Some VCD's play, others don't??

[ck_blk]

I couldn't find anything when searching this forum, so here goes:


I have a Sony DVP-S330 DVD player. I was able to encode and create my first VCD using Roxio Video CD. It contained 6 music videos (about 4-5 minutes a piece). I believe I attempted to use the "Menu Level Sequence" in the authoring software, but never did see a menu at startup. Anyway, that one works fine as I am able to skip between segments. I also burned a 30-minute TV episode that played fine.

Now, I have a 60-minute clip of a movie that was already in MPEG-1 format. Roxio's software liked it and let me add it to the layout and burned successfully. When I insert it into the player, it gives me a C:13:00 error. I tried using TMPGEnc to re-encode the MPEG using different formats of NTSC and PAL. Nothing helped. I even tried a "Simple Multiplex" repair of the original which did nothing. Of course, I even tried different CDRW discs.

*Note: My first two VCD's still work in the player



Questions:

1) What can I use to view specific information regarding the format/specs of an MPEG file? I want to compare it to ones that have successfully worked. I've heard of BBINFO, but couldn't find anything on it.

2) Is there another trick using TMPGEnc that I can do to correct the problem?

3) Is it possible that since this is one long 60-minute file, that the DVD player is unable to load it spitting the C:13:00 error? Remember that it can play a 30-minute one just fine.



I'm stumped. I haven't had the time to do much experimeting, so I may solve this one eventually myself. Of course any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks ahead of time!

~ck_blk

[Akai Rounin]

Standalone Stances...

The first question you need to answer is, where did you get the video? Is all of this stuff that you captured yourself? Could it be that the 60 minute file is one you downloaded from the internet or were given by a friend?

Next you need to know what format the 60 minute file is in. Sure, it may have been MPEG1, but that doesn't mean it was fully VCD compliant.

It may be the wrong size in pixels for your player. I know my Brother's standalone Sony DVP-S360 did not like my Pal's discs of Spider-Man... I learned that was because they were in PAL format, 352x288 pixels instead of 352x240 for NTSC. When I re-encoded a test clip at the proper size that worked just fine.

It may have a nonstandard bitrate. You can check the DVD Players listing to guage what the upper limits of performance are for your standalone.

1) It used to be easy to check a video files specs. You could just right click the file in Windows Explorer, select Properties... , then look under the Advanced tab. More and more often you have to use other methods. Try loading the MPEG into VirtualDub, then check File | Information... I'm sure there is another way, but I can't recall just now...

2) Yeah, sure... Setting | Video | Video stream setting | Size ... Make sure the size is 352x240 for MPEG1 to VCD output.

3) No, the length should be no problem. The player doesn't like the format of the disc for some reason. I burn all my VCDs using VCDEasy, which you can find through the Tools section of this site. They all play fine on my Brother's Sony DVP-S360.

Unta Glebin Gloutin Globin,

Akai Rounin, The Cyber Sage

[videoman882]

save yourself the aggravation for 60 or 70 dollars buy apex 1500 dvd player it plays everything you hear me EVERYTHING

[ck_blk]

Thanks for the replies...

>Akai Rounin:

No, this is NOT video I captured myself - the music videos , the 30-minute episode, and the first half of a movie. I had VirtualDub at one point, so I'll dig it up to get more info on my MPEG's. You may be right about VBR. I know that I've tried to re-encode the MPEG's using TMPGEnc, setting it to Video CD. Doesn't this guarantee that the MPEG will use CBR? If so, it must be something else.

To follow up, I have tried encoding in NTSC, Frame Rate of 29.97, and 525 lines. This still didn't make a difference. The puzzling thing is that the other 2 VCD's I made months ago worked from MPG's I encoded the same way. I even tried to cut the movie into a short 2 minute clip. It didn't make a difference either. Last but not least, I tried to de-multiplex the video followed by multiplexing them back together. No luck!

Something just isn't right...



>videoman882:

Thanks man, I'll keep that in mind. I've got an older Pioneer as well as a newer Toshiba that I'm going to try it on tomorrow. That should help rule out the problem with the VCD format...

[ck_blk]

8) ALL IS WELL 8)

I took the same 2-minute clip, burned it using VCDEasy, and it played perfectly on my DVD Player! Endless thanks to Akai Rounin for the suggestion.

Hard to believe that freeware is that much more reliable. There's a ton of options! Roxio? Never again!! Guess it just can't handle some MPEG's properly (I noticed different folders & files were used between the two when copied to CD)...

• Roxio:
  
  - Cdda (empty)
  - Cdi (empty)
  - Karaoke (empty)
  - Mpegav (Music.dat file)
  - Segment (empty)
  - VCD (4 vcd files)
  
  VCDEasy:
  
  - Ext (biggest difference here: 2 extra .VCD files called LOT_X and PSD_X)
  - Mpegav (Avseq01.dat)
  - Segment (empty)
  - VCD (same 4 files)

~ck_blk