Newbie in need of serious help

[dmb5675]

Hey everyone. I have just started working with VCD's and I have some questions.

1.) I recieved a CD that is supposed to be a VCD. When I open the CD, there is only 1 mpeg file. I can play it on Windows Media player, but when I go to put it into my standalone DVD, it will not play. Is it okay that there is only 1 mpeg file on the disc? I have a movie VCD that plays in my DVD player that has about 4 folders with various things in it. I tried using EZVCD to make the folders and it did with minimal errors, but it won't play in my DVD either? Again, I have other movies that play so I know my DVD will play them. Basically, what is the easiest way to get an mpeg to work in a DVD. That's what I have to do. Thanks in advance. This is a great forum.

[mckeomat]

hi there, probably the easiest way to create a VCD is by using nero burning rom (www.ahead.de). There is a detailed guide of how to use it to the left under "Author". BTW you mention that you have "other movies", did you/a friend burn these movies using a CD-Writer or are they originals? Also, are you trying to burn using CD-R? perhaps your DVD player will only support CD-RW? good luck in any case

[dmb5675]

So with Nero it would tell me how to make an MPEG into a VCD? So there is no way that just an MPEG on a CDR would ever play in a DVD player? Or does it need those 4 folders and such? Thanks.

Mark

[Mirror_Image]

Some info on the VCD directory structure:

http://users.evitech.fi/~arndb/project/htmlmain/node15.html#SECTION00744000000000000000

[dmb5675]

Sorry.. another question. It looks as if I use my Easy CD creator 5.0, then I can just make a Video CD there usign my mpeg. has anyone done this? Does it work well? Thanks again.

Mark

[Firehawk5th]

I've used Roxio CD Creator Platinum with no problem making VCD's. But not sure yet on using the one cd method to burn vcd's with files that are larger than the 800mb.

[dmb5675]

Thanks for your help. Is using Roxio 5.0 as easy as it appears to be under "Author" to the left. Do I need to convert my mpeg or anything or just burn it? Or will it let me know if I need to modify it? I can't wait to get home and try it out. Thanks again everyone.

Mark

[dmb5675]

Here is an update. I got Platinum 5.0 installed and it wouldn't take the MPEG at first. So I fixed it using the instructions and TMPGEnc. Then I tried it again on Easy CD Creator and it still says it can't use it because of the bitrate. It suggest 2000 or something and I have like 1750. Can I burn it anyway or what? Thanks again for everyones help.

[slopoke]

What you could do, if I can take you in a different direction, is get a hold of VCDeasy, load your MPG, add chapters or a menu if you like (more on that later maybe) and let it burn with CDRDAO.

Lots of guides and info on the site to help you along.

Easy as pie....
Hope this helps....

[macleod]

I read through the posts and this is the scoop. You have an mpeg file, which 99.9% of dvd players will not play (not in the correct format). When you talked about the other folders and whatnot, they contain information that will allow the DVD player to play the dvd. If you have a "true" vcd somewhere and you open the folders for mpegsav, you'll notice a large file with the extension of .dat . That file is a slightly modified mpeg file. Programs like roxio's cd creator, nero, etc. convert the mpeg file to .dat and add the folders.

In order to make a vcd, it "must" be in a very specific format. I am going to use the NTSC standard (if you the cd is from the US or Japan it is NTSC). The specs are frame rate of 29.97, resolution size of 352x240 and bit rate of 1150. For this conversation and to make a vcd, this is what the mpeg file must be to make a vcd. When roxio gave you the "error" message, it was saying it was not in the correct format and was asking if you want to reencode (convert to vcd specs) so that it could play on a stand alone player.

The post above mine mentions vcdeasy, etc. You are not ready for that. If you have a program like cd creator, it will be a good start. If you are feeling adventurous, you can download TMPGENC (on the left under tools). When you open it up, you'll have a wizard that will ask what format you want. From the specs you gave me and my assumptions, it would be NTSC vcd. click next a few times and then let it encode (convert). Depending upon the length of the movie, your computer, etc. this could take several hours.

Based on your first post, the mpeg file is less than 700meg'ish so it should fit back onto one cd when you are ready to convert it. If not, you can use TMPGENC to split the file into "halvsies" to fite between 2 CD's.

As far as what I have written above, it was written for a newbie, I have embellished a lot and made several assumptions. When you read this after you have been doing this for awhile, you'll think "macleod, you were full of it". No offense, but I have been doing tech support for people for a long time and most people like it when I do it this way. My further recommendations are to read ALL the newbie guides and then the author guides on the left of this site.

