Hi everyone,
i know something like this has probably been posted a thousand times, and i did search and read a lot of replies on this site, but i have to give this VCD to someone who'll be flying to asia tomorrow, and request your patience for this matter.

After all that reading, here are the steps i believe i need to follow to create this VCD, and i'd appreciate if you could confirm it.

What i Have:
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- .AVI file(in NTSC format) that i captured from a DV camera using Firewire card.
- Nero 5.5
- TMPEnc 2.8
- Adobe Premiere 6.5

Steps to Follow:
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1. Create VCD-compliant mpg file :
1a : Open TMPEnc,
select "VideoCD - VCD",
click 'Next'
select my .avi file for both video and audio source
keep aspect ratio as 1:1
keep video type as Non-interlace
keep field order as Bottom field first(dunno what that means)
click 'Next'
Do nothing in the Filter Settings menu(or should i do something in the 'Advanced' tab?)
click 'Next'
change nothing for 'Bitrate Settings'
Next, and specify output file.
Now i'm in the 'main' screen.

2. Do i need to do some frame rate conversion step to change the mpg type from NTSC to PAL ? i read something about that in the 'How to' section. or can i just click 'Load' in the TMPGEnc main screen and load the PAL template, and expect everything to be encoded correctly? Please note that these are just some movies clips of a new baby, and hence doesn't have very high requirements for audio and video, except of course that it should reasonably good.

3. If i load load the template, which one should i use, there are two PAL templates. This vcd will only be viewed on a PAL TV.

4. Once template is selected, then click 'Start'.

5. Once new compliant .mpg is ready, do the following for Nero:

1, Load Nero and Select VCD
2, Check "Make standard compliant VCD"
3, Remove the check in the "use CDi application" you don't need it.
4, Select the encoding resolution (PAL/NTSC) " To match what you made with TMPGEnc
5, Click the burn TAB and select "Write" and "Finalize CD"
6, click the New button
7, pick up and drop the .mpg into the second window down (Nero analyzes file)
8, click burn


Phew! any other tips(especially for creating the VCd menu) would also be helpful.

I'd like to mention that the reason i got TmPGenc in spite of having Premiere, is that when i tried to export the original .avi to the Premiere encoder, it created a file with lots of horizontal lines across the screen. dunno how to fix that.

thanks much, and would appreciate a quick reply.
rik