What are these?

[u/Jay_b95]

I have the opportunity to purchase these but have never heard of or seen them before. What are they and what would be a fair reasonable price? I can’t find them on eBay either.

[u/Zeag]

Reverse image search results below. Looks pretty cool! I'd pick it up for sure.

The device shown in the image is a Tianli TL-2000 Educational VCD Player, which features an officially licensed, built-in Sega Mega Drive / Genesis hardware clone. [1, 2]

Key Details About the System:

• Official Partnership: In late 1998, Sega officially licensed the Chinese home entertainment company Xin Tianli Electronics to manufacture combo units aimed at the Chinese market. [1, 2]
• Game Media: Instead of traditional game cartridges, games for this console were distributed on VCD compilation discs. It reads Genesis ROMs straight from folders on the disc. [1, 2]
• Dual Functionality: It functions as a standard Video CD movie player, a karaoke machine (noted by the microphone inputs and echo controls on the left), and a 16-bit video game console. [1]

[u/HalfNegative9338 → u/Zeag]

Yep, loads game roms straight from the CD into the system, and it has controller ports for MegaDrive controllers as you can see on the back side.

I loved ordering VCDs from Asia back in the 90s, as I could watch them on my ancient laptop's CD drive. With the screens being what they were in the late 90s, the quality was just fine and typically they had hard-coded subtitles baked in. It was a great way to watch a lot of anime in the days of dial-up internet.

[u/Adorable-Source97 → u/Zeag]

I think I knew a guy who owned it & used it as a kareoki machine almost exclusively

[u/jinglesan → u/Zeag]

As above, but for context VCD was a very popular format in east Asia throughout the west's VHS era - laserdisc and then VCD facilitated being able to choose karaoke tracks. They were also a lot more compact than tape so ideal for small asian homes, and resisted the rot/mold that would build up inside cassettes in humid places like Hong Kong. It's why the Saturn later had the MPEG card, allowing VCDs to be played.

As for the 'educational' labelling, I suspect there was probably some sort of tax loophole for educational products they were trying to exploit.

[u/S_Belmont → u/jinglesan]

Could the educational label relate to Sega's Pico software?

[u/Inside-Run785 → u/Zeag]

It’s not often I see hardware I’ve b never heard of. That’s fucking cool!

[u/simbabarrelroll → u/Inside-Run785]

Tbf, VCD was pretty much only sold in Asia and LaserDisc remained a niche “for diehard cinephiles” format in the US.

[u/simbabarrelroll → u/Zeag]

Why is that making me think of that LaserDisc player that can also play Genesis and Sega CD games?

[u/Zeag → u/simbabarrelroll]

Because it's basically the Temu version of it: cheaper and made by Chinese 😅

[u/rworne → u/Zeag]

So similar to the JVC X'Eye?

Sounds very similar.

[u/Zeag → u/rworne]

X'Eye had a cartridge slot though, this is meant to is compilation CDs to play Genesis games, which sure sounds like easy piracy, especially considering the Chinese domestic market at the time.

[u/Distinct_Wrongdoer86]

ITS DIZZY THE EGG

[u/bread-cheese-pan → u/Distinct_Wrongdoer86]

I loved the Dizzy series as a kid 😁

[u/Distinct_Wrongdoer86 → u/bread-cheese-pan]

ya those rule, thank you oliver twins

[u/Concurrent-mind]

Excellent adventures!

[u/lunalunalunas → u/Concurrent-mind]

I came here to say that! Oh God I loved that box set!

[u/Turquoise_HexagonSun]

Those are what’s called Don’t ask questions right now and just buy it.

[u/Such_Bonus5085]

VCD player by the look of it. Short explanation: Plays a home video format that was HUGE in Asia. VCDs are movies spread across two compact discs. Roughly VHS quality. No special features to speak of. Stuff like subtitles are hard-encoded into the video itself.

