vcd stills info?

[john34235]

I have been making some vcd discs with fotos. What surprises me is that there is a lot of difference between the programs.

I would like to read more about the details of burning fotos to vcd. Are there any good articles?

In vcd info here I only find the resolution but I would like to know more.

For instance it appears that stills seem to flicker more with one program then another. why? Does this have to do with resizing?

Is there a difference between svcd and vcd when burning stills? since vcd already supports the hires stills?

It appears to me that most programs don't use stills but they make mpeg movies in order to support sound and nice fade-ins. I read somewhere that when using stills audio is possible, but many dvd players don't support it. Is that true? And are there programs that use stills and allow audio? I only found a manual guide.

as you can see I have many questions. I don't expect them to be answered here but I just hope someoe can point me in the direction of some good stuff on this since I can't seem to find any myself. I would also be interested in knowing what technique is used by the many avalaible programs (stills or movie).

[vitualis]

For instance it appears that stills seem to flicker more with one program then another. why? Does this have to do with resizing?

Possibly. This is because the still which contains high resolution data is being displayed on an analogue TV that divides the still frame into two fields. On some fine detail (e.g., thin horizontal lines) this will cause flickering.

Different resizing algorithms probably do make a different. For example, if the bicubic resizing is used (i.e., sharper image) as compared to bilinear, the end still may flicker to a greater degree.

I believe that the latest version of VCDEasy has an anti-flicker option when making stills. Alternatively, you could preprocess the source images yourself (e.g., use the de-interlace filter -- e.g., Adobe Photoshop).

Is there a difference between svcd and vcd when burning stills? since vcd already supports the hires stills?

Yes. VCD stills are encoded in MPEG-1. SVCD stills are encoded in MPEG-2. They both support the same high resolution however. It is important to encode the stills correctly as VCD still stills may not work correctly on a SVCD and vice versa.

It appears to me that most programs don't use stills but they make mpeg movies in order to support sound and nice fade-ins.

That's right.

I read somewhere that when using stills audio is possible, but many dvd players don't support it. Is that true? And are there programs that use stills and allow audio? I only found a manual guide.

This is correct. In fact, there is a test in the Official VCDHelp.com PAL/NTSC Demo VCD for this.

As to how to make one, there is a user guide here: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=139526&highlight=

Regards.

[john34235]

Thanks for taking the time to answer. This has made things a lot clearer.

The flickering is really weird since it is not the entire image that flickers but parts of it. Some pictures actually don't flicker that much at all.

I tested ulead dvd pictureshow 2, magix, nero, data becker, photoshop album but the best results i got with vcdeasy. The other programs either flickered or only produced a low res vcd movie.

Guess I'll try the stills with audio first (thanks for the links) and then do a compare between vcd and svcd stills to see how mpeg-1 compares to mpeg-2

[vitualis]

This is as I said before. There will be some parts of the image that will just so happen to contain the fine detail that causes the "flickering". Generally, it will occur if there is a lot of difference between alternate horizontal lines/pixels on the image.

In fact, you can deliberate "make" an image flicker. If you capture a still image off a DVD where interlacing is obvious and use that as the still image menu of a VCD, anywhere that the interlacing lines are obvious will cause "flickering" on the TV...

Regards.