MPEG files stopping short, VCDGear not working

[sef23]

I am having problems playing some MPEG video files a friend loaned me. They start out fine, but the player stops after 7 - 14 minutes (always the same for any given file), even though the films are c. 45 minutes long. The info file in quicktime (which I am trying to use) gives the length as only 7-14 minutes long. If I click to the end, however, it shows me the end; I can then rewind and watch the *last* 7-14 minutes. But the middle is not accessable. (My friend has a pc, but I am trying to play these files on a mac. So they are from a pc, if that makes a difference.)

I tried a program called VCDGear, which had a description of a similar problem, and recommended removing something it called the CD-i bumper which it said caused this problem among others. After using the program, however, the problem was not fixed -- the converted file did just the same thing as the old one. I tried several combinations (e.g. turning on/off the 'fix MPEG Errors' button) but none worked.

Anyone know a(nother) solution to this problem? Help is *very* much appreciated!

SF

[major]

Try mpgtx and cut a second off the beginning. Use the -P option.

[sef23]

> Try mpgtx and cut a second off the beginning. Use the -P option.

Well, I gave mpgtx a try. The version I tried, following that link, didn't recognize any -P option. But I followed their instructions for deleting parts of MPEG files and cut a second off the beginning. Result: I got the same file, minus one second. Same problem. (I also tried two seconds; no luck.)

I really do appreciate the help, though. Any other ideas?

SF

[nobody411]

This looks like a problem of mpeg files appended without correcting the timecode.
You ususally get those files in the news. People construct a large mpeg by pasting serveral chunks together.
Even if windows media-player will play those, It incorrect to append this way - Quickitime does not like this.
Rosetta (see versiontracker) is able to "resplit" the files. D/L rosetta, then from the menu choose "fix", select the mpeg in question, wait.
After successfull completion, rosetta will end up with serveral smaller mpegs (which should be playable).
If you then want to join them, use mpgtx join function which will make a correctly joined mpeg stream.

[sef23]

Hey, Rosetta worked! Thanks a lot!

(In fact, in case anyone cares, having split them with Rosetta, I just joined them with Rosetta too (rather than mpgtx) and that seemed to work.)

Thanks again.

SF

[talisman]

This looks like a problem of mpeg files appended without correcting the timecode.
You ususally get those files in the news. People construct a large mpeg by pasting serveral chunks together.
Even if windows media-player will play those, It incorrect to append this way - Quickitime does not like this.
Rosetta (see versiontracker) is able to "resplit" the files. D/L rosetta, then from the menu choose "fix", select the mpeg in question, wait.
After successfull completion, rosetta will end up with serveral smaller mpegs (which should be playable).
If you then want to join them, use mpgtx join function which will make a correctly joined mpeg stream.

I had the same problem that I was able to fix with the above suggestions. Now I have a mpeg file with the an appropriate timecoding. My problem is that I can not author a VCD with either VCDtoolsX, MissingMpegTools or ffmpegX. The error message I get in terminal is as follows:

Last login: Mon Jan 6 23:52:28 on ttyp3
pbpaste | sh
Welcome to Darwin!
[Talisman-Computer:~] talisman% pbpaste | sh
(Super) VideoCD xml description created successfully as `/Movies/My_movie_title/Cage1.mpg.xml'
++ WARN: initializing libvcd 0.7.12 [darwin5.2/powerpc]
++ WARN:
++ WARN: this is the UNSTABLE development branch!
++ WARN: use only if you know what you are doing
++ WARN: see http://www.hvrlab.org/~hvr/vcdimager/ for more information
++ WARN:
++ WARN: mpeg scan: pack header code (0x000001ba) expected, but 0x00ffffff found (buflen = 2324)
**ERROR: input mpeg stream has been deemed invalid -- aborting
Processing complete!


Apparantly, the header code is incorrect but I don't really know how to go about fixing this. Any help would be appreciated.
:P