SVCD on PC - Won't play

[trump]

Okay, I know this sounds basic, and maybe it is, but I've followed the how-to's with little success, and have searched the forums without finding anything to address my problem either.... though I think the forum search functinality is pretty pitiful, because my results didn't seem to even include my keywords half the time.............. but anyway, I can't play SVCDs on a new Toshiba Satellite laptop. I can play DVDs, and I can play KVCDs, but SVCDs are a no-go.

What happens is that WMP opens up like it's going to play, but just sits there with a black screen... all the while I can hear the CD churning inside the computer like it desperately wants to play. WMP says "connecting" during this time, but never connects to anything. I tried playing both from CD and from the actual file inside the CD.

Then I went to WinDVD as the how-to suggests, and tried to play through that instead... but the same thing happens essentially. It hangs on a black screen and the CD churns inside the computer like a quaker preparing for the great butter festival.

So then I went out to find me some MPEG2 codecs, and I tried Stinkys codec, and nothing changed, even on restart.... so I uninstalled it and tried another.... still didn't work.

So I'm at a loss, and though the answer may be simple, I just can't figure it out, so please don't yell at me for not trying hard enough to find the answer on my own. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jake

[redwudz]

Try VLC Media Player. It uses it's own codecs and doesn't depend on the installed codecs. If it can't play the video, you probably have a problem with the video. Drop it into Gspot 2.52 and see what it says. Also check 'What is' SVCD to the upper left to see if it's SVCD compatible.

[trump]

Oooh, thank you, that was simple. At first when I tried to play with VLC it would only play tiny bits at a time.... but I copied the MPG over to the computer, and it plays like a charm, and other SVCD backups work great without the copying over (though some dont'), so I imagine that's just due to the slowness of the drive, or weakness in handling certain media..... the point is though that it works. Thanks a bunch for the quick and effective help!

-Jake

[celtic_druid]

SVCD's use mode 2 form 2. Some drives don't read that too well, especially if there are errors. Also means that just any MPEG2 decoder won't do. It either needs to have riff/cdxa parsing built in or you need to have a seperate parser installed. That could explain your problems.