got vcd to play on standalone...now to increase quality

[shhmoo]

hello all...i recently made a post here: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240948&highlight= regarding buring my miniDV footage to a dvd-r which did not play on my standalone. I decided to try a vcd which successfully did play. however the quality is alot worse than what i would like. I would like to know if there are any other options I have. I'm not sure if the player does not like the DVD media (ritek) I originaly chose. If it had some errors. Or if there is a way I can burn the VCD like format onto a DVD so that I may increase the quality. Anyone have any recommendations of what I may do? thanks in advance.

[hech54]

I personally would stick to DVD burning....don't give up so fast man. If I read correctly....you have a Sony DVD Player? BAD player when it comes to anything other than a factory pressed - store bought DVD. You've already got two DVD's created that play well in your computer so you know they work. Take them somewhere like Best Buy (a retail store) and try them on their DVD players. If they work....buy a cheapo DVD player.
OR....put a region code on your DVD creations then try them in your Sony.
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1080159#1080159

[shhmoo]

I personally would stick to DVD burning....don't give up so fast man. If I read correctly....you have a Sony DVD Player? BAD player when it comes to anything other than a factory pressed - store bought DVD. You've already got two DVD's created that play well in your computer so you know they work. Take them somewhere like Best Buy (a retail store) and try them on their DVD players. If they work....buy a cheapo DVD player.
OR....put a region code on your DVD creations then try them in your Sony.
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1080159#1080159

I haven't exactly given up. I would just like to get somethign (with good quality) that works on my parents DVD player. I don't believe they will purchase a new DVD player just to play the footage they took. The VCD seems to be an mpg file. Anyway I can burn a higher quality mpg to the DVD? I'm not sure what to write w/out causing confusion...except for the fact that I could use the same format, just at a higher quality (regular mpg?) and burn that to a DVD...maybe I narrow down if its the DVD media or just a problem with the encoding, burnging etc. Interesting part is that the CD isn't that great of quality where as the DVD (Riteks) are said to be pretty good.

[hech54]

Your next step would be SVCD I guess....but I have a DVD player that won't play those....it doesn't like the audio for some reason....pretty picture though...

[shhmoo]

Your next step would be SVCD I guess....but I have a DVD player that won't play those....it doesn't like the audio for some reason....pretty picture though...

could SVCD be burned onto a DVD-r disk? If so, this would help narrow down if it is indeed the media. If not, I need to figure out another option heh.

[hech54]

Nope....svcd is still on a CD....higher bitrate but you can fit less on an svcd.

[adam]

Check the dvd player compatibility list on this site to see what your player supports. You may just need to switch brands of media. I'm sure something will work.

Hopefully this will also tell you whether SVCD will work, if you decide to go that route.

Other then that, you can try making a non-compliant VCD since you know VCDs play. Try increasing the resolution, sticking as close to other standards as possible (352x480 or maybe 640x480 just because its a 4:3 aspect ratio.) Any higher and I think cd media really is no longer practical for full length movies. Similarly increase the bitrate until you start running into playback problems. Make a test disk using CBR encodes and a bunch of clips at increasingly higher bitrates. Find the highest bitrate your player can read off of cd media.

[shhmoo]

let me see if i have this correct. vcd & svcd are certain types of compression which are saved as mpg format, correct? if that is right, then couldn't i just encode at a regular high level mpg and burn to DVD? does this seem like a doable option? if not, i need to look into trying some other way to get this dvd to play with the burned DVD. maybe it didn't like the way it was authored? sorta clueless here.

[adam]

VCD, SVCD, and DVD are separate standards. They all use mpeg, but VCD uses mpeg1, SVCD uses mpeg2, and DVD supports both. VCD and SVCD require cd based media and DVD requires DVD based media. You can do whatever you want with mpeg and burn it on whatever media you want, but unless it meets the standards of these respective formats then it is not a standardized format and no hardware player can be guaranteed to play it.

As hech54 said, try your DVDs on a pc to ensure that they at least work on something. If they work then that means that your player most likely just can't read that brand or type of dvd media you are using. If you check your player's capabilities on the list offered on this site then you will almost surely find a brand and type that will work. Simply reburn your DVDs to this type and your problem will most likely be solved.

[timmyp]

Reading your other post and all of this one, the one thing that's not clear to me is which program you used for burning.

Did you use the burning capability in TDA? Or did you use Nero? Or some other burning program?

It sounds like you have authored the DVD OK... I'm just wondering if you burned in ISO mode instead of DVD-Video mode. A plain ISO burn will not work in most standalones. You have to burn with the DVD-Video specs. Nero makes this very easy as you simply select DVD-Video, add your authored files (your VIDEO_TS folder) and burn.

There is a free demo available if you want to give it a try.

[shhmoo]

timmyp: For the two DVDs I used TMPGE Author. For the VCD I used Nero.

adam: I did try the two DVDs on my computer and they both play fine. (I listed that somewhere in my first post and someone replied that the DVD drives have alot better error handling capablities than standalone players which is why it would play easier)

[hhhhbk]

hello all...i recently made a post here: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240948&highlight= regarding buring my miniDV footage to a dvd-r which did not play on my standalone. I decided to try a vcd which successfully did play. however the quality is alot worse than what i would like. I would like to know if there are any other options I have. I'm not sure if the player does not like the DVD media (ritek) I originaly chose. If it had some errors. Or if there is a way I can burn the VCD like format onto a DVD so that I may increase the quality. Anyone have any recommendations of what I may do? thanks in advance.

when you put the dvd that you made into the pc is it recognised as a functional dvd which can be opened with power dvd

if so just try a couple of different brand disks, maybe try some DVD+rs too