[FF8] .STR movie format variation

[Colly]

Hi.

I want to translate intro of FF8. I converted STR to AVI, changed frames and create STR file again by Movie Converter. But STR format especially for FF8 has some variations, most important are:
- Each frame has 10 sectors; first two sectors are for audio, the rest (8 sectors) are for video
- Header for audio sectors are different, but I want audio sectors leave as is, because I don't translate sound
- Header for video sectors are different, this header contains only 8 bytes
- The rest of sector: 2048 - 8 = 2040 bytes are frame data, so one frame has 8*2040 => 16320 bytes for frame data without header.

The most difficult variation is the last listed above. Because after the video header, in the standard STR file, there are 2016 bytes for frame data. Anyone know, how can I change these 2016 bytes to 2040? Or maybe I do something wrong?

[Cyberman]

The files are Type 2 media data your sector sizes are therefore wrong. They are BIGGER than 2048 bytes. The video simply doesn't use the remaining bytes of the sector the audio DOES however.
You need to read the HEADER information for each sector (and you must read an iso file don't waste your time with windows reading the files off the CD it will hose them) to decipher the data correctly. If you only plan to modify the video it shouldn't be too bad.  I believe the video encoder that Sony had available 10 years ago is still floating around. You need to be sure the video for input to the encoder is the correct format (resolution is just half the battle it has to be able to read the data).  It's been over 10 years since I've played with this stuff.  Basically you need to run the encoder to make the proper block data for the video sectors. Then stuff the chunks of video data into the video sectors (only) you can't do this in a contiguous manner you need to break it up frame chunk by frame chunk like the original frames were. I believe 15fps at 2 speed was the data rate for the audio and video. This information was interleaved. That is why you need the sector headers since that information controls what sector is what (audio or video).

Unfortunately it looks like Pixel let his website go poof. He was a doctoral candidate in France hopefully nothing bad happened.
he had some great explanations of the ISO9660 format etc. I downloaded those. He also had a very handy scriptable tool for managing CD-ROM data of Type1 and Type 2.

STR data is type 2 data (even when the audio isn't with it). It's extremely important you read a ISO created from your original media for FF8 instead of trying to use regular tools.
Hopefully you can do some coding and learn how the Type 2 file format works and the video data on the PS1 disks work.

Good fortune!

Cyb

[Colly]

I know what is Type 1 and Type 2, but thanks

Movies are stored inside IMG file on the disc. I translated what I want, you can see effect here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9oss6rX4y4

When I'll finish conversion of Polish translation into PSX, I'll add explanation into Translation minitutorial.

[Cyberman]

I know what is Type 1 and Type 2, but thanks

Movies are stored inside IMG file on the disc. I translated what I want, you can see effect here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9oss6rX4y4

When I'll finish conversion of Polish translation into PSX, I'll add explanation into Translation minitutorial.

Img files are just packages of data. Ertswhile, not too bad, you can see the distortion of the original symbols in the video but it's not enough that I would actually care if I were playing the game. I think most people would be interested in the reinsertion of the video.  I'm glad you know about Type 1 and 2 sector data, because I've seen only a few who actually paid attention to that.

Cyb

[Colly]

Ertswhile, not too bad, you can see the distortion of the original symbols in the video but it's not enough that I would actually care if I were playing the game. I think most people would be interested in the reinsertion of the video.

I know that there is distortion, but it's acceptable for the people, I think
I thought about English & Polish words together, but it was too many things on the screen and the movie was less "clarity".

[Cyberman]

I know that there is distortion, but it's acceptable for the people, I think
I thought about English & Polish words together, but it was too many things on the screen and the movie was less "clarity".

IT would have made your job easier if they used text overlays instead, which is/was practical at the time. I'm curious why they didn't. It doesn't make much sense to create a bunch of custom video's for each language. Then again that was the era of BFI (Brute Force and Ignorant).  FFIX although pretty suffered from the same issue.  I suppose the real problem would have been the fact the overlay generation system might have taken more time than doing all the sequencing and typesetting.  Also the video may have been relegated to a team that was for the video. Overlay generation would have been a different group. IE less work (Time) for them. Money allocation issues I guess.

Cyb