sync issues with vcd header trick

[aram12]

Sometimes when using the "vcd header trick" I find the audio and video goes slightly out of sync towards the end of the file. Why is this?

This occurs without doing anything else to the file...in other words...downloaded it...watched it, looked fine...remuxed it for burning purposes...watched it with various players, out of sync...

[ironwood321]

One thing the guide missed out was the dat files have to be converted back to mpeg with vcdgear otherwise they have the wrong bit rate.

[aram12]

What dat files?

When I do the vcd header trick I just load the mpg into the multiplexer and remux it as Mpeg-1 Video-CD. Just like the guide says.

For example...the new LOTR Two towers rip...cd 1 and 3 remux and play fine, but cd 2 and 4, when remuxed using the header trick, suddenly get about a quarter second out of sync 3/4's of the way through...and this is playing the mpg on my computer...

Any other remuxing tools that can achieve the same results as the TMPGEnc header trick?

[aram12]

Interesting...I tried remuxing using bbMPEG and same problem. That's so weird. Why would a remux cause a sync issue? And how the heck do you fix a sync issue when its only on part of the encode?

[ironwood321]

Hi,
I got the same Tdi two towers dvd screener as you so I can experiment.

The screener is "NTSC" 480 x 480 and is a SVCD not a VCD.

The Mpeg / DAT files are contained in the MPEG2 or MPEGAV directory.

Because this is a SVCD the extension given is MPG

Although this in some cases will playback correctly there will be sync issue unless its on a SVCD. The Audio will be the same as the orignal but the video will have slightly altered properties becuase its has been specially muxed and placed on a SVCD.

www.vcdgear.com will give you more information but it appears down at the moment.

You will probably have this on CD or have the original Cue and Bin files.

Step 1 :
I usually extract the dat files from the images or an image of the CD I make.

I usually use WinISO or ISO buster to extract from an image of the CD. I think you can use the M2F Frame option in ISO Buster to aid extraction from Video CDs.

The information from vcdgear says svcd extraction is suported from CIF->MPG, NERO->MPG, and possibly CUE->MPG. I think Iso buster M2F Frame option might do the same. Ill have to check.

Next I run them through VCDGear. Look at the instructions for SVCD in the latest VCDGear information but I think the Mpg to mpg option should suffice. I'll double check this for SVCD and report back.

If you have a VCD you will have a dat file and I use vcdgears Dat to Mpeg option.

From then on I proceed as in the guide in the authoring section.

http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=129786

http://www.vcdhelp.com/vcddvdr
http://www.vcdhelp.com/svcddvdr
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/svcd2dvdr.htm

I suspect you are probably putting these on DVD to sell. Honestly I would not bother as quality is remarkable reduced. Just have 4 CDs.

I'll Proceed with my CD's to see if I encounter the same problems.

Why not leave the audio as PCM? Instead of Mp2 or Ac3 in PCM you could easily normalise any low sound quality.

[aram12]

Wow.

Thanks for the verbose reply.

We seem to be on totally different pages here, though.

When I downloaded the tdi screener I got four sets of bin/cue files, one for each CD.

Now for other people, it seems they would just burn the bin/cues straight away, but I have a Panasonic DVD player which requires the "vcd header trick" in which you remux the SVCD with a VCD header to trick the player into thinking its a VCD, which it can play. I have done this for all of the non-vcd files I have created, whether SVCD or CVD or otherwise.

So to do so, I use VCDGear to create Mpeg files out of the Bin/cues, remux with the "trick", then throw the remuxed mpg's into Nero and burn. This has worked every time, for every "bin/cue" download I have received. But this time, CD 2 and 4's remuxed Mpeg's had sync issues as described above, yet CD 1 and 3 did not.

I have since done my own encodes of Vite's Divx Two Towers onto 4 CD's (I was and am not burning to DVD) and they came out great, so I guess the issue is moot...but I still wonder...why would a remux cause a sync issue?

Your solution posed is fine, but doesn't seem to take into account the fact that I still need to remux with a vcd header, and the only way I know how to do that is by throwing the mpg, however I created it, into TMPGEnc and remuxing. And THAT'S the step that caused the problem.

Again sorry if I didn't quite understand your explanation/solution, but half of what you told me to do I've never done before, and is very confusing to me.

If you could be a little clearer, or at least explain it in a different way, it would be appreciated Thx again!

[scottymac]

I am having vcd header trick problems with tdi-lotr2 too. Just about every movie I've tricked, works great. But with disk 1 (havent even unrarred the rest of the disks cause of probs with this one) In my standalone I get audio for about 5 or 10 seconds then it cuts off. But in my PC it plays fine. Other sites have said this movie has really bad tinny audio, could this be the problem, wrong bitrate? I'm stumped