Apex 550 plays VCD and MPG1 differently - Nero problem?

[ksandbergfl]

Hi there!

Sorry if this topic has been posted before....

I have an Apex 550 DVD player. It plays everything that I encode/rip/burn. It's been a great DVD/MPeg player for the money.

I capture using a Dazzle DVC1 USB, at 3Mb/s. I then use TMPGenc to encode the files to VCD format.

I burn VCD's using Nero 5.5.3.5. The Apex plays the menu fine, and all the functions like zoom, FF, RW etc work OK. However, sometimes (like in a high-action scene) I get some pixelization.

On a whim, instead of making a VCD, I simply made a data CD (for use on my computer) with the VCD (1.15Mb/s) MPG video files on it. I stuck the CD into the Apex -- and, viola! A simple DOS-like menu appeared, and I could use the remote to select an MPG to view (just like when you put a MP3 music CD in the Apex).

The MPGs play great! There is no pixelization! It is quite obviously a better picture. However, (as you might expect), I no longer have the capability to zoom/FF/RW the video as it is playing.

Can anyone tell me why this is happening? Does Nero somehow "tweak" the MPG's when I make my VCD, thus degrading the quality? Or, is the "problem" with the Apex? Is there extra CPU overhead required to provide zoom/FF/RW on a playing MPG, that is causing the Apex to play the VCD with less "fidelity" than the straight MPG?

I am thinking of not burning any more VCD's... I am tempted to simply copy my MPG videos to a data CD... that way I can play the MPG's on my Apex or on my computer with the same ease.

Any comments/advice are much appreciated.

Keith
Melbourne, Florida

[ksandbergfl]

anyone here?