RCA RC5240P

[jimneutron]

I bought an RCA RC5240P DVD player over the holidays. I based my choice primarily on the price ($139 at BJ's) and the fact that it plays almost all formats (according to the compatibility tests). The user comments were all pretty good, for the most part (except for MP3 problems, but I wasn't buying the player for MP3's). I started experimenting with putiing some of my digital video home movies on CD.

I have a Panasonic DV701 camcorder. My computer is a homebuilt AMD K6III 400 oc'd at 448 w/256M PC133 RAM, Lite-on 12x10x32 CDRW and a WD 40G 7200 RPM HD. I used Pinnacle StudioDV 1.26a for capture and editing and TMPGenc for encoding. I used Nero 5.5.4 for burning.

OK. My first attempt at burning was in VCD format. All went well with the process and the final product played flawlessly in the DVD player. The resolution wasn't what I had hoped for, so I tried creating an SVCD format disc. This really stressed my old K6III to the max. Almost 12 hours to encode 30 minutes of video (time to build a new AthlonXP sytem, I think...anyhoooo...). The disc played fine in the DVD player. Resolution was much improved. The only problem was that I could not fast forward the video. When I hit fast forward (on the remote or faceplate of the player), it jumps around from frame to frame fro a few seconds and then it jumps back to the beginning of the video. Then it keeps playing the same frames over again until it locks up. I have to shut the machine down to retart the video. I have used various CDR and CDRW discs, and it happens with all of them.

Anyone else have this problem with this DVD player? I wondering if there is a defect in the player, and I should try to return it for another one? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[SACECAN]

Did you include the scandata.dat.txt file in the nero ext folder? The file download and instructions for adding this to your Nero burn are found on this site. I'm new to this myself but I followed the directions and I'm able to fast forward thru my SVCD's on my RCA RC5240p. My rca works great so I doubt you have a defective player. I started editing on studio dv but now use studio 7. I also used Nero to burn. Hope this helps.

[jimneutron]

Thanks for the reply. I'll give that a try and let you know how it works out.

How do you like Studio 7? I tried making an SVCD with v1.26a, and it came out like crap! I think the quality of the rendered video was worse than a VCD. If Studio 7 is any good, I'll invest in the upgrade. It will save me a step if I could do the whole process (edit and render) in one program vice 2.

[jimneutron]

Tried your recommendation, buy no luck. I installed the NERO upgrade patch, and that seemed to do the trick. All is working perfectly, now. Thanks for your help.

[SACECAN]

Glad to hear its working for you now, I didn't think your player was the problem.

As far as the Mpeg quality of Studio 7 goes I don't think you would be happy with it. I never made a Mpeg movie with Studio dv but from what I gather from reading the Studio 7 forum those who have used both report not much improvement. I tested the quality of Mpeg1 and 2 in Studio 7 and consider the results to be poor. Mpeg1 was horrible and while mpeg2 was better it still showed blockyness, shimer and artifacts. Once I got the settings figured out with TMPGenc I was thrilled with how much better mpeg quality can be. Until Pinnacle vastly improves its mpeg encoder I'll be sticking with TMPGenc and Nero.

You might still consider upgrading to Studio 7, however, if the added features like fast/slow motion, split edits, etc appeal to you. They can add a lot to your video's. The fast or slow motion especially work well for me.