files work fine, but in VCD they are blocky, unwatchable

[skow10538]

using nero, i have made perfect VCD's in the past. but now for some reason, when i create VCD they all have extreme blockiness & jitters, rendering them 100% unwatchable. i've tried slowing down burn speed - to 4x - but no luck. this happens with all file extensions - DIVX, MPEG, WMV. any ideas?

even with the enclosed "Windows Movie Maker Sample File" i get the same extreme blockiness & jitters! i just don't see what's wrong!

the files themselves (DIVX, MPEG, WMV) work fine in all my media players (DIVX Player 2.0, Window Media Player) but when converted to VCD's they are totally blocky and worthless. i'm at a loss. i'm running Win Xp, w/liteon 32x12x40. am i missing something? some codec? if that's the case, then why can i play the files without problem?

please, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. i posted this same question over a week ago and got over 150 views, and not one idea or suggestion. PLEASE HELP!

[tgpo]

One thing to keep in mind. Once converted to VCD your 352x240 video will be stretched to fit the TV. Thus any blocks and other compression showings will be enlarged as well. This is esp seen when converting Divx to VCD. However I've never had the resulting VCD be unwatchable, but it was still blocky and obviously compressed.

I also had a case of the jitters, but I found that the interlacing was causing it to change the field dominance. This caused the picture to jump up and down on the screen and making it impossible to watch. Check to make sure that de-interlacing is Off and re-encode and see what it looks like.

[Cyst]

If the same fault happens on different players and you have changed NOTHING and everything was okay before maybe it could be something has happened to Nero and needs reinstall, make sure nothing is interfering as it writes to CD i.e other tasks running, Harddrive defragmented etc... (Have you tried using different software other than NERO to write the VCD ?)

[skow10538]

thanks for reply. but i've tried Easy CD Creator 5, and i get the same exact problem, and still the source file works fine in Windows Media Player. i've also defragmented, and made sure all other apps are off. i'm mentally approaching the "reinstall windows and start over" point.

thanks again.

[Ethelred]

Try using a CD cleaner in your drive - you never know ...

[skow10538]

okay, i put in a cd-cleaner disc in the CD-rw. the cleaner disc has music over it. the music playback is full of pops and clicks, and the cleaner did not help. tried other audio discs. same pops and clicks in playback. so i used the CD-rw to record an audio CD from MP3 files. the MP3 files are pristine, but in the audio disc i made had THE SAME POPS AND CLICKS! now this seems like the reason why my VCD were 'off'. does anyone have any ideas what is causing these playback and record pops and clicks? hardware laser issue? the CD-rw is a 'lite on 32x12x40', and is only a few months old. thanks again.

[Cyst]

If the MP3s are playing fine but the Audio Music is not then it could be the soundcard, the soundcard drivers or the lead (or connectors) between soundcard and cd rom is at fault somewhere ..............

[Cyst]

Or it could be DMA conflict with your sound card and another device on your computer check in DEVICE Manager for any RED ticks....
Nero has a section on IF YOU HAVE POPS AND CLICKS in the help ....
the last option is if you could try connect the writer to another PC and see if the audio is still duff then you would know if writer faulty.............