Problems playing final seconds of VCDs

[wmpdxm]

I've been experiencing an annoying problem when playing burnt VCDs on a Toshiba stand-alone DVD player. When the player reaches the final 11 seconds (usually) of a VCD, its timer will stop counting, then about 2-3 seconds later, the video will freeze, sometimes artifacts will appear on the screen, and the audio will contain strange noises. The video remains stuck at that point until the player finally stops and goes back to the main screen. Therefore, those final 8-9 seconds are unwatchable, and there isn't a nice "clean" ending.

The glitching reminds me of trying to play a corrupt video file, but I'm positive that these VCDs are not corrupt. They play fine in Windows Media Player and a different stand-alone player.

Does anyone know what could cause this problem? Any insight or suggestions would be appreciated.

BTW, the discs I've tried were not filled to capacity - even 45-minute discs are affected.

[Baldrick]

how do you make the vcds? what do you author with? tried different cd media?

[MOVIEGEEK]

It sounds like the player,my Toshiba plays VCD's fine but my Mintek doesn't(artifacts,synch problems,etc).

[wmpdxm]

how do you make the vcds? what do you author with? tried different cd media?

I used TMPGEnc 2.521 to make the MPG files, and VCDEasy versions 1.1.5.2 and 3.0.2 to make/burn the VCDs. I've tried CD-R and CD-RW media from several different manufacturers.

[vcd4ever]

Hi wmpdxm,

Do you have the same playback problem at the end of the VCD when using this mpeg
<Server Offline>

vcd4ever.

[wmpdxm]

Do you have the same playback problem at the end of the VCD when using this mpeg http://vcd4ever.dynip.com/sample/sample.zip

Yes. I burnt your video with VCDEasy then re-played the end of the disc a number of times while watching the "time remaining" and here's what happened every time...

1. Timer freezes (stops counting down) at -0:00:11 or -0:00:10. At this time, the player starts making a different noise (the player itself, not the audio it outputs). It's sort of a fast yet quiet rattling or wobbling noise, hard to describe. Also, the Rewind/Forward buttons on the remote refuse to work after this point. Pressing them makes the player immediately stop and go back to the main screen. The Pause and Slow buttons continue to work, however.
2. About 3 or 4 seconds later, the video gets stuck/frozen. Nothing after this point is watchable.
3. About 7 seconds later, the player stops and returns to the main screen.

I tried burning as VCD 2.0 and VCD 1.1 - no difference.

[jman98]

I used to have a somewhat similar problem with VCD/SVCDs I authored with Nero. My discs would cut off about 1-3 seconds early. I don't remember exactly because I haven't made VCD/SVCDs in a few years since I switched to making DVDs. What I did to get around it is that I took a laserdisc that had some black frames at the end and using a video editor, I created a silent clip of 5 seconds length that was VCD compliant and another for SVCD and I simply appended them to the end of my video clips before authoring in Nero. It's a kludge, I know, but you might just create a 12 second or so VCD compatible clip, add to the end of your VCD with a video editor and burn it. That way the freezing will occur after your VCD ends. It does sound like it's probably your player though. I've read enough weird stories about Toshibas in the past that I would never buy one or trust it to play correctly.

[offline]

Try burning track at once (TAO) rather than disk at once (DAO). This only works for some players. Your problem was quite common, particularly in early DVD players. The only other known fix was to add some blank video as suggested above, or a picture file; at the end of the main video track.

[wmpdxm]

What I did to get around it is that I took a laserdisc that had some black frames at the end and using a video editor, I created a silent clip of 5 seconds length that was VCD compliant and another for SVCD and I simply appended them to the end of my video clips before authoring in Nero. It's a kludge, I know, but you might just create a 12 second or so VCD compatible clip, add to the end of your VCD with a video editor and burn it. That way the freezing will occur after your VCD ends.

Yeah, I actually tried something like that today: I made a simple 15-second MPEG clip that I can just drag into VCDEasy and use as the final track on all my VCDs. Since my player only has problems with the last track, the main video plays fine. It's definitely a "kludge" as you said, but I guess I can live with it.

Try burning track at once (TAO) rather than disk at once (DAO).

How would I do that? I don't believe VCDEasy has that option...

Your problem was quite common, particularly in early DVD players.

OK, well, that's good to know. The player in question was first available on Amazon.com on July 30, 2002 - would that be considered "early"?