Which WC4 has beter quality movies ? - CD or DVD ?

Foxtrot

Foxtrot

Spaceman
the questions self - explanatory. just got the cd version and i could have sworn the extracted clips from the dvd version in the music videos ive seen here look beter.
 
The double-sided DVD version has better video. The single sided DVD version is just the CD version of the videos.

And they better be - the double-sided DVD is about 9GB in size (or more - I'm not sure if it's double layer), so the video can be of much better quality than 4 CDs (which give you probably half a DVD's worth of space).
 
Yeah, there are two DVD versions. The double sided DVD has mpeg2 movies so the video is DVD quality. Where as the PC version and the single sided DVD (which is just the game's 6 cds on one DVD) uses the xanmovie codec at a considerably lower quality.

Worf, the double sided DVD is *not* double layer. And the PSX version of wc4 has 4 disks while the PC has 6 because the PSX version of WC4 is "abridged" and actually has less video, unlike the PSX and 3DO versions of WC3.
 
Dual layer was probably had crappy support on DVD-ROM drives at that time. They had to go the dual-side way.
 
I'd love to get my hands on one of the dual sided DVD versions. Anyone willing to borrow one out? They are so hard to find and expensive. It's also nearly impossible to tell if the few out there are dual sided. I'll pay for your shipping!

I was playing some WC4 on my TV today (playing WC3 and 4 thru again), Svideo from PC, and the thought of a near DVD quality release is more than a bit drool-inducing.

BTW, dual layer DVDs will work in any drive. They have to because most DVD movies are dual layer.
 
If there is any artwork on the actual DVD disk then it is the single sided low quality one.
 
swaaye said:
I'd love to get my hands on one of the dual sided DVD versions. Anyone willing to borrow one out? They are so hard to find and expensive. It's also nearly impossible to tell if the few out there are dual sided. I'll pay for your shipping!
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best place is ebay i bought mine for £2 or something cant remember and i love it, the double sided version is very crisp and clear i just wish they they would of released 3 and prophecy (but maybe that one is on its way to us thanks to CIC?) and privateer 2 on dvds from the masters.

you will need the dvd patch from CIC though because i had some problems getting it to run with sound and smoothly but with the patch :) its like i bought a modern game (but its better than one)

Vermin
 
swaaye said:
BTW, dual layer DVDs will work in any drive. They have to because most DVD movies are dual layer.
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Today, they are. Back when WC4DVD was released, it was meant to run ONLY on Creative DVD-ROM+decoder board combos. I'd say that the drive they included on that box wasn't able to read dual-layer. Otherwise, they would have made the thing dual-layer instead of double sided.
 
Edfilho said:
Today, they are. Back when WC4DVD was released, it was meant to run ONLY on Creative DVD-ROM+decoder board combos. I'd say that the drive they included on that box wasn't able to read dual-layer. Otherwise, they would have made the thing dual-layer instead of double sided.
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The dual-layer standard is as old as the single layer. Dual-layer discs are just more expensive to produce. Pretty much every single DVD-ROM will play dual-layer discs fine, since it's a very common movie format.
 
Dual Layer is part of the basic DVD standard - a DVD drive must read dual layer discs. (And I can verify the Creative drives do read dual layers just fine). In fact, there are two dual-layer standards - it depends how the "break" is handled. A single layer disc works from inside out, but the second layer could go outside in or inside out, the former preferred as the head doesn't have to seek to reacquire the track.

However, manufacturing dual layer discs was very new then - and playback on DVD players of dual layer discs was annoying. Sometimes nowadays you still see "Dual layer - the movie may pause for a seconds while switching layers" which is true of most DVD players of the era - the movie would stop for 3-5 seconds while the drive switched layers (true of both kinds of dual layer discs). Modern drives used in players are so fast, and memory cheap enough that there's a buffer large enough to handle the layer switch so it's completely seamless. But back then, you could expect the pause - and for those 3-5 seconds, you'd wonder if the disc you had was broken.
 
ok, then. Worf, thanks for the explanation :)
Anyways, the original 6-disk version is far from crappy. It is just not as awesome as the DVD one. But the good is all there.
 
How does the PSX version's video compare? Is it on par or worse than the PC one? Just wondering, because the PSX version's video is HORRIBLE, like almost un-watchable on a 34" TV.

(the missing two discs is kind of teh suck, too...I've never played/seen the entire game/movie!)
 
Beckmen said:
How does the PSX version's video compare? Is it on par or worse than the PC one? Just wondering, because the PSX version's video is HORRIBLE, like almost un-watchable on a 34" TV.

(the missing two discs is kind of teh suck, too...I've never played/seen the entire game/movie!)
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Compare to what? WC4 PSX video isnt great... The PC version is better and the DVD better than that. WC3 PSX has better video than the PC version on the other hand as it directly benefited from the re-compression done for the 3DO version. The DVD version of WC4 though is exponentialy separated from these in terms of video quality because it contains all the footage in DVD quality mpeg2.
 
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