Changing Psx Movies To Blank Ones (to Save Space!)

[Shikaku]

This is one of my first extensive guides, so bear with me on this.

Note: this will not work with all games! Some games might not have STRs, or might not even use a normal Playstation method to store data (READ: ENCRYPTION, sort of). Also, if you copy from a CD, some drives can't read them.

Here's the software you will be needing (you will also need some hard drive space (at most 1400 MB)):

Any mounting software, or the CD with the Playstation game. Alcohol or DAEMON tools can do this. Note: most of the time the files are hidden. Go to folder options under Tools in explorer and then the View tab and enable it to see them. Also, this method may not work if you cannot view all the files needed to copy the game back to .bin/.cue (CD Audio tracks for example, but it won't fail if that is messed up). If you are having problems with files, try WinISO or UltraISO and extracting the files with those.

Mode2CDMaker with the GUI.

And obviously the blank STR. Play it with this to see exactly what it is. There are also XA files, play it with this to check if it's XA, which could have movies or it could be music/sound. Replace with this blank XA if it is a sound file.

Note: the image does not have to be a .bin in the beginning!

OK then, let's begin!

After you get the disk ready either by mounting it or putting it in the CD drive, copy all the files into one folder ALONE somewhere. It doesn't matter where, but just remember you have to copy EVERYTHING back (except of course with the blank movies).

If you are mounting from DAEMON Tools, just right click the icon, and mess with the Virtual CD/DVD-ROM thingy (like setting the amount of devices to 1 and loading the Image from the file).

Now that you have copied everything, replace every STR and XA file you want with the blank one. They may not be named .xa or .str, so check with the players to see what they are (the files are usually pretty big anyway), and replace as desired.

After that, open up the m2cdmgui. Drag all of what you worked on back (or use add folder), MAKING SURE YOU HAVE THE ONLY THE FILES YOU STARTED WITH, with the blanks of course. Anything extra/missing could mess things up quite badly. Note: this could take a long time to be able to add it, this happens with FF7 because there are 3381 files in disc one! Make sure to give it some time.

EDIT: m2cdmgui has a command line limitation bug: if there are too many files (as in FF7, damit I should have checked it!), it will not work at all. Try using NERO/Alcohol for the mode2 image making.

After that, make sure it is .bin/.cue, specify a location, and then hit write ISO. Wait for the 100% and you're done...

 

[Reaperman93010]

how is this better than using the recommended pocketISO analysis on your .iso file (minus ff8 tag), selecting all movies and music and hitting 'process'. We've pretty much all got pocketiso from the last few tutorials, correct?

just seems like a shorter way around.

 

[Shikaku]

how is this better than using the recommended pocketISO search on your .iso file (minus ff8 tag) selecting all movies and music and hitting 'process'. We've pretty much all got pocketiso anyway, correct?

just seems like a shorter way around.

​

Boot it up and try it...

[sarcasm]Yeah, I took all that time just to write/research this, and didn't know/look at that...[/sarcasm]

Most games won't work if you do that, a movie file HAS to be there.

 

[Drak]

how is this better than using the recommended pocketISO analysis on your .iso file (minus ff8 tag), selecting all movies and music and hitting 'process'. We've pretty much all got pocketiso from the last few tutorials, correct?

just seems like a shorter way around.

​

Yeah that only worked for like 1/10 games i tried. B)

 

[Reaperman93010]

FF tactics was a bad example, since I can't get even a pure one flying on anything(likely a bad source)
but the rest of the games I've tried seem to like it. Raystorm, einhander, scooby doo something-or-other, gradius galaxies, raiden project. I haven't tried a massive number of games in it, though. I wonder why pocketISO wasn't designed to insert a blank one--I just assumed it did since it seemed to work so well.

This forum seems to have become a bit hostile lately.

edit: it does seem to insert blank .strs. I uncompressed a previously ripped iso with pocketiso and viewed the contents with ISObuster and it seemed full of str files which (now) had their original size back but were naturally not present when emulated.

 

[moz]

excellent, i'd love to get rid of the annoying door opening bit in resident evil when chanhing rooms

 

[mrsnature]

i assumed the door animation was to hide the loading times..

 

[Goity]

Uhh, Shikaku? Why does this mode2cdmaker go nuts after I add ff7 to it, causing it to blank out and say that it can't find the exe?

 

[Reaperman93010]

What games is pocketiso failing on?
It's not that I'm not believing it's failing, but my luck with it is really good. I just got that FF tactics game working, and it correctly skipped over the intro movie (I think I passed it anyway). Is there a pattern to what games it's failing on? certain brands of games, certain movie techniques (like in-game video mixed with game play)?

Right now I'm trudging through the game-engine cutscene at the beginning--the one that was too long even at full speed, so it may be a while before I get to actual game.

 

[Aninhumer]

i assumed the door animation was to hide the loading times..

Perhaps, but I don't think you wouldn't notice this on the GP2X (or on a PC) because the files will load faster from the SD (or HDD). Also there is some kind of intelligent caching on the Emu so that speeds it up futher

 

[moz]

i assumed the door animation was to hide the loading times..

Perhaps, but I don't think you wouldn't notice this on the GP2X (or on a PC) because the files will load faster from the SD (or HDD). Also there is some kind of intelligent caching on the Emu so that speeds it up futher

​

nope still there and annoying, i cant seem to read the movie files though to rip them.

hmm

 

[moz]

i assumed the door animation was to hide the loading times..

Perhaps, but I don't think you wouldn't notice this on the GP2X (or on a PC) because the files will load faster from the SD (or HDD). Also there is some kind of intelligent caching on the Emu so that speeds it up futher

​

no its still slows things down, even using espxe in XP with the game as a mounted image its slow, i think i'll invest some time this weekend trying to sort this by ripping the movie of the door (if it is a movie)

 

[Shikaku]

i assumed the door animation was to hide the loading times..

Perhaps, but I don't think you wouldn't notice this on the GP2X (or on a PC) because the files will load faster from the SD (or HDD). Also there is some kind of intelligent caching on the Emu so that speeds it up futher

​

no its still slows things down, even using espxe in XP with the game as a mounted image its slow, i think i'll invest some time this weekend trying to sort this by ripping the movie of the door (if it is a movie)

​

That door thing in RE is not a movie, it's the loading time sequence =)

EDIT: Also, I know about the bug with the mode2cd creator. It's a command line limitation that if there is way too many files, it will not make the image at all. I cannot find any software that is free that creates a mode2 CD image, but I know that NERO/Alcohol can do this...

 

[NoidZ]

i assumed the door animation was to hide the loading times..

​

If that is so (which I truly believe thats what it was for) you shouldn't short them. And even if you do, those movies are so small that it isn't even worth it to make the screen let's say black. (and there are soooooooooooo many of these animations)

 

[pedrocasilva]

Ok, does this method also allow to substitute for example the opening FMV in say... Tales of Destony II (or Eternia) Because I always hated the english opening, but I won't play it in japanese.

Just wondering.

 

[gorgyrip]

Please help me .
i've download the psx game rurouni kenshin - ishin gekitouhen. and i't in japanese.
i've found subtitles for the first movie. the movie it's in mov format. so i extracted the movie and convert it to avi, i've added subtitles and then i converted the movie back to str using sony movie converter. i've tried to import the resulted str file with cdmage, but i've got this erorr: "import file must be riff cdxa type".
so my question is: how can i add a riff cdxa header to a str file?
the file blank.str posted here has riff cdxa, how can i do the same with my file?

 

[GeminiDomino]

What ever happened to the guide to ripping the games with linux? I tried the search but no dice. =\