As a further comment, I appreciate the information that you put into your original post. It was easy for me to see what the end goal of what you wanted was. I say this because all too many times newbies post "HELP ME!!!!" or "how do I rip a DVD", include no info and then get po'd when no one helps them (read one of my recent posts for a few minutes ago). You gave me enough info to help you. Thanks again.

[mpb]

Hey everyone. I have just started working with VCD's and I have some questions.

1.) I recieved a CD that is supposed to be a VCD. When I open the CD, there is only 1 mpeg file. I can play it on Windows Media player, but when I go to put it into my standalone DVD, it will not play. Is it okay that there is only 1 mpeg file on the disc? I have a movie VCD that plays in my DVD player that has about 4 folders with various things in it. I tried using EZVCD to make the folders and it did with minimal errors, but it won't play in my DVD either? Again, I have other movies that play so I know my DVD will play them. Basically, what is the easiest way to get an mpeg to work in a DVD. That's what I have to do. Thanks in advance. This is a great forum.

Ah. It sounds as though the disc you have, contains a VCD-compliant MPEG file. This is good because it's a usable file, but bad because most DVD players won't take it the way it is right at the moment.

There are a number of ways you can author this into a compliant VCD. Please also make sure your DVD player is one that can play both VCDs and recordable media... not all of them can. I will assume for the sake of the question that your player is capable of playing it.

First, I would suggest that you download the free programs VIRTUALDUB and TMPGENC. Copy the mpeg to your hard drive. Then open with Virtualdub and look at File -> file information. It will show you things like bitrate and framerate. That's the crucial info for us right now.

If the video bitrate is mpeg-1, 1150kbps (or near enough), 29.970 frames per second, and mpeg audio at 224k or less, 44.1khz sampling, then you have a VCD-ready mpeg file and no conversion will be needed. Load up your Roxio EZ CD Creator or whatever and just add the file and burn.

If the file info is anything else.... like higher bitrates or whatever, then you need to convert. Get TMPGENC and use the Video CD (NTSC) template, and run the wizard, that should do it. In time you will learn how to manipulate the settings to get a file just right, but for now you don't need to. Then add your converted file to Roxio and burn away.

One thing I do recommend if you can get the trial version (or regular version) of Ulead DVD Movie Factory. Several good things... it is very easy to author with, and it will author nonstandard MPEGs into a XVCD, which usually still works on DVD players that can play VCDs. UDMF is so easy and flexible to use that I still author my own DVDs with it, and I've been doing this for a while.

The reason you're doing all this conversion and such is because a proper VCD will have a bunch of directories on it, and one will be "MPEGAV", and will have files like AVSEQ.DAT and such in it. And those are tweaked mpeg files made to be played AS video CDs. Kind of like the VOBs, the Video OBjects, on DVDs, but simpler. You'll get used to those too. Anyway these DAT files are created by the software you author or burn with, when you add a compliant MPEG file to your project.

Good luck!

[slopoke]

It will show you things like bitrate and framerate. That's the crucial info for us right now.

This would be very helpfull.

....

[dmb5675]

Thanks for all your help. I just got in from being gone for a while and I will try those suggestions. The last thing I did yesterday was use that TMPG thingie and I converted it to VCD but the Bitrate was still too high I guess. Before I left, I converted it to SVCD so we'll see how that goes when I try to put it into EZ CD Creator. Yesderday I would hit Add Anyway, but it refused to even start burning. I'll keep ya'll updated. Thanks again.

Mark

[dmb5675]

Yeah when I convert it with TMPG or whatever, it still isn't good enough for Easy CD Creator. It has a problem with the bitrate being 2000. How can I change that? Frame size is good at 352x240 and Frame Rate has no issues at 29.97. Just can't get that bitrate down.

Mark

[macleod]

VCD standard is 1150 bit rate, video (NTSC) of 352x240. When you open up TMPGENC, you should get a wizard that will do all of that for you. Here is the guide:



http://www.vcdhelp.com/tmpgenc.htm

[dmb5675]

PERFECT. I got it into TMPGE and used the wizard and it took about 30 minutes but it worked. I put it into Easy CD Creator and it actually started burning. I can't believe it. After all this time.

This is a mpeg I got of my band. I want to send it out to people to use on their DVD players or computers. If I put it in VCD form, how would they play it on the computer? Would it play with Windows Media Player? Thanks again. You all are great. Thanks again.

