can't play vcd's on any computer

[praktiflex]

I have burnt a decent collection of VCD's that I have downloaded as divx etc... and reconverted to PAL 352x288 resolution and 625 line mpeg1 with tmpgenc (I just loaded the Pal VCD template). Then I burned them to memorex high capacity 700 mb CDRs with Sony CD Extreme version 1.1.373. They work beautifully in a stand alone Pioneer dv-434 dvd player, but I can't get them to work at all on my computer or anyone else's for that matter. I have tried winDVD, windows media player, global divx, cinematograph, vcd player, etc... I also renamed SCSI1HLP.VXD and restarted the computer in hopes it would fix that, but that didn't work either. The video's will sort of load and the player will know how long the video is but there isn't any video or sound. I haven't tried anything in NTSC, do videos for the computer have to be in NTSC? I also have ATI all-in-wonder Radeon and tried using the vcd player with that. I have had no luck at all please help me out. Thanks. Plus if I do have to do them in NTSC, what program can I use to convert if possible, I have to use the VCDs I no longer have the original files.

[Baldrick]

It doesnt matter if its ntsc or pal it should work.

Have you tried to copy the .dat file from the VCD to the HD?

[praktiflex]

yeah I copied to harddrive and tried to play it, no success there. I found one vcd that played it was encoded in PAL it was already set when I downloaded it, so I didn't have to use Tmpgenc, the original settings for this VCD were- MPEG-1 352x288 25fps CBR 1150kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 192kbps. This plays fine in my computer, but when I checked these settings against the original Tmpgenc settings which were PAL (MPEG-1 352x288 25fps CBR 1150kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 224kbps), there is a difference. The difference is 192kbps versus 224kbps. Should this matter?, every other VCD I have is encoded at 224kbps. This works fine I might remind you in a stand alone DVD player. So I checked this against the original Divx files before I encoded them it turns out that almost every file was 192kbps, Then when I encoded them into mpeg they were changed (using Tmpgenc's vcd(pal) template) to 224kbps. Is this anything or am I just rambling. Anyway the mpegs worked fine before I burned them to cd now they don't work at all even when copied back to the harddrive. Well that was long, but hopefully someone can help me, I hope I won't have to redo all my VCD's for my computer. THANKS.

[praktiflex]

Ok, I know I must have sounded like an idiot before, all talking about whether the sound should be encoded in 192 or 224kbps, but I finally figured out the deal. I think it was my burning program SO IF ANYONE HAS A PROBLEM WITH SONY CD EXTREME, use NEREO 5.5.4 its much better, as I'm sure anyone would tell me. The whole folder structure for a VCD in nero is different than using sony cd extreme in sony's program it was just the folders VCD and MPEGAV, in nero's it was VCD, SEGMENT, MPEGAV, EXT, and CDI. I'm still confused as to why my VCDs burned with sony cd extreme work in a stand alone dvd player, but oh well my problem is solved, with nero they work in the dvd player and on the computer. Nero is a handy program it automatically tells you whats wrong with the video file if there is a problem. I also got the latest version of Tmpgenc and that seems to work better too. So if anyone has any VCD SOFTWARE PLAYING PROBLEMS and nothing works try burning with NERO. With sony cd extreme the *.dat files become unrecognizable after burning, not so with NERO. Good luck everyone.