I am totally baffled and lost when I read about creating a VCD using EZCD Creator. I went into that program I only found to create either an audio cd or a data cd. Can someone please tell me where this video cd creation window is? I would really appreciate your help. By the way my EZCD Creator version is 3.5c......

-- Joseph Desai (joe.desai@nych.org), February 04, 2000

Answers

Don't use that piece of crap software. Use CeQuadrant VideoPak 4.0 It is much more powerfule and allows DVD-like interactivity like menu's still shot slide shows, etc.

Please don't ask me where to get it

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), February 05, 2000.

I agreed with MrVcd about EZ CD Creator. It is a piece of crap....However, it does work. The version you have probably comes with the writer you bought...it doesn't come with vcd module. You have to buy it as a stand alone software package in order to have the vcd module...Believe me it's not worth it....more headache than you will need.

-- lnguyen (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), February 05, 2000.

You need to get Easy CD Creator DELUXE, which contains VCD Creator; otherwise the standard version that comes bundled with CD-R drives doesn't do VCDs. Anyway if you do get ver 4 you will get even more baffled everytime U use it. The only thing I used in Easy CD ver 4 was...Jewel Case Creator!! Despite being so buggy, however, one thing Easy CD has that the competition doesn't is the ability to make U do a one-level menu VCD ver 2.0 I hear choruses that Video Pack 4 can do that but for just one-level menu VideoPack is too much.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@yahoo.com), February 05, 2000.

Joseph,

I use Easy CD Creator 4.0 Deluxe to make VCD. It is basically ok for making one-level-menu vcd. For the price of less than US$100, it does offer the value for money. However, the software tends to give problem if installed on a system that aready has ActiveMovie. In my case, the problem was resolved by modifying the win.ini and system.ini files. I don't really find it a scrap, having been using it to burn quite a number of VCDs successfully.

VideoPack, on the other hand, is more suited to professional users and is very costly The last price I know is US$750. Of course, it has many more features. It is not worth paying such a high price if you are not going to create multi-level-menu vcd.

-- Daniel Lee (siangneng@sp.edu.sg), February 05, 2000.

Easy CD 3.5 and Easy Cd 4.0 works fine on my setup. Video Cd Creator is in a folder in Start/Programs/EasyCd Creator. It's not a choice in EasyCd Creator Menu. WinOnCD / VideoPack are also good pieces of software. Nero latest versions are far more forgiving about the Mpeg structure than others, so usually it is more simple to do a VCD with Nero because it burns all. Of course you will end up with a non-compliant VCD. I think that many people making mistakes in Mpeg encoding ends up to call crap all the software that isn't able to eat the crap they produced :-) . Brambus

-- Brambus (kdwbr@tin.it), February 05, 2000.

i agree i have the easy cd creator 4 and i think its Damn good. So i cant really figure out how to do a menu BIIIGGG DEAAALL. Who cares! I go to the vcd setup i add my mpeg files and burn. Super easy and it gives good results. So i dont know what most of you people are complaining about. But hey i guess if you want to shell out 760 for a vcd program, thats your choice. Meanwhile dvdrs are just right around the corner. So i would rather save my money for that

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), February 05, 2000.

i wasnt in the best of moods when i posted my reply on this. So im sure most of you have your reasons for doing a menu (and to be quite honest, thier cool as hell). And i have seen quite a number of things video pack 4 can accomplish as well. So i suppose in your eyes even though the adaptec is fine for me its not up to your standards, but admit it, its definetly not crap--it gives a good looking vcd

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), February 05, 2000.

I didn't said that it's not working, because i am using it. However, I have a heck of a time to make it gets along with other hardware(s) and software(s) in the system. SCSI1hlp.vxd is one example. You have to rename this file to .old if you gonna have EZ CD on the system (version 4.01) this is a must. If you use it in conjunction with ATI or other Mpeg Player(s) which install themselves in place of activemovie, well EZ is not gonna like that! Desktop is one thing, man when you put it into a laptop that's another issue. All and all EZ will work if you make it works, but it is very picky as to how it's going to work....

-- lnguyen (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), February 06, 2000.

regardless of whether you use ezcd creator deluxe 3.5 or 4.0 deluxe, make sure you have the latest directx and the media player, downloadable for free from Microsoft.com. Active movie is needed to preview the movies that you have sequenced together. Otherwise expect trouble (ie lock-ups, write errors etc)

-- andy (andy688@hotmail.com), February 06, 2000.

I agree that the documentation for EZ CD Creator is a joke but once you learn the method of creating a menu it is a great value for the money. I am creating menu pages in Ulead's software and converting them to MPG. You can really get creative with your menu. There is an in depth discussion of how to do this somewhere on here posted by Kevin. Really helped me a lot. Basically you need a sort segment that will play everytime the CD is started. It can be anything you want. then the menu page starts. Create this is Ulead or whatever and convert it to MPG. It doesn't have to be very long as will play over and over until yo make a selection. The play sequences can be tricky as after each choice is played it goes back to the menu page. If you want the rest of your files to continue playing you have to add them to that play sequence. You will have one copy of each file in your play items but you will have them listed in more than one play sequence

-- Al McCraw (amccraw@ix.netcom.com), February 07, 2000.