Mark

[dmb5675]

One more quick question. My original MPEG was like 438 megs and after I converted the MPEG, it was only like 208 megs. Is this normal? Am I compromising quality? Thanks.

[weeyoo]

buy an apex 3201, dvd player, it will play just about anything, and save you all these headaches. its worth the 80 bucks.

[macleod]

Glad it worked for you. if it only took a half hour, it was a short clip and you were doing a standard encode. Depending on the DVD player they have (most of them play vcd - you can check compatibility on the left "DVD players compatibility list" of course it may still work even if it is not on the list - newer ones should play it with no problems) it will play.

It will play on later (maybe even earlier versions) versions of media player. Open media player, click open file, click browse, click the cd rom drive and click on the mpegsav folder and then click on the mpegsav01.dat file (that is the modified mpeg file). They "should" then be able to play the file. Unless circumstances on the machine are specific, they probably wont be able to just throw the cd in the tracy and play it.

On your other question of the original file being 438meg and the vcd being 208meg, you are compromising quality. from your original post you said the bit rate was 2000 or something like that. That is the bit rate allocated to each pixel of 352x240 (I am making the assumption that the source mpeg was 352x240). When you encoded at 1150, 850 bits were "removed" from the resulting file. The quality will suffer from that.

If you want to preserve the quality of the capture, you need to find out the resolution (TMPGENC should have told you what the source files resolution size was when you put it in). It may be above the vcd standard of 352x240 in which case you want to go to SVCD (may say 480x480) and then use the same bit rate (up to 2600'ish) of the source file.

At this point, we can say that you are brand new to this and me writing all the possibilities down would be impossible without knowing more about your source file. My advice is to read the how to guides and newbie guides to get familiar with all the processes before you tackle the next level. If you don't want to wait, however, go back into TMPGENC and look at the wizard for SVCD and let it reencode. This will be some of the issues:
- more DVD players dont support SVCD
- result may look worse from blocks on screen)
- may not have the plugin for EZ CDcreator so cant do it anyway

Good luck.

[dmb5675]

I can't wait to get home to see if it worked. I was running late for work this morning so after i started burning it with EZ CD Creator, I just left. I know quality won't be as good, but as long as it works and looks pretty decent, and plays on most DVD machines and newer computers, I'll be really happy. Thanks to everyone for all the great help. I will continue to read and see what more I can do. I am new to this but I am on this page about 2 hours a day just reading and I've downloaded most of the software and it all helps. Thanks again for all your help. Have a great weekend.

Mark

[zzyzzx]

Did you see one .MPG file or one .DAT file?

If it was a .MPG file it's probably a SVCD
If it's a .DAT file it's probably a VCD

Maybe your player can't play SVCD's.

I have one pre-recorded VCD that is one big .DAT file.

[dmb5675]

The first one I converted with TMPGEnc, I used NTSC Film I belive which just varies the br to 23.97. Should I go with straight NTSC you think? Will it make any difference. Thanks.

Mark

[macleod]

there are both NTSC standard. You are confused on the 23.97 thing. That is not bit rate, it is frame rate. NORMAL TV/VHS videos, etc. are 29.97 frames per second. When you did film, you knocked the frame rate down to 23.97, which is the frame rate you'll see when you go to the movie theatre(FILM). Retry it at 29.97(the first option at the top of the wizard) and re encode. That sorta also explains some of the smaller file size (6 less frames per second over x seconds.

On the bit rate thing. You are making a VCD. It is a CONSTANT bit rate of 1150. You only get into variable bit rates when you go to a higher format like SVCD.

[dmb5675]

Thanks for everyones help. Yeah, I had 2 discs each with about 22 minutes worth on each, so this morning, I tried to put both MPEGS on 1 disc using Easy CD Creator.. I added 2 items and dragged them over. Will that make 2 chapters on my VCD? That would be cool and save me alot of discs.

Mark

[macleod]

"Yes". Be sure to have EZ CD creator enable the menu when you burn the two files onto one CD. I personally use NERO and if you don't enable the menu, what happens is when the first video ends, there is a 5 second pause and then it switches to the next one automatically. It also messes with the goto function of your remote. You cant go to the 24th minutes and get to the second mpeg file.

There is a help guide that talks specifically about using EZ CD creator to make menus and chapters, etc to the left under author.

[dmb5675]

This website is da bomb. I am going to try Ul DVD Movie Factory to add a Menu and Chapters to my VCD. I can't believe you can add sound and everything on a VCD. It is amazing.

Mark