VCD Header Trick - Solution

[edsmith77]

To All,
For quite sometime I have been trying to get my standalone player to play SVCDs. It has won every battle (by refusing to play them) up until last nite. Finally, SUCCESS!!!.
For many this will be OLD news but for some other newbie this maybe just their ticket. So please be tolerant. Just trying to pass along more information and be helpful.

I have tried the guides posted on here for assistance and following them exactly their results were less than desireable. The file created just would not play normally in my player. The header tricked file would just skip and just was not viewable. So I concluded that my player was one of those that could not play SVCDs. To me this was just illogical. Remember this logic is from someone who is NOT an expert at all. What I have learned came from the knowledge of others in this forum.
I my simple mind if a player can play an mpeg1 file (aka VCD) and an mpeg2 file (aka DVD) then all of the necessary hardware would seem to be in place. Thus, there has to be something non mechanical creating the problem. This point has already been made by those who created the VCD header trick.
Anyway, after reading a post in a different forum, I found renewed energy to try to find a solution to my inability to play SVCDs. The short answer is that my system could always have played SVCDs as VCDs, had I found the right combination of tricks.

I have found (via last nites testing) a process that will allow me to create an xSVCD MPEG2 file that will play in my standalone as a VCD.
The two encoders that I used were TmpGenC Plus Version and CCE Basic.
I started with a ripped dvd (i.e. VOB file) and created the WAV and d2v files with the dvd2avi proggie.
I then ran the d2v file through FitCD to create an avisynth script to use (CCE will not directly load d2v files without avisynth). I then edited out everything except the "loadin" statement and "mpeg2source" statement. Then fired up CCE, loaded the created avs script file and generated a 1 minute mpeg2 clip with the startup defaults.
Now comes the hard part. The following is the stepwise procedure that I used to win the WAR. As a footnote, I did find some oddities with TmpGenC (more likely it was just my lack of understanding of TmpGenC). Anyway, after TmpGenC has started, go to MPEG tools under the Files menu selection. Then select "Multiplex". The next steps are in the order that I used.
1. Select the "Add" button and find the created mpg file from the encoding step above.
2. Select an output file name for the header tricked file.
3. Lastly, toward the upper middle of the screen is a drop down with many multiplex options. Specifically, there are four (4) MPEG1 multiplex options. They are "Automatic", "VBR", "VCD std" and "non-standard".
The guides to the left say to select the "non-standard" option. However, this will not work for my situation and was what created all of the problems for me.
NOTE: Be sure to make # 3 above your last step. I know they can or should be able to be done in any order, however, I noticed that if I selected the "multiplex" option first then selected "Add" for my file to multiplex, the previous multiplex option changed from my desired option to the type of mpg file that was just added. So if you are not careful, and did not notice the change and went ahead. All you have done is multiplex the file back into what it was to start with. That is, you have done nothing. Hence, IT WILL NOT WORK in the standalone since there was no rewriting of the mpeg header. JUST BE CAREFUL AT THIS POINT.

So, last nite, I blindly, created an mpeg1 header tricked version for each of the available 4 mpeg1 options. In other words, I ended up with four header tricked mpeg2 files. One for each mpeg1 multiplex option.
All were created without any error messages or notifications, EXCEPT the "VCD std" option. It gave some error message about ignored frames and most likely would not work. But stupidly, I ignored this error message and went ahead anyway.
The next step is to burn these four header tricked mpeg2 files to disc. For me I use VCDEasy. Great program, never fails.
I load up VCDEasy, select VCD 2.0, and turn off compliancy check button and load the four created header tricked files. VCDEasy will scan them one by one. For the "Automatic" header tricked file, VCDEasy says it will need to pad the file.
NOTE: In the past, ignoring this option has ALWAYS created a file that SKIPS and JERKS and is not viewable.
But I ignore the message anyway, in the interest of testing and experimentation. VCDEasy give me the same padding message for the "VBR" tricked header file. Again, I ingore the message and continue. It loads the "VCD std" and "non-standard" tricked files without complaining, even though TmpGenC said the "VCD std" tricked file would most likely not work.
Once all four have been scanned by VCDEasy, I burn to a CDRW (at 10x speed). If you have the verbose log option on, you will notice a ton of warnings. But again in interest of testing and experimentation, I just ignore them. Once the burn has completed, I then took the disc to my standalone for the acid test.
Surprisingly, all of the clips play but three of them are skipping and jerking and not viewable. They were the "Automatic", "VBR" and "non-standard".
But one plays PERFECTLY!!!!!!!
It was the clip created with "VCD std" multiplex. That is also the one that TmpGenC says will most likely NOT work. Hmmmmmmmm.

At this point I am all smiles.

I also ran the exact same experiment with TmpGenC MPEG2 encoded file with the same multiplex options (all 4 of them). I got the exact same complaints from TmpGenC during the multiplexing process as well as the same complaints from VCDEasy for the same options. Strangely enough, this time all four versions played without fault in my standalone. More smiles.

I guess the moral to this story is that even though programs give you error messages saying that things will probably not work and you get this message from two programs, maybe you should just ignore and continue anyway. It sure changed my situation. Also, there was considerble time spent by individuals to write those "helpful" guides and they deserve big kudos. The point to remember here is that unless your hardware setup is EXACTLY the same as theirs, that guide may not work for you and you may have to tailor it to fit your specifics.

I hope that I have included enough detail so that others can duplicate the steps and obtain an MPEG2 SVCD that will play as a VCD or at least the courage to try different options in the hope that one may work for them.

Ed

[Ruffy]

Trying this method now. I have a Panasonic RV31. Hoping it works