How to burn VCDs with PAR2 error correction

[The Belgain]

I'd like to burn VCDs of 45 minute TV shows, and fill the free space left on the CD with PAR2 recovery files for the video. How do I do this? The problem is that the file is stored on the VCD as a dat file, which is different to the mpg file I have on my computer at the moment, so I cannot just create PAR2 files (using QuickPar) for the mpg and store them on the CD.

I don't want to create PAR2 files from the dat which is on the CD and then burn them (in a second session) onto the CD, because the files I read off the CD may already have errors on them.

Any ideas?

[Cornucopia]

I only see 3 choices:

1. Skip the VCD format and just make a simple Mode1 ISO9660/Joliet CDROM. It's not like a hardware/software VCD/DVD player is gonna be able to use a PAR file anyway. Sounds like it's only gonna be used in a computer, so just make a computer disc. You could always play a std. CDROM on versatile DVD players like the Norcent DP300 that can play straight mpgs. This would also bypass the steps and time required for authoring.

2. Put a duplicate straight MPEG (along w/ PAR) on the ISO (track1) part of the disc, in a "Sources" directory or something. This may require you to chop the file or lower the bitrate to accommodate space restrictions.

3. Keep the PAR (for the original MPEG, not the DAT) on the ISO part of the disc, knowing that to recreate the original MPEG you will have to extract the mpeg from the DAT's headers and padding and such. There are files available here to do that (VCDImagerToolsGUI comes to mind). Then compare the PAR to the reconstructed MPEG and hope that works...

HTH,
Scott

[The Belgain]

Yeah, option 3 is what I was thinking of doing. The only problem I could see is that depending on how you extract the mpg, wouldn't you get slighty different files (like headers and stuff like that) which could cause some trouble. I'll give it a go on a CD-RW.

Putting extra files in the CDI directory shouldn't affect standalone compatibility at all, right? A DVD player just ignores that directory, yes?

Why is PAR2 error recovery not used more for (S)VCDs? I find that there are often some errors (as in glitches - file still playable) upon re-extracting the mpg file from a VCD. It would be nice to know that the video on the VCDs you burn is safe.