Can you mix MPEGs with different settings on the same VCD?

[Linelle]

(edited to say, I should have posted this in the Newbie Forum)

I have used up lots of CDs trying various settings out for burning VCD's. Since most of my projects for this are a couple of minutes or less, I hardly use the entire CD.

What I would like to do is export the same small video to MPEG, but try some different settings each time to see what works/looks the best. Can I burn all of these on a single VCD, just as if they are separate episodes, etc.

Thanks in advance,

[Tommyknocker]

Why not use CD-RWs? You can reuse them until you get the setting you want.

[gll99]

You can load them all on the same disk as long as you don't go over the 800mb total. Just load 1 mpeg after the other and they will play in sequence something like chapters. You can access them on your remote with number or next keys.

As long as all (x)VCD or all (x)svcd on 1 disk its ok.

Like Tommyknocker says...CDRW is the only way to go for tests if you can

[Linelle]

Cool! Good ideas from both of you. Thanks!

[xed]

I have had no problem buring VCDs with different bitrates to the same VCD. However, I've not been able to burn a playable VCD that combines (say) 352 x 240 VCD with 480 x 480 SVCD with 720 x 480 MPEG-1 XSVCD with 720 x 480 MPEG-2 XVCD files, more's pity.
Presumably you're talking about playing around with different bitrates on your VCD. Bear in mind, however, that to conform to the straight plain-vanilla VCD standard, your bitrate is fixed at 1150 kbits/sec.
Any VCD which uses a setting _different_ from 1150 kbits/sec is not technically speaking a VCD, and might not play on a standalone DVD player (though it probably will, depending on the model).
My own experience in burning VCDs strongly suggests that you get superb results by using the plain-vanilla TMPGEnc factory settings with the motion estimation set to "High (Slow)" instead of "Standard." I can see no visible difference twixt a VCD encoded with "Highest" motion estimation and "High (slow)."
Depending on your video source (viz., if it's VHS) you may also want to enable "noise reduction." This slow encoding down by at least a factor of 3 and slightly blurs the picture, but drastically reduces MPEG encoding artifacts if your video source is an inferior quality source like VHS (as opposed to a DV file, or a laserdisc output, or something like that).
If you're not using TMPGEnc, try it. It's the best quality VCD encoder bar none. Even the $2000 Cinema Craft Encoder does not produce appreciably better-looking VCD than the freeware TMPGEnc.