converting video formats (For Hasbro's VideoNow) I know the

[mastersmurfie]

I forgot to mention a bunch of settings that I changed. I am writing a turorial that should be a lot more clear than my last post that doccuments what all of the values should be. Coming soon......

transient...excellent tutorial!! ...however, I *think* a couple things are amiss or (not wrong...but... )

In your tutorial at http://mmdx.com/Tutorial.doc one thing that *seems* to be missing...at the end of the ccd file, there are entries for [TRACK 1] and [TRACK 2] and more, depending on the number of files in your compilation...I was under the impression (from earlier posts) that "FLAGS=DCP" needed to be included between the MODE and INDEX entries...maybe I'm incorrect (someone please tell me if I am...my original VideoNow demo cd includes this entry in the ccd for each track, and so did all "working" cds that I have made...)

next...seems like the formulae in your "calulations" excel file might need a little modification...(for the PBLA calculator)...should it not be =((C4*4500)+(C5*75)+C6)-150 since the PBLA *should* be the the (PMin value + the Psec value + the PFrame value) -ALBA value of 150?

Unfortunately, I cannot test any new stuff until later this week...gift exchange with my daughter was yesterday (hence the aggravation over the discs that I had made the night before not working...) and she will not be back until the weekend...interesting anecdote...my daughter and I were watching TV Saturday morn, and the commercial for the VideoNow player came on...she proceeded to explain how she "don't think she'd like it cause it's black and white and sooo small...(I felt like I'd been stabbed in the back with a butter knife, after all I've gone through for this thing )...anyways, all turned out great...she couldn't have been happier with the player and the discs that I was able to purchase for it...I went out today and bought two more disc sets, and the light that goes with it...(you CANNOT see the video in the dark )

Anyways...

transient...I want to make sure that I have this correct...

If I have ONE track on my disc, my ccd *should* have only 2 [Entry]s-right?? ([Entry 0] and [Entry 1], [Entry 2], and [Entry 3]) with with PMin=1 in [Entry 1] right?? Then, using values supplied earlier for [Entry 2], calculate values for [Entry 3]??

Help!!! all this editing makes my head hurt!!!

Thanks,

Mastersmurfie

[mastersmurfie]

transient...never mind my babbling before...your formulas are right...don't know what I was thinking...I was just plugging in random numbers and not seeing the results correctly...sorry!!!

[transient]

mastersmurfie,

Thanks for the feedback on my tutorial. You're right, I forgot the FLAGS=DCP part. It was late and I didn't realize what a beast I was creating.

To answer your question:

If I have ONE track on my disc, my ccd *should* have only 2 [Entry]s-right?? ([Entry 0] and [Entry 1], [Entry 2], and [Entry 3]) with with PMin=1 in [Entry 1] right?? Then, using values supplied earlier for [Entry 2], calculate values for [Entry 3]??

If you have ONE track on your disc, you should have 5 Entries.

[Entry 0] should be the same as the one in the tutorial.

[Entry 1] should have PMin=2 as there will be 2 tracks in the TOC (One for the start of the file and one for the end). Make sure to put the correct PLBA for PMin=2.

[Entry 2] should be the same as the tutorial.

[Entry 3] should have the start time of your file...usually PSec=2 or PSec=4.

[Entry 4] should have the length of your WAV file + PSec from [Entry 3]
So, if PSec=2 in [Entry 3] and the lenght of your WAV is PMin=5 PSec=20 PFrame=30, then the values for [Entry 4] would be PMin=5 PSec=22 PFrame=30. Be sure to calculate the correct PLBA.

Those are all the tracks you should have. I hope this helps.

[mustangfld]

Hello Transient,
I've noted two problems with my disk generation
First is that I seem to need a ending track, a filler track, that covers the excess time from my final track to the max disk time (30:06:43)stated by Entry 2. If I remove this track, and when Burnatonce is activated, it comes up with a (Error while parsing the file location of the .ccd file). When I examined the Demo disks I found a final Track (13) that is blank, it seems to be a filler track. I suceeded in burning a cartoon with the filler track(calculated the differance and made an additional track), it runs, but seems like a sycronization problem exist while it is running, good sound, upper portion of screen is viewable, but bottom half is randomized frames, they shows up when the screen paused, useally two lower half screens can then clearly be seen. Any Ideas?

Mustangfld

[transient]

Mustangfld

Are you using Burnatonce to burn the CCD file after you edit it?

