PlayStation 1 SCPH-5903 VideoCD Console

[@GAnimeRO]

Just imagine the Video CD market, if Sony had decided to outfit every console with a Video CD function. It probably would have boomed considering the insane popularity of the PS1.

[@RyanUkAus]

And by doing that with the PS2 and DVD's they dominated!

[@VinchVolt]

i doubt it; unlike dvd and blu-ray, video cds have no copy protection, so industry lobbyists would strike it down on sight, just like what happened to digital audio tape

[@ThexthSurvivor]

Interesting. I never heard of this particular model of the PS1. And I use to import stuff all the time in the 90's. Can you tell me how you created that VCD with the menus and moveable cursor? I have been told consistently online that VCDs do not support that. I know how to make a VCD with TMPGENc & VCDEasy and they come out great. But there is nowhere to have a cursor like the one shown at 3:37 to 4:00. How did you do that? By the way, VCD is MPEG1, and SVCD is MPEG2, same as DVD. The reason that the SVCD disc didn't work is because the VCD decoder in the console doesn't support MPEG2.

[@RyanUkAus]

That’s interesting re: MPEG1 & MPEG2. I didn’t make the disc, it was one made many years back for my dad which shows a compilation of his employers work and other things he made during his time at that company. I feel they would have had the disc made at a shop similar to where you’d get your camera film developed!

[@ThexthSurvivor]

@@RyanUkAus I see. Thanks for the info. I almost always use EasyVCD to make VCDs. I'd loved to have a menu cursor like the one in your video. But all the online information says that is only possible with SVCDs and DVDs. Maybe that's something specific that this particular PS1 in your video has. I don;t even think the other systems that can play VCDs have that (The 3DO, Saturn, Amiga CD32, ect...)

[@rustymixer2886]

​@@ThexthSurvivorbecause its a picture cd or cdg not a vcd format

[@VinLwj]

For your information, Asia Countries did share the same region with the Japan which was NTSC-J in the PS and PS2 eras.

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

Including Pakistan

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

Yep

[@avirajmohan2.092]

Including India also

[@tristan6509]

To be more precise there was not enough PS1 sales in these regions for Sony to make a specific model. Even this VCD model didn't sell that well Most PS1s were bought by rental cafe and even then the games are mostly pirated. It wasn't until the PS3 era that Sony started being serious on selling their games in the Asian market outside of japan

[@strikehun2006]

​​​@@tristan6509The Playstation was only being serious about games in Asia apart from Japan was in South Korea where they released video games for the console and even some games got English translation only in South Korea like I.Q remix+ but some games were released in english only like the Battlefield 2. The games were surprisingly released directly by Sony and not from the video game companies but the logo of the developer company was on the cover too. And in South Korea there were 2 games released only in the country in the PS1 and PS2 era Manic Game Girl for the PS1 and Mystic Nights for the PS2.

[@NicolaiSyvertsen]

To me it looks like they took the electronics of a fairly standard standalone VCD player design and transplanted it into the Playstation giving it access to the Playstation's CD-ROM drive and gamepad port. BIOS probably has code to detect VCDs and signal to the VCD board to start doing its thing and this overrides the video output. Those addons for ordinary Playstations work in a similar way. They have hardware MPEG decoder chip and overrides the video output but gets data from the CD-ROM via the parallell IO port and also injects playstation executable CODE for the user interface.

[@oliexe]

Damn, I am missing this one in my collection. Would love to have it someday.

[@RyanUkAus]

They can be hard to get, recently got one boxed though!

[@terencehill2320]

You just missed a chance on ebay, I just purchased one at 300US

[@Jesymuise1]

There is one for sale in London Ontario Canada right now

[@retrocysper3709]

@@RyanUkAus just find one on China or Hong Kong.

[@RyanUkAus]

@@retrocysper3709 Taobao occasionally has them, I got my last one from Japan surprisingly.

