! I’m planning to see christmas movies on my saturn but I got a kinda dumb question: Do I need the Saturn video card for this?
Nope, the MPEG card is not required to watch videos made with this method.