VCD won't play in DVD player

[spooky_wooky]

The other day i downloaded a movie file. I split the sound from the video with virtualdub, then encoded it as a VCD with TMPGEnc. I then split the file that was left into two parts, so that I could fit them on CD's (the mpeg was about 1gig).

After burning part 1 of these with Nero, I shoved it in my DVD player (a TV one, not in my computer), but got a lot of squiggly lines - no picture at all. Note: i did get sound.

Anyone got any ideas with what's wrong?
the other day i burned a VCD of a south park episode and that worked fine, but this wont. NOTE: my DVD player is a Voxson DVD250, and, according to this site it is compatible with VCD's.

I've tried to include any information that may be relevant/helpful in solving my problem, but if there's anything specific you need to know ask away.

thanks in advance,
jack

[mats.hogberg]

I've tried to include any information that may be relevant/helpful

We need more. What's your source material (codecs)? Does the resulting mpg play fine on your computer? What settings did you use in TMPGEnc?

/Mats

[yf2001usa]

I did you make a vcd of the template of tmpgenc or did you use your own settings?

[theDruid]

If you're not sure about you player's compatibility (I know you say the database on this site says it works, but that's not a guarantee), you should download some of the sample images from the What is section in the top left of this site.

Use something like Nero to burn the images to a CD-RW (one at a time), and see if they play okay on your standalone.

Not all players support CD-RW, but I think most do, and it saves you wasting CD-R's on it.

If the samples work fine, you know it's a problem with the discs you're making for yourself.

cheers,
mcdruid.

(P.S. be careful talking about downloading stuff & copyrighted material etc.. you might get your wrist slapped!)

[spooky_wooky]

the resulting mpeg plays fine on my computer, and the VCD, once it's burnt, plays fine in my computers DVD player.

therefore it seems the issue is with the DVD player, except i know for a fact it plays VCD's (i burnt a simpsons ep and it played it fine).

onto TMPGEnc settings: ive gone through and tried to remember everything i did...

i selected VideoCD > PAL (i live in Australia).
then i added the files (video and audio) and selected "4:3 635 Line (PAL)" under "Expert settings for source > Aspect ratio". from then on i don't think i changed anything from the default settings.

thanks in advance, jack.

[spectroelectro]

TMPGenc is a fantastic tool but it has several little drawbacks. One drawback is that if you wander off the main path of the wizard settings
and get into a bunch of detailed by-hand settings, you can actually create
conflicting settings that prevent the resulting encoded video from playing
correctly, or sometimes prevent it from playing at all. A classic example involves encoding to MPEG-2 SVCD but neglecting to set the STREAM TYPE to SVCD and instead leaving it as DVD.
That could be your problem. I've never had any problems at all creating
VCDs that play back on every DVD player in creation (AFAIK) but that's because I use the plain-vanilla WIZARD setting for NTSC VCD with nothing changed (the MOTION ESTIMATION setting has no more effect on the resulting VCD than the color of your carpet, so just leave it at NORMAL and
don't bother setting it to HIGH or HIGHEST). Likewise, avoid NOISE REDUCTION in ADVANCED under SETTINGS, that does nothing significant and exponentially increases the encoding time.
However, you might be fiddling with the settings to create an XVCD -- that is, an extended VCD. Some people do this and it can produce good results depending on program material. Viz., some folks like to crank up the bitrate way beyond 1150 or change the rez from 352 x 240 to 720 x 480 but still encode to MPEG-1. If that's what you're doing, you will have to experiment and find which settings work best for your DVD player. My DVD player does not like XVCDs and doesn't play them, but seems to have no problem with XSVCDs (extended super video CDs with greatly increased bitrate far beyond 2250).
Try experimenting with different test files on different CD-Rs. You should be able to narrow in on a combination of settings that work.

[spooky_wooky]

ok thanks for that. I'll try encoding it without changing any settings at all, and see how that works. if anyone else has something to add, please do.

i'll let you know how it works out.

thanks,
jack

[mats.hogberg]

Yes, if you use the wizard settings "as is" and the resulting mpg plays fine on your computer, and the VCD plays fine on your computer, then there's either something about your players VCD compatibility, or something with your authoring process. Try authoring with VCDEasy to cue/bin, then burn the image with Nero if your system isn't supported by VCDEasys built-in burning system. Also, burn at a low speed, like 4X.

/Mats

[spooky_wooky]

okay, i tried decoding it without any fancy settings, and it still didn't work. i guess the next step is to do what mats said (author it as a cue/bin? ill figure out what that is ) and try it. ill probably do that this weekend (when i have some god damn time!).

ill let you know how it turns out,
add anything you feel might help me
-spooky wooky

[theDruid]

Have you tried downloading any of the samples from this site (as per my previous post)?

They come as ready-authored image files, which you can burn with Nero or something similar.

This would establish whether your standalone player has any compatibility issues, or whether it's something you're doing which is making your discs non-standard.

I'd certainly try that before spending too much time re-encoding with different settings again & again!!

cheers,
mcdruid.