Stuttering playback of some of my VCD-DVD-Tracks

[wartOK]

Hi,

I have several VCD-MPEG1-files I don't want to loose on my hd. Now I've got a Ricoh DVD+R(W) Writer, and want to put these files on a DVD+RW. No problem so far. The method described in the guide works great, and I got a working disc on the first try. But playing some tracks on my standalone as well as on my PC I recognized, that only about two thirds of the tracks can be watched without any difficulties, the other ones are stuttering in such an annoying kind, that you can't watch them without getting sick

I first tried to use another type of media (first was Intenso) but using the one from Ricoh didn't change anything. The same tracks were bad, so I think, it has to be a software related problem.
When I import the video track into SpruceUp, I get a message after loading the .mpa-file, that the last frame of it is broken, could this be the problem? But I get the message with all the files, and most of them are working...

When I try to re-mux the files into a mpeg-file in TMPGEnc, it says there is a buffer underflow, so the file possible doesn't playback correctly. But again, this is the same with the working ones, except they seem to have a lower number of s(econds?) ("xxxxx s caused buffer underflows").

I also tried to use PCM-sound to eliminate the possibility of sound problems caused by .mp2-files. But this doesn't change anything.
Before importing into SpruceUp and even after that, watching in preview mode, the m1v-file plays fine. But after export I get this annoying "stop-and-go-playback".

I even used the video of a good file with the audio of a bad one, and it played smooth, and the tracks even didn't have the same length!
So it seems to be a problem with the video file...

Does anybody have any idea, what I could do? Is there any way to "repair" the vob? Or the m1v? Or can I get the files on DVD in another way, perhaps by transcode it into mpeg2 without much quality loss?

Pleeeeeeeeease help me, any help is appreciated, I'm really desperate...

wartOK

[bugster]

Looks like a strange problem you have there. Are you sure the mpeg-1 source files are all fully VCD compliant and none of them were created using non-standard templates (like the so called KVCD templates) which have unusual GOP settings etc.

About the only thing I can think of is to re-encode the 'faulty' mpeg-1 files with TmpGenc using the standard template and see if that helps to fix the problem. You would probably suffer a slight loss of quality that way but at least they would be watchable.

[wartOK]

First of all, big thx for answering!

I'll try that, and tell you the results... I hope the quality loss won't be that high... Other thing I could imagine for avoiding quality loss is transcoding into mpeg2 vbr, what do you think?

cu, wartOK

[bugster]

Other thing I could imagine for avoiding quality loss is transcoding into mpeg2 vbr, what do you think?

Not likley to be worth the effort. As the saying round here goes, Garbage in = Garbage out. Basically, it won't improve anything. re-encoding to mpeg-1 at VCD compliant specs is probably your best bet tho you could increase the bitrate a bit to say 1500. Though the filesize might increase a little it "MAY" help to reduce quality losses depending on your source.