VCD Skipping

[Lynne]

I received a VCD from a friend and it wouldn't play on my Apex AD-1500 (it was jerky and 'pixelated'). So, I copied the .dat file onto my hardrive and used VCDGear to convert it to an .mpg (.dat -> .mpg). I checked the boxes for Toast-Ready MPEG, Remove CD-i bumper sequence and Fix Broken MPEG Blocks. The convertion went fine. I could easily view the converted file using Quicktime.

I then used Toast Titanium 5.0.2 to write a VCD (Other/Video CD). The file states it is NTSC in format. I burned the VCD at 2x and had no other applications running at the time.

I put it into my stand-alone DVD player (Apex AD-1500) and it worked! I was all proud of myself until the VCD was about 11:00 into the track when it started skipping while playing. It seemed to happen every second on the second. I removed it, cleaned it, tried again and it happened at approximately the same place. The file runs fine on my Mac using Quicktime (and on my PC, but who cares, right?).

I've tried doing a Google search on 'VCD' and 'skipping' but can't seem to find an explaination for this or any suggestions on what I may be doing wrong.

Also, I was wondering if someone could point me in the direction to figuring out the different formats for VCDs and why some work on some players and how to determine which format for which player (the one sent to me had a total of five folders: Cdi, Karaoke, Mpegav, Segment, and Vcd - whereas Toast only made three folders on my VCD that kinda worked: Cdi, Mpegav, and Vcd).

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Lynne

[puertorican138]

Click on search on this site and type in "skipping". You should get a lot of results.


Hope that helps!!! :P

[Lynne]

Click on search on this site and type in "skipping". You should get a lot of results.

Hope that helps!!! :P

I've done a search on all the forums and either people make PC specific suggestions (ie. using other software) or they suggest to burn at a slower rate. I'm already burning at 2x. I was looking to see if someone noticed I was doing anything *Mac* specific that was wrong.

The only other thing I can think of is to try another media type. I was using Fujis which are generally well thought of when it comes to making audio copies or SHN copies.

Anyone have any other suggestions, or suggest a different forum to try?

[puertorican138]

Search all the forums for "skipping".


Hope that helps :P .

[tonyk]

You didn't mention if the VCD was a standard VCD or what framerate it uses - the Apex 1500 will skip/stutter if the framerate is 23.98 for VCD/XVCD and/or variable rate VCD. The Apex 1500 seems to like 29.98 fps much more...Thus it appears that the problem is probably your player, not the file or how you burned the file.

Cheers, --TonyK

[Lynne]

You didn't mention if the VCD was a standard VCD or what framerate it uses - the Apex 1500 will skip/stutter if the framerate is 23.98 for VCD/XVCD and/or variable rate VCD. The Apex 1500 seems to like 29.98 fps much more...Thus it appears that the problem is probably your player, not the file or how you burned the file.

Cheers, --TonyK

What application would I use to find this out? Doing a Get Info in Quicktime doesn't tell me. I read somewhere that Picture Viewer might give me this info, but I don't have Picture Viewer and can't seem to find it on the web.

Thanks!

[Nelson37]

There is no such thing as a Variable Bit Rate VCD, nor are there any "other" formats for VCD. There can be only one.

It may be that your player will handle a true VCD, or a disk with video at 352x240, bitrate 1400, but NOT a video with 352x240, bitrate 1500. Note that as both the second and third examples would be referred to as "XVCD", this points out the total uselessness of that designation. If the above case is true, your player both DOES and DOES NOT play XVCD.

[Lynne]

There is no such thing as a Variable Bit Rate VCD, nor are there any "other" formats for VCD. There can be only one.

It may be that your player will handle a true VCD, or a disk with video at 352x240, bitrate 1400, but NOT a video with 352x240, bitrate 1500. Note that as both the second and third examples would be referred to as "XVCD", this points out the total uselessness of that designation. If the above case is true, your player both DOES and DOES NOT play XVCD.

Opening up Quicktime and getting info, I am told that the size of my .mpg is 320x240. I don't know how to figure out what the bitrate is. On my PC, using the Media Player, I see that the framerate is 29.97 (again, I can't figure out how to get that number from my Mac). Are these the numbers you are talking about? When I look at the newbies guides with talks about different resolutions, I do not see 320x240. However, I did see that that is a normal resolution for Divx, but this is definately not an .avi file, it is a .dat file.

Did I get sent something that is just never going to play in my VCD player but only on my PC? Although it certainly tricked me for the 11:00 minutes that it did work before it started skipping.

[dwoodusa]

To get movie info on your Mac :

Open movie in QT and choose MOVIE > GET MOVIE PROPERTIES
Select Video or Audio Track on left pulldown
Info options are in right pulldown.

DL MPEG Info from here : http://www.sbpr.a.se/systemjammers/mpeginfo/index.html

Drop your file on it to get info.
There are probably more.