I want to create a menu driven video cd that contains high bitrate video. My Problem is that neither Win on CD nor Easy Cd creator accept my video files and Nero won't let me create chapters or menus.

-- Salix Ulfaran (salix1@gmx.de), June 19, 2000

Answers

VCD is authored to exacting specifications. To use "high Bit rate" and VCD in the same sentence is kind of funny. You can't do that and have it still be a "vcd". VCD has to have a certain bit rate (among many other parameters) to enable it to be properly played back and decoded in various players. It's really a "standards" thing.

Now you CAN just copy regular Mpeg-1 to the CD disc IF you only intend to play it from a PC based system. In fact, I've made some "higher bit rate" VIDEO in Mpeg-1 format, copied that to a CDR disc along with a copy of MS MPlayer2.exe (only 5K) and an "autorun.inf" file that will cause the disc to autostart and play back the video at full screen. As far as "menus" go, you'll have to look into some other "creative" ways to do that. I've heard of some programs that will compile a CDR disc image with menus etc. Sorry I can't point you to one but there are ways to do it. Here's how you can make a "self starting" autorun CD with Mpeg-1. (remember your computer's CD drive must be set for "auto insert notification" as ON.

Auto-Run Cd's with video (saved as autorun.inf)

[autorun] open=mplayer2.exe /play /close /fullscreen \yourfile.mpg

Save this as a text file with Notepad. You may also want to write MPLAYER2.EXE (about 5K) to the root directory of the CD.

Now anyone with a halfway decent CD ROM drive and a Windows system should be able to load your CD and have it auto play .. full screen.

These of course, are NOT really "VCDs" Just CDR discs with Mpeg data. As such they will not work with stand alone DVD or VCD players. BUT you have more leeway with bit rate and frame size and you could custom encode your own that could produce really nice video (in the PC environment only)

-- rich (richa@home.com), June 19, 2000.

Just to clarify, high bitrate vcds are not an impossibility. Using burning software such as Nero that accepts non-vcd compliant mpegs and using a Pioneer DV-525, Sony S500D-600D-7700 (go to www.vcdhelper.com for dvd player/cd-r compatibility list) vcds can be made with constant bitrates up to 2500kbps instead of the standard 1150kbps. Some players will allow vcds of resolution of 480X480 instead of 352X240 (Pioneer DV-525). As far as the menu systems go, I've heard that VideoPack 4 supports indexes, but I've never bothered. Here are some other useful sites.

www.flexion.org http://start.at/dvdsoft http://start.at/xvcd http://www.redrobe.demon.co.uk/dvd/vcd.html

Hope this helps.

HazyMind

-- HazyMind (hazymind@earthlink.net), June 19, 2000.

HEY!!! ALL I MAKE are high rate vcds and have been doing so for quite some time. They are referred to as "xvcds". Anyway menus can be a problem. I have used the i-author but i have to end up converting my highrate to an mpeg 2 for i authgor so i just forget the menus and deal with what i got. But the NTI cd maker pro allows highrate stuff, although with no menu. VIDEO pack 4 does allow highrates and can make a menu. Oh and for the record my highrates are done with a bitrate of 2500 and they play great in my homedeck dvd player and on my PC. Thanks

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), June 20, 2000.