Why some VCD players cannot play some VCDs

[kstoh]

I know that some VCD players cannot play poor quality pirated VCDs but recently I discovered that even if the VCDs are not pirated, some players cannot play them. The brand of the player does not appear to be material. In fact, I encounter problems with many of the better known brands such as Sony and Pioneer. The no brand players appear to be able to play almost all VCDs.

I give some examples:

Cheap "original" VCDs like Hi5 VCDs for kids - Fails to play on my friend's >1 year old Pioneer VCD player but plays on a Shinco (made in China) DVD player as well as most other players.

VCD recorded on a Amoisonic VCD recorder from a TV show - Fails to play on a 1 1/2 yr old Sony DVD player but plays on my >2 year old Toshiba VCD player TVD-800K and other players.

VCD recorded on my PC using Nero (I compiled some jpg files and some avi files into a VCD) - Plays on my >2 year old Toshiba VCD player. The VCD player will display the still pictures and I have to press "Next" to advance to the next picture (scene). When all the pictures have been displayed, it will start playing the movie clips. But when I tried it on the newer Toshiba TVD-1100 that is now on sale in many dept stores at only $99, the player skips all the pictures and plays only the movie clips. The VCD does not play at all on the 1 1/2 yr old Sony DVD player but plays on my 1 yr old Toshiba DVD player.

Note that the DVD players mentioned are all supposed to be able to play VCDs as well. Also, I believe VCDs are not coded by region?

Does anyone have a techical explanation?

[Mirror_Image]

When the manufacturer says the unit wil play VCDs, it means factory pressed VCDs, not VCDs on recordable media (unless they say so specifically). Even if the say that the unit plays VCDs and CD-Rs, it doesn't mean VCDs on CD-R - it means it will play music CDs on CD-R, unless they specifically state that it will play a VCD on recordable media.

This also holds for any format on any media that isn't factory pressed.