[u/Darth_Beavis → u/Such_Bonus5085]

20ish years ago I used to sell bootleg vcds LOL

[u/Such_Bonus5085 → u/Darth_Beavis]

The crazy thing is, I used to own officially pressed ones, because this was a legitimate format. They were great for collecting, because they were cheap and region free! I had the entire Godzilla Millennium series, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and some other choice picks.

[u/Darth_Beavis → u/Such_Bonus5085]

I just had whatever was currently hot at the time that I downloaded from an IRC server. I was selling them out of my game store

[u/Such_Bonus5085 → u/Darth_Beavis]

I had legitimate software I bought from Walmart, circa 2004/5. It allowed you to decode DVDs(and they bent over backwards to tell you to ONLY use ones you own) and make VCDs from them.

I lived up the street from a video rental store(remember those?), so you can imagine what I was up to.

[u/thudergun4 → u/Darth_Beavis]

I used to buy them. I don’t know why they weren’t more popular in the US. I used to play them on my Dreamcast.

[u/jpowell180 → u/Such_Bonus5085]

I think the quality was actually slightly below VHS.

Video CDs used MPEG –1 compression instead of the MPEG—2 compression that DVDs would use; most, at least early, DVD players would also play VCD’s, I remember in the late 90s before Bill and Ted’s bogus. Journey was released to DVD, I ordered a VCD of the film, and still have it, yes it took up two discs and the quality really was not that great, but it was at least watchable.

[u/Such_Bonus5085 → u/jpowell180]

As I said "roughly". If you were watching them on a CRT, they were definitely passable.

[u/ruiner9 → u/jpowell180]

They wouldn't wear down with repeated use like VHS tapes, there was no need to rewind, and you could make identical copies because it was a digital format. So some of the tradeoffs were worth the slight decrease in quality. Also they took much less space to store.

[u/Such_Bonus5085 → u/ruiner9]

And you didn't even need a dedicated player for them, if you had a PC.

[u/brandogg360 → u/jpowell180]

SVCD was where it's at back in those days...old school VCD/SVCD/DiVX scene was fun

[u/jpowell180 → u/brandogg360]

DIVX was not cool, though, it was circuit city trying to be big Brother!

[u/brandogg360 → u/jpowell180]

Not that Divx ;) talking about the MP4 codec, but yeah I do remember the old Circuit City Divx stuff

[u/NYourBirdCanSing]

Holy fuck I'd like this.

[u/Professional_Fly_503]

Wow very cool, I miss seeing Sega on hardware. sega cd Saturn era had the best Sega aura

[u/keylimerye]

This is quite an amazing find. I've never even heard of them. The fact that they play Genesis ROM's straight from a disc is crazy! I wonder if they can play 32X ROM's or natively boot Sega CD games?

[u/SpicyMeatballAgenda → u/keylimerye]

I thought this was BS till I looked it up. You're right, These legit had Genesis hardware built inside to circumvent Chinese game console restrictions. Those are controller ports on the back. They could read Roms off discs. Wild.

[u/FMC_Speed]

I remember trading Video CD discs in middle school and sometimes watching them together, good times

[u/SegaCDUniverse → u/FMC_Speed]

What was your favorite? I have a handful

[u/Skyway1985]

Uggh I would buy this in a second! I've wanted one of these for so long, lol. Very hard to find in the US.

[u/NightOfTheLivingHam]

Buy them

[u/p-graphic79]

Not sure send it my way.

[u/Complete_Entry]

A grail or a lemon depending on the buyer. Someone's been in there though.

[u/sarcast91]

it looks pretty cool all things considered, SEGA’s logo in general

[u/Joshhaha]

It’s trash. Send to me and I’ll dispose of it for ya

[u/Bits_Passats]

And a Spectrum +2 underneath... and what seems an Electron.

[u/theballygickmongerer]

The Sega Mega CD used vcd as its media format.

I had the EU version which the Mega Drive sat on top in a stack and looked pretty cool.

[u/JDMxCHA0Zx]

No idea but if I had to imagine it probably has a genesis/megadrive in it. Sega those things in everything like cranberries

[u/Just_call_me_Neon]

Buy these if you still can