[@That_Handle]

3:40 - You show the DualShock vs Digital controller menu navigation constraint... will an IR receiver plugged in to port 1 instead of a controller offer the same or even greater VCD functionality via direct button access compared to button combinations via a controller? ____ While on the topic, when was the first IR receiver for a Playstation console made available? Not till PS2 ?

[@RyanUkAus]

I haven't tried using an IR remote on a PS1 console before though the best way to test would be to use the PS2 IR controller for DVD playback and see if it works though I don't have one myself, I have a white one for my PSX but the IR functionality is built in on that so no controller plug. Something to look into!

[@That_Handle]

RyanUkAus , _____ "PSX" = the Japanese-only released DVR recorder, or does one of your PS1s have a built-in IR receiver? If the latter, sounds like what audiophile modders were eventually doing to the earlier PS1s they felt had better sounding audio output while converting said units ( SCPH-1001? ) into dedicated CD players. _____ Can the parallel port be used as usual on the VCD PS1? _____ From my NTSC-U perspective, the IR receiver dongle does work in the PS1 controller port (models -5501 & -7501 here) and receives commands from the PS2's later, slimmed down remote control ( SCPH-10150 ) allowing PS1 CD music menu navigation and playback control as well as make changes to the onscreen music visualiser pattern, colors, etc. I'm wondering if you can do the same while navigating a VCD while possibly having better navigational and controls experience. _____ Aside from DVDs on the PS2, the IR dongle could also be used, for example, on PS2's "Tribes: Aerial Assault" for refreshing the online / NETPLAY lobby list of available games. The list could be triggered either by the remote or by an automated IR signal transmission circuit quickly cobbled together on a breadboard to transmit the learned IR "X" signal of the Sony remote once "Refresh" was initially highlighted onscreen. This made updating the games lobby list contiguous on an overhead screen and required no management. As an aside, Tribes: A.A. (at least NTSC-U) , CoD2, CoD3, Star Wars Battlefronts 1 & II (NTSC-U only?) and other titles are online via original online gameplay with no ISO modding needed for certain regions via DNS 45 . 7 . 228 . 197 ( check out PS2OnlineGaming's website and KZbin channel for titles that are both LAN-ed over internet via XLink Kai as well as only having Online / NETPLAY via the above DNS) . More can be played if the ISO file and sometimes other steps are taken. _____ Hope I'm selecting the right vernacular when I say "Cheers!" Thanks for the response.

[@RyanUkAus]

I was referring to the PSX system based on the PS2, I have a DESR-7500 model which due to to time constraints (laziness) I haven't played with yet. If the PS2 IR controller works fine on a PS1 then I imagine it would work perfectly with the 5903 model, the controls are relatively simple. I did have a hideous MadCatz remote controller for the PS2 but I may have throw it away otherwise I'd give it a test!

[@That_Handle]

RyanUkAus , [ Appending to the IR receiver topic above regarding PS2 : ] Was curious when playing Twisted Metal: Black-Online recently and found - as with Tribes: AA online play - the remote control "X" IR command + IR receiver can be used to update the sessions lobby screen automatically via the automation method above.

[@JeffisWinning]

I (think) it will play US games too. It's supposedly like the net yaroze, that it can output to 50Hz and 60Hz, so it can play the games from both regions and works with 110v and 220v power supplies.

[@RyanUkAus]

I’ll have to test it, I never considered that the VCD I had laying around was likely a PAL one too!

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

I knew the 3do and Saturn could play VCDs but I never knew the PS1 could do it as well (at least this special model). learned something new today!!!

[@thelegendtl]

Well if you don’t want to get this you can get a VCD Adapter that plugs on the back in the parallel port

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

@@thelegendtl yeah

[@terencehill2320]

The Taiwanese PS1, SCPH-5503 also has an English bios but is locked to NTSC-J. I own one of those rare systems and it's awesome and now I'm the owner of a SCPH-5903 but sadly it was modified and currently trying to find someone to help desolder the mod and run it back to normal.

