Problems while fooling DVD player into thinking SVCD is VCD

[Batchman]

Sorry, this site is a little overwhelming at first, and I'm not yet sure where this topic ought to go, so I've put it in Newbie. If a mod thinks it would go better elsewhere, feel free to move it. [Over time, I'll be spending a LOT of time here, I can already see.]

I've just bought a new DVD player, just for the purpose of playing DVDs and SVCDs. Got one of the Apex 1200s, after searching for one of the ones that still had VCD support.

[As a side matter, I am slightly confused in regards to the information provided here on this site, regarding this player ... I read through the information provided, and learned enough to be looking for one of the older releases, before they removed VCD, but the reviews also suggest they support SVCD, yet mine won't play SVCD, and none of the documentation mentions SVCD at all.]

Don't misunderstand ... it was worth the $60 bucks, even if the player will just play VCDs, and not SVCDs, but I'd still like to manage both. So I'm in the middle of trying the little 'trick' mentioned on the front page of the SVCD section of this site, about fooling a DVD player into thinking an S is just a regular VCD. But when TMPGenc finishes it's bit, it says it ran into buffer underruns all over the place, and that there -may- be problems.

Just in case, I ran through a second time, got the same message, and now have two modified files, both of which are slightly different sizes.

I'm just wondering, from anybody else who has tried this trick ... is this kind of thing common, and does it affect how well things work?

[Swaze360]

Pay that error no attention... I also receive that same error, but the file should work fine.

Peace! Swaze Copernicus

[El Torro]

true, it should work fine, the only thing i noticed was that the time moves 2 times as fast as normal allthough, the movie is played at normal speed

[Batchman]

Unfortunately, -should- or not, the stupid things won't play at all. Instead, I get a frozen screen which is half Apex logo, half green screen of death.

I think that the general quality on the Apex machines has probably been dropping like a rock, recently. Oh well, it was worth a try.

[TheVore]

Don't worry about the errors - that's normal.

You say that SVCDs won't play - are these ones you've recorded?

Have you tried recording normal VCDs to get used to creating discs that the player should definately play.

I've used the VCD header trick on SVCDs and it does work but it's probably best to build up to it from a straight VCD.

Have you tried burning the disc at a slower speed - this can help.

Are you using cdrs/cdrws ?

Can you try the discs you've burned on somebodyelses machine to get confidence your makinbg the disks ok?

[MITSUI_1]

On an apex, a 1/2 logo screen and 1/2 "garbage" screen usually means you fucked up the resolution of the file.

Make sure the vid is a true compatible resolution: 352x240; 352x480; 480x480

[sage72]

Have I gotten this right?
1. I convert my divX to svcd.
2. Apply the "header-fix"
3. Then I burn it as a VCD in nero....

Or do I burn it as a SVCD?

My dvd-player does not accept svcd..

[mabs]

Just wanted to say that I own an APEX 1200 but mine only plays SVCD's. It will not play VCD. And I too would like to be able to play both types but I cannot figure out how to make it work in my DVD player.

[Batchman]

Well, let's see how much I can complicate this ... Due to limited disk space, and anger over things not working, I deleted the original file.

Opening the .dat file from my 'hybrid' disk, WMP -will- play the file, and it looks good. But I can't find anywhere in WMP, or any other programs I've got that will tell me what the original resolution was.

As to the VCDs, I have burned a bunch of them, usually old TV shows I've gotten off the internet, and the like. This SVCD was the same kind of thing.

As to the SVCD format, it almost seems quirky to get it to work, anyway. Back when I was working on the Mac, I downloaded a couple of SVCDs in bin/cue format, and burned them. When I got my PC and hooked up with Windows XP, and tried to play them, they were REALLY freaked out. They would play about a half a screen of what they were supposed to be, and a half a screen of I have no idea what it was.

I wrote it off as a bad project, but just never got around to throwing out the disks. A couple of months later, decide I prefer 2000 to XP, redo the computer, and for a lark, try the same disks again. This time, they play just fine. I don't seem to have much stability when it comes to multimedia! <ggg>

Since the reports here still seem to be positive on this 'hybrid' trick, I guess I will download another SVCD file, and try again. But it is still kind of annoying, and I wonder when it was that Apex quit doing -SVCD-.

Pardon the babble, I'm trying to learn.

[Batchman]

All right, many of the SVCD files I have been finding are at 25 fps, 480x576. This is not an acceptable size for SVCD?

Maybe I'll have to eventua;;y figure how to reencode to a VCD, so I can still watch them!