VCD freezes/stutters... please help!

[egg]

using panasonic a160, most of the time, my vcd's stutter or freeze every few minutes..

please help as this is driving me mad!

thanks!

[ktnwin]

There are a few things you can do:
1) try a commercial VCD on your DVD player, make sure it's smooth, if it's good then go on with next step
2) try to burn your video on a different CD-R media type. Some DVD players are pretty choosy about what media it can read well
3) is your VCD encoded at standard VCD format ? if not, your DVD player may have a compatibility problem. This happens to me if I encoded my XVCD at bit rate higher than 2600 kpbs.

[Vejita-sama]

Is the stutter continous or every few mintues. If it happens all the time you could have encoded the wrong field order or have a 23.976fps (or other odd fps) MPEG file. If it only happens sometimes, then it could be your media, DVD player or you could have set the bitrate above your DVD players max.

[egg]

Hi, thanks for the replys.

Here's what I do:

1. get .avi file from 'friends'
2. use TMPGE to make a VCD, using standard templates.
3. burn to VCD using Nero!

I've tried CD-RW, TDK, BASE, and also CDR's. But, it doesn't happen all the time.

For example, I just watched Tomb Raider, and the first 30 mins were ok, then the end of disc 1 started to stutter. Then Disc 2 was terrible.. just about all the time!

[jazzer]

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For example, I just watched Tomb Raider, and the first 30 mins were ok, then the end of disc 1 started to stutter. Then Disc 2 was terrible.. just about all the time!
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I think we're on to something here -- I've been posting about this same kind of problem with SVCD for the last couple of weeks and no-one seems to have an answer. The common thread seems to be Nero though. I went through the same procedure: AVI -> TMP w/standard templates -> Nero
and the first 8 or so chapters play fine, then the crap starts. Sounds a lot like egg's problem with the first 30 minutes being ok before his troubles begin.

So is it Nero or what?

[Vejita-sama]

If your making MPEG2 streams then nero is most likely the problem. Try using VCDImager to make an image of the MPEG and then burn that (w/ Nero if you choose but CDRwin might be a better choice).

For VCD, it's quite possible that your DivX is 23.976fps and your DVD player doesn't add/use the 3:2 pulldown automatically (even thou the VCD spec says it should). Check the frame rate of your DivX & MPEG. If it's 23.976 use pull to convert it to 29.97, reburn and give it a try.