[@tomasdelizia3695]

I’d guess the 5503 is more reliable than the 5903 right? I mean from this video the 5903 looks like it’s based on the earlier fmv skipping 1000 models.

[@user-wj9xq7ig2v]

Maybe try loading the pal game but with the door open and the lid button held down the entire time. I think there's a spring that comes with the add on to do this.

[@denshi-oji494]

Since this unit was, to my knowledge NOT sold in Japan, but only to "asian" markets including Malaysia and Singapore, Japanese menus would NOT have been a usable option. English is often THE language used for the general asian market for video games and other products. Also, SVCD is NOT a VCD format at all, it is better described as a hybrid Chinese format which is a sort of hybrid between VCD and DVD. It is MUCH newer than the player you are using. SVCD used MPEG2 compression, whereas VCD uses MPEG1 compression at lower resolution. PAL is not really a region, but a format. For a real test for Region testing, a NTSC-U/C disc should be tried.

[@RyanUkAus]

Thanks for the input. Whilst I have seen one of these in Japan before (probably from a collector), the majority of 5903's I do come across tend to be in China or Hong Kong, the odd one in Taiwan. I have a 9003 in the box, the manual and box text are mostly in Chinese too, English text bios too. Down the line would like to find myself the other Asian market consoles in box!

[@ReaperX7]

By chance do you still have the unit and can dump the BIOS?

[@theshadowman1398]

These models are beyond expensive now.

[@Jimmyjsegram]

Great video dude!

[@bpcgos]

Why is this is not the version I got when bought Playstation in my country ? I live in southeast asian country and VCD was booming in the end of 90s and early 00s (even still til the early of 2010). To my knowledge at the time,VCD only plays on PS via PSIO MpEG card extension exist only on early model of PlayStation and not natively played like this version did.

[@RyanUkAus]

Definitely an overlooked model! I believe they were released in Hong Kong, around 5000 made (may not be true, just a figure I've heard). I think a few crept into China, Taiwan etc... As they weren't officially released in Japan I never expected them to be there, yet the one in restoration video came from Japan in the box!

[@bpcgos]

@@RyanUkAus wow ,so they are quite rare eventually. I wonder how much you pay for this,Ryan...

[@RyanUkAus]

I paid $180aud with shipping for the boxed one in Japan, in the past roughly around the $200aud mark for a loose one spotted in China which I sent to a friend of mine for the same cost (when I got the boxed one to replace it)

[@rustymixer2886]

And there we go

[@Joorum]

Love Kula World. My model no. is SCPH-5502. Moded in mid 1997 to play games outside of PAL region (Final Fantasy Tactics, Japanese Gran Turismo, etc.).

[@RyanUkAus]

Great game Kula World, one of my all time favorites. The Japanese version lets you customize the ball inbetween certain levels! Think most PS1's in the UK were modchipped. This model here originally came with a modchip but it prevented the VCD functionality from working so I de-modchipped it!

[@Zim85]

Cool! I wonder if the extra daughter board somehow help the playing of ps1 games? I recently found a PS1 with a vcd add on placed on the back. It doubles as a player and gameshark. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[@RyanUkAus]

As far as I'm aware the daughter-board is purely for VCD playback with no additional features. When playing NTSC-J games it runs like a standard PS1. I'll be revisiting this system soon as I recently got one in box!

[@ratmaster2000]

@@RyanUkAus Yup, I can confirm this, the add-on VCD adapter does JUST that, does NOT allow all region/backed up play. Only VCD capable. Was great though to play my VCD movies like Macross DYRL.

[@johnnada6855]

Is hard to imagine, but KARAOKE is still big in asia and other countries, in america KARAOKE was more big in the 80s with laser disc players, but all the multimedia consoles came with the music CD and karaoke ready functions, i thnk the sega CD could have karaoke, but the 3DO, CD-I, Laser active, saturn and ps1 for sure, even the Dreamcast supported heavy karaoke, Video CD was really a format that was more about karaoke, there were some movies, VCD and Video CD were kinda like Laser Disc on the size of a CD, never really took off, DVD was the disc format media tha really took off and then Blu-ray

[@Kippykip]

Woah never knew about this!

