VCD Question

So I'm trying to make a VCD using Easy CD Creator 5 and running into a problem. If anyone has the program and can help me, I'd appreciate it.

Using the wizard, when I attempt to add an MPEG file, it brings up a list of flags, some of which will prevent the file from being usable as a VCD. By adjusting the capture settings (video bitrate, etc) for my video card, I was able to capture files that eliminated all these flags but one: "System Clock Reference" What is this?

To make it difficult, I could find absolutely no mention of it in the help file for the program or online. No matter what capture settings I changed, I couldn't get this number to change. All I know is that there are MPEG files on my computer that don't cause a flag on this property, but I didn't create them.

The files that don't raise the flag produce a number in this field of 1200. The ones that do have, from what I've seen, cause numbers in the 200's and something like 1123.

Can anyone help me on this?

Try reencoding it using TMPGEnc, using its VideoCD settings. This should take forever, but likely fix the timing ``problem''.

Does the quality degrade after using that program?

It shouldn't.. Esp if you set the quality way up.. (Motion Estimation and such)

Might take a while though, but I always have to run things taped from my ATI card through TMPG before Nero will let me burn them... *sigh* ATI can't seem to get VCD right..

It will degrade, but probably not noticeably. This is because you've captured the video and encoded it with a lossy compression scheme (MPEG-1). TMPGEnc has to play the video back and reencode it, including any original compression artifacts. But it does a very good job. If you're very concerned by it, see if your video capture utility can save the incoming data in a lossless format. It'll be huge, but only temporary until TMPGEnc can convert it to MPEG.

Thanks, for the help, I'll try those programs out. I wish I could encode at lossless rates, but my computer wouldn't be able to handle it. I'm not able to encode anything better than 320x240. Sucks, but I'll live. Unless there's any better way. Any ideas? This is using the ATI TV to capture video. I think I have Multimedia Center 7.0. If I use to high a rate, I wind up dropping 8 to 25% of the frames.

It can still be lossless at 320x240. NTSC is only 352x240 anyway. The problem is that you're applying two lossless video codecs to the stream, one on top of the other. To compare with stuff we should all be familiar with, it's as if you ripped a song off of a CD, converted it to MP3 format, decided that you needed it at a different bit-rate, and generated a new MP3 using the original MP3 as the source instead of going back to the CD or the initially ripped WAV.

I don't know about your capture utility, but there should be somewhere for you to select what codec is being used (there might not be, but there ought to be). Look through there and see if you can record as a lossless AVI (still at 352x240, or whatever's the closest you can get). This will take up massive amounts of space, but when you convert it to MPEG, you'll have only lost data once instead of twice.

The problem, as I said, with recording at a lossless rate is that my processor doesn't seem to be able to handle it, and I lose 8-25%+ of the frames.

Never mind that, though. Here is where I am now:

I've installed Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum Super Duper Spectacular Whatever, and it's pretty good except for the whole PC-[censored]-up thing.

Anyway, I managed to burn a VCD (I downloaded TMPGEnc and it works great!). It looks like other VCDs I've seen (in explorer), but I can't play it. Why? Evidently it's because my VCD playing program (part of the ATI MMC) can't play v2.0 VCDs, or at least that's the reason it gives. I also tried playing the disk on my dad's Sony DVD player. It didn't. I don't know if this has the same version problem (I have to check the manual), but it doesn't make much sense to me.

I really don't know how all these people make VCDs so easily. I've put a good amount of research in. I've figured out the properties the files should have, I've been able to make the proper MPEG files for the format, but it still doesn't work! What's the deal?

What I would really like to do is to play a disk on my dad's DVD player. That's my main objective. If I can't get that to work, I'll just be exporting to VHS, which isn't too bad, but VCD would be cool.

I've never used it, but I've heard a lot of bad things about EasyCD. Try Nero. I've heard a lot of bad things about it, as well, but it's worked for me many times. There's a demo on that page that you can download.