[mustangfld]

Sorry
I meant ConeCD, (version 3.3.4.1)

[mastersmurfie]

mustangfld and transient...(and whoever else might still be watching this thread)

I spent the last couple of days trying to figure this out...(printed quite a number of ccd files...compared...edited...compared again...edited again...edited yet again...trying to find (why I kept getting the same "error while parsing the ccd file" after editing out the "unneeded [Entry #]s...) "the way"...finally it hit me (I always saw it, but never paid attention )...look closely at the TocEntries in your CloneCD *.ccd file...this should equal the number of [Entry #]s that you finally end up with (after you edit the ccd file and delete whatever is not necessary-need to change this value to equal the total)...MAYBE...I still cannot test until later this week, but after changing this value, CloneCD let me burn without a hitch...I have a disc ready to go with the intro from the Demo disc, plus the first 20 minutes of the movie that I converted waiting to go...

Can someone please try this and let me know if it makes any difference? Also, wondering if anyone has had any problems with discs that you *know* worked once not working again...??? or is it just me??

[transient]

mastersmurfie,

I had the same problem and changed the TocEntries myself and it fixed it. I just forgot to include that in my tutorial. Thanks to everyone for their feedback on my tutorial. Expect an update soon with all of the stuff I forgot to put in there the first time.

[tomoki]

Just a short and useless update: VideoNow player is available in Magneta and a shade like olive green. Add to that Target exclusive Red and that's 5 colors. Also Walmart is selling them under $40 regular.

[Tazmania8332]

A couple of weeks ago, they had a huge 2 day sale at walmart were they had the videonow on sale for $29.99. the videonow even included a VNCD case with it. i got one of those. it was one of walmarts most busy and crowded days.


Also... today is the day i test out the videonow disc i burnt. i'll post my results later on today after i test it.

here are the programs i used to burn a disc:
virtualdub
videothen
burnatonce
CCD2VNCD
and at last... CloneCD

it's all in the order that i used them. I can't wait to test it. :P

[bent]

iam having troble making bootable cd i used ccd2vncd and burned it and it doesnot boot it will work with a cd swap could it be cause i dont have a 10 second intro file on it iam just burning the cartoon it self or if some one can post a workind ccd file so i know which value to change the other posts are confusing any help would be right on thanks in advance

[bent]

ok i hope iam not talking to myself i made another disk with an intro file and the intro file worked but the second file did not the cartoon so i made another one sameway but put the cartoon first and intro second and it player the first file the cartoon and the second one the intro did not work thats not too bad but none of the buttons work does anyone know what am doing wrong or leaving out thanks

[mastersmurfie]

iam having troble making bootable cd i used ccd2vncd and burned it and it doesnot boot it will work with a cd swap could it be cause i dont have a 10 second intro file on it iam just burning the cartoon it self or if some one can post a workind ccd file so i know which value to change the other posts are confusing any help would be right on thanks in advance

Bent...follow transient's guide posted above. When you get to "Step Four-Edit The CCD File" make sure to add FLAGS=DCP between MODEand INDEX for each [Track #] listed at the end of the file. Also, if you need to remove any unnessary [Entry #]s, don't forget to change the TocEntries accordingly. I personally have not yet tested transient's guide (on the player) but it contains all of the elements that seem to be required to make a bootable VNCD

[mastersmurfie]

So, I just tested a few more VNCDs and I can play the first track on all of them. It doesn't matter what the first track is, but after that, the disc just stops spinning and nothing happens. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I used VideoThen, BurnAtOnce, CloneCD and have both edited the ccd files myself and used ccd2vncd. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Any suggestions? I am slighly confused as to what the values are supposed to be when I edit the ccd files. I have used Vampyre's values and MasterSmurfie's calculations....any help is greatly appreciated.

transient...I have encountered the same problems...can you take a look at this ccd and please explain where I've gone wrong?

[CloneCD]
Version=3
[Disc]
TocEntries=7
Sessions=1
DataTracksScrambled=0
CDTextLength=0
[Session 1]
PreGapMode=0
PreGapSubC=0
[Entry 0]
Session=1
Point=0xa0
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=1
PSec=0
PFrame=0
PLBA=4350
[Entry 1]
Session=1
Point=0xa1
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=4
PSec=0
PFrame=0
PLBA=8850
[Entry 2]
Session=1
Point=0xa2
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=30
PSec=6
PFrame=43
PLBA=135343
[Entry 3]
Session=1
Point=0x01
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=0
PSec=4
PFrame=0
PLBA=150
[Entry 4]
Session=1
Point=0x02
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=0
PSec=7
PFrame=44
PLBA=719
[Entry 5]
Session=1
Point=0xb0
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=20
PSec=24
PFrame=7
PLBA=91657
[Entry 6]
Session=1
Point=0xc0
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=20
PSec=29
PFrame=10
PLBA=92035
[TRACK 1]
MODE=0
Flags=dcp
INDEX 1=150
[TRACK 2]
MODE=0
Flags=dcp
index 1=719

I have two wav files (the first is the intro from the VideoNow intro VNCD...the second is homemade by me...)

