[PSX] Final Fantasy VII Videos

[darkvadd7]

Hello,
I'm re-translating Final Fantasy VII for PSX with lasyan3's tools, and I would like to translate the two videos with text. I have succeded to extract this videos, and I can modify them with VirtualDub. But this videos are not in STR format, but in MOV format. I can convert my AVI modify videos in STR but not in MOV. And also, I don't know how to reinsert the videos.
Thanks !

[hay]

You can re-insert it with cdmage(kudos for ff7rules for the info) and switch files but they have to be exact size or else they'll have to be trimmed down or zeros will be inserted at the end.
Also Sony Movie Converter & MovPack may help you.

Aaaaand I think this topic should be in Tech Related/Support.

[darkvadd7]

I have already tested Sony Moive Converter, but it not allow to convert an AVI in MOV.

[ff7rules]

Hello,
I'm re-translating Final Fantasy VII for PSX with lasyan3's tools, and I would like to translate the two videos with text. I have succeded to extract this videos, and I can modify them with VirtualDub. But this videos are not in STR format, but in MOV format. I can convert my AVI modify videos in STR but not in MOV. And also, I don't know how to reinsert the videos.
Thanks !

The method mentioned should let you reinsert the videos and i know this can be done because ive seen ripped copies of ff7 about (the game without the movies i think they just replace them with a black screen or something so yes it can be done, thats not to say it won't be alot of work. first you will have to make sure you convert it to the right format i saw a STR to AVI converter somewhere i think it was in zophars tools or something like that.

[darkvadd7]

I'm using PSXMC to convert my videos in AVI. But the problem is : videos with sound are in MOV format, and videos with no sound are in STR format. So, I havn't found a tool which convert in MOV format. For the reinsertion, I will see after this.

[ff7rules]

I'm using PSXMC to convert my videos in AVI. But the problem is : videos with sound are in MOV format, and videos with no sound are in STR format. So, I havn't found a tool which convert in MOV format. For the reinsertion, I will see after this.

Haven't tried it myself but try this http://wareseeker.com/screenshot/MOV-Converter-1.0.1.exe/7013669 if it does what it says that should do.

[ignitz]

MOV and STR files in the Final Fantasy VII[PSX] are STR format videos, but the header is different of STR normal files, then I don't know how to reencode the videos.
It's MOV because maybe he use MOVPACK develop by SONY to merge the STR FIles with XA audio. but remind the STR files of FF7 it's diferent of normal STR files.

[darkvadd7]

OK, so, for the moment, we can't translate videos.
Thank you.

[DLPB_]

certainly can.

I have had to for my walkthrough

pscmc works for str and mov but may need extra plugins.  And you may have to scan by disk, it wont always allow u to simple "open as"

[darkvadd7]

That's interesting, can you say more about this please ? 

[DLPB_]

When I am not physically drained, I will give you a full text

[DLPB_]

Ok....here is what you need to do:

You need the PSXMC freeware edition

http://www.zophar.net/utilities/psxutil/psxmc.html

Then, you need to open it up and go to:  PSX MC options , make sure the drive selected is the physical CD/DVD drive

Then, Open and analyze the CD rom (there is a rather large button bottom-left which will have the name of your drive on it too usually)

This will scan the disc for all str and mov files (for some reason, the scan has to take place or it wont let you open STR files [??] The mov files will open normally with the open option on the menu)

Next, they will all appear in a nice list.  You can save the list so you dont need to scan again.

The Str and XA plugins should come WITH the freeware version.  You may have to download the ff8 and ff9 FMV plugins if you ever decide to rip them

[darkvadd7]

OK, but it's just to read the videos, what I want is to modify and insert the new video in the disc. I have already extract the videos with PSXMC and I can modify. The real problem is to convert AVI files into MOV files compatible with the game.

[DLPB_]

OK, but it's just to read the videos, what I want is to modify and insert the new video in the disc. I have already extract the videos with PSXMC and I can modify. The real problem is to convert AVI files into MOV files compatible with the game.

ahhhh sorry!  well I was a bit tired when I read, didnt realise that was what you meant

In that case cant help you, but surely someone out there knows how to encode to a PSX readable file?  I certainly havent seen any encoders though have to say

[halkun]

The encoders are proprietary and copyrighted/patented  by Sony. You have to also code to XA format with the proper interleaving. The MOV file is not a quicktime file. The movie is actually embedded into the physical disk, beyond the normal sector data . Even though a filename exists, and points to the location of the data FF7 never uses.  It actually streams the movie data much like a laserdisc. There is not real "file" at all.

[darkvadd7]

But, we can extract the file and look the video. So I think we can replace the file to replace the video.
In this topic : http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7174.0, m35 says he will be able to make an encoder for those videos.

[halkun]

Decoding does not equal encoding. Here's a better way of putting it... PSX discs are not called CD-ROMs for a reason...

The format of the disk is different. First, they are XA mode 2 disks, which use more data per sector. In the case of video/audio, the data is not saved as "a file" but the psychical format of the disk changes. In order to create a disk, you MUST use a bin/cue format (As all sector data is retained in that format. The ISO format chops off the XA headers and damages the disc in the conversion process). After that you are going to need to find a program that writes Sony/Phillips Audio-video XA/mode 2 data to particular sectors CD-ROMs, normal programs and many burners can't...

On top of which, FF7 doesn't use filenames to look up data, but manually moves the CD-ROM read head to a physical location of the disk. You are going to need to find the look up table from the game that translates the movie number into the physical sector address of the disc and layer... All without overwriting other data (Also hardcoded to physical sector locations on the disc)

Windows has semi-support for XA format, but movies will choke if read because the data on those sectors are "corrupted" to the computer. The only way to read the movies is to put the drive in "raw" mode and read the whole sector, when you do that, you lose filename support... This is why movies have to be "extracted" from a disk to be played. Emulators are different because the put the disk in "raw" mode and the reads are handled by the PSX bios (Which is one of the many reasons why the BIOS is required for emulation to work). Emulators also have their own built-in XA drivers.

IN a nutshell. If you want to reverse-engineer Sony's MDEC encoding process, making sure that all the DCT transformations are in spec for proper MDEC chip playback, compressing and placing the superblocks in the right sequence in a special sub-sector CD-ROM format, all this while not overwriting the data on the disk that can not be moved, more power too you. The fact you are asking us is proof you can't and *surprise* we can't either! It uses Sony's proprietary format that we only know about from barely legal 3rd party information. Heck, I even have the format wrong in my PSX doc, and that's about as "authoritative" as you can get on how the PSX works without signing an NDA with Sony themselves.

I invite you to prove me wrong... That would be *very* cool as it will help answer some question such as where the sector look-up tables are in the game. If we had the ability to re-author and re-master the disk, that would be very awesome! It is, however, a problem that is much to difficult for us to really care about.

[DLPB_]

never would have guessed it would be that hard....

[darkvadd7]

OK, it will be very difficult to make this, but others translations (like Chrono Cross in french) have translate the videos.
I think he can do this (I hope  )