VCD ripping, macro block errors and other anomalies

[dave_van_damme]

Hello! It's 2026 and I've got some questions about Video CD and their general weirdness

Over the years I've tried backing up VCDs with various degrees of success. AI isn't very helpful so I thought I'd ask you guys.

1. I've been using imgburn to rip discs to a bin/cue and VCDgear to convert the bin into MPEG1. If I select "Fix Mpeg errors", there's often upwards of 900 errors per video file. What's the likely cause of these errors? Is there a way to repair them without losing video frames?

2. All of my discs play fine in a DVD player but VLC often displays macroblock errors. I assume this is related to the issue above. Why would a regular dvd player cope with these errors and not VLC? I've tried turning hardware acceleration off but no joy.

3. Discs from the mid 90s seem to be the worst for VCDgear errors/VLC macroblock errors (although 00s discs have it too!). Aside from disc rot (which I'm ruling out due to the lack of any visible decay) what else could be the cause? Could it simply be that discs were authored with poor encoding? These are official releases btw. Did VCDs have error correction? There was some discussion about it here but there wasn't really a conclusion.

4. Sometimes the .bin (or .DAT) contains multiple video files. VCDGear is able to extract some of these files, but not others. Is there any other tools I could be using?

Thanks! I realise this is an antique format that nobody likes, but with the Sega Saturn supporting the VCDs and the recent release of a VCD player for the Dreamcast I figure it might be good to have some definitive answers for future generations to refer back to