darkside

Thought it was a DVD only player, but wanted to check. I know the PS2 doesn't play them.

Michael T Hudson

I do not think so. I put in a DC game for kicks and the screen says please put a dvd, cd or XBOX game in did not say anything ab out Video CD's.

Cyberock

That sucks! It does not! I just tried it with one of those nice professional done VCDs you get from Hong Kong that tend to play on even the cheapest dvd players and the XBOX said it could not recognize the disc.

sniper308

Probably done that way to protect from using pirate stuff, does it play any "burned" stuff at all?

edytwinky

Go figure........it's Microsoft.

huzefa

I hope you're not getting mad at Microsoft because it's console will not play pirated versions of games/movies. I'd love to be able to create 'backups' of games just as much as the next guy, but I'm not gonna get angry at Microsoft if I can't.

Cyberock

I'm not upset about it not being able to play pirate software but it would of been nice to be able to play VCDs.

Trigger

Oh shut up...

C-Killer Redux

No it does not. Which sucks since I have many burned cd's that I wanted to rip to add onto Amped.

Also as a quick note I couldn't get the "Official XBox Magazine" demo to play either. The system couldn't recognize it. Yeesh....

darkside

Just to note, the PS2 does not play VCDs either, so its not just a Microsoft issue. Might be a slight cost cutting issue or the number of VCD users is so small they felt it wasn't worth it. The PS2 will play my burned audio CDs, so thats something. Maybe someone will come up with a software or hardware solution.

Trigger

Well - since the PS2 and the X-Box are sold outside the US, I think that might be why they don't enable VCD playback since VCD is the pirates medium in other countries. This is just speculation on my part, but it sounds reasonable to me. I'm fairly certain the DVD drive they use in the X-Box at least is capable of playing VCDs, so it's just a software issue. Besides - VCDs aren't so popular in the US compared to the rest of the world. You're probably right that someone will come up with a software "fix" for that issue. I just got an X-Box from my girlfriend for christmas and I like it alot. I have 5 DVD players already so I don't really need another one... on the other hand, the X-Box will convert a PAL signal, so if someone can tweak it so the X-Box is region free, it'll make a great alternative to the Malata (see international forum). Even though I only have 5 or 6 VCDs, I know how annoying it is when your DVD player won't play them - I had the Toshiba 2109 and that's about the only thing it wouldn't do so I bought another DVD player that did.

darkside

Nice to hear the Xbox converts a PAL signal. If someone does an all region hack it would be nice to have a backup player. I only have an old Apex now and who knows how long it will last. I still have several PAL DVDs.

The VCD issue is not the biggest deal in the world, but I've got about 125 episodes of MST3K on VCD now and I was just wondering if the new consoles could play them. It can come in handy when traveling to only need to take one thing with you for movies and games.

elengineer

for the record...
VCDs are a legitamte format too. I have licensed, legit VCDs, and there are tons more legit ones too. VCDs aren't used just for pirate purposes.

I would bet that the reason that the PS2 and XBox probably don't play VCDs is because of a licensing fee issue. I know that there is a DVD player out where the manufacturer had the VCD disabled in software (there is a remote-hack to enable VCD playback) due to not wanting to pay for the VCD licensing fee.

Trigger

Yeah - I know they are a legit format - I have quite a few legit ones myself. It's just that it's the medium of choice for piracy as well and the popularity of VCD never really took off here... I remember the small VCD section at Best Buy years back before DVD and DIVX hit the scene - they stuck them near the PC software. Your explaination is also a possibility though.