[@1980sGamer]

Hmm. The ribbon cable on that drive looks like it's not slotted into the little plastic holder on the drive's housing properly. If I were you, I would remove the two screws holding the top cover of the drive on and put that part of the ribbon cable back into place.

[@RyanUkAus]

Good observation next time I take it out I’ll have a look at it!

[@1980sGamer]

@@RyanUkAus Ah, excellent. Thanks man. :D

[@sonypsp05]

I like this system, I would definitely want to buy this console. The reason why it loads fast and smooth. It has a bit more Ram and processing power to run perfectly dew to the Video Cd Chip.

[@JohnSmith-qn3ob]

If you really want to try a VCD but don't want a copyright claim why don't you just make a VCD? You can take your own footage and use software to burn any CD to a standard VCD.

[@RyanUkAus]

Maybe I should burn this video on to a VCD then watch it back? :P

[@JohnSmith-qn3ob]

Go for it. You just have to convert the video to MPEG-1 352x240 at 30 fps 1,150 kbps with MP2 audio at 224 kbps

[@rustymixer2886]

@@JohnSmith-qn3ob indeed i use 1150

[@DaRush-The_Soviet_Gamer]

NERO BURNING ROM will do it including the format conversion, just don't bother creating menus because VCD menus are glitchy and barely functional and may not work correctly on some players.

[@michaelmitzel9755]

there we go

[@iPhantom27]

Would you be able to share the BIOS of this rare console for preservation & future understandings of the PS1? :-)

[@RyanUkAus]

I thought this bios was already dumped, but looking at psxdev it isn't! I don't have any of the tools to dump the bios, I wouldn't know where to start.

[@Andy-ch1lh]

How did you get the console to display on both the TV and the monitor?

[@RyanUkAus]

It has two video outputs, RCA and PS Multi Out

[@luiseltigre785]

8:06 Logo Corrupted.

[@CoyoteEnix]

Found 9903 with parallel port. Question: will it read Video CD?

[@RyanUkAus]

Not sure, but I’d be interested to see photos of the 9903 including inside if possible?

[@nigel7598]

Hey nice video I just found a SCPH-5903 at Value Village of all places :D any idea how many of these were made? I've heard between 5-10k but I have no idea? Thanks.

[@RyanUkAus]

Figure I heard is around 5000 as well, but never had any confirmation - not too sure where that figure comes from! Pretty sure there aren't that many left these days though!

[@nigel7598]

@@RyanUkAus Sadly mine is a little haywire. I picked up a Japanese game to test it and it would load them as CDs. Then I decided to try a North American game and it worked! Then I was able to read both NA and Japanese games. But now it won't load any it just goes to CD player or stalls on the P logo screen. Ugh !

[@juanhit]

want to sell it to me?

[@rfinalarm]

Does psio or xstation can load vcd isos to ps 5903？

[@RyanUkAus]

I don't own a psio or xstation so I can't test, I'd like to try one some day.

[@abdullakc]

U can have a menu on them

[@GTAManRCR]

Press any button to continous

[@eijentwun5509]

S-VCD came later and is NOT compatible with ANY VideoCD player in the world. The player HAD to supoort S-VCD

[@ramiq7932]

Any idea if the VCD playback outputs 240p or 480i?

[@rustymixer2886]

320x240

[@robert.dexter]

How can you use 2 TVs? Does there's two output?

[@RyanUkAus]

On older models there are two outputs

[@robert.dexter]

@@RyanUkAus can it be connected to two TVs?

[@RyanUkAus]

@@robert.dexter If you wanted to, any SCPH-1000 to 5000 could be

[@RaysGamingChannel2003]

Idk if this was released here in Brazil

[@RyanUkAus]

It was a Hong Kong / Asian region system, wasn’t released in Japan/USA/Europe

[@ozdemirsalik]

I can’t believe I had this and my father sold it for dirt cheap.

