Broken mpegs....calling all Gurus!

[bigjuggler]

I have 14 svcd mpegs that I want to burn to disk. The are actually XSVCDs I think since each is about 680 MBs and each is 50 minutes long.

All but one of them seem to be corrupt. VLC plays them, but often the timecode is inaccurate or shows nothing. MpegInfo tells me the files are 7 minutes, 11 minutes, 30 minutes, depending on which files I choose.

When I try to convert them to bin/cue or XA images using VCDTools X, it always stops short, creating images or bins that are variously 20 MB or 200 MB (depending on the file) but never the full 680 MB or so.

Here's what I have tried and my results:

1. VCToolsX to create xml and image as XA. As mentioned, it fails to produce the full image. Same thing happens with bin/cue.

2. VCDBuilder attempts to create XA images, but stops short also, erroring out with " Pack header code 0X0000016a expected 0X2201c871 found buflen=2324, Bad packet at 83709 byte stream offset-remaining ignored" type errors.

3. VCDGearX. I tried mpg to mpg processing asking it to fix breaks and make toast compatible. All resulting mpegs behaved the same as unprocessed mpegs and errored out during authoring.

4. VCDGearX. I tried to author bin/cue with VCDGearX and it errored out with "Can't make some data into expected type". Occasionally it produced a full size .bin, but when burned, these files played for a bit and the froze in my DVD player.

5. Bbdemux failed to demux the files. I forget the error message.

6. Ffmpegx demuxed them, but errorred out during re-muxing (as svcd) with "end of component bit stream-failed to find start of next stream." The resulting files were the same size as unfinished images from VCDbuilder and VCDToolsX.

7. After a search, someone suggested that mpegs that stop during authoring often are corrupt because someone has incorrectly joined sever mpegs from newsgroups. I tried the suggested solution: using Rosetta to resplit the mpeg and rejoin the segments. The resulting mpegs behaved the same as the others.

So, it seems I have many corrupt mpegs on my hands. Needless to say I am quite keen to author and view these files.

Does anyone know how I might repair these files? A friend of mine suggested this may be a job for VPC and virtual dub or tmpenc. I would of course GREATLY prefer a mac solution, but I am willing to try this option.

Any suggestions on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated.

[talisman]

I have got about 30 gigs of VCD's and SVCD's that do the same thing. Have tried all of the methods that you discribe with the same results. Haven't found a solution yet, and no one on any forum, that I have been reading, have offered a solution. Maybe with the big gush of new and improved apps that have come out recently, a workable answer is available.

[talisman]

No one out there with a solution?

[bilestyle]

i hope you arent trying to make mpeg-2 files vcd ready in vcdgear cuz thats just not ever going to work.. toast is not engineered towards accepting mpeg-2 files.. if it does it doesnt burn them properly, if that ever works on any dvd players its an anomoly and not proper. the same goes for burning those bin files in toast in cdxa mode that is not the correct way to do it either.. thats just hte two cents im throwing in... im not really sure what the problem you're having is.. all i know is that toast is the worst tool ever to burn anything SVCD related

[Vintageman]

Try Missing Mpeg Tools.http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/. It has an option for XSVCD.

[AngryBonk]

There is no perfect solution to your problem. The only thing that works is to split your file once before the corruption and once after that. And then rejoin these parts. Best choice to do that imo is Gumby with its "Visual Cutter" http://gumby.misplacedmac.com/.

Your other possibility would be to do it on a friend´s pc. They don´t seem to be that sensitive regarding bad packets.

[talisman]

[quote=
Your other possibility would be to do it on a friend´s pc. They don´t seem to be that sensitive regarding bad packets.[/quote]

Thanks for the info guys. AngryBonk, do you mean, just burning the disk on a PC with something like Nero?

Bilestyle, most of the mpegs I'm working with are in VCD or possibly XVCD format.

[galactica]

Unfortunatley I have the same problem, ranging from .mpeg files that only make partial .bin images or some that only make the .cue and dont even start the .bin image process.

Unfortunately I dont think there is a fix for these types of files.

I have tried everything humanly possible
mpeg2 to mpeg2 conversion
passing them though ffmpegx with same encoding specs as source
creading image with all SVCD image software! all of which yield the same result.
splitting and rejoing the broken mpeg file

Sadly to say none of these worked for me either. I just had to say OH WELL and toss the movie! Its hard I know, but sometimes it happens.

Maybe somewhere down the line there will be a Broken MPEG Fixer or some Missing MPEG Fixer but in the meantime I can only say that there are just some mpeg files that cant be imaged!