All of the self booting or "SB" games play like a normal original store bought game. There is no difference. They load automatically.
Non self booting games require the use of a boot cd.
The process is easy. Power up the dreamcast with the boot cd in the machine. You will get a screen with a spinning reindeer (don't ask me why they picked that) that is when you open the dreamcast lid (with the power still on, the boot cd will stop spinning) take the boot cd out, and replace it with the game or movie you wish to play/view. Close the lid and it will load right up.

Does it matter if I have a import or USA dreamcast?

No. Unless you have one of the brand new (as of feb 2001) dreamcasts released in Japan that have protection, these games and the boot cd will work in any USA or Asian machine. I don't think though however that they will work in PAL/European machines.

Dreamcast Backups 3.00 per disk

all my goddess

spiderman

Well Dreamcast video cd's are a small modification of regular video cd's. A video cd is video in the MPEG1 format. It is designed for play mainly on your computer. If you ever see a file on your PC ending in .mpg this is a MPEG1 movie.
The dreamcast vcd's are simply formatted with a program that allows the dreamcast to read MPEG1 files.

How do I watch these DC VCD's on my Dreamcast?

Most of the movies require the use of the boot cd the same way you would boot up a non selfbooting game.
The process is easy. Power up the dreamcast with the boot cd in the machine. You will get a screen with a spinning reindeer (don't ask me why they picked that) that is when you open the dreamcast lid (with the power still on, the boot cd will stop spinning) take the boot cd out, and replace it with the game or movie you wish to play/view. Close the lid and it will load right up. Now some movies are staring to become availiable in the selfboot format. For these you do nothing. Boot it up as you would a self boot game or original game. Watch away. Though not perfect, the movie viewer even has pause, fast forward and rewind features.

Can I view these movies on anything else besides my dreamcast?

Only on a PC(unless you have like a super super old PC). Just use Windows Media Player (if you have windows you have this, it comes with windows. Look under programs, accessories, entertainment) or any other program that plays MPEG's (there are many) and open up the file in the Mpegav folder on the cd. This is the movie file.

So these will not play in my DVD player?

Nope, sorry. Some regular VCD's yes. The DC VCD's no.

Ok, so this sounds pretty cool, so whats the catch?

The only catch in my opinion comes in the quality. Everyone has their own opinion. I don't think they are all that bad. In fact some of them are excellent quality. But none of them will match a original store bought VHS tape or DVD. The advantage is in that they are generally cheaper or hard to find/still in theaters releases.
It's hard to explain and again the quality varies Another note on quality is that it also depends on how you are viewing them. If you decide to go the PC route and watch them in a small window the quality can be amazing and then come very close to VHS/DVD quality. So it's a trade-off really. Watch in full screen on dreamcast or PC and loose some quality or watch in smaller screen on PC and get excellent quality. Also the type of TV you have seems to make a difference as well. I have a crappy TV, but when I go over to my friend's house who has a Sony Trinatron the movies look a good bit better than they do on my TV.

dreamcast movies

Double Take (DCVCD) (2 CD's)

Dracula 2000 (DCVCD) (2 CD's)

The Exorcist:The Version You've Never Seen (DCVCD) (2 CD's)

The Mummy Returns (DCVCD) (2 CD's