A Philips CD-i 450 can now run from a USB-C charger in MattKC’s latest hardware project. In a video published on 20 October 2026, he replaces the console’s awkward original power connection with a compact custom board and demonstrates the modified machine booting and playing games.
The interesting part is more than swapping a connector. The CD-i needs both +5V and −5V, while a typical USB-C power-delivery charger offers only 3A at 5V. MattKC’s board requests 9V, steps it down for the main rail, generates the negative rail, and preserves the console’s power-switch behaviour. His first assembled boards produced no output: he had omitted the two 5.1kΩ pull-down resistors that identify a USB-C power sink. After adding them by hand, he measured the expected rails and powered the CD-i successfully.
It is a neat example of modern power electronics solving a very specific retro-hardware nuisance without pretending the prototype is a finished product. MattKC says he may eventually offer internal or external versions, but plans further testing and revisions first. The video is sponsored by PCBWay, which manufactured and assembled the boards.
Watch the full build and test: Running the Philips CD-i off USB-C… because why not? by MattKC (17 minutes 11 seconds).
