Why use menus with VCD?

[Gribnitz]

I have been trying to get menus to work with NERO and as I understand it, I have to have individual MPEGs for each chapter? There is a pause between chapters correct? The only reason I see to do this then would be with short MPEGS, like TV shows that it doesn't matter if there is a pause or not.

Is there a way to put a full length movie on a VCD with individual chapters you can skip too so there isn't a pause between MPEG file chapters?

[therick]

Ulead DVD MovieFactory

<----------------- Tools

[Gribnitz]

Doe's Ulead make the same quality output that TMPGE does? Also, does it come with SVCD conversion support, or is it another one of those cheesy deals you have to pay more to get it after 30 days?

[vitualis]

Multiple MPEGs = simple multitrack.

Chapters = one large MPEG and using entrypoints.

Nero cannot make "chapters".

http://www.vcdimager.org/guides
http://www.vcdimager.org/guides/chapters.html

As for "why use menus" on VCDs, it is for the same reason you have menus on DVDs -- for user interaction of selection of items (e.g., chapters, special features, trailers, etc.)

Regards.

[Keffie]

Well, it's always better to have menus than not to... Imagine a horde of friends invades you and drag you out for a booze in the nearby pub and you were just at 9/10 of a VCD movie. Without a chapter selection you would have to fast forward the CD at something like 8x speed which may turn you old before you get to that 9/10 point. With a menu you just land somewhere close to the point you want to watch from.
And yes, Ulead DVD Movie factory is probably the easiest one to use and quite effective, too. There's no delay or whatever when going from one chapter to another (in fact they are just entrypoints). Some programs do have this limitation though (like PowerDirector 2.0 Pro), which is totally insane. Even if you use just one .mpeg movie as a source and put, say, 20 chapters there it will let you watch the movie from a selected entrypoint and then, instead of going into next chapter flawlessly, will kick you back to selcetion menu.

[kevlar69]

Ulead DVD Movie Factory is good and easy to use, but it can only handle straight vcd's, if you have a non compliant vcd ( say you used Sefy's sevcd template ), ulead won't look at it, pity.

Kevlar69

[theslimpiknz]

why not just use the CUT and MERGE option in tmpg to slice your movie into , easy to manage 10min segments , then load to NERO in the order you want them and setting the pause to 0 sec , thus enabeling a perfect working movie , with the SKIP button enabled...........sweet!

[w00kiee]

i load up tscv and create entrypoints with a single mpeg(vcd) file as virtualis noted

there is no pause between chapters because its a singe file

i create entry points every 5 mins but i dont usually bother with a menu anymore.... i just need a quick way to fast foward so i can just hit the [NEXT>>] button 6 times to get 30 mins in instead of having to fastfoward

[Gribnitz]

Thanks for the info. I assumed that chapters worked like Nero on all programs which I have found to be a pain to do.

[darkelf]

Don't forget that you can set the delay time between tracks in Nero to zero (I think the default is 5s).

[biney59]

Does ROXIO VIDEO PACK 5 and WINONCD 5 accept non-compliant VCD's?

[vitualis]

why not just use the CUT and MERGE option in tmpg to slice your movie into , easy to manage 10min segments , then load to NERO in the order you want them and setting the pause to 0 sec , thus enabeling a perfect working movie , with the SKIP button enabled...........sweet!

The reason not to do this is because it doesn't work. "Simple multitrack" VCDs do not play seamlessly on most players: http://www.vcdimager.org/chapters.html

Regards.

[siaododo]

Yes, by setting pause to 0 sec in Nero won't work, you still get a little pause or skip between the mpg files.

I have just got a copy of Ulead's DVD movie factory. Did someone say that it will work only on VCD compliant mpgs? I make only XVCD's, so is this program useless to me? I didn't have the time to try out the program yet, but if this is true, may be I should just return it before I open up the package.

[Feslmogh]

Yes, by setting pause to 0 sec in Nero won't work, you still get a little pause or skip between the mpg files.

I have just got a copy of Ulead's DVD movie factory. Did someone say that it will work only on VCD compliant mpgs? I make only XVCD's, so is this program useless to me? I didn't have the time to try out the program yet, but if this is true, may be I should just return it before I open up the package.

The Program Will allow you to make XVCD's.

[theslimpiknz]

your right virtualis , that will teach me watch the whole vcd instead of just checking the skip feature . thanx 4 the pointer

[kfoss]

I have found that Menus are fairly simple even with Freeware such as VCDEasy. TSCV has caused me a few problems including some new coasters. On the good side, I have a nice VCD that I have included a freeware VCD player on plus a menu structure that uses multiple MPEG stills and the basic next/previous buttons to have a useful opening menu. As has been previously written in this thread, when using a simple multitrack, it is possible to have glitches between tracks. As I have this problem I am looking for a solution.

A combined MPEG with all my seven chapters merged into it will fit on one VCD but my problem comes with the entrypoints. The entrypoints I choose are never followed and I always end up with a chapter starting point that is in the middle of the audio sequence or before or in the video transition. I have tried MPEG Sequencer but have never gotten it to work.

Any ideas?

[vitualis]

You can only use an entrypoint in the MPEG stream where there physically exists an MPEG Sequence Header (which the tool MPEG Sequence Maker can help).

http://www.vcdimager.org/guides

However, for there to be an MPEG Sequence Header, there MUST actually be a new (?closed) GOP.

Thus, unless you actually set your MPEG encoder to specifically encode I-frames at predetermined frame numbers BEFORE you started encoding, it is extrememly unlikely that you will get frame accurate entrypoints.

This doesn't generally matter for chapters of a VCD of a movie (who would actually know if the chapter was a quarter of a second behind or forward), but it can matter for specific self produced material where timing is crucial.

Unfortunately, if you've already encoded your MPEG, there is probably nothing you can do to fix it. You will have to re-encode your MPEG and set it to create an I-frame at the predetermined frame numbers.

Regards.

[RoopeT]

Yes, by setting pause to 0 sec in Nero won't work, you still get a little pause or skip between the mpg files.

With Philips DVD players the player stops after playing the chapter, if you use this method (the next "chapter" never starts playing). So it's really not "seamless playing".

[vitualis]

This will depend on how the VCD was actually authored.

Multitrack VCDs can be made to play sequentially in all VCD compatible players as expected. However, the gap/pause between tracks will be present in all but a handful of players.

http://www.vcdimager.org/guides/simple_multitrack.html

Regards.