vcdeasy, tscv, whatever: cannot extract pictures from mpegs!

[toetensen]

Hi folks,

now here's a tough one for the gurus: During the last two weeks I made myself familiar with several authoring and converting tools for (S)VCDs. Then I wanted to make some menus on my own and - after reading some cool articles on the vcdhelp site - decided to start with vcdeasy. But when I try to extract a picture from an mpeg, I just get a completely black area.
Then I tried to make an animated menu with TSCV. After defining the matrix and starting the generation process, once again the result was just black (apart from the background graphic).
I guess it may be something with my installed codecs, but maybe somebody knows this problem already, do you? Pleeeeeeeze help!
Greetz, Uwe.

[El Torro]

You've got the NIMO codec pack installed...?

[toetensen]

Yep, NIMO codec pack 5.0 is installed. Besides, MPlayer has native MPEG1 support, so that at least extracts from VCD-MPEGS should work. Apparently they don't
Hmmm... I'll try to re-install the codec pack and will report back.

Regardzzz, Uwe.

[kitty]

You'd get good results by extracting a frame using a video editor. I sometimes use VideoImpression, crappy software that comes, often hidden, with Roxio EZCD creator. A better way is Ulead VideoStudio 6 which works with MPEGs well - a free trial is available at www.ulead.com

Get the still and embellish in a paint type program then use in your favorite program to make a still for your VCD (VCDeasy maybe).