vcd burning

[srckaimal]

Hello,
I download a lot of videos from the net mostly flv.I can easily play them in the computer using free flv player, media player classic etc.But I wanted to watch them in TV screen using my video players.So I burned the files to CDs as data files and the player could not accept them.Actually that is when I realized that there is not an easy solution to this.I tried a lot of reading here like tutorials,articles, forum replies etc and finally managed a VCD I could play in my player.But I am not sure how I managed it nor is there a better solution to it.I do not yet understand the terms like codec,encoding,authoring etc.First I converted the flv file to avi through free flv converter.Then I downloaded the trial version of cucusoft video converter to make it a VCD file.Then I burned it by using another trial version of winavi converter which has a burning option for vcd.I used it to burn the vcd file from cucusoft and I could not believe it when it played nicely in my player for me to see on the TV screen.But there is a nag mark and permanent announcement that it is a trial version.
My flv file is 450mb,converted to avi it is 210mb and as vcd after cucusoft it is 600mb.
I am using windows 2000-sp4 with IE6,256mb ram and pentium 4 and have broadband connection.
I want to know whether I can do it better or through a shorter method and less conversions.I would also like to avoid trial versions and go for freewares if possible.I am not interested in burning them as DVDs.
I have filmmachine but when I tried to load it with my avi file it says "You have to choose media files with standard frame rates like 23.976 25.00 or 29.97 fps.Please choose another AVI/MP4/MOV/RMVB/MKV file

Please help!

[hech54]

You have MUCH reading to do I'm afraid. The answer(s) to your scenario will be longer than your original post. Your main problem is .FLV files. Not impossible to work with but are VERY low quality to begin with and will most likely look like complete crap on something the size of a TV.
Just make them "full screen" on your computer and see how they look.

[mats.hogberg]

FLV to DVD is a more frequented path. Some allinone converters do FLV to DVD, like convertx2dvd IIRC.
WinAVI and CuCusuft are the 2 lowest rated apps around here, but if all your concern is a watermark - Why not buy the product? That wil remove the watermark for good.
SUPER is a good anything to anything converter too (not qualitywise, but what formats it handles) - I'm sure it can convert your FLVs to VCD mpg, which you then can author as VCD using VCDEasy.

/Mats

[classfour]

Super can convert to MPEG1 (VCD resolution). Then you have to create the VCD from those files.

[jman98]

I second the suggestions to use Super for FLV to VCD creation. I've done this and it works. I'm rarely interested in FLV format as the quality is crap, but my brother found a few short music videos in this format that I converted to VCD for him because there is no way to buy these particular videos in any format anywhere.

[srckaimal]

Can this super work with windows 2000 and 256mb ram?
Also is there any free vcd burning software?

[jman98]

Yes, Super will work with Windows 2000 and your puny 256MB of RAM. Windows 2000 will run in 256MB of RAM, but it won't run very well.

There is an old version of VCDEasy that's still free at http://www.vcdeasy.org that you can use for free. It isn't burning software, but you can author VCDs with it and then burn the BIN/CUE image file it creates with something else (Nero, Fireburner, etc.) that understands BIN/CUE images. There's also an old program called something like VCDImager that is free, if you can find a copy. It comes with a free burning program, but I must warn you that VCDImager is not very easy to use and the free burning program (CDRDAO) in my experience is VERY difficult to get to work and may not work at all with your burner.

[srckaimal]

Thank you for your reply.Instead of 'super' I got Internet Video Converter' from the net which is free and converted my flv to avi file(from the free flv converter) into MPEG1.Then I tried to burn it directly by Nero Express which said it will encode it first to make it VCD compliant and did the job in an hour!Very slow in my opinion.Then I tried to play it but it did not work.The Tv screen flashed 'created by Nero and then stopped'.The movie( a yoga class) did not come.
I got the VCDEasy already but when I try to load the files,none of the files qualify.That is when I press the browse button,the avi/mpeg1/flv files do not come up.
So what is happening?Or should I go to Super and see?Or can I encode the mpeg1 file and then try to to burn it with Nero again?Can you give me a simple free encoding software for this which will accept the files coming out of this Internet Video Converter Soft.
Thank you for patience.

[AlanHK]

Thank you for your reply.Instead of 'super' I got Internet Video Converter' from the net which is free and converted my flv to avi file(from the free flv converter) into MPEG1.Then I tried to burn it directly by Nero Express which said it will encode it first to make it VCD compliant

You've converted FLV to AVI to MPEG to MPEG

Three conversions of a low res source, getting more degraded each step.

At least cut out Nero, it often neeedlessly reencodes source files.