Oh -- and I feel certain that EasyCD would detect it, but there are some CD recorders that can't write in the proper mode (XA Mode 2) to make VCDs. Make sure yours is not one of them.

I'll second the Nero praise...great burning program. I really hate Easy CD Creator. I generally made one coaster after another with that program. Nero, on the other hand, is almost coast free.

As for the VCD not working on the Sony DVD player, was it just not reading the VCD? I have a Sony DVD, and I understand they're really picky about what burned CDs they read. They're pretty good with platinum CD-RW discs, as well as Sony CD-Rs (obviously). Mine refuses to read any CD-Rs I make (audio, video, whatever).

Yes, good point. Media is critical with DVD players. Many won't read CD-R media at all.

Note that CD-RW media happens to work in many DVD players that won't read CD-R media. For what it's worth.

IIRC, it's down to the laser wavelength -- CDs use red/infrared, DVDs use blue. Unless your DVD has a tunable laser, or a dual laser pickup, it will have difficulty reading some media (because they're tuned for the other end of the spectrum).

Added to this is the fact that the refractive index of CD-R and CD-RW media is different to that of normal CDs, and you can see why it gets complicated. I can only assume that the refractive index of CD-RW is sufficiently different that DVD drives have a fighting chance of reading them.

My box at work has both a CD drive and a DVD drive in it, because the DVD drive is hopeless at reading a lot of normal CDs, let alone CD-Rs. Also, it can't rip for toffee .

Well I'm sorry for doubting any of you, but I uninstalled ECDC5 and loaded Nero. There couldn't have been more of a change. EZ had screwed my computer over to the point of making it VERY difficult to boot, and through various attempts with various boot methods, I finally got in to uninstall it.

Needless to say, I was very suprised by Nero. I think I had tried to use a previous version that messed my computer up even more than EZ, but this one was incredible! It encoded several non-VCD standard MPEG files, and even a WMV file! That's just amazing.

HOWEVER. I still could not get anything that claimed to read VCDs to play it. I burned a simple VCD with 4 or 5 tracks and a very simple menu. I attempted to use ATI's VCD player, one I got from Cnet, and my dad's DVD player again. I understand the possible issues with the DVD player, but due to the fact that the VCD doesn't play normally in any of the VCD programs I tried, I'm inclined to think it's something else. I was able to get the individual tracks to play in WMP (with the dat files).

I'm going to check if the DVD player really can read these files, and try to work out some other possible causes of the problem. Anyone have an idea?

What brand and model CD recorder do you have?

I had a similar experience with Nero, being surprised how well it worked after having been an EZ user.

I still have to keep EZ on my machine, though. There are some situations when I still need it. For example, sometimes I have to burn the alpha-test images for the upgrade CDs for the HSX-109, since I'm on the beta testing team. I discovered that Nero would not burn them properly, I made nothing but coasters when I used Nero with those particular files. Only EZ would properly burn those files. In theory, they were just standard ISO image files, but somehow EZ did the right thing and Nero did not. If I recall correctly, the symptom with Nero-burned CDs is that the CD would function fine right up until the very end of the upgrade, somewhere after the 90 percent mark, then it would crash. I never got to the bottom of the problem, I just discovered that EZ did the right thing.

The reason I started using Nero was because it will create VCD still-image slide shows from my raw JPGs. This lets me create "test pattern" VCDs that I can put in my DVD player and run on my rear-projection television to help calibrate it. This is a rather cool feature of Nero for non-techies, too: you can drop a bunch of photos onto Nero and it'll make a photo-album VCD that will play on a DVD player.

I'm using an HP 9200i internal SCSI CDRW. It's not a bad drive I don't think. I haven't had problems with other mediums due to the drive (always the software).

That photo album sounds cool, but of course, I'll need to get VCDs working at all before I try any creative uses!

The thing that really amazed me about Nero was the encoding of the WMV file without any problem at all! That was absolutely amazing! Most programs I'v efound that are designed specifically for converting files can't do stuff like that!