HELP! SVCD's are terrible on my APEX-5131

[athlonmj]

I'm having problems with playing SVCD's (on CD-R) on my APEX-5131. The picture gets distorted a lot and the sound squeaks often. Occasionally the screen would even freeze for 10-15 seconds. All this combined makes it pretty much impossible to sit through a movie, even on a 60 inch screen.

I have done extensive research and I can find no one with the same problem as I, everyone seems to play SVCD's fine on their APEX. I'm thinking it's possibly my APEX is a year old and it doesn't support such new SVCD codecs? Just a guess.

Well if you have any idea why this is, or how to fix it, please reply! It is much appreciated!

Thanks!

[dl]

Mine is a year old as well and I use it for vcd/svcd mostly and never had the problems you are describing...

[adam]

You probably need to upgrade the firmware of your dvd player's loader.

On my Apex half of my dvd's skipped badly but svcds played fine. I upgraded the firmware and all dvds played perfectly but then SVCD playback was bad. So I ended up just switching out my loader with a dvdrom and now everything plays fine. The point is that different firmware versions work better for different formats and I think the overall lesson is that apex's just suck.

If you are using Nero to make your SVCDs that might be the problem also. I never had any luck with Nero created Svcds on my Apex.

[Greyhair]

Apex players are known to break down. I like them because they are so versatile, but I wouldn't buy one without the buyer protection plan. I have two of them, and have returned two for replacements. What you describe sounds suspiciously like a broken player, especially if you've been able to play svcd before and now can't.

[athlonmj]

Thanks for the tips, now I will try to upgrade the firmware, but I really have no idea where to start, please help.

[thxkid]

also have you upgraded your NERO recently, I find that anything over 5.5.6.4 and the SVCD's do not work correctly on my standalones, specially any APEX, its just an idea you might try.

[disturbed1]

I have a 5131 too. Never had a problem out of it with my SVCDs or DVD-R's.

I use the cheapest media I can find (100 packs for $30 at circuit city).

It could very well be an authoring problem.

Mux with bbMpeg, and author with either VCDImager, or I Author. The only problems I've noticed with VCDImager is that the FF/FR isn't 100% correct. At 4x, it should skip forward 20seconds, VCDImager skips 15-25 seconds at a time, where as I-Author is an exact 20 seconds every time.


Tmpg to mux will yield problems, burning with Nero will yield problems too, mix 'em both together, and look out.

such new SVCD codecs

[Greyhair]

I've been burning using Nero for over a year, over 500 movies and counting. I use the cheapest media (cd) and verbatim dvd-r. I've used all kinds of different settings. I've never had a problem playing on my apex 5131 other than when it was broken.

[disturbed1]

Nero burnt SVCD's don't support time search on my 5131 (or my 4 other DVD players either), FF/FR isn't correct neither. The time display isn't correct.

Nero themselves will tell you that their DVD Video is not 100% correct. If you spend 5 minutes on this forum, you'll read countless posts of how DVDs burnt with Nero aren't working, however, if the same title is burnt with Prassi or Record Now, it's 100% working.

Nero has always demonstrated flaws. It started with it's fudging of cue/bin files, no scan data etc, etc. Nero is good for back up, and audio, there are better tools for the video jobs.

VCDImager is free, if you bought an AO3(4) it came with either Prassi Primo DVD or Record now Max.

[Greyhair]

There's an old saying in medicine:

"When you hear hoofbeats, you think of horses, not zebras"