VCD/SVCD problems

[Dr Ashcroft]

Hi

When playing VCD/SVDs on my Sony DAV550 I sometimes get problems with the playback, it appears to be random as some play ok and others dont. It skips or stutters every now and again, this can sometimes just go away after a minute or it can render the film useless and stop it from progressing (i cant FF past it)

I have been using nero to burn stuff at 8 or 16x.

It also happens on a couple of different CDRs (none label, white label etc) although they arent the most expensive.

Ive ordered a DVD lens cleaner just in case its a dirt problem but I cant really see it being that as all DVDs play fine.

Can anyone suggest anything please, its ruining loads of films!

Thanks in advance
Ash

[poopyhead]

burn 4x...

also, track-at-once..not disc-at-once

[Dr Ashcroft]

ill give that a blast, cheers

[MpegEncoder]

burn 4x...

also, track-at-once..not disc-at-once

I'd have to disagree on both counts. I burn all of my VCDs and SVCDs at 32x and have never had a problem. Either your CD burner works at it's rated speed or it doesn't. Also, there is no reason to burn track-at-once. All of the common VCD authoring programs like VCDEasy create a CD image that should be burnable as a whole (i.e., disk-at-once).

The problem may be bitrate or something else.

[Dr Ashcroft]

anything else then? what is the best thing to burn cds with? im using Nero at the moment (v6)

[cplevel42]

There is not really a "best", but Record Now Max is really good. What is your source for your VCDs? Are you burning them from Bin, Cue Files? Or, are you using mpeg-1 files?

If you are burning from Bin, Cues, the use a program called Fireburner. If you are making them from mpegs, what is your bitrate of the video and audio and what program are you using to encode them with?

[johns0]

I found burn speed does affect the playback depending on the dvd player,i burn at 12x on a 48x lg burner cause i used to get freezes and stuttering when burning at high speeds,it also happens with a liteon 48x when burning too fast and labels will also cause problems on certain dvd players

[poopyhead]

@MpegEncoder,

not all dvd players can accept CD-Rs burned at really high speeds...

faster burns = greater chance for errors...

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@Dr Ashcroft,

some tests:

try your (S)VCDs on:

1) your computer

2) your friend's dvd player...

same stuttering problems???

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could also be media...have you tried different brands...and start off burning them at 4x

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btw, what encode settings you used to encoder VCD and SVCDs....you have to make sure they're completely standard, comliant

also, make sure in TMPGEnc, you downsample your audio from 48 Khz to 44.1 Khz ... this should be under the audio tab in configurations

[Dr Ashcroft]

hi mate

ive tried them on my pc using power dvd and they seem to be ok, ive tried them on other dvd players and the same problem exists as i did initially think it could just be my player.

ive been burning at 4x times also. the files im using are ready made svcd/vcd from bin/cue files.

[Fusmali]

Some DVD player can not handle SVCD bitrates over a combine video and sound bitrate of 2500. I have found this to be the cause of skipping and some blockness on some players. VCDEasy also warns of this if the mpeg to be burnt to disk excedes this bitrate. I have never had problems burning at high speeds only when exceding the 2500 max bitrate. Most templates in encoding software uses a higher bitrate than 2500 just for the video i.e. Tmpegenc SVD CBR is 2520 video plus 128 audio (some version the audio is 224).

I produce my Mpegs using Tmpegenc`s 2pass VBR set to maximum of 2250, minimum of 300 with an average according to how much I am trying to fit on the CD. For audio I usually used 128 but sometime (if I think the sound will defintely benefit) I use 224. I burn using VCDEasy at maximum burn speed. With these settings I can guarantee a perfect stutter free playback for any of my SVCDs with no noticible picture quality loss when compared to a SVCD burnt at 2520 Video and 128/244 audio.

[flaninacupboard]

i found on my sony player that if you exceed 74minutes (740megs of MPEG) then i get playback problems. guess you don't want to hear that because it means a re-encode......

[cheeseheadjed]

Did you ever solve this problem? i've been having the same problem and looking how to fix it. thanks for any help u could give me!
-Jed