I know I have to be missing something simple...but I can't figure out what it is...

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this...

Mastersmurfie

[mustangfld]

Hello MasterSmurfie
You do have some math error's mind you , I have yet to get a viewable disk, still the scrambling image problem, but if these corrections help, then maybe we can swap disks and find the errors on each other.
Here it goes!

Entry 1 PMin should be =2 with only two tracks
Entry 3 PSec should =2, so your 2x75=150 minus the ALBA=-150 then
PLBA=0
Entry 4, PLBA should =419
Entry 5, shouldn't point=0x03 not the 0xb0 you have?
Entry 6, shouldn't point=0x04 not the 0xc0 you have?
Track 1 should =0
Track 2 should =419
Hope I gave you the proper advise and it works.
Mustangfld

[Tazmania8332]

Hi... It worked. I finally made a fully working bootable Videonow Disk.

I followed the "Videothen" tutoral until it came time to burn.

I tried to burn using BURNATONCE , but its didnt work. some error thing.

So i used Windows Media Player, But it froze up when i tried to add it to my playlist. So what I did was go to where the wav file was stored and selected the files.

I then right clicked on the selected files and clicked on "Copy to Audio CD." (This sent me directly to Win Media Player to where i could automatically burn an audio cd without adding it to my playlist.)

I clicked on the red button (Copy to audio cd) in the upper right corner of the Win Media Player screen. (Make sure All the files are in order.)



Then follow the instructions to making a bootable VNCD that was posted by Anoah on page 3. Make sure you start at Step 3!

And there you go.

[bent]

Tazmania8332
I tried that and i could only get the first file to boot no matter what file is first it will play but none of the buttons work on the first track any clue what iam doing wrong? anyone

[mastersmurfie]

Hello MasterSmurfie
You do have some math error's mind you , I have yet to get a viewable disk, still the scrambling image problem, but if these corrections help, then maybe we can swap disks and find the errors on each other.
Here it goes!

Entry 1 PMin should be =2 with only two tracks
Entry 3 PSec should =2, so your 2x75=150 minus the ALBA=-150 then
PLBA=0
Entry 4, PLBA should =419
Entry 5, shouldn't point=0x03 not the 0xb0 you have?
Entry 6, shouldn't point=0x04 not the 0xc0 you have?
Track 1 should =0
Track 2 should =419
Hope I gave you the proper advise and it works.
Mustangfld

Mustangfld...THANKS! Wonderful advice! (just goes to show...I need to pay more attention to detail...I just wasted my last two mini cdrs because I forgot to change one ZERO entry to "0"...DUH!!! )

Anyways...as for the "scrambled image"...I have no clue...so far, the discs that I have made either work or don't work-no "in between". Were you ever able to get burnatonce to work for you in making the initial audiocd? Absolutely NOTHING else that I have burned with has worked correctly. (not even Media Player...on my machine, it won't even recognize the files as being wav-says "unknown format" or some such nonsense)

[Tazmania8332]

1. On the first file... none of the buttons are suppose to work. i just put a 2 second blank screen there.

2. Are you using all the files I am using?

3. Plus... when u convert the movies with VDub, are you loading the setting that were provided with the videothen zip file?

4. If so... when u burn the files make sure the program doesnt have like a 10 sec pause or something like that set.

Get back to me.

[bent]

Tazmania8332 yup iam using the same files as you i use videothen vdub and the vgf file from videothen then burnatonce then clonecd ccd to vncd clonecd again i just cant get the second file to play after the first one plays it just stops and nothing? press play and its the first file again? any clue what iam doing wrong?

[Tazmania8332]

I may have a solution.

Is the second the last file?

because if it is, then it won't work. the last file on the disc never works for some reason. so what i did was add a 1 second clip at the end of the movie. that way it plays all the important stuff.

[bent]

Tazmania8332 yup you were right i put my little logofile first then my cartoon then the little logofile again. now i got a perfect bootable vncd thanks alot i hope this helps someone else out

[Tazmania8332]

Looks like this mistery has been solved for some people.

