Hello,

My problem is that I now twice have seen that a VCD I have plays back fine on my PC, but on my DVD player (that I have seen playing back VCD's fine) huge artifacts are visible. (Think: Entire picture inverts color for a while, distortions, large audio pop's). I tried copying the VCD file off the CD and making a new VCD, but that didnt help, exactly the same problem. I havent tried any system that recompresses the VCD yet because if I decode, then encode again it will obviously reduce quality.

Has anyone any suggestion why the DVD player has problems with a file the PC can play fine, and what do I do to correct this? Recompress, change from 30fps to 25, anything? I hate wasting empty cd's on this ;)

-- M.Artenbaum (marten@falsehope.com), September 18, 1999

Answers

what gear are you useing with the dvd a 14inch moniter wil look better than a 32in tv?

-- david shelton (neil_pickard88@yahoo.com), September 19, 1999.

You didn't mention what your DVD player brand/model is. First generation DVD players (except for Sony and Philips and their OEMs) can't read CD-R media. Some of them can read CD-RW, though. Present generation (third) DVD players are generally able to read CD-R media, as well as CD-RW; however Sony seems to have backtracked on this and now they have recent models that have difficulties reading CD-R. There is a range of compatibilities in between different brands of CD- R/CD-RW media and DVD players. Some media will play perfectly on some players; other players will accept only certain type of media with difficulty, and still there are players that resolutely refuse to accept a certain brand of CD-R media. The second thing here is: are you absolutely sure your DVD player can and does play VCDs? In the Far East, where VCDs still rule, all DVD players are made such that they play these VCDs without problems. There should be no problem with DVD players being made to play VCDs; after all MPEG-1 (VCDs) is a subset of MPEG-2 (DVDs). It's somewhat different in North America, however; since DVD is king here, some manufacturers see no reason why they should still optimize their DVD players to read VCDs. For example, there are RCA/Thomson models that specifically do not play VCDs; only DVDs and audio CDs. Some brands/models play VCDs only with difficulty. Generally, if you plan to play VCDs, you should get a player that very clearly states it will play DVD, VCD, and audio CD. If your problems do not lie with any of the above, then it must be with the way you create your VCDs. Some VCDs can be copied straight through using utilities like Adaptec CD Copier Deluxe, and the resulting copies play on set-top DVD players perfectly. Some VCDs, however, mostly those with intricate user-selectable menus, can't just be copied this way. If you just disk copy them you end up with a CD-ROM, not a VCD, and therefore can't be recognized, if at all, by your DVD player. You need to extract the .dat files in the mpegav and segment folders, probably (but not always, depending on your mastering app) have to convert them to .mpg files, then include them as items in your VCD mastering app layout. The mastering app (like Easy CD Creator or WinOnCD) rearranges them and adds relevant files for White Book compliance and then records them. Now tell me what else you've done... :) :)

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@hotmail.com), September 19, 1999.

Gear> Well its not that, the problem is that Im getting huge ugly artifacts on the screen with playback with my DVD player and not when I play it on my computer, therefore it leads me to believe that there's some part of the Video Data that the media player ignores/accepts and plays correctly, and the DVD player doesnt and gives ugly artifacts

Hardware, well the simple fact is that my DVD player plays other VCD's fine, just this one is badly distorted, even audio garbage.

So essentially my question would be: Are there any MPEG-1 encoding settings that get accepted by Adaptec VCD creator (4.0) and by Media player software playback, but cause large decoding problems with my DVD.

-- M.Artenbaum (marten@falsehope.com), September 19, 1999.

I have experienced the adaptec vcd playing on a computer but not on a dvd, my version 3.5 puts the *.dat files in the wrong directory but Cyberlink's PowerPlayer recognises the disk as a vcd and plays it automatically. My dvd player, a cheap Phillips 725 rejects it. The same files done with winoncd play. Definitely the computer playback is not a good check it seems and now winoncd has been taken over by adaptec??????. I have some burns which play beautifully on a computer but stop part way in on the dvd and I dare not ask why that is so or I maybe told, as others have on this site, that I am seeing things and that I am an idiot!

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), September 19, 1999.

No, dear; you're not seeing things. You should be aware, though, at this point how utterly unpredictable, buggy, and inconsistent Easy CD ver 3.5x is--largely responsible for making VCDs that do not play on set-top DVD players because it randomly assigns tracks to the segment and mpegav folders on the lam without rhyme or reason. WinOnCD (which is made by CeQuadrat, and isn't going to be taken on by Adaptec) largely avoids this because all it can do is ver 1.1 VCDs which are straight-play VCDs without menus. Because there are no menus there is no need for items like menu pages, which should go to the segment folder, so there is no segment folder to confuse the player. Strictly, ALL items that are complete White Book audio and video compliant should go to the mpegav folder; the rest that are still to be played (such as menus and audio CD tracks) go to the segment and CDDA folders respectively. Easier said than done, and Easy CD 3.5x attests to that.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@hotmail.com), September 20, 1999.

Thanks for that information:

The Winoncd web site says they have been aquired by Adaptec.

Does the latest winoncd pro cope with version 2 vcd's

Is adaptec 4 any better than 3.5

In terms of winoncd 3.5 making version 1.1 vcd's: PowerPlayer has several options for setting it up to play cd's and I have been running it with "donot play version 1.1 vcd's" and to automatically play version 2 when inserted. It plays my vcd's so that, if the program is correct, indicates it is sensing my vcd's made with winoncd 3.5 as version 2. Interesting stuff.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), September 20, 1999.

To quickly rephrase my question: is there any program out there that will most definately read a video file, of whatever format, and create a completely correct video CD data stream, no errors, no huge (erroneous) artifacts etc. If at all possible without recompression, which will obviously create more quality loss.

-- M.Artenbaum (marten@falsehope.com), September 23, 1999.

im not sure if i have an answer for this question but i am also experiencing the video/audio glitches when i play a vcd on my set-top dvd player. i use nero to burn my vcd's and have a pretty new sony dvd player. it took me a while to figure out why it wouldnt accept my vcd's and now that it does, it will have distortions, video and audio flaws, and will slowdown sometimes long enough to have big 1/2 to 2 second pauses in the playback. if anyone can see what im doing wrong plz help me out and clue me into how to do it correctly! thanx

-- R.Mckinstry (richallenmck@hotmail.com), February 07, 2003.