Problem with SVCD

[vernwright]

Newbie to SVCD here. Hardware: 2gig Athlon, SiS chipsets on board, video
on board.

I've plucked a few SVCD things from the net that I would like to keep - a Django Rheinhardt short thing with the Hot Club of France is on my mind.

When played on the computer with Real Player or WMPlayer, there is a "tictactoe" bug in the video - a 3x3 artifact composed of 9 smaller squares - which flickers around the screen.

When burned with Nero 5.5.10 on a Sony CD-RW and played on a Panasonic DVD machine, the sound is choppy, garbled, useless, and the picture has everything to be desired.

I've seen this in the other SVCD's I've copped off the net, so I don't think it can be the posters' problem.

Any help appreciated. Haven't found anything in the FAQ's yet. Thanx.

[ZippyP.]

When played on the computer with Real Player or WMPlayer, there is a "tictactoe" bug in the video - a 3x3 artifact composed of 9 smaller squares - which flickers around the screen.

I believe that's the Elecard mpeg2 codec (demo version) that does that. Try using PowerDVD or other Mpeg2 software player.

[cumminc]

I agree, the elecard encoder puts the tic tac toe emblem. Elecard also seems to cause otehr problems when installed. I took it off when i read a post sometime back and the author was spot on. It was elecard encoder causing the emblem and the problems. Especially with TMPGENC. Don't know why and havn't bothered to look. Just took it off and my problems went.

[vernwright]

Thanks for the suggestion about removing Elecard. HOWEVER, I did that and after rebooting it made no difference in the 'tictactoe' artifact on computer play of the videos.

I haven't tried burning an SVCD but suppose the results will be no different.

Any other suggestions? Will be appreciated.

[DJRumpy]

If the the logo is encoded onto the MPEG, then there is no way to remove it, other than re-encoding from your source file with a different MPEG-2 codec enabled.

[vernwright]

Since the artifact appears in all the SVCD's I've tried to play on RP and WMP. and since the ones I've burned haven't played satisfactorily on my standalone DVD player, I think I can rule out the artifact being encoded in the material.

It's in my system - I just don't know WHERE!

[Vejita-sama]

Are you sure that you really removed the old codec? Because if you did then you should NOT be able to play those d/loaded SVCDs (they are MPEG2 and windows does not ship with a MPEG2 codec).

That is, the fact that you can still play MPEG2 videos says that there is a MPEG2 codec installed on your system. To be safe I'd remove all the MPEG2 codecs on your system, then install either PowerDVD or one of the freeware MPEG2 codecs.

[DJRumpy]

Find AVICodec in the TOOLS section. It will let you view all installed video, audio, and direct play codecs installed on your system. Handy to track down those errant little buggers.

If your on 2000/XP, you can view/disable them in the Control Panel sounds & multimedia applet, on the hardware tab.

I would also suggest you uninstall/delete the codec, rather than just disabling though.

[vernwright]

Well, I hadn't gotten rid of Elecard - both gspot and avicodec showed it still there, despite a successful uninstall (on Win ME). So I brutally removed it by
moving the Elecard directory to another drive. And lo, Django.mpg won't play! So that's at least some progress.

I guess I'll burn Django as SVCD with Nero and see if it will play on my DVD machine.

Then, any suggestion for a better codec than Elecard?

And thanks for all the help, guys, it's appreciated.

[DJRumpy]

The best two are from WinDVD, and PowerDVD. There is no free MPEG-2 codec that I'm aware of. You used to be able to install either of the two apps above. They expire, but the codec keeps working. I don't know if that is still the case though.

[vernwright]

Well, I had a little bit of good luck, and a whole bunch of bad.

I burned Django.mpg as SVCD with Nero, and it played
great (considering the age of the clip and such). So I
thought I had solved my problems.

Alas. I tried burning some other SVCD's which were
variously PAL and NTSC, remembering to check the
proper box. SOL. Sound choppy (not understandable)
onlay, but ~75% understandable on fast forward. So
the videos were artificially slowed on normal play.

And then there was the xvid that came out green,
upside down and reversed.

So, I have had one success in burning SVCD's.

I suspect it's time for a clean install of WinME and
start all over again, being VERY careful what codecs
get installed.

But at least I got Django! Thanks for the help,
as Arnold says, I'll be back!

[mats.hogberg]

You're doing more than burning SVCDs: You're encoding and authoring too, but Nero wont let you in on the story. As for XviD being green and stuff, this is a common problem, most easily fixed with latest XviD codec and/or ffdshow.
Then encode the XviD AVI to SVCD compliant mpeg with TMPGEnc.
Author to SVCD with VCDEasy.
Burn with VCDEasy, or, if your system's not supported by VCDEasy, burn the image with Nero.
There's much more to creating a nice SVCD than to drop a video file on Neros SVCD wizard...

/Mats

[Gina]

snip

-tgpo

[Gina]

snip

-tgpo

[Gina]

snip

-tgpo

[DJRumpy]

I think I speak for all of us here: Grow Up...

[vernwright]

To Mats:

I said I was a newbie to SVCD, so I will give your sequence a try and see if I can pull off some SVCD's - but I'm still gonna do a reinstall and get rid of a year and a half of the junk Win accumulates in that time.

Thanks. Wish it could be as easy as Nero pretends it to be.

To DJRumpy:

I sure hope your comment applied to Gina.

Thanx.

[Vejita-sama]

This is a little dated now but there are a few free MPEG2 codecs out there:

http://www.maximusdvd.com/freedvdcodecs.htm

[DJRumpy]

I sure hope your comment applied to Gina.

LOL. I though it was obvious. I would have quoted, but then I would have been obnoxious...