Toshiba SD220E...sound unsynced on SVCDs

[PyRoMaNiA]

Seen a lot of questions regarding this problem...but can't see why it happens. It's always the same, no matter how I encode, the sound on SVCDs is ALWAYS about half a second after the video! Apparently SVCDs created with VOB Instant CD/DVD dont have this problem. But why?! I really don't want to use VOB because it re-encodes the video, and with VCDEasy I have much more control.

So, does anyone know WHAT exactly it is that causes this? And how I could fix it?

[mikihz]

it is a bug for this sd-220 model,but,there is a solution
during playback press the angle key twaice ( changing audio stream for SVCD) and you problem is solved.
For more information check the players page in this site.

Miki

[PyRoMaNiA]

Thanks for your reply, but thats what I've been doing...was hoping there was an easier way. There must be a reason why Instant CD/DVD works and other programs don't?

[mikihz]

Did you try more then one movie with Instant CD/DVD ?!
I have been doing more then 100 SVCD with DVD2SVCD ( and CCE ) and face this problem for about 50% of the movies and for the same movie some time it's happend and sometime it's not.
Miki

[Cole]

I also own a Toshiba SD220E and the SVCD issue has led me into using XVCDs. I admit that most of my XVCDs are VHS conversions, but an average bit rate of 1900kps for a 45/50 minute film, the quality achieved on my XVCDs are comparable to the original VHS.

I have recently got a copy of VOB Instand CD/DVD free with a PC magazine recently and want to give it a try, but in all honesty, I don't believe that I will achieve any better quality with SVCDs for VHS than I am already getting with my XVCDs.

I understand the sync problem is something to do with the nature of the files that Nero etc writes to the SVCD but not sure how that can be solved.

Not very helpful, true, but just wanted to put my two pennith in...

[PyRoMaNiA]

Did you try more then one movie with Instant CD/DVD ?!
I have been doing more then 100 SVCD with DVD2SVCD ( and CCE ) and face this problem for about 50% of the movies and for the same movie some time it's happend and sometime it's not.

I haven't actually tried any movies with Instant CD/DVD... I normally just use TMPGEnc to encode, VCDEasy to create an image, and Nero to burn...it's happened on all the SVCDs I've done so far.

I also own a Toshiba SD220E and the SVCD issue has led me into using XVCDs. I admit that most of my XVCDs are VHS conversions, but an average bit rate of 1900kps for a 45/50 minute film, the quality achieved on my XVCDs are comparable to the original VHS.

I have recently got a copy of VOB Instand CD/DVD free with a PC magazine recently and want to give it a try, but in all honesty, I don't believe that I will achieve any better quality with SVCDs for VHS than I am already getting with my XVCDs.

I've been making XVCDs mostly, but to use any resolution higher than VCD (which I am not really very happy with) like 480x480, 704x480 I have to mux and burn as SVCD, which is where the problem comes in...some people claim to have got CVD to work on this player...can't see how though...

[VisiBill]

I believe I have the answer to this problem.

I too was annoyed by the sound sync problems on my Toshiba SD220E with SVCDs. The angle button trick works, but has to be repeated for every track on the disc.

Reading the advice given on this site, I downloaded a demo copy of Instant CD and burnt a test disc - it worked just fine. Burning the same MPEG files with Nero, VCDEasy etc resulted in sound being out of sync.

So I said to myself - I ought to be able to find out the difference between the Instant CD disc and the others.

I went down the road of missing files, etc - and spent a long time doing lots of tests - still no results.

Eventually, I discovered what I believe is the key difference. (This gets technical, please feel free to skip the following...) The problem lies in the subcode header that is applied to the first packet of each MPEG file. I think that the encoding used by the standard VCDEasy distribution (and presumably Nero) is such that the Toshiba ignores the packet. Now this packet contains system information about the rest of the stream. I guess that the Toshiba therefore supplies defaults, which are wrong for a SVCD, therefore the sound is out of sync. For more technical details, please see my thread on
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-vcdimager/2003-03/msg00005.html

As you may be aware, VCDEasy uses VCDimager to actually do the compilation of the SVCD. Luckily VCDImager is an open source piece of software and therefore I have produced a version which generates the required sub code header. It is a VCDimager patch which has now given me perfect results on a number of SVCDs.

I shall be releasing this shortly (hopefully tonight), and will repost to this forum when I am able to make it available for download. I have produced a Windows version of the patch and will distribute the source code so that users with other platforms can try it out.

I would like other members of this forum to try it out, and report their success (or otherwise). If is definitely a resolution to the problem, we can probably get a permanent solution to the problem with an option in VCDImager/VCDEasy.

Regards,

Bill

[mikihz]

Tx for the dedicated work,I'll test it a soon as ypu'll post it

[VisiBill]

I have now put it on my web site.

Just go to
http://www.billh.demon.co.uk/download.htm
or the home page at
http://www.billh.demon.co.uk and follow the links

Please report results of any tests, so that we can get the changes incorporated into an official version of VCDimager/VCDEasy if there is sufficient demand.

Bill.

[merkin]

Jesus christ Bill, that's some fantastic work you've done there... no more 'angle button' trick needed!! Seriously, that's very impressive, good work matey

[PyRoMaNiA]

Wow, thanks! At last someone has fixed this!! One question though: Will this affect compatibility with other players?

[VisiBill]

I can't really answer the compatibility question myself, except that I have tried a disc with WinDVD and it works. Also VCDs created with the fixed software do work with the Toshiba OK.

Apart from that I really need you to do some tests for me.

Has anyone out there tried my fix yet? What are your results? Do you need extra assistance installing it?

If it proves a worthwhile and popular fix, then we can probably get it added as an option to VCDImager and its front ends, e.g. VCDEasy. Then you can generate a disc with or without the fix at will!

[PyRoMaNiA]

Works GREAT!

Every SVCD I've done so far works fine, no sync problems at all!

[WarpEnterprises]

Works on Toshiba210, too.

Bill, you are a REALLY great researcher!

[venom11]

I can confirm that this works on the Toshiba 210E
Having applied your path the audio is in synch which is fantastic as the
pressing the angle button twice on my model did not work (like did on
my friends 220)

I tend to have a lot of AVI's which I convert using dvd2svcd this fortunately uses VCDIMAGER !!! At last I don't have to buy another player

I thought I would let DVD2SVCD chappies know.

Cheers