Help with PBC, what is it for anyway?

[cdechery]

Is it best (recommended) to always have PBC on?

Cuz it seems that my player (Panasonic RV32) doesn't like when I play VCDs with it. It acts kinda crazy.

When playing a VCD (authored in VCDEasy and burnt in Nero), PBC appears "ON", on the player display only shows "PBC PLAY" and nothing else... on the OSD it shows only chapter number info, no time.

Sometimes if I play the VCD to the end, then play it again... on this second time PBC is off (I don't know why) and then I can see the time on the OSD. I find better to see the time than to see the chapter number as these I can access through the menu, right?

Any help/info/explanation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks..

[vitualis]

PBC = playback control.

It is required for menus, chapters, user interaction, etc.

It sounds like you may have a problem with your VCDs... Have you tried playing them on your PC with a PBC aware player (e.g., software DVD player like PowerDVD or WinDVD)? If they don't work either (in PBC mode) it suggests that something stuffed up.

Most likely it is because you used Nero to burn your CUE/BIN images. Except for the newest versions of Nero 5.5, the older versions stuffed it up and completely trashed PBC playback.

I suggest that you try burning your discs with CDRDAO / VCDEasy (make sure you install ForceASPI if your ASPI layer is reported as "not valid") or CDRWin.

Basically, if you play your discs back with PBC mode, you will get interpretation of any menus, chapters, etc.

If you turn PBC off on your player, it will simply play each track sequentially from beginning to end.

Regards.

[vitualis]

BTW: try not to post multiple messages that all ask pretty much the same thing next time.

Regards.

[cdechery]

I just posted a lot of questions cuz I wasn't getting any answers and tons of views. Well..

but... I don't have a DVD player on my computer? How can I play a VCD in WinDVD??

As I said also in another message, I can't get CDRDAO working here... I use XP, and I already downloaded and installed ASPI drivers, I still get an error when try to burn with VCDEasy.

[vitualis]

(1) You don't need a DVD drive to install a software DVD player...
(2) You need to post more details in terms of error messages and what you did exactly. I'm not psychic...

Regards.

[cdechery]

1) I know that... I have WinDVD installed here. But as I don't have a DVD player, the software will only allow me to play the MPEGs individually, just like in MediaPlayer, which doesn't help me at all, as I can't switch chapters or even see the menu. Is there a way I can make the software PLAY the VCD just like the way my standalone DVD player does?

2) If u know I posted a lot of questions, is because u saw them. But u must not have read them, cuz I already posted this exact same question on another forum with the required info, here it is:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=121498&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

BTW: I burned the VCD (with the four MPEGs and all, which was all screwed up) in a CDRW and it played perfectly, with only one little halt in one of the files, could it be that my player prefers CDRW to CDR?

Thanks

[vitualis]

1) I know that... I have WinDVD installed here. But as I don't have a DVD player, the software will only allow me to play the MPEGs individually, just like in MediaPlayer, which doesn't help me at all, as I can't switch chapters or even see the menu. Is there a way I can make the software PLAY the VCD just like the way my standalone DVD player does?

Well, I personally use PowerDVD. If you put in a VCD into the CD-ROM drive, it will recognise it as such as play it as a VCD with full PBC functions. Obviously, you can't play a DVD on it, but it should recognise the VCD in a CD-ROM drive just fine.

Alternatively, use Daemon-Tools to mount the CUE/BIN image as a virtual CD in a virtual drive.

2) If u know I posted a lot of questions, is because u saw them. But u must not have read them...

That's right. I didn't read them because I simply assumed that contained the same information. This is why posting the same topic several times doesn't work. 8)

BTW: I burned the VCD (with the four MPEGs and all, which was all screwed up) in a CDRW and it played perfectly, with only one little halt in one of the files, could it be that my player prefers CDRW to CDR?

If this is the case, then you've solved your own problem! I bet that your player wasn't designed to play back CD-R/W media (if your manual doesn't say so explicitly, then it wasn't). On such players, CD-RW discs often work better than CD-R.

You could try to experiment with different brands of CD-R media to find one that works...

Regards.