VCDs burned with toast don't work

[JesterXL]

I have recently burned about 3 VCDs with toast titanium 5.2.1 and they play fine in MacVCD X and VLC, but when I put them in my Portable VCD player, they start about 2 seconds into the disc, and the sound is about about a second off. The VCDs were made with Fourty Two, but when I tried using osex, ffmpegX, and VCDtoolsX, the resulting disc had no sound and the video played too fast and froze often. The VCD player plays commercial VCDs and VCDs made by my friend on his PC. All the MPEGs have played fine in quicktime (of course that means nothing because all the VCDs played fine on the computer too) I am trying one more method for creating the MPEG files, but I think the problem may be toast. I have a Pioneer DVR 104 Superdrive, so don't think I can use Firestarter FX or Missing Media Burner , so I don't know what other method I can use. Please Help me out if you know of another program I can try for burning, or any solution at all.

[nfhulsin8025]

I believe it's widely understood that the current version of toast does not make proper VCD's. They work for some people apparently but it's hit or miss. I suggest Firestarter FX for bin/cue burning.

[bilestyle]

VCDs work fine burned by toast.. its just the worst idea ever to burn SVCD in toast.

[ZeroSix]

i agree with Bile. As stupid as this may sound, try burning at a lower speed in your drive. Many players will stutter and lose sync if you burn a disc at 32x or 48x or some even 16x. If yo uare using your 104, try burning at 4x just one time to see what happens. Try using higher quality media. Some VCD players [especially portables] are extremely picky when it comes to media. I strongly recommend Verbatim Datalife Plus.

Try playing your VCD back on a DIFFERENT player. If it doesnt work, then we know what the problem is. But if it DOES work, we ALSO know what the problem is.

[terryj]

I second ZeroSix.
on My dual 1 G4 with a Pioneer -104 and a second optical drive,
a Samsung 48x24x48x, I "master" my VCDs using VCD Builder 1.1,
and then burn in the Samsung at 48x speed through Toast Titainum
5.21, and everything plays fine. I have also made copies and
given them to people at 48x ( my brother who has an APEX, my cousin who has a Pioneer 3 in 1 DVD/Mp3/CD player/changer) and they have had no problems playing them back. Your problem is either media, or burning speed, or both, not necessarily Toast.

Also, speaking of media, are you using media rated for High Speeds?
I've found that using High speed ( 48x or better, or just labled High Speed, like at meritline.com) media and burning at 32x or better can make a difference.
Using say, off the shelf Memorex media, which is not high speed rated,
and burning at 32x gave me problems in my RCA home player,
but burning it at 4x speed gave me no out sync or stutter.
Switching to imation, Khypermedia/teon, or Verbatim Data Life Plus,
rated at 48x or better did it for me.

[Dunnyman]

Okay, if Toast is an El Sucko way of burning SVCD, what IS the best way of dealing with SVCD? I have several eps of TV shows that I cannot burn to a viewable format on a VCD.
VCDToolsX, no go,
ffmpegX, no go,
VCDBuilder, no go,
I've tried converting the files using every possible idea or converter I can think of, and can't get a file that burns at all, they burn, and I get junk onscreen. HELP!!!!! How do I work with SVCD's??????

[JesterXL]

I believe it's widely understood that the current version of toast does not make proper VCD's. They work for some people apparently but it's hit or miss. I suggest Firestarter FX for bin/cue burning.

No offense intended, but maybe you should read my post before you reply:

...I have a Pioneer DVR 104 Superdrive, so don't think I can use Firestarter FX or Missing Media Burner...

I have tried fujifilm media (which is what my friend uses, and the VCDs he makes work in my player) with the same results as my maxells, so media isn't the problem.
zeroSix and bile, I am burning at 4x already, I would try slower but Toast won't let me.
I would try another player, but the only other player I have access to is my mac, and It plays fine on my mac. But I know my player isn't the problem because it plays commercial VCDs and the VCDs my friend makes on his PC.
So if my problem isn't my player, isn't my media, and isn't my burn speed, the only other thing I can think of is the method I use to make my MPEGs or BIN files, or Toast. I will try one more method for making MPEGs/BIN, but I really think Toast is the problem. Is there ANY other app to burn BIN/CUE files with that I could use?

[JesterXL]

well, you guys were right, I got my hands on my parents' Que! Fire CD-R/RW drive, and I used Firestarter FX. Turned out the exact same results. The problem here must be going from mpeg to bin/cue, or conversion to mpeg, after tonight I will at least know which one of these is the cause (that is, if I have not solved the problem)

[ZeroSix]

What you need to do is test the disc on ANOTHER VCD player. I have never ever ever ever EVER had any problems with burning off VCDs [on a Mac] that will not play in a player rated to play VCDs on CD-R.

Whay are you using the BIN/CUE method? You should just be able to drop an MPEG onto toast and burn it that way.

Something here just doesnt sound right, and I am leaning towards your playback hardware.

[JesterXL]

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a VCD player other than the one I own, but i know that it must be possible to create VCDs for this VCD player, because my friend has done it many times over with his PC. I have had two VCD players similar to this (portable VCD players from hong kong) and both played my VCDs the same way as this new one. Toast will not accept mpegs, it tells me that I must use the VCD option in my mpeg encoder/multiplexer. Although it will take .mov files, the only problem being that when I convert from mpeg to mov, I lose a great amount of quality. I think I may need to stick to DVDs for now, but thanks for all your help.

[ZeroSix]

i have a possible solution. If your MPEG files that you drag to toast are being rejected, it means that they are not VCD compliant MPEG streams. However, to counter that, Toast will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS accept a .BIN image made of such MPEGs. However, some players cannot play back these VCDs created from BIN images, even if toast will burn them as such. I have one of these players myself.

Try this:

Have your PC using friend burn one of the MPEG files that Toast is rejecting. See if it will play back on your portable. If not, then the problem lies with your MPEG stream.

Here is a MPEG clip i have posted on my web for you to try out.

http://homepage.mac.com/zerosix/guncontrol.mpg

Simply drag the file to Toast in VCD mode and it will accept it. Then, burn the disc on a CD-R [not RW] and post your results.

Hope this helps.

[JesterXL]

I think this may have done it... I only have one problem now. If fourty-two, and ffmpegX won't create VCD compliant mpeg streams, what will?

[dcsos]

This is a little off topic but I'd like to hazard a guess as to why technically you cannot burn VCD above 4X or 8x

Is the fact that a standard CD-ROM which will hold 700MB of ISO data will hold
almost 800MB (799) of VCD data...
Now I'm thinking this leaves out room on the burn for ERROR CORRECTION...so your file has to be perfect for the player, and such

maybe If you re-burn at 2x???
Just a thought

[ZeroSix]

forty-two and ffmpegX will. I do not have much experience with 42 in that respect though... I mainly used it for Divx.

Using ffmpegX, it is important to use the mpeg2enc engine as opposed to the ffmpeg engine. This sounds confusing, but its not a typo. Mpeg2enc will generate compliant streams as will the Toast VCD component. Did that MPEG file I posted work for you? That was created with Quicktime.

[JesterXL]

I tried using the mpeg2enc engine, the mpeg file it turned out was only the first 40 seconds of the movie, and it was not VCD compliant either. I tried 42 again just to check, and the mpeg file it turned out wasn't compliant.

[JesterXL]

the file you gave me did work though. And files from my friends PC work.

[ZeroSix]

then the problem lies with your setup of ffmpegX and/or mpeg2enc.

I strongly recommend reading the manuals of ffmpegX on Major's site. It is very concise.