Need to edit a existing vcd (.dat file) and re-burn the video losslessly

[perfection]

I need to edit the existing .dat file in my mpegav folder (which i understand is a mpg1 file) of my wedding VCD. By edit i mean i wish to add callouts and label certain people in the video for posterity. Yet I want it to be smart rendered so as not to re-encode the entire video (its not fantastic quality anyways!). Can anyone please record an editor that will satisy these needs. I do have nero for importing the mpg1 file and formatting it to a VCD format.

Thank you folks for any help

[Baldrick]

If you want to burn in labels you must re-encode.

You might be able to make a dvd with switchable subtitles for labels using for example tmpgenc authoring works. And you can use vcd mpeg1 on a dvd without reconversion.

And use the old vcdgear or isobuster to "convert" the .dat to standard .mpg file that might be easier to edit.

[Slipster]

And you can use vcd mpeg1 on a dvd without reconversion.

Only if you're not worried that some of the newer standalone DVD players won't play it. I was a little surprised to hear this myself, but this has been discussed in another very recent thread.

IMO, keeping a lossless or at least near-lossless backup for archival purposes and making a fully DVD-compliant version from this for day-to-day viewing would be the more sensible option.

[El Heggunte]

And you can use vcd mpeg1 on a dvd without reconversion.

Only if you're not worried that some of the newer standalone DVD players won't play it. I was a little surprised to hear this myself, but this has been discussed in another very recent thread.

That's both weird and evil

An MPEG-2 decoder that cannot decode an MPEG-1 stream does violate the official specs.

[Slipster]

An MPEG-2 decoder that cannot decode an MPEG-1 stream does violate the official specs.

You'd need to ask someone more knowledgeable than me, but I believe that the argument went that playback fails on some players due to the disc being neither VCD-compliant nor DVD-compliant rather than the hardware decoder being unable to decode it. Odd, but believable. And people ask me why I use a PC as a media centre. If it's 'broken', I can generally fix it.

[DB83]

An MPEG-2 decoder that cannot decode an MPEG-1 stream does violate the official specs.

You'd need to ask someone more knowledgeable than me, but I believe that the argument went that playback fails on some players due to the disc being neither VCD-compliant nor DVD-compliant rather than the hardware decoder being unable to decode it. Odd, but believable. And people ask me why I use a PC as a media centre. If it's 'broken', I can generally fix it.

And you totally mis-read what Baldrick wrote.

He is writing of the OP re-authoring his VCD/mpeg1 on to a dvd-video disk. So that WILL be compliant.

If a disk is non-compliant then it is always possible that some players will choke on it. But where is that topic ? I would like to read it and form my own opinion.

[Cornucopia]

From the engineering documents I've read, it seems MPEG2 decoders SHOULD decode MPEG1, not MUST.

And an SVCD2DVD-modified title is one of those ones that is neither truly (S)VCD-compliant, nor truly DVD-compliant. A lucky hack that relies on the expectation of predominant chipsets which would include both MPEG1 & MPEG2 decoding AND be somewhat loose in their own compliance checking (partly because the often have multiple codecs serving multiple formats & uses).
A direct VCD MPEG1 video asset used as input for DVD authoring SHOULD be DVD-compliant (if not necessarily best possible MPEG1-on-DVD-quality), but like I said in that other post: you're living on borrowed time.

@OP, if you are doing "callouts" and "labelling", you MUST re-encode. And if you are going to re-encode, it makes much more sense to re-encode to MPEG2 for DVD/BD (or AVC for BD/AVCHD).

And you should ALWAYS correctly convert your VCD's .DAT files to MPG first before any other step. Best programs to use for this: ISOBuster, VCDGear, VCDEasy (my preference).

Scott

[Slipster]

And you totally mis-read what Baldrick wrote.

No, I didn't.

He is writing of the OP re-authoring his VCD/mpeg1 on to a dvd-video disk. So that WILL be compliant.

Not necessarily.

Read Cornucopia's explanation above.

[jman98]

Only if you're not worried that some of the newer standalone DVD players won't play it. I was a little surprised to hear this myself, but this has been discussed in another very recent thread.

I think that I have mentioned the POSSIBILITY only of such players existing, but we've had no reports of such. Geez, no matter how careful I am to say that something MAY (and put it in all caps) exist or be possible, which is no way is saying that it does exist or is possible, someone is going to start freaking out saying that they read here that such players definitely do exist and then later it becomes a post that says that Hollywood no longer makes ANY players that support MPEG-1.

[Slipster]

Then why mention the possible existence of such players if you've seen no solid evidence that they exist? It only serves to confuse others.

...then later it becomes a post that says that Hollywood no longer makes ANY players that support MPEG-1.

I think you need to go back and read through both threads again as nobody, including myself, has stated at any point in either this or the other thread that any current standalone DVD player doesn't support MPEG-1.

I think Cornucopia is on the money with his...

A direct VCD MPEG1 video asset used as input for DVD authoring SHOULD be DVD-compliant (if not necessarily best possible MPEG1-on-DVD-quality), but like I said in that other post: you're living on borrowed time.

...comment.

I'd imagine the OP is looking for some kind of future-proofing here, so how much longer do you expect standalone DVD players to be on sale? Do Blu-ray players support MPEG-1?