VCD will play on the computer but shakes on the tv out????

[MistahMiz]

I have a Dell XPS T800r with the Cinemaster 3.0 decoder card. I use Nero to make my VCD's which play fine on my computer but usually when i use the decoder card I get a black and white shaky screen - it kind of looks like when the tracking on a vcr isn't properly set. The audio is perfect and plays on my computer fine. I do not have s-video imputs on my tv so I route my video out and audio out from the decoder to my vcr and use the auxiliary imput. It works fine for some VCD's but shakes for most. The VCD's that DO work on my tv screen usually give me a message on the computer "This file type not suitable for video playback" - I am using the standard dvd player that came with the card although I still experienced problems when I tried PowerDvd and WinDvd - Please feel free to email me if you may have a solution or any type of idea because I've been trying to figure this out forever. And I am sorry for such a long post, but I tried to give as much info as possible to help my chances of arriving at a solution. Thanks in advance!

[adam]

It sounds like you are trying to play pal vcds on an ntsc tv. It could possibly be the otherway around but I'm guessing you live in the US? If so then you have an ntsc tv. They will look fine on the pc because monitors are multisystem displays but your ntsc tv will only play ntsc video. If the parameters are incorrect (ntsc requires 352x240 res, 29.97 or 23.976 fps while pal requires 352x288, 25 fps)then you will only get black and white picture. Sometimes the display device will attempt to change the frequency which causes scrolling (looks like the tracking is off.)

First off determine what format you are working under. ntsc is used in the US and Jap primarily and most other countries are pal. Make sure you are encoding the vcd in the appropriate format. Those vcds which are encoded in the wrong format, be it pal or ntsc, will need to be re-encoded if you want to watch them on your television. If you had a dvd player with both pal and ntsc modes or a multi mode then it could do the conversion in real time allowing you to watch the movie regulary. But with tv-out you will have to re-encode manually.

As far as your software dvd players complaining about those particular vcds, I have no idea. I cant see any reason why they would accept some vcds and not others. You could always try playing them in file mode and manually loading the dat file. If windvd and powerdvd can play one dat file then they will be able to play all dat files regardless of the structure of the disk.

<edit> I forgot to mention that you need to play those dat files (located in mpegav dir) in media player and right click and select properties. go through the different renderers and such and look at the parameters of your movie to determine what format, ntsc or pal, it is encoded in.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: adam on 2001-08-23 01:15:50 ]</font>

[MistahMiz]

I just tried opened the dat files up in virtual dub and looked at the file information (media player wouldn't give me any specs) - yes the format is for pal - 352x288 and 25 fps - now what do i do? how do i convert that back - I know I have TMPEnc and Virtual Dub 1.4c and VCDGear 2.0 - I just tried to get the file information from a VCD that does work on my screen and guess what? - it's ntsc format - ok so I think you've diagnosed my problem - now how do I switch between formats - I'm gonna go toy around with Virtual Dub and maybe I'll get it, but if you can tell me how to switch from pal to ntsc I would appreciate it. Thanks so much for the help so far! -

[MistahMiz]

Ok, I think I've figured it out - I'm using TMPGEnc and I am encoding for the next hour and a half - not too bad I guess - I have 800 P3 w/ 512 megs of ram so it shouldn't take that long. I'll keep you posted if it works or not. Thanks!

[MistahMiz]

You were right! - I just re-encoded the VCD that would not play over to NTSC and now I get picture on the TV - thanks so much for all of your help! - Now I used TMPGEnc to do it and set up my own settings - would it be quicker if I loaded the NTSC setting that comes with the program - I think the only difference between what I did and what the preloaded type does is change the bitrate of the sound quality from 256 to 192 - No big deal I guess. Thanks again!

[adam]

For your purposes the vcd template is probably fine. Of course you can just load the unlock template in the extra dir and then you can bump up the audio bitrate a little if you want to.

You probably never need to go over 224kbits/sec and you never need to use a higher bitrate then your source cause it doesnt accomplish anything, so keep that in mind before you start encoding. And personally for vcds I think 192 is more than enough.

I'm glad you got your problem worked out.