Is there a way to tell how a file has been encoded?

[clt1dpw]

Heres the short.
I have a file that someone on the net encoded. The file passes Nero's inspection and can be made directly into VCD with out Nero re-encoding. This video clip looks fantastic. Someone here suggested that it was a rip from a DVD. Fine, Thats what I will use for testing.
Now, if I encode a file to the VCD format from a DVD rip, two things happen. 1> It will not pass Neros encoding standards. If it does not pass here and I bypass Neros encoding, then it will not play on my DVD. 2> It looks like c**p.
I found the tool mpegprop here on this site. I used it on several files and it told me everything about the file for encoding, but when I used it on the file I got from the net, it states that it is not a valid mpeg file and can not give me the information.
Can anyone help????

[jasond]

It sounds like it was made with CCE

I can rip DVD samples and have them perfect quality by using 4 pass VBR then converting using high on tmpgenc to vcd

[clt1dpw]

What is CCE????

[jasond]

cinema craft encoder

www.cinemacraft.com

its not free ...very expensive..but easily available if you search for it

the demo leaves a watermark on the movie

[clt1dpw]

How are you doing 4 VBR passes. I only see 2 in TMPGen.
As far as the input both Power VCR and ATI software packages are suppose to have the ability to capture at DVD quality.
Heres how I normally try it.
Record DVD qual. at 720x640 6mbits/sec.
Next run through TMPGen with the noise reduction filter on and all other settings set as default VCD encryption with interlace.(Because at this point we are just reducing it to 352x240, Right?). Then run nero to burn CD, but no matter what my settings are in TMPGen, Nero has to re-encode. If I turn compliance off, then when I put the burnt cd in the DVD player, I get a black screen with the counter runnng. Any help would be much appreciated.
PS. I think in the very near future I think I am going to buy that Apex 1500, till then I will have to put up with my VCD CDRW only DVD Player.