Dreamcast at the Oscars

Disclaimer up front: This news is reported without endorsement or condemnation. It's just news, OK?

A few nights ago, you may have heard that Guillermo del Toro won Best Picture at the Academy Awards for his film The Shape of Water. Like me, you might not have seen it yet, as it's still doing the rounds in cinemas (at least it is down here), and you don't have time to go to the movies like you used to, because you're old and you have to to go to work and not have fun anymore.

Hellboy 3 when?

Checking Amazon, it seems we don't have long to wait for the Bluray, DVD and Netflix release, currently scheduled for 13th March. So I guess that's that then. I'll just wait until then.

Here it is, search over. Or is it?

Not long after accepting this fate, I just happened to be browsing through FuZzCasT's latest Dreamcast Video releases (previously reported here), and stumbled across something that tickled me pink.

Well, whaddaya know?

As of this moment, and for the next few days. The Shape of Water, the Best Picture of 2017, is currently exclusively available on Dreamcast Video! A two disc widescreen edition, yours to own (*cough* illegally download *cough*) only on DcVD!

Ok, not strictly true. A DVD Screener was leaked by pirates (arrr!) on January 7th, and you don't need a Dreamcast to watch it. FuZzCast uploaded .cdi images of this leaked version on Feb 15th, re-coded to work on Dreamcast as a self-boot MIL-CD.

Coming to a store near you

Still, it amuses me greatly that I can watch this on Dreamcast before I can stream it online. It's the future or entertainment!

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FuZzCasT Home Entertainment - Dreamcast Video Returns!

Cast your mind back to the dawn of the new millennium. Like everyone else, you were probably still happy enough renting VHS video tapes, but at the same time were also covetously envious of those shiny new (and expensive) DVD players displayed prominently in the high street stores. You were keen to kickstart your foray into the digital video future, and even though Sony was promising to deliver DVD to the masses with its looming PS2 juggernaut, your blood bleeds blue and your loyalty to Sega and the Dreamcast could not be shaken. But what to do?

Ooooh, shiny.

You had heard rumours of a video card for your venerable Sega Saturn but you could never find one. Whispers from the orient described some strange voodoo witchcraft involving burning movies to CD-ROM, but after you endured the interminable age that it took to download the file over your 33.6k dial-up modem on your Windows 98 machine, the experience was underwhelming. Watching a movie on your 13" CRT monitor just didn't have the right pop-corn munching vibe. 

Resurrecting DcVD: Dreamcast Video Disc

What if DVDs never existed? Maybe Sega would have followed through with their speculated plans for a Dreamcast Video Disc (DcVD) - an alternative video format similar to Video CD, but one which exploits the Dreamcast's natural affinity with the Sofdec video and ADX audio codecs and the extra capacity of the proprietary GD-rom format.

Scott 'DocEggfan' Marley recently looked into the history of DcVD here at the Junkyard and he's been eagerly working away behind the scenes to bring the dead format back to life. Now, for your enjoyment we are proud to present the teaser trailer for Scott's endeavours. Turn the lights down, the volume up and prepare to be wowed by the dulcet tones of our very own Caleb in the trailer for the upcoming DcVD Dreamcast Video format!

We hope to release several copyright free movies using this resurrected format in the near future, movies that can be played directly in a Dreamcast GD-rom drive with no extra hardware required. Watch this space!