SVCD Authoring Dilemma

[mojofilter01]

I'm new at this, but I'm getting it. Everything works, no problem. I've made 4 SVCDs. The first one plays in the standalone DVD player just fine. Three others made identically will not load, the machine displays "Disc Error". They will play on the computer in WinDVD, but not elsewhere.

The MPEG 2 captures were made with WinDVR, edited in TMPGEnc, the bin and cue files were made in VCDImager, and the disc was written with CDRWin. The procedures were the same for each disc, no more or less. I'm baffled as to why one works and the others won't. Any suggestions will be most appreciated.

Thanks!

[Mavrick]

The only thing I could think of off-hand is the bitrate. Check to see if the CBR or VBR settings have not changed. If it's too high, your player may not be able to play them.

hope this helps!

[mojofilter01]

OK, I figured out what it was. The first CD I made that worked in the DVD player was made from bin/cue files in VCDImager that was set by default on VCD 2.0 mode. I didn't notice that when I made the disc. The next three I made, I set VCDImager on SVCD. That's what the problem was.

Following advice in this forum, I got Daemon Tools, which creates a virtual CD drive on your computer. With it, you can load a .cue sheet and see what is in the .bin file. Then I made two sets of cue/bin files, one for SVCD mode and one for VCD 2.0, and looked at the .bin files in Daemon. In SVCD mode, there are only three folders created: EXT, MPEG2 and SVCD. In VCD 2.0 mode, 5 folders are created: CDI, EXT, MPEGAV, SEGMENT and VCD. Only discs made with the 5 folders will play on the DVD machine.

So in effect, I guess what's going on here is that the DVD player is being tricked into thinking it is playing a Mode 2 disc when it is actually playing an SVCD disc. There has been no file conversion - the captures were made in WinDVR in NTSC SVCD mode. If that's what's happening, then that is *way* cool!

Now, if I could only figure out how to change the order that the files appear in on the disc. The .mpg filenames are numbered in sequence, but on the disc they play back out of sequence. Somewhere in the .bin file creation process, something goes amiss. Anybody got ideas on this?

[vitualis]

How did you use VCDImager?

If you used the XML system, you can definitely get the correct/desired order.

Alternatively, if you are simply using a simple GUI, then I suggest trying VCDImager Tools GUI: http://www.vcdimager.org/guides

You can add each mpeg file in turn.

Regards.

[mojofilter01]

< How did you use VCDImager? >

I used it as described in the tutorial on this website; open the files by clicking ADD, and holding down CTRL while clicking on each .mpg file and then clicking OK, then selecting the output destination and filename, and clicking Make BIN.

The thing I don't understand is that the files are named "01 (name).mpg" and "02 (name).mpg etc., and I add them in order, but on the disc they play back out of sequence.

I am using the GUI that I downloaded from the link on this site.

I'll try the VCDImager Tools GUI and see how it works. Thanks for responding, and for your recommendations.

[vitualis]

Yeah, as I thought. You used "VCDImagerGUI" (written by ?Baldrick ) -- a great little GUI in its day. It is a GUI to the v0.6.x branch of VCDImager (which is greatly outdated!). The multiple select ordering problem is intrinsic to Microsoft Common Controls so there is no real way around it (excpet typing out the list of files by hand).

I strongly suggest that you move on the the 0.7.x branch of VCDImager and its GUIs. VCDImager 0.7.12 now allows you to make menus, chapters, etc. There is a demo VCD on the VCDImager site that shows off what VCD and VCDImager can do! For a simple GUI to VCDImager, try VCDImager Tools GUI.

If you want to try your hand at some authoring (e.g., menus and chapters), you can't beat VCDEasy for a beginner.

Ultimately, you may want to delve into XML authoring by hand for ultimate control and flexibility!

Good luck.

VCDImager: http://www.vcdimager.org
VCDImager Tools GUI: http://www.vcdimager.org/guides/vcdimager_tools_gui.html
VCDImager authoring guides: http://www.vcdimager.org/guides
VCDEasy: http://www.vcdeasy.org

Regards.

[mojofilter01]

Thanks very much!

I have one quibble: I downloaded the latest version of VCDImager from your FTP site, but there is no Install file, as specified in the Readme.txt.

All the files are sitting there in a folder in Program Files, and when I attempt any function with the new GUI, all that happens is that I get a message window saying a log file has been created, but no log file generated by your program is anywhere on my computer.

How does it work?

[vitualis]

VCDImager v0.7.12 doesn't have an "installation" and is a set of command console tools...

I suggest that you try one of the GUIs if you aren't familiar with using the command line... (i.e., VCDEasy or VCDImager Tools GUI).

If I'm mistaken, post a link to what you just downloaded...

Regards.