Burning a 'smooth' VCD from 8 mpegs

[Lynne]

A friend of mine recorded a show (a concert) off TV and broke it down into 8 separate files so I could easily download it from him. I told him I would make a VCD out of the mpegs for him. The problem is, I can probably take all eight and paste them together (using Quicktime Pro?) into one large mpeg and burn a VCD, but then I can't skip from one part to another part any longer using the forward button, which is what I would like to do. However, if I just take all eight mpegs and put them into Toast to make a VCD, I can easily skip from one 'file' to another, but it no longer plays as a concert, it has gaps between songs. I know it can be done somehow, because I have another concert VCD which allows you to forward to other songs but doesn't put 'gaps' between the songs.

Does anyone know how to do this? I've looked through all the Mac FAQS but can't find any thing that covers this.

Thanks,
Lynne

[tgpo]

Using Missing MPEG Tools you can do this I do believe. Just stick them all into one folder and create a .xml of them then turn the .xml into a burnable disk image.

[Lynne]

Thanks for your reply, but can you tell me where to get Missing MPEG Tools ? I've searched the site and can't seem to find it (I'm wondering if it goes by another name, perhaps?).

I love version tracker:
MissingMpegTools Download

A@ron

[Lynne]

Thanks for the link. That looks like a very useful program.

OK, for starters, I decided to make a VCD of type 1.1 and so now I have my .xml file. However, I was told to now make a disc image using that file and I can't seem to find anything about how to do *that*.

(That you both for your replies and patience while I'm learning)

Lynne

Use the last tab, vcdXbuild. Select the location of your vcd 1.1 format .xml file you created. Select the output destination, and click the bin/cue raidal button. Oh, yeah and hit build and watch it go

A@ron

P.S. So what if Im sitting here bored hitting refresh?

[Lynne]

Just in case you are wondering where I'm at with this:

- I created the xml for VCD1.1 and VCD2.0 (I want to see the difference)
- I figured out how to create the disc image right after I posted. However, I was making cdrdao and have since changed to cue & bin files
- I think it was having problems with a couple of my mpegs, so I downloaded VCDGear to fix them. However, VCDGear isn't quite as friendly under OSX as it was in OS9 and I'm having to dig up my old terminal skills to get this going
- After I fix them, I will again create the cue & bin files
- Then I will open up Toast Titanium, ask it to creat a Video CD for me and drag the bin file onto it
- Then I'll push the record button and hopefully get something out of it!

I'll add to this process or elaborate when I finish.

Again, thanks for your all your help!

[AntnyMD]

You will still have gaps if you still have the MPEGSs as 8 separate files, authoring via XML or not. It can be quite complicated, but the short version is this:

VCDs that allow you to skip back and forth and watch the video without breaks between the chapters are authored using something called "entrypoints." Entrypoints are like chapters on a DVD, and utilize one MPEG file. An MPEG file, or track, can have up to 99 entrypoints. If you use multiple MPEG files on a VCD, each file will create a track, and the VCD spec requires each track to have a 2 second pause preceding it.

[Lynne]

Do you know if there is any software that will allow me to put entry points into an mpeg? I'm pretty sure I can 'merge' all the files together using Quicktime Pro, I've done that will other things before. (Although I just took a look and I guess it isn't an option while they are in mpeg format)

This is getting way more complicated than I wanted. I may just pretend I don't see those gaps between the songs!

[Steve_k]

go to this website homepage.mac.com/rnc and try the program called missingMenuGen I've never used it but it might do the trick

[cjw2]

If the distance between tracks isn't very big then the drive should skip past it nice and quickly meaning the gap isn't much. It'll still be there but it won't be BIG, only about 1/4 of a second. If you want no gap, you're going to need 1 mpeg. Which means no skipping.

If you want to use forward, and have no gap, the MPEGs have to be <very> close on the CD.

[AntnyMD]

Multiple MPEGs on a VCD, no matter how close they are, will be separated by the 2 second gap, as it's required in the spec. The pause between tracks is short, but HUGELY noticeable, and as a result, thoroughly annoying, especially with a concert VCD.

I can't remember any Mac/*nix apps that do entrypoints (sorry). My only successes with entrypoints came when I used a program called VideoPack 4 back in my PC days. With that proggie, I made a VCD with entrypoints, a still menu with audio and number pad (remote control) selection capability, and I even tacked on four CDDA audio tracks at the end. It was a sweet disc! However, once I conquered that, I ultimately realized it takes too long to do such elegant VCDs. I just want my movie, not a bunch of fancy stuff I'm only impressed with once.

My suggestion is to work with the audio track in your MPEG streams. Make the beginning and ending fade out ... that way it makes the experience a bit more pleasant.

[Ross]

To get the results you want, you may try this, it's success depends on how you friend split the original mpeg.

1 ) open and note the time of each mpeg (song)
2 ) de-mux all mpegs (MoreMissingTools or bbDemux)
3 ) "cat" the elementry video streams together....02.m1v to the end of 01.m1v, cat 03.m1v to end of the 01.m1v, repeat for all (MoreMissingTools)
4 ) do same for elementry audio streams (mp2)
5 ) re-mux appended video and audio, set for vcd and force segment to 2000 (MissingMpegTools)
6 ) load new mpeg into MissingMenuGen, set entrypoint to a short value, gen the xml
7 ) open xml in TextEdit, find the entrypoint tag and duplicate six more times
8 ) set first entry time to 0, then the remainder to each time noted in step 1
9 ) save edited xml as plain text
10 ) vcdxbuild the edited xml (MissingMpegTools)
11 ) burn and pray (I mean play )