VCDEasy has a free version, and should use your MPEG1s as-is. Maybe they just need to be renamed to be seen?

Otherwise, many DVD players can play AVI or MPEG files, if you just burn them as data.

[srckaimal]

The free VCDEasy I have got says "WinAsp32.dll not found. The ASPI layer required by CDRDAO may be missing or not installed correctly.CDRDAO support is disabled"
Any suggestions to take care of this?May be it is the reason for its inability to see the files.

[mats.hogberg]

No, that has to do with burning the output to disk.
VCDEasy looks for .mpg Try renaming the MPEG1 (or whatever) to .mpg and see if VCDEasy picks it up.
Let VCDEasy author to cue/bin, then burn this with burnatonce or similar, like jman98 pointed out a few posts back.

/Mats

[AlanHK]

The free VCDEasy I have got says "WinAsp32.dll not found. The ASPI layer required by CDRDAO may be missing or not installed correctly.CDRDAO support is disabled"
Any suggestions to take care of this?May be it is the reason for its inability to see the files.

That's for the burning part of the application.
It's a bit out of date, probably preferable to create an ISO and use a free burning app, or even Nero for that.

So that isn't why it can't see the files.

Try VCDGear, also free.

[Midzuki]

Drop Nero Express, use Nero Burning Rom only.

*****

[mats.hogberg]

Don't use Nero for any authoring purposes at all. It (depending on version) creates output that won't play.
Like most n00bs, I tried that path when I started making VCD back in pre history. Then I found VideoHelp and learned how to do it. One of the things I've learned, is that for every task Nero claims to do, there is some freeware that actually does it, or at least does it better.

/Mats

[Midzuki]

mats.hogberg wrote:

Don't use Nero for any authoring purposes at all.
It (depending on version) creates output that won't play.

Duly-spotted For a moment I simply forgot that not everybody
has a crazy standalone like mine, which so far has accepted all VCDs
authored by Nero Burning Rom.

************

[mats.hogberg]

Yeah, YMMV! I nearly gave up on this video business altogether, back in 2002 just because of Nero. It seemed to be all I ever needed, and converted and authored everything I threw at it, but I couldn't get a single disk to play. Boy did I create a nice coaster collection!
Thought I was the fool, until I came here, and started reading guides.

/Mats

[srckaimal]

"Don't use Nero for any authoring purposes at all. It (depending on version) creates output that won't play.
Like most n00bs, I tried that path when I started making VCD back in pre history. Then I found VideoHelp and learned how to do it. One of the things I've learned, is that for every task Nero claims to do, there is some freeware that actually does it, or at least does it better"

Can you please give me a link to the freeware softwares you have mentioned applicable to VCDs?
Kaimal

[Stiiv]

I don't know why you guys have had problems using Nero, especially for VCD creation. I've never had one second of trouble using it...the only caveat is that you should make sure your mpg files are VCD standard-compliant before bringing them into Nero. If they're not, Nero will helpfully convert them for you...slowly & painfully, & with a big quality hit.

SUPER's VCD template sometimes outputs non-compliant mpgs, but you can adjust the settings to avoid having to re-convert later. I've found that manually setting the a/r to 4:3 (assuming you want an NTSC VCD @ 352x240) helps; also, if your original vid is 16:9, check the "stretch it" box before encoding.

[mats.hogberg]

"Can you please give me a link to the freeware softwares you have mentioned applicable to VCDs?

AVI to VCD mpg: TMPGEnc.
Other (odd) formats (like FLV, RM & c.) to VCD mpg: SUPER.
Author VCD (from the mpg created with above): VCDEasy (last free version, or buy latest ver).
Burn cue/bin: burnatonce (among others)

/Mats

[Midzuki]

Stiiv wrote:

I don't know why you guys have had problems using Nero, especially for VCD creation. I've never had one second of trouble using it...

At least on my computer, Nero 5 and Nero 6 have always been good enough for
authoring VCDs and SVCDs, but very bad when the subject is to create DVD-Video.

the only caveat is that you should make sure your mpg files are VCD standard-compliant before bringing them into Nero.

That is completely unnecessary (and undesirable) IF your standalone player
is flexible enough to accept non-standard resolutions. 352x480/576 is always better than
352x240/288, and 330 vertical lines ( = 480 pixels ) is always better than 240 ( = 352 pixels).

*****

[srckaimal]

Thanks for trying to help but nothing seems to work for me.I installed "super" and everything seemed fine up to half way through.Then it stopped and told me there was some error with a whole page full of the possible errors!It was more or less the same story with VCDEasy also.I tried to input the .flv file and then when it failed tried the converted .avi file also.I only blame myself for not properly using them due to my ignorance.
Can any one of you kindly guide me step by step on either of these?I also would like to get the burning option in VCDEasy functional,if possible.
I also installed the TMPGenc but again I am not able to make it work for me!

