Non-standard VCD?

[lemmy999]

I purchased a PAL version of a Cardigans concert (Live in London) but I have no way to play it. Someone was kind enough to burn a copy of the NTSC VCD that was released several years back (but is out of print). This was the only NTSC form of this concert that was available. It is a 2 CD VCD set. I can open the .dat files in the MPEGAV directory and they play fine. But otherwise they won't play on my computer at all (Windows Media and WinDVD) and they won't play on my DVD player (Pioneer DV333). The Pioneer plays all of my other VCDs (some I have made, some others have made, and some pressed VCDs). The Pioneer normally says CD on the display, then changes to VCD. But on these VCDs it just says CD and doesn't do anything else. I would just convert the .dat files to mpeg and make a new VCD, but I don't want to lose anything like a menu or chapter points. Is there anything I can do to see if this is VCD meets the standard? All of the files look in order with the possible except of some files in the root directory. It is possible that the guy did a file by file copy instead of a disc copy (because the dates on the files are 1995/1996/1997 but the dates on the directories are 7/22/04). Would this be a problem? Here is the directory listing:

Directory of G:\
11/15/1995  06:45 AM               181 ABSTRACT.TXT
11/15/1995  06:41 AM                31 BIBLIOGR.TXT
11/15/1995  06:41 AM                29 COPYRIGH.TXT
               
Directory of G:\CDI
03/14/1996  11:52 PM         1,324,220 CDI_IMAG.RTF
03/21/1996  03:53 AM            13,616 CDI_TEXT.FNT
05/03/1996  10:54 AM           102,400 CDI_VCD.APP
05/29/1997  11:46 PM               279 CDI_VCD.CFG
               
Directory of G:\EXT
05/29/1997  11:46 PM            65,536 LOT_X.VCD
05/29/1997  11:46 PM               448 PSD_X.VCD
05/29/1997  11:46 PM            17,514 SCANDATA.DAT
               
Directory of G:\MPEGAV
05/29/1997  11:46 PM         3,655,052 AVSEQ01.DAT
05/29/1997  11:46 PM         1,251,308 AVSEQ02.DAT
05/29/1997  11:46 PM       510,252,332 AVSEQ03.DAT
               
Directory of G:\SEGMENT
05/29/1997  11:46 PM           214,076 ITEM0001.DAT
05/29/1997  11:46 PM           197,612 ITEM0002.DAT

Directory of G:\VCD
05/29/1997  11:46 PM             2,048 ENTRIES.VCD
05/29/1997  11:46 PM             2,048 INFO.VCD
05/29/1997  11:46 PM            65,536 LOT.VCD
05/29/1997  11:46 PM               320 PSD.VCD

[Sefy]

It's rather strange there is playback issues with the Pioneer, but you could try to re-create the VCD again, and I would suggest you try using a CDRW, copy the DAT files and use VCDEasy to re-author it (use the guides on the left) to a new VCD movie.

During the VCDEasy step it will check your DAT file, and if it is indeed a bad or non-standard, it will let you know of it.

[lemmy999]

I have already attempted to copy the .DAT files and then load them in Nero and also in VCDEasy. They load just fine. So it doesn't seem that the .DAT files are the problems. BTW, they also show "no disc" on my Apex AD600A (it will play almost anything), and my Philips DVDR985.

[Sefy]

But have you tried to burn those DAT files into new VCD's and then try the new discs ? using media of course that you know works on your DVD Players

[lemmy999]

No, I haven't tried that yet. I will try that today. I was hoping to be able to keep the menu and chapters, but I think I can use VCDGear to rip the menu image .dat files to .mpg stills and then recreate everything.

Actually, one of the 2 VCDs did have an error in the .DAT file toward the end. Nero liked it, but VCDEasy didn't. So I used VCDGear to "repair" and that didn't help either. Then I demuxed/remuxed with Womble MPEG-VCR and VCDEasy took it then. But the 2nd VCD (which also won't play) didn't have any errors.

[lemmy999]

I have finally found something that reads the VCDs. PowerDVD reads the menu and plays them perfectly.

[Sefy]

I'm quite sure there is a way you can re-do the menus, but for now, just use a CDRW to see if you can play a newely burned VCD only of your DAT files. if that works, we can figure out how to re-create the rest

[lemmy999]

I ripped the menu stills and the video from each DVD and reauthored the VCD and it plays on everything now. I just don't understand what the guy did to screw it up. He copied all of the files, but can you copy a VCD by just copying the files to the HDD and then burning to CDR as a data CD?

[Baldrick]

no, you can't just burn as data. you must burn as vcd. it is best to do a "disc copy", if you are manully copying the files you must reauthor the vcd.

[lemmy999]

That is what I thought. I tried to tell him to do a disc copy, but when it arrived it was obvious that he had just copied the files.

[Cornucopia]

What you can do to reconstruct the actual MENU system for the VCD is this:

Using VCDEasy (or similar), use the VCDXRip tool to rip the VCD to its component mpg video and still files. This will also generate an XML file with which you can compare to make sure your structure matches.

If you want to do a standards conversion (PAL-->NTSC), go for it and then name the file the same as the ripped mpg and replace the ripped one with the converted one.

Then run the VCDXBuild tool to create a BIN/CUE and burn! Works a treat!

BTW, IIRC the VCDXRip tool does correctly unwrap the MPEG file from the Windows CDXA headers. If you're unsure of this, you can always do that as a separate step with VCDEASY or VCDImager, or with VCDGear.

This message is probably too late, but it may help others down the road.

Scott