Picture stalls every couple of seconds, but sound is fine

[NeoWeird]

I used the search page, and couldn't find anything (sorry if I missed it) and I was hoping I could get some help with this problem. I am new to VCD's and I decided to try to make a movie I downloaded into a VCD so that I could watch it on my TV. The problem comes when I try to play the VCD. It plays perfectly on my computer, but it the picture stalls every couple of seconds and the sounds continues. Not only that, but every now and then the picture will get distorted, while on my computer it stays fine. Is it a regional coding problem? A resolution problem (the film was low resolution, maybe 320x240)? a bit rate problem (I think the bitrate was at like 15 kbps)?

Any help is appreciated as I know little about VCD's.

[Borgster]

Hi,

You've got a classical problem, You're trying to convert a low framerate
(15 fps) movie to VCD with the wrong settings.

I hope you're using TMPGEnc to convert you're movie. Try recording you're movie or look at the properties of the file (framerate 25, 24, 23,976) and choose the according template in TMPGEnc.

Your decribed problem also shows up when you have a NTSC Film based framerate (23,976) and choose the PAL (25) template in TMPG.

Good Luck

Borgster

[KingJohn]

I used the search page, and couldn't find anything (sorry if I missed it) and I was hoping I could get some help with this problem. I am new to VCD's and I decided to try to make a movie I downloaded into a VCD so that I could watch it on my TV. The problem comes when I try to play the VCD. It plays perfectly on my computer, but it the picture stalls every couple of seconds and the sounds continues. Not only that, but every now and then the picture will get distorted, while on my computer it stays fine. Is it a regional coding problem? A resolution problem (the film was low resolution, maybe 320x240)? a bit rate problem (I think the bitrate was at like 15 kbps)?

Any help is appreciated as I know little about VCD's.

Since you have not verified if your Player will play anything but compliant VCD's I suggest you use TMPGEnc to make a fully compliant VCD. To do this you need to load one of the PAL or NTSC templates for "VCD". Then you need to burn this onto a good quality CDR like Maxell

Once you have verified your player works with standard VCD's you can experiment to see what else it will play.

[NeoWeird]

That is what I was doing EXACTLY. I used TMPGEnc and I used the NTSC template. I then used VCD easy to burn it onto a Memorex CDR. I actually followed the guide on this site on how to burn it. It said something like "If the framerate is anything other than these [it had listed several framerates before] then just use NTSC or PAL depending on your area." So I used NTSC. Should I have used a different setting?

Another question I wasn't too sure about is this; do I have to make the VCDs in NTSC or PAL for them to play on my stand alone DVD player? If so, then how would I convert a lower framerate movie into these formats? Once again thanks in advance.

[KingJohn]

Well !, if your countries standard is NTSC, I would stick to that to start with, if your DVD player plays PAL, and it outputs to your TV with the correct standard, then you might be able to play PAL also.

Some DVD players have PAL in PAL out, so if your TV cannot handle PAL then its no good. If your DVD player has PAL in NTSC out, and your TV is NTSC then that works fine.

I suggested you keep to the basics, to verify that the fully compliant VCD works ok, from there you can experiment, the type of problem you have does not sound like a frame problem, but more of a CD-R problem. So making a fully compliant disk in your countries standard is the starting ground.

Once you have made a fully compliant VCD in NTSC (If that's your standard) then you may find that everything is just fine, apart from the odd fast motion scenes that look a bit jerky.

Apart from NTSC and PAL VCD templates, there are others "Film" "SVCD" which you might move onto once your happy with the basics.

TMPGENC will convert from anything to anything , just becuase it playes well on the computer, does not mean it will play well on the DVD

"It plays perfectly on my computer, but it the picture stalls every couple of seconds and the sounds continues"

Sounds more like a CD-R problem, where you need to select a better quality disk. But you need to prove this with a fully compliant VCD in the correct standard for your country.