newbie VCD chater question

[oofers72]

Hi all,

Been experimenting with VCDEasy and TMPGEnv for about a week.

I had one 60 minute .mpg-1 file that I wanted to make into a VCD, with chapters at certain spots. I created the chapters in VCD, where you press "Ok" in real time as the mpg plays, making a chapter. As I understand VCD chapters, they are not chapters in a DVD sense, but just entry points for the mpg. This creates the following problem: if you were to use the forward skip button on the DVD remote to enter at "chapter" 2, and then let the VCD play through into "chapter" 3, and then press the forward skip button, you actually are just skipping from entry point 2 to entry point 3. One would expect to have gone to the fourth entry point when having pressed forward skip during chapter 3.

Furthermore, on the stand-alone DVD's display, the track is always "1" throughout the whole .mpg on the VCD. If I create a VCD with this 60 minute .mpg and also put another mpg on there, that other mpg becomes chapter 2 on the DVD's display.

I understand that this is "just how it is" with VCD chaptering.

When I look at the relevant XML, I see:

<sequence-items>
<sequence-item src="C:\somefile.mpg" id="Sequence-0001-01">
<default-entry id="Chapter-0001-01"/>
<entry id="Chapter-0001-02">4.504</entry>
<entry id="Chapter-0001-03">826.826</entry>
<entry id="Chapter-0001-04">1033.532</entry>
<entry id="Chapter-0001-05">1446.945</entry>
<entry id="Chapter-0001-06">1455.454</entry>
</sequence-item>
<sequence-item src="C:\somefile2.mpg" id="Sequence-0002-01">
<default-entry id="Chapter-0002-01"/>
</sequence-item>
</sequence-items>

So indeed, the "chapters" I created in VCDEasy actually all fall under the name of "Chapter 0001", explaining the behavior in the DVD player.

To get around this, I could take the 60-minute mpg and split it into 6 seperate mpgs, one for each chapter I want, and then just add those individually to VCDEasy.

Then the chapters within the one 60-min show would behave like real chapters, as far as the DVD's display and skipping controls.

My question is-- surely there is an easier way? Altering the XML file, maybe? Or maybe I'm the only one who wants the display to actually show what chapter one is in?

What are some of the workarounds you experienced folks use?

Thanks for any suggestions!

-oof

[JEEPn]

The only problem with spliting the 60min vid into smaller files thus having chapters per say...is that there will be a slight pause when starting the next chapter. I don't know if there is any way to make "true" chapters on a VCD/SVCD. I think that the nature of the beast. I believe true chapter live only on DVDs.

good luck

if you do find a way, please share it with all of us here.

[Squeeto]

Okay, I just downloaded VCDEasy today so I am not even a novice yet, but as you noticed, VCDEasy makes the .xml with lines like:
<sequence-item src="E:\svcd\yourvid.mpg" id="Sequence-0003-01">

I have only made one svcd with chapters and I hand wrote the xml file from some notes off the net, my line looked like this:
<sequence-item src="E:\svcd\yourvid.mpg" id="sequence-03" />
for the third video.

Now I know that this is the third mpg file for me and you have only one but maybe it works the same way. Try dumping the "-01" part.