NEWBIE NEEDS HELP!!!! Vcd only partly works

[nick_man989]

I posted a message a few days ago about a vcd that only played a little bit. I was playing it on my standalone dvd toshiba player and the file started playing for 40 seconds before the picture froze and the dvd player began making odd noises. Then the cd started spinning at a very high speed as if trying to start the movie, would stop and repeat the same thing without the picture moving. I was given the advice to use the NTSC templace with TMPGe and reencoded the clip. I reburned it, and other than very fuzzy and gray picture, it played fine until reaching then 9 minute mark this time before repeating the very same problem. I used virtualdub for sound and CDRWin for burning as it is the only software that seems to collaborate with my plug and play HP burner. This is getting extremely frustrating, and the amount of cd's wasted is almost equaling the cost of buying the movie when it is released, does anybody have any input whatsoever????

(PS: This procedure has worked in the past as i have burned two other VCD's using the exact same measures which have no problems.)

[Dave B]

Many DVD players struggle to play particular brands or types of media.

The noises coming from your player certainly sound like the head losing focus on the CD and trying to realign. Check the DVD player compatibility list on this site as other users may have found which brands of media work best on your player.

Did you use the same brand of media when you burnt your working VCDs?

[nick_man989]

I used the exact same programs on lord of the rings and it plays perfectly in the very same dvd player. But this file keeps messing up. The dvd player is vcd compliant, i have checked this on the site, and in the manual that came with it. I don't know what to do, because when i reburned the file for a second time, it took 9 minutes before the problem started. And i kept restarting the movie to see if it was constantly the same time cue time that was causing the problem, which it was. So the first version which i tried in PAL started the problem after 40 seconds, and the NTSC version took 9 minutes. Does that give any more possible insight. It can't be the DVD player since I have replayed lord of the rings to see if it might be a problem with the dvd player, but it still functions properly. Any suggestions>? Is it possible this is some kind of corrupt file? The only doubt I have against this possibility is that the file DOES play, and chances are that it would refuse if it was corrupt. Any ideas?

[Dave B]

Does the video which keeps failing have any strange characteristics e.g. instandard framerate, compressed audio etc? Where did the file come from? Is it a download from the net? Was it a DivX?

Sorry for the questions but since you have created fully working VCDs using the exact same method (and media) it seems likely that there is something different with the file you are trying to burn now.

It would also help if you outlined your conversion process in a bit more detail. How are you using VirtualDub for sound? do you convert the sound before or after TMPGEnc?

[nick_man989]

Like i said, i am a newbie, and am forced to follow the guides. using the DiVx to VCD guide, I created a .wav file in virtual dub from the file then encoded the file with Tmpge with the .wav file as audio after. I am only confused because the problem occured at different times in the two different burn jobs. Also I re-did the entire process the second time since i couldn't pinpoint which software might have been causing the problem. I then used VCD easy to create a .bin file and burnt it using CDRWIN, the only vcd burning software that works since i have a plug and play burner. The only thing i could pinpoint as weird was the fact that the colour was a little greyish, probably a side effect of the theater atmosphere it was captured in. I don't know if that gives you any ideas, thanks for answering in the first place.

[Dave B]

Hmm.. Problems like this often result in wasting hours doing a "Chase the Ace" diagnosis on the source file, conversion process and authoring technique. This is one of the reasons I dislike DivX.. the files are often encoded with varying characteristics so while they play fine on the computer, any conversion to a standard S/VCD is likely to be a pain in the ass.

Further information on the source video file can be found by opening it in VirtualDub and clicking File -> File Properties (or similar).. this may give you some insight into the differences of this file compared to the file you burnt successfully.

You may also like to encode just the video (leaving the audio out) If the movie then plays OK you will know where the problem lies. Oh.. and use a CDRW (if your player supports it) rather than a mountain of CDRs for all the testing.

Good Luck.