[@RyanUkAus]

Damn!

[@ozdemirsalik]

@@RyanUkAus he bought me a laptop, I still was a child, the next day he told me he sold it for scraps. I truly loved my PS1. And never knew it was a rare one. I thought every PS1 was capable of VCD playback.

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

So I where can I find this Particular model of this psx?

[@RyanUkAus]

The few I’ve had came from contacts of mine in mainland China, I was lucky to spy a boxed one in Japan (not common there) which a friend sent over to me!

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

RyanUkAus ok

[@ens0246]

Wonder if that laser still works today 😂

[@RyanUkAus]

It does, ask the owner of strefa.psx ;)

[@valley_robot]

My PlayStation played vcd in the UK, I bought it for 300 pounds, it must have been a mod chipped import

[@matthewJ142]

Does it work with American games?

[@matthewJ142]

I have an original 1001 in storage. Love the classic ports

[@matthewJ142]

My DVD player like most can play vcds. But if I burn one I think it has to be like an mpeg 2 or mp4 ver 2. Its tricky

[@RyanUkAus]

Japan only for this unit

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

No only NTSC-J

[@Security848]

Do you know how much a boxed version is worth.

[@RyanUkAus]

I rarely see them, I have since bought a boxed version for $180aud but I consider that a very lucky find. I imagine anything from $750 to $1000aud these days on eBay

[@damiank9443]

Lol. 5903 and still based on 100X hardware

[@damiank9443]

Just2Options? Irrational: FearOrExuberance? Looking at numbers I would expect 550X based console.

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

I used to have this PSX (PS1) but I Lost it but I have a Imported PSX (PS1) from America it's the model scph 5501

[@That_Handle]

Is your parallel port peripheral the same as this device kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3ekZXeYi6-tjsU ? If so, could your experience be an order of operations matter?

[@RyanUkAus]

My VCD addon is similar but a different brand, there are a few different types floating around but I rarely use it. They can be used to bypass security checks on CD's depending on the model of VCD card but skipping the checks on the 5903 can cause problems.

[@thangdep9769]

How much is it ?? in 2021

[@RyanUkAus]

I don't know, I purchased mine before 2021. Maybe there is one on eBay.

[@ninjamaster102]

"There we go"

[@ChrisStoneinator]

"Yeah, there we go... Here we go, again... There we go..."

[@rustymixer2886]

Ah ok here we go...

[@WheatPasta]

I think the SCPH-5903 BIOS still needs dumped. I skimmed through the video so forgive me if i missed it, but is this something you would be able to and not mind doing?

[@RyanUkAus]

I thought it was available on psxdev but I could be wrong, something I could look in to if needed. I have a few other models such as the 9003, 7000W etc!

[@WheatPasta]

Forgive me if I missed it. I looked at a few post in the collection thread and noticed it was updated on Feb 3rd 2018 and 5903 was still crossed out. Then seen the most recent post in the thread was back in 2016

[@ReaperX7]

@@RyanUkAus Yes it's still missing.

[@RyanUkAus]

I can dump it to a PS1 memory card easily enough but I'll need to get FreeMCBoot to take it off my PS2 to USB, I did recently get 2 freemcboot memory cards but my PS2 just hangs on load when they are inserted :/

[@RyanUkAus]

@ReaperX7 I can (eventually) do a DTL-H 1000, DTL-H 1002, DTL-H 1102, DTL-H 1200, DTL-H 1202 if needed later on, I know a few of them are probably dumped by now.

[@kylebennett9207]

Anyone have one for sale

[@Lfcgeraldine]

I have one to sell if you are interested.

[@abdullakc]

I think i saw it. And i have that addon. It works fine... with passwords for games as well and cheats sometimes. Its not a stupid idea. Yours is broken.. U need to put on vsd if it works it works. U need to use original add ln. Of use fake add on then u need to put it and remove it twice...

[@billyidolrockstar522]

DO CLASSIC PLAYSTATION 2