Detecting non-compliant MPEG files by Nero

[gurevle]

Hi,

I'd appreciate it if you'd clarify the reason of discovering an MPEG-1 file to be non-compliant in the following situation.

With Ulead VideoStudio 5 SE, I made a movie in the NTSC VCD format from an original AVI file and tried to burn a VCD with Nero 5.5.8.2

But while burning the CD, I got a message about the non-compliance of the MPEG file similar to the one shown at https://www.videohelp.com/nero.htm.

First, I decided to keep the file created by VideoStudio and chose not to ask Nero to re-encode. Unfortunately, the VCD didn't play on my Toshiba SD-V280 VCR/DVD player.
Then I created another VCD while having it re-encoded by Nero. This VCD did play.

So my question is what could be the reason of the non-compliance of the MPEG file detected by Nero. Does it mean that something is wrong with VideoStudio (while I was creating the movie, I selected the file format to be not just MPEG-1 but the NTSC VCD one), or this is a specific problem of Nero?

Thanks,
Lev

[Craig Tucker]

Nero will alert you to the problem with the file, could be that the audio sample frequency was incorrect, wrong resolution or bitrate. I am not familiar with video studio so I do not know whether there is a problem with it outputting non compliant mpegs. Load the file into nero again and read the message carefully. If you look at the error box in the link you provided nero tells you what the problem is with the file.

[gurevle]

Craig,

Thanks for your feedback.

Nero revealed 2 things:
- audio expected 224 Kbps whereas the bit rate of the file prepared by Ulead VideoStudio had 256 Kbps,
- some invalid stream (I have no detailed info with me now).

So you think that the problem is on the VideoStudio side, right? If so, I may ask the Ulead support to confirm it.

As I've said before, after re-encoding the file, VCD played.
But does the re-encoding affect the quality of the movie?

Rgds,
Lev

[MpegEncoder]

But does the re-encoding affect the quality of the movie?

Re-encoding ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS degrades the quality of the video. Always!

[gurevle]

Thanks for your note, it's very important for me.

[Craig Tucker]

But does the re-encoding affect the quality of the movie?

Re-encoding ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS degrades the quality of the video. Always!

Especially when using nero to do it.

[gurevle]

Craig,

Just a minute before you sent your note about Nero, I posted my question to the Newbie Conversion forum under topic "Comparing some converters needed". Partially you already answered it but could you still please look at it?

Sorry for your inconvenience due to switching between forums.

Thanks,
Lev

[Craig Tucker]

I would suggest taking your captured or transferred avi file and converting it with TMPGEnc (nero is a poor encoder), you can then author and burn as VCD using Nero.

[gurevle]

I'll make a try to go this way.

Thanks for your help.
Lev

[MpegEncoder]

I would suggest taking your captured or transferred avi file and converting it with TMPGEnc (nero is a poor encoder), you can then author and burn as VCD using Nero.

I've used that method with success. Although, VCDEasy is nice for authoring VCD's.

[gurevle]

I've tried your suggestion about encoding AVI to VCD/MPEG-1 with TMPGEnc and burning a VCD with Nero.

As expected, the quality is MUCH better than the one I got after re-encoding MPEG-1 with Nero.

Thanks to all!
Lev