[mastersmurfie]

that is "one" problem that I acually never had. So far, have only put two tracks (first one from the demo disc, second one from homemade) and once I get my sh@# together, and remember to change EVERYTHING in the ccd, it plays fine. Just "remade(?)" a backup of "a popular new Disney DVD" converted to VideoNow format yesterday morn...again, took 5 discs, each one with the first file at the intro from the demo disc, and the second file as a (approximately) 20 min "piece" of the movie. No need for a "filler track" at the end (for me at least) Seems that if you follow transient's guide to a "T" you can't go wrong...

My only problem now is with Vdub...and cutting AVI files ...maybe this should be posted somewhere else (if so just let me know), but when I go to cut, sometimes the size of the original file seems to double...*sometimes*...

I'll keep working on this as much as I can and will continue the updates. Thanks again to transient for "the way" and to mustangfld for pointing out my "flaws" and to Gregsmith, for the wonderful VideoThen tool...(without this, none of this would have been possible)

in case anyone wants it, I will post the *.ccd file (with the VideoNow intro as first play and my 20 (approx) min file as the second...) I have just completed a very popular movie about an up and coming wizard to VNCD...using essentially the same ccd format...)

[Cornucopia]

I may have a solution.

Is the second the last file?

because if it is, then it won't work. the last file on the disc never works for some reason. so what i did was add a 1 second clip at the end of the movie. that way it plays all the important stuff.

Assuming the VNCD format is following the rules of a mod Redbook format, shouldn't each track be at least 4 seconds?

Scott

[mastersmurfie]

I may have a solution.

Is the second the last file?

because if it is, then it won't work. the last file on the disc never works for some reason. so what i did was add a 1 second clip at the end of the movie. that way it plays all the important stuff.

Assuming the VNCD format is following the rules of a mod Redbook format, shouldn't each track be at least 4 seconds?

Scott

Cornucopia...seems like all the "burning" softwares that I have already know about the 4 second rule...not sure how they were able to get 1 and 2 second source files to be completed...(I tried only using the last second or so from the original VideoNow cd, and burnatonce gave the "4 second" error, and Nero told me it was only 2 seconds long...) go figure

anyways...though not requested, here is a *.ccd file from my working VNCDs using the original intro from the demo cd, plus "any" 20 minute video clip that you want (or less...depending on the "original" source that you have):

[CloneCD]
Version=3
[Disc]
TocEntries=7<<---don't forget to change this if you remove entries
Sessions=1
DataTracksScrambled=0
CDTextLength=0
[Session 1]
PreGapMode=0
PreGapSubC=0
[Entry 0]<<-----all from transient's guide
Session=1
Point=0xa0
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=1
PSec=0
PFrame=0
PLBA=4350
[Entry 1]
Session=1
Point=0xa1
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=3
PSec=0
PFrame=0
PLBA=8850
[Entry 2]
Session=1
Point=0xa2
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=30
PSec=6
PFrame=43
PLBA=135343
[Entry 3]
Session=1
Point=0x01
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=0
PSec=4
PFrame=0
PLBA=150


[Entry 4]<<-----taken from the values from burnatonce AUDIOCD MASTERING
Session=1
Point=0x02
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=0
PSec=7
PFrame=44
PLBA=719
[Entry 5]
Session=1
Point=0x03
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=20
PSec=1
PFrame=17
PLBA=89942

[Entry 6]
Session=1
Point=0x04
ADR=0x01
Control=0x02
TrackNo=0
AMin=0
ASec=0
AFrame=0
ALBA=-150
Zero=0
PMin=20
PSec=6
PFrame=28
PLBA=90328
[TRACK 1]
MODE=0
Flags=dcp<<-----important
INDEX 1=150
[TRACK 2]
MODE=0
Flags=dcp<<-----important
INDEX 1=719

[mastersmurfie]

Also...one more IMPORTANT thing to add...don't forget to change the "Point" values in your ccd. I have found that CloneCD will not "complete" the burning on my machine if these values are not correct...

[Tazmania8332]

the 2 second thing may not work for nero or burnatonce but it does work for Windows Media Player. at least on mine.

[mastersmurfie]

the 2 second thing may not work for nero or burnatonce but it does work for Windows Media Player. at least on mine.

Tazmanie8332...how did you get Media Player to even recognize the files??? When I try to select them, it tells me that "Windows Media Player encountered an unknown error." and I can only "close" or get "web help" on the error...

[Tazmania8332]

instead of adding it to your media library... go to the folder it is located and (right click) send it to windows media player. then you put the files in the right order and then burn.