[mats.hogberg]

If you stop and read a little, you'll see that VCDEasy doesn't convert for you.
First, you convert whatever you have (like FLV) to VCD specs mpg. (SUPER or TMPGEnc)
Then, you author that mpg as VCD. (VCDEasy)
Converting and authoring are 2 distinctively different tasks.

For your conversion woes: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic259578.html found under Convert left.

/Mats

[Stiiv]

That is completely unnecessary (and undesirable) IF your standalone player is flexible enough to accept non-standard resolutions.

Mine aren't....neither of 'em.

[jman98]

Stiiv wrote:

I don't know why you guys have had problems using Nero, especially for VCD creation. I've never had one second of trouble using it...

At least on my computer, Nero 5 and Nero 6 have always been good enough for
authoring VCDs and SVCDs, but very bad when the subject is to create DVD-Video.

The problem isn't that Nero doesn't work. Yes, it certainly can be used to create VCDs and SVCDs. The problem is that Nero takes shortcuts and what it produces doesn't conform to the specs for such discs. For example, if you use Nero to create a VCD, they are pretty close to VCD specs, but not entirely. If you create a photo VCD, you will find that the way Nero creates such discs can cause playback problems on some DVD players because what it produces is just off enough from the standards that it won't play on some stand alone DVD players.

Nero takes a lot of shortcuts with SVCDs. To get fast forwarding and rewind to work on these discs, Nero implemented a kludge that while it works on almost all DVD players that support SVCD, it breaks the ability to time jump to specific times on the disc on most DVD players too. This kludge is just simply not right according to the specs, but it was a lot easier for Nero to put a band aid on it and make FF and REW work via kludge than to do it right so that FF, REW and time jump all worked. You would not believe how much bitching there was 5+ years ago that FF and REW didn't work on SVCD, so to shut people up Nero got it to work quickly by basically permanently breaking the ability to time jump for SVCD playback on most DVD players. I suppose it was just too much work to just fix the problem correctly so that everything worked. Nero also does this "compliance" check on VCDs and SVCDs. For VCDs it's OK, but for SVCDs it's just wrong. You can create SVCDs that will pass the compliance check under Nero but technically be invalid. This is because the check only looks at the average bit rate in the video header as long as it is below 2600 Kbps, Nero says the file is valid. You can have parts of the video that spike well above the 2600 Kbps video bit rate limit of SVCD and technically speaking this violates the format specs, but Nero will happily let such files pass the compliance check.

The truth is that most DVD players will correctly play Nero authored VCDs and SVCDs. Time jumping usually fails, but otherwise the discs play OK. Will ALL stand alone DVD players play such discs? I'm not prepared to make that statement. I know if I make a photo VCD with VCDEasy that it will play correctly wherever I play it. I long ago gave up on SVCD format as a dead end and I only rarely make VCDs these days. If I want to make either format I use VCDEasy to make them because the discs it produces adhere a lot closer to the standards than Nero authored discs do. This kind of thing is why people don't use Nero for VCDs and SVCDs. They are just different enough from the standards that you MIGHT have playback problems.

[srckaimal]

"Burn cue/bin: burnatonce (among others)"
Can this burn VCD compliant media files?What does "cue/bin" mean?

[mats.hogberg]

burnatonce burns. Anything.
VCDEasy takes care of the VCD compliant MPGs, and turns them into a VCD disk image in the shape of a cue/bin pair. The bin is the data to be written to the CD-R, the cue contains instructions for the burner application on how to burn the data. Very similar to the ISO/MDF pair.
So the process is in 3 steps:

1) Get your source material into compliant format.
2) Author these to a disk image.
3) Burn the disk image to disk.

Exactly the same steps regardless of if you do a VCD, SVCD or DVD.
Just different formats, and different tools to use to author.

/Mats

[srckaimal]

Finally I have a solution for which I have to thank all those who replied here.I downloaded the Internet Video Converter(freeware) and used its pal-bcd option to encode my converted .avi file to VCD format with the default ffmpeg .It could also do it direct from the .flv file but the resulting vcd is too large for the 700 mb disk.My original flv files are around 450mb.Then I burned them to the disc using the burner with Total Video Converter.I used the It is just fine.I can easily play it in my stand alone player and watch it in TV screen.I hope my experience helps other novices like me also.
But Total Video Converter is for a trial use for 15 days only.Is there any free burning software for this purpose?Burnatonce or Expressburn cannot seem to handle VCD compliant files.Or is there a way to make them do so?