JVC Player playing SVCD in lo res?

[cryophil]

I have two DVD players, both of which support VCD/SVCD. But they don't both play the same disk exactly the same way. I'm trying to understand the difference by looking at the content/format of my SVCD disks.

It appears that Player 1, an Apex 703, plays SVCD slide shows no matter how they're written (vcd 2.0, svcd, or mixed video with slide shows in svcd mode). Player 2, a JVC XV-F85GD, plays SVCD video fine, but displays lo-res (320x240) on slide shows when written to SVCD mode. Apparently, when written to VCD mode, it displays the slide show in hi res (480x480). This seems backwards to me.

I say lo-res because it is apparent that the images are not as sharp, detailed with finely smooth transitions at edges as they should be on the JVC, compared with the Apex (except for the first case when they do play hi-res on the JVC).


Details:

My first player, an APEX 703, reports disk info when it is stopped. The second player, JVC XV-F85GD, does not report disk info. So info posted below is from the apex. Perhaps there is a software utility that will give even more info.

Three disks, written differently were tried.

(A)
The first disk, which plays fine in both players and is a photo album written by WinonCD, indicates it is:

VCD 2.0
PBC
VCD MODE
H. CLARITY 250

(B)
The next, which is a SVCD of photos and only plays correctly as SVCD resolution in the apex (plays lo res/vcd in JVC), created in SVCD mode by Roxio software, indicates only: PBC

(C)
The third disk is SVCD of mpeg2 video and photo albums mixed. The video plays fine in both, but the photo slide shows are lo-res (vcd 320x240) on the JVC. It indicates it is:

PBC
2/3 D1 MODE
H. CLARITY 350


From my search on the net, I have determined that H. CLARITY 250 = VCD, and 350 = SVCD. Likewise, 2/3 D1 mode = SVCD (1 D1 = DVD, 1/2 D1 = VCD).

Note that on cases (B) & (C) written in SVCD, there is no VCD 2.0 indication.

Obviously, my goal is to re-write the discs so that they all play properly on the JVC. The Apex is poor DVD quality for movies, but does well for vcd/svcd except that it keeps skipping photos now and then (consistently on most albums). The JVC plays perfectly in terms of no skipping. But it displays photos as lo-res (320x240) when written in (apparently) SVCD mode, but not (apparently) written in VCD mode--backwards to me.

Software used to write disks is WinonCD 5.x. Disk (A) worked in hi res for both, and was written using WinonCD's photo album mode. This apparently writes in VCD format, but must use some higher resolution mode (XVCD?). Disks (B) & (C) were written using Winoncd's interactive SVCD mode, where I added dv-captured SVCD mpg2 formatted video and/or SVCD video JPG albums together on the same disk.

Thanks for any response

[tgpo]

One post per topic is enough!

[cryophil]

Answering my own question to a degree.

From www.vcdeasy.org

"Although VCD2.0 only supports video clips at a resolution of 352x240 (NTSC) or 352x288 (PAL), it supports single-frame still images at high resolution: 704x480 (NTSC) and 704x576 (PAL) (if you choose "High", See ). As you can have high resolution with both VCD2.0 and SVCD, and because from a home DVD player point of view, VCD 2.0 seems to have a better support than SVCD... I personally prefer creating MPEG Stills for VCD 2.0"

Obviously, my JVC dvd player doesn't support SVCD single still images at high res. It does support VCD 2.0 hi res images.

The solution to my problem might be to create my still images in VCD 2.0 and my video in SVCD and use vcdeasy to burn both, assuming you can mix both.

I guess that is my next question.