Problems playing Mpegs / VCD on standalone DVD player

[Kevin The Gerbil]

Hi!

My standalone DVD player should be able to play Mpegs / VCDs. Some it plays perfectly, others it has problems with the picture breaking up horribly. The mpegs / VCDs have been sourced off the newsgroups or converted from AVIs using instructions here. They all play OK on my PC with power DVD.

I am struggling to figure out what is the problem. I'm in the UK so everything here is PAL, but the setup SHOULD be able to handle NTSC. I can't find any software which tells me anything about the bit rate (is that the right term) or validity of the mpeg file - is there anything available? The media seems OK (I've tried a variety with no obviosu patterns.) Is there something obvious I'm missing?

Thanks

Kev

[Craig Tucker]

Have you tried lowering the burn speed ?

[Kevin The Gerbil]

Hi!
I've dropped the burn speed to the slowest my writer supports (4x) with no joy. Is there anything else I ought to check for? VirtualDub can take an AVI file and check that for errors - is there anything similar for mpegs?
Thanks
Kev

[Craig Tucker]

Well you say they play ok on your PC so its not the files themselves. Seems like you may have some bad media, try another batch/brand and see if that cures the problem.

Are you burning as VCD or raw mpeg, could be that the bitrate of the mpeg is too high if you are not creating standard VCD (although this would tend to cause stuttering rather than picture breakup). Virtualdub will tell you the bitrate.

[ZippyP.]

avicodec will give info on mpeg files.

[Kevin The Gerbil]

Thanks - I'll try a different brand.

VirtualDUB fails to load the mpeg file with the error "MPEG Import filter: pack synchronization error".

[Craig Tucker]

sounds like an mpeg2 then, try virtualdub mod