CVD and VCDEasy not working?

[flobbo]

I am still trying to make working cvd discs and have come across another problem. When I author the disc using vcdeasy the movie is only on the left side of the screen leaving 50% of the TV black.
Here's my process:
source material: DVD, 16:9, NTSC Film.
dvd2avi frameserving, tmpeg encoding, cutting in 2 pieces in tmpeg.
creating stills in vcdeasy for menus, adding the files, creating the image and finally burning it with Nero.
Then my result is always as described above. I have had working results when not using vcdeasy for authoring.
And my final question is: Is CVD really worth all the trouble and wasted CD-Rs? Or should I just stick to svcd? Thanks, any help is greatly appreciated.

[Matt D]

CVD is great, and worth it! It's more compatible with DVD players because it uses a legal DVD resolution which SVCD does not use.
I have no idea what is causing you such problems with your process, but as long as you use the right resolution (352x480) when you encode with TMPgenc the MPG2 files should be ready to use on a CVD. I've used VCD Easy 1.1.4 to easily make many of these discs myself, so I know it's possible.

[vitualis]

If you had working results with something else, how did you make it then?

As for CVD, it is NOT more compatible than SVCD -- that's a myth.

You'll be hard pressed to find a DVD player than can play CVD properly that can't play SVCD. The reverse is not true (have a read of SatStorm's thread on CVD).

This is as most players that can play CVD are doing so from more of an "XSVCD" point of view (which inherently means it must play SVCD) rather than from true CVD compatibility.

Regards.

[Matt D]

I agree that right now SVCD is just as compatible as CVD, but I want to make sure that in the future my videos aren't going to be outdated. To convert a CVD to DVD you just need to extract the MPG and author it to a DVD. To do that with SVCD requires re-encoding and some loss of quality. If I'm mistaken here, let me know.

[vitualis]

No, you are perfectly right.

The video component of a CVD is within DVD spec. All you have to do is to resample and re-encode the audio to a sampling rate of 48 kHz (or you could just make an "XCVD" if there is such a thing...).

Regards.

[Matt D]

I create all my CVD's with 48kHz already so that when I want to burn them to DVD I won't have to re-encode them at all. My DVD player has no problems playing them even though it's not "legal".
Since these MPGs are 100% within DVD specs they are IMO more compatible with DVD players than SVCD files which have both illegal video and sound. Not too big a deal now, but I know that I will be scrapping CD-r for DVD in the near future and I don't want to spend a year re-encoding if I don't have to.