Help with VideoPack5 an SVCD Compatibility

[Mario555]

Hello there.

I've recorded some SVCDs with VideoStudio 5 from Roxio and they play perfect with Intervideo WinDVD 3.0. Today I tested them with PowerDVD from Cyberlink and it says "Unknown file format". I've recordet the SVCDs in PAL as is, without changing any registry parameters in Video Pack 5. In the VideoPack5 - Helpfile says (german):

"Das hier gezeigte Dateisystem entspricht nicht dem IEC-62107-Standard, sondern entspricht einer Variante der SVCD, die vor der Verabschiedung des Standards verwendet wurde, so dass eigentlich alle heute im Handel befindlichen Geräte auch dieses Übergangsformat unterstützen. Es gibt jedoch viele Geräte, welche nur das alte Format kennen, da das neue zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch gar nicht existierte. Sollte Ihr Gerät ausschließlich das der Norm entsprechende Format akzeptieren, so können Sie dies in der Registry einstellen:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CeQuadrat\VideoPack]
"svcdVer"=dword:00000001

Der Wert "svcdVer" steht nach der Installation auf "0", womit das "alte" Disclayout erzeugt wird. Stellt man den Wert auf "1", so wird das der Norm entsprechende Layout erzeugt."

Translated: The SVCD-Format used by the program isn`t IEC-62107 conform, but supports a previous version of SVCD, which should be played in all old and current DVD-Players. By changing the above Registry-Option I will get the new IEC-62107 Standard, if my DVD-Player only supports this new standard.

I want to buy a DVD-Player from Mustek now and I don`t know, if this or any other player will play my CDs, because PowerDVD doesn't. Has anybody experienced problems with SVCDs created by VideoPack5 without changing the above registry option?

I really don't know if I should change that option or leave it as is.

Thanx for any help

Mario

[Mario555]

It's me again.
I tried now to burn a CD with changing the above registry setting to "1" and now the CD plays in both Software Players. Now I'm a bit confused - why does Roxio set this setting to 0 for default? And what is better now - recording SVCDs with the "new" IEC-62107 standard or leaving the default setting?

I can't believe, that Roxio thinks that "normal" people read all through their Help-File and then change some settings in the registry for getting things to work, exspecially because you can damage a lot if you don't know how to handle with regedit. So does anybody out there know, which is the best setting for "[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CeQuadrat\VideoPack]
svcdVer" ?

[gsashok]

Mario555

The default setting is fine. I don't have any problem. Anyway tonight I will check what setting what I have at my m/c at home.

[gsashok]

Mario555

Have a look

http://www.geocities.com/vpaussie01au/vp5.html

[gsashok]

Be aware that the following is applicable to SVCD authoring with VP5: not all DVD players will play the authored SVCD with an operating interactive menu. This problem has also existed in files encoded and authored using I-Author and seems to be relate to the DVD player or software being used - set top or computer software.

Dan@an on the SVCD forum has (20 December 2001) pointed me to a section of the VP5 help file that deals with this probability and suggests that the problem exists because of the two known folder names that DVD players do or do not look for. The “old system” used the MPEGAV folder as the source of the encoded mpeg2 files. The later specification uses MPEG2 as the folder name for storing the files on the disk and unfortunately, if your software or set top DVD player only looks for one, and it is the wrong one, then there will be a problem in what is seen on the computer or on the TV.

Since these are known problems I wonder at the requirement to change computer registry entries to cope with a problem that is forced on us by an industry that refuses to consider the end user and provide a product that will cope with all options. Given that it is necessary to change the registry and that most users are not adequately experienced in this aspect, it’s a black mark against the program provider and the industry itself for such logic. Nero acknowledged there was this situation and provided a simple choice in its burner software – do you want the MPEGAV folder or the MPEG2 folder? Simple, and far less hassles than carrying out the suggested correction to the computer system registry:

Set [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cequadrat\VideoPack] “svcdVer”=dword:00000001

This will invoke an encode with the MPEG2 folder instead of defaulted VP5’s MPEGAV folder and the problem is said to go away or will it? It may induce a problem in other areas, for example, the Philips 725 DVD player and other models only reads from the Mpeg2 folder, the Pioneer 535 reads from both and my Hollywood Plus decoder card software will only read from the MPEGAV folder. Marvelous, one is not ever meant to have an easy solution. I hope your better off with your equipment choice.

[Mario555]

puhh -thanx for that fast replies!

Doesn't seem to be that easy. OK, now that I know, that there isn`t THE answer, I will stop recording SVCDs and wait until I have my standalone DVD-Player at home and test both versions on it. Hopefully the CDs I've recorded in the past will work, too. My suggestion is, that maybe the IEC-62107 will get more and more the standard for SVCDs, so I better start recording with the reg-setting "1" in the future if my player will support both (I hope!).

Mario

[Mario555]

Again something interesting to that topic:
Nero Burning ROM supports the IEC-62107 as default and sets the Video-Folder to MPEG2, so I think it's better to change that registry-setting in VP5 to "1".
Thanx to Roxio for that unbelievable behaviour, to let their users change something important like that in the registry

Mario