Retro Gaming HQ

Extracting Video from CD-i Digital Video (CD-i DV) and Video CD (VCD)

This is a pretty quick and easy guide.

First you'll want to download IsoBuster (free version) which is capable of reading the Philips CD-i filesystem (required for CD-i DV, but not for VCD).

CD-i Digital Video

Here is the "RTF" folder on the disc.rtf is an extension commonly used for "rich text file", however for CD-i sometimes it is used to store video files (sometimes .rtf files on a CD-i are NOT video files). You can rename the .rtf files to .mpg and whichever ones are movie files should play in VLC (or other video apps). Note the "CDi" icon underneath "Track 01" - this identifies the disc as CDi format and not VCD.

Additionally, you can find a table of contents plain "films.txt" text file here.

Video CD (VCD)

Video CD has a Windows-compatible filesystem, so using IsoBuster isn't necessary (you can just copy the files over with File Explorer). However, here's a look of the location from IsoBuster if you prefer to extract with it.

Copy over those .dat files to your computer drive and rename them to .mpg. They should now play fine for you in VLC. Additionally VLC has an option to play VCD discs in your drive:

Open VLC
Media -> Open Disc
Select "SVCD/VCD" bubble.
Choose the proper "Disc device".
Hit "Play".

"Philips" - a CD-i Digital Video disc

Ambiguously "Philips", with a title so generic this one could be a mean one for collectors to track down - thankfully it's preserved via Preserve CD-i's better half Blazers.

The disc contains 9 CD-i DV videos - a few of the uploads were immediately flagged for copyright violation, so here's what's left on YouTube:

Scans are on archive.org.

Dumping Method 1 (Easy Method): Dumping with IsoBuster

Among the ways to dump CD-Roms - the easy way is IsoBuster. Multiple track discs will NOT dump as preservation grade with this method. But single track discs should dump perfectly.

Step 1: Download IsoBuster (free version) for Windows.

Step 2: Insert your disc into your disc drive, then after a moment launch IsoBuster.

Step 3: Dump with IsoBuster twice (if you have another disc drive use that one next time around) + check that both dumps have matching hashes:

Step 4: Want to see your dumps preserved properly in Redump.org database? Reach out to me! You will be credited for your work.

Step 5: To help track revisions, write down the little ring codes near the hole on the data side of the disc, or scan it.

~ BONUS! ~

Check the discs for metadata flags. You can do that by:

Step 7: Downloading this Windows app.

Step 8: Follow this video guide and record the MCN output (a metadata flag). Most common values will be "Not encoded on CD" or all 0's.

Preservation Loan #001

A fantastic batch of CD-i discs has been properly dumped and preserved with Redump.org thanks to the fantastic Blazers who loaned them out.

Historia del Arte Español - now dumped completely - is a 10 disc set chronically art through the centuries for - you guessed it - the country of Spain. I've never been one for redundancy, so rather than uploading all these videos, I'll point you in their direction from a pre-existing YouTube upload.

Additionally, I received a handful of miscellaneous treasures and oddities:

A few mentions: AIMS's ACT Prep study program, "Kilby Predicts" (the first disc of the two disc VCD set "CDi See It Hear It Feel It"), Breast Self-Examination (featuring animated breasts), Pyramid Adventures: Episode 1: Treasures of the Lost Pyramid - a kids edutainment title that's on the rarer side, and of course I do love to dump and verify "Demonstration Discs" to paint a clearer picture of their software builds - "Wings of the Gulf" being a rarer VCD produced by The Discovery Channel.

Kilby Predicts

Of the gems, Kilby Predicts is a fun / surrealistic video starring Udo Kier where we get a flavor of what "multimedia platform" is supposed to mean.

Thanks again to Blazers for putting up the goods to ensure this big slice of the CD-i library pie is forever preserved.

USA Re-releases into Europe

It's known the first handful of CDi titles were re-released into Europe (although it's unknown the exact count). These re-releases most often start with 600 or 699 - instead of the US releases which start with 310690 commonly. However there are more than a few 310690 releases for sale out of Europe in distinctly European-style cases, further clouding the issue.

Additionally I noticed another mention-worthy instance. Same re-release serial, however the case is different AND there's a space in the middle of the serial for the western-style case.

The extent of variants and re-releases for CDi's are not well documented, but perhaps the above clue can add to the pool of information regarding the subject.

The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe

CD-i goes period High Art with the release of "The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe".

Robert was a New York photographer rubbing elbows with the likes of Grace Jones and Andy Warhol. He was well known for gay and BDSM style photography, which makes this CDi release a little less exciting than it could be - since the release limits itself to... flowers. Despite the blandness of the subject matter - the title is one of the more sought after from CD-i collectors due to it's rarity.

You can watch the entirety of beautiful low resolution art in it's entirety thanks to Retro Pals YouTube upload:

One thing the release has going for itself is a distinct aged art style for it's packaging that is as kitschy as the glorious CD-i console itself.

This Photo CD release has now been preserved and high resolution scans are available here.

Compact Disc Interactive Title Library [STDDCDICAT BK02]

Known to many as being the booklet accompanying a lot of USA longbox releases, "Compact Disc Interactive Title Library" has some interesting unreleased releases mentioned here and there.