I am a programmer working for a company that sells a library of 300 training Video CDs to companies across the US. We are currently licensing CompCore SoftPEG and distributing it to our customers. Recently, we discovered that CompCore SoftPEG will not run on Windows 2000 consistently.

I have been scouring the web for every available Video CD Player Software program. So far I've evaluated:

CompCore SoftPEG www.visiblelight.com/mall/softpeg/ Full Featured but doesn't perform consistently on all operating systems

Cyberlink Video CD Power Player or Power DVD Player www.gocyberlink.com/english/index.asp Video CD Power Player is full featured but doesn't run on NT or 2000 Power DVD Player is full featured but the system requirements are high and so is the price per license

Datanorton Video CD Player This is a poor attempt at programming a Video CD Player. It can be downloaded from Download.com but I wouldn't waste your time.

Ladybug www.neatware.com/Home/index.html Cute little player but its features are next to none.

I-ON Video CD Player www.i-on.net/e_product.html This is an excellent Video CD Player and its free. Unfortunately, this player doesn't support all the features we have programmed into our video CDs. The menus don't perform correctly on discs with 2 double tier menu structures. The "Default Play All" feature is not supported.

Xing MPEG Player www.xingtech.com Great Player only this one has the reverse affect as the I-ON Video CD Player. Instead of not supporting the "Default Play All" feature, it forces that feature every time so it skips over my second tier menu.

I need help...

Are there any other known Video CD Players available?

Does anyone know where I could get a Software Developers Kit for programming a Video CD Player around Windows Media Player (like the I-ON Video CD Player)?

Anyone willing to help find a solution to our company's challenges will be compensated with Video CDs and any software bought or created. Anyone providing as much as a link to a site I haven't found yet will be compensated with a copy of CompCore SoftPEG licensed by my company.

-- Britech (Britech_98@yahoo.com), August 04, 2000

Answers

I wish I had an answer for you...I'm in a similar boat.

In fact, I have yet to find ANY software Video CD player that will successfully play back my home-brewed VCD correctly. I am using multi-layered menus (some with looping background music), and mpeg video tracks of course. I author my VCDs with VideoPack 4.0, and they play fine on my set top Philips DVD player.

Sounds like SoftPeg (which I never heard of until now) may be a solution for me though...is the only problem that you have with it the Win 2000 flakiness? I only need to use it on Win 95/98. Does SoftPeg handle your double tