(s)VCD Menu with sound / still imagaes with sound?

[redrunner]

Hi,

Is it possible to make a (s)vcd with still images WITH
sound?

And is it possible to have sound in a (s)VCD menu?

Thanks,
Bjorn

[vitualis]

The answer is a resounding YES, but you will have to know how to author it...

For VCD, you will probably have to use VCDImager or VCD Toolkit, while for SVCD, VCDImager or I-Author.

There are two ways to have a "still image" menu AND have background audio:

1. The simplest way that is guranteed to work in essentially all S/VCD compatible players is to simply make a short video clip with a still image and the audio in the background. Then use this clip as the background (or <playitem> in VCDImager terminology) for your "menu" (or <selection> ). This works quite well for SVCDs by virtue of its higher resolution. It works less well for VCDs (you will have to ensure that there isn't too much fine detail or text).

2. You can actually use an "audio only segment play item" on both VCD2.0 and SVCDs. It is probably not possible to describe how it works in just a paragraph, but it involves putting an audio only "segment item" after a REAL still menu (that is, a high resolution still). S/VCDs work by displaying the last image displayed until it is refreshed by another video image. The advantage in doing this way is that it saves space on the S/VCD, and that you can use a high resolution still (i.e., 704x480/576). The disadvantage is that not all S/VCD players can play audio only SPIs properly.

There is an example on how to author an audio only SPI in the demo VCD at the VCDImager website.

I would suggest using option 1 first -- especially for SVCDs.

Good luck.

Regards,
Michael Tam