The (almost) perfect Napa DAV 311 VideoCD (PAL) :D

[Mace]

My way to create a VCD (from a DVD) playing almost perfect on the Napa DAV 311:
================================================== ==========

After 4 month (!!!) of encoding, burning and being frustrated I think I finally found a way to go:

1) Some essential facts I found out:
====================================

- For a PAL VCD the GOP structure should be "IBBPBBPBBPBB";
GOP length = 12 and 3 P frames.
(the Panasonic MPEG1 Encoder help says: "In general, when
the frame rate is in NTSC (29.97Hz:29.97 fps), normally
0.5 seconds (15 frames) = 1 GOP";
so applied to PAL with 25 fps the GOP length has to be
12 frames)

- I analyzed an original VCD from China (NTSC) with
"MPEG Properties" (look at the left, section "Tools"
and the bitrate was 1.120 Mbit/s
(the other settings were the known standard:
Audio = 224 kbit/s, sample freq. = 44,1 kHz, stereo;
System = 1.411 Mbit/s)

2) The programs I use (they are all FREE!):
===========================================

- Flask MPEG 0.594 as frame server
(other "versions" of Flask MPEG like Xmpeg should also
work, DVDx will also be good)

- bbMPEG with AVI2MPG2 as encoder
(bbMPEG is already included in the "original" Flask MPEG)

- SmartRipper 2.40

- TMPGEnc to cut the .mpg file

- DVD2AVI 1.74 to find out the delay of the audio stream

- VCDImagerGUI (use a stable version)

- CDRDAO to burn the images
(get it from http://www.sourceforge.net)

3) To Do:
=========

DVD2AVI:
--------

- Open your VOB files.

- Audio:
Select the right track (look at the SmartRipper info
file!); set Channel Format to "Auto Select"; set Dolby
Digital and MPEG Audio to "Demux" and 48 -> 44,1 kHz
to "Off"

- The video settings can be left as they are as we will
not use DVD2AVI as frame server!

- Select "File -> Save Project" and enter a file name;
DVD2AVI automatically starts building a .d2v file and a
"...DELAY xxxms.ac3" file;
stop this process by closing the "Statistics Window"
after a few seconds!

- Now have a look at your project file and write down the
audio delay in ms (we will need it later!)

Flask MPEG:
-----------

- Copy the "bbMPEG.dll" to your Flask MPEG directory and
rename it to "bbMPEG.cm.flask" (for Xmpeg rename it
to "bbMPEG.cm.Xmpeg" and for DVDx rename it to "CM-
bbMPEG.prm"; an existing "mpg.cm.flask" or
"mpeg.cm.flask" means that there already is the
bbMPEG plug-in - look if it is the newest one!

- Set the output Format from Flask MPEG to "bbMPEG Encoder"

- The export movie settings from Flask MPEG:
Width: "352", Height: "288"; "non-MMX fast iDCT";
"25 fps"

- The audio settings:
"Decode Audio"; sampling frequency = "44100 Kz"

- post processing:
"HQ Bicubic Filtering"; "Keep aspect ratio" (crop if you
want to!)

- for bbMPEG the number of frames to encode has to be
set!!!
general:
set "Frames" and uncheck "Compile whole file"; get the
exact number of frames from your SmartRipper info file!

- You do not have to set the "Output Format Options" this
time!

- start Conversion:
The bbMPEG window pops up; select "Settings"

bbMPEG:
-------

- general settings:
select "Encode video", "Encode audio", "Mux video"
and "Mux audio"

- video stream settings:
set Video type to "VideoCD"; select "PAL defaults";
Aspect Ratio = "0.9375 CCIR601"; Frame Rate = "25 fps";
I frames = "12"; P frames = "3"; correct the CBR
to "1.120.000"!!!

- program stream settings:
set program stream type to "VCD"; check ONLY "Write
program end code"; leave timestamps, mux rate, pack
options and buffer sizes as they are;
now add the audio delay you got from the DVD2AVI file to
the Audio delays
[Default is: Pack: "400", Video: "344", Audio 1: "344",
Audio 2: "344". If the delay is 16 ms it should look
like this: Pack: "400", Video: "344", Audio 1: "360"(!),
Audio 2: "360"(!)]

- advanced video settings:
set matrix coeffients to "unspecified" and LEAVE the
additional settings!

- Click on "OK" and than "Start" - that is it!

TMPGEnc:
--------

- After the encoding process cut your file with the "MPEG
Tools".
("Merge & Cut"; select Type: "MPEG-1 Video-CD"

VCDImagerGUI:
-------------

- Create the bin / cue images with this nice tool.

CDRDAO:
-------

- This tool is not very easy to handle as it is a command
line one; use it to burn the images to CDR /CDRW; read
the documentation.
For my writer it looks like this:
"cdrdao write --device 1,0,0 --driver generic-mmc --
speed 2 --eject D:\CDR-Images\VCD_1.cue"
(You do not have to write at single speed, double will
be also nice.)

4) Playback on the Napa DAV 311:
================================

- After the first few seconds of playing the VCD pause the
movie for a few seconds as this will prevent it from
jumping; if it gets jerky later on simply pause the movie
again and it will disappear.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Mace on 2001-12-18 16:38:15 ]</font>

[garman]

This unit still bites. I would like to make one vcd that will play on my dvd players. NOT have seperate movies config just for the napa. Until this is fixed I'll hold off on the purchase!
Just like it's previous models of Napa they don't play XVCD's. When that happens I'll pick one up. That would be worth it's purchase -garman

[Bizarro]

Mace,,
Good job mate ......I will give this a shot to. I 2 have been fighting with this I have a NAPA309 .
How big of DIff is it for pal vs ntsc ?? do you have specs for ntsc ? I live in the US so our stanard format is ntsc.......
I'm not giving up on this and I'm happy to see other working on this to.

garman,,
If you don't own one then you woundn't see first hand how this player plays 'Original(pressed)VCD's' the quality is just as good if not better than a VCR tape(new VCR tape !!!) . that's why I refused to give up on this unit..


I know Hardware vs Software = no contest,, but is hardware being used by the elite ? I think not......

Somebody out there will find the solution , and when it comes ALL of us NAPA users will be very happy..

[yoshi1668]

I have a Napa 311 and I hate to say this. It's not worth it. This machine performs somewhat better with PAL VCD than NTSC VCD. However, it still has a lot of freeze frames here and there. That's the VCD part of it. For the MP3 part of this machine, it skips songs whenever it feels like it and the antishock feature is virtually nonexist.

The Apex machine gives much better performance for me and I'm happy about it. My friend bought a CLASSIC player from ToysRUs (believe it or not) and it also works fine.

[vcdxandy]

Well with TTMPEG I loaded standard VCD-PAL template, changed bitrate to 1123 as reccomended. Source was MPEG4-AVI video (28 days)
Then burned with Nero and Memorex24Maxx on Precision CDR (24x). But unfortunately playback on NAPA DAV 311 was very very jerky !!!
Than today I found an excelent link with guide and TTMPEG templates for NAPA-VCD here and I am going to use this one:

http://www25.brinkster.com/fletchlinks/napa311/

does anyone have good experience with those templates ?
Do templates for "older" TTMPEG version generally work fine with new versions or must I use the "same" version of TTMPEG for which one was the template made???

Are TTMPEG versions for VCD (better DivX to VCD conversion) generally very different in performance/quality or can I use ANY TTMPEG version without reasonable performance differencies???

[vitualis]

Standard VCD video bitrate is 1150 kbit/s (and these are what my stamped VCDs are in).

From all accounts, the NAPA unit does have problems playing standard VCDs and a search of the forums will yield plenty of comments and results. Lowering the video bitrate seems to work for some people -- but remember, the standard video bitrate is still 1150 kbit/s.

If you want hardware playback, you can definitely find a better player (though portable players may be hard to find in the West).

Regards.[/b]

[AntnyMD]

I beg to differ, but every one of my pressed VCDs purchased at EurekaMovies.com have a bitrate of 1120 - 1123 kbps. Not one of them are encoded at 1150. Furthermore, the Napa will play back jerky video if the GOP is unusually large, and the TMPGEnc templates all have GOPs larger than 15 for NTSC. Make your GOP small, close the GOP, and turn Detect Scene Changes OFF.

Furthermore, just buy a frickin' Terapin, as it encodes in real time, burns to "consumer" CD-R/RW via the S-Video connection without sync issues, and playback in the Napa DAV 311 is, in a word, flawless.

[vitualis]

That could simply indicate that your pressed VCDs were made by the same people...

Default bitrate = 1150 kbit/s

Regards.

[shin_kai50]

What about that "New Napa DAV-510" @ http://amaxhk.com/products/napa/dav510/dav510.htm
is it anygood? anyone knows where to get it at?

[Bizarro]

The NAPA DAV510 will not be out till Aug-Sept. They will be displaying it at E3 in L.A. in May ....... possibly selling some there as promo's.
.................................................. ..........Bizarro

BTW since I found this website http://www.napafix.4t.com/ I havn't had
any probs with my NAPA DAV309 playing vcd's ......and they look good on my standalone dvd player too.....