Anyone created a x2 VideoCD?

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Has anyone authored a x2 VideoCD? And if so, have you been able to play it in a stand-alone DVD player?

Just to clarify, I don't mean VCD 2.0. I'm referring to the "x2 standard" in which the bitrate can be anywhere up to approx. 3 Mb/s (I think).

Thanks in advance, Gene

-- Gene Williams (genewill@earthlink.net), January 15, 2000

Answers

X2 VCD??? Do you mean 2X VCD???

I don't think you will get a real answer to your question because (being a VCD master myself) there really isn't any software for creating 2X VCD. Unless you prove me wrong, then there is no way for me or anyone to create a 2X VCD and test it on a DVD player. I have however heard of 2X VCD players....but just like VCD 2.0, 2X VCD's probably follow a strict creation standard, hence the need for "specialized" 2X VCD creation software.

Another thing is even if a DVD player supports VCD 2.0, I doubt it will support 2X VCD just like it won't support MPEG-2 Video on CD-R (or all these other "miniDVD formats out there"). DVD players are created to follow certain specifications for VCD's (the DVD players that support VCD) and 2X VCD is not one of them

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), January 17, 2000.


You're right, it's '2X VCD'. I know it is possible. Regarding the software issue, I think any VideoCD software can do it (VideoPack). You use the same specs, but up the bit-rate. Have a look at:

http://www.scriptmedia.com/authoring/japanese/v4_10rn.htm

Near the bottom of the page they have a paragraph about the CDMotion software supporting the '2X VideoCD' standard. This is really just a small update to an existing VideoCD program, which would suggest what I stated earlier, as this standard follows the same specs for VCD 2.0 but with a bit-rate up to 2.53 Mb/s (as the article states).

Whether these discs will play on standalones isn't a question either. Someone told me that they were able to play their 2X VCDs on their US Sony DVD player. I'm not sure which model.

-- Gene Williams (genewill@earthlink.net), January 17, 2000.


Hi,

i can burn VCD mpegs with higher bitrate (for example 2400KBits/s) using NERO and play it on my consumer DVD (yamakawa avphile 7xx). Some consumer DVDs are capable to play higher bitrates on VCDs !

picture quality is very nice, for my purposes a bitrate of 1800KBit/s is enough -> so i can store about 45min video on my CD-R(W)s, great !

bye !

GMo

-- (g.monzel@otelo-online.de), January 17, 2000.


To GMo:

You REALLY can do that? Will NERO accept the overbitrated file and burn it as a legit VCD??

-- Matias (petrellm@telefonica.com.ar), January 19, 2000.


Matias hi

yes Nero will burn it but it is not, as I remember, the so called compliant file.

I burnt 2200 ages ago when Luigi and the crew were discussing this here but my dvd would not play the file. If I remember there is a problem with some encoders like LSX that lock out higher data rates so one needs to trick the software into satifying the main requirements I think.

Panasonic shuts you out as well, both stand alone and timeline versions work with a sum total of sound and vision of 1374kb/s so I frankly wonder what the successful people are doing and not telling us about.

I hate to bring this up but I think my problem was pixel aspect ratios because a PAL vcd must have 0.91 and NTSC 1.1 in rounded off values. LSX and others set this automatically when you select videoCD and I have trouble tricking the program.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), January 19, 2000.



I have encoded my MPEG files at various bitrate (from 1.6 Mb to 4.8 Mb) using Panasonic encoder, and then burned them with Nero (turning VCD 2.0 compliance off). Well, my VCD (not DVD) player can actually read them and playback - only at a kind of "slow motion" way, and the sound became "low pitch". That means the VCD still playback at a constant rate of about 1.5 Mb. I'd guess that some DVD players which are capable of variable bit-rate playback will be able to playback these higher bitrate MPEG flawlessly, and I did read that there are people who have success.

-- Vision (visiont@hotmail.com), January 20, 2000.

Hi Guys

I re-checked again by setting up a 2300kb/s video data rate (224 sound)and using the Panasonic encoder set for "MPEG stream" and using the basic default settings that appear when one selects PAL VideoCD (same GOP's etc) and the encode worked OK and Nero actually accepted it as "fully compliant". The burn in Nero was achieved but the DVD player did not play it (Philips DVD 725). It played in windows media player on the computer screen but my CyberLink VCDPowerPlayer did not like it at all and thats only a basic 2x data rate (1150 x 2). Be nice if things were consistant.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), January 20, 2000.


Hi,

here a few more words about my higher bitrates VCD:

- in panasonic-encoder set Type "mpeg1 System (.mpg)" -> this allows encoding with other bitrates than VCD specs. Audio can be 224 kBits/s stereo.

- Attention with panasonic-encoder: using a bitrate of 1800 KBits/s causes in some cases vbv-buffer overun in encoding process (not on the player) -> solution: use 1860 KBit/s or above, first then the value for vbv-buffer size will jump to 100 KBytes (instead of 40 kBytes), furthermore it can be set manually now (but 100 KBytes) seems enough for bitrate 1860 -> see advanced settings in properties.

- NERO can handle mpeg-files with higher bitrates as normal VCD files, only the resolution, framerate and system-multipex must fit within the standard VCD specs !

- playing higher bitrate files on consumer DVDs: only a few player can play such VCDs correctley, one of them is the RAITE avphile (more about it later). I own still a consumer DVD-player from AKAI too. With it the higher bitrate VCD is visible, but in slower motion and a little bit jerkey, sound is understandable but jerkey too. This stands in conjunction with the turn-speed of the drive itself. VCD is specified for 1x CD-ROMs -> the firmware in most DVDs switch exactly to this speed for playing VCDs. But DVD player capable to use with SVCD should play hihger bitrate mpegs, because turn speed must be higher to play this CD-types. In every case it will be valid: "Try it on your consumer DVD" !

- RAITE avphile 7xx: this is a special low cost DVD player capable to play DVD, VCD, SVCD and MP3, it can read both CD-R and CD-RW. The secret of this machine is, it4s based on a standard IDE DVD-drive like in a normal PC !!! And the concept around this seems to be similar too, so it can play nearly all mpeg-stuff, that is playable in a PC. Disadvantage of the RAITE: the "run-sound" of the DVD-drive itself playing DVD or MP3 is relativley loud (or was). -> After opening the case, i saw some thin metal stripes inside, which comes in vibration if drive is running. After fixing / forcing these with "Schaumstoff" (sorry, i know only the german word for this material) the "run-sound" of the machine was acceptable. (playing VCDs/SVCDs was never a "run-sound" problem because of low(er) turn speed). i hope this helps

Bye, GMo

-- GMo (g.monzel@otelo-online.de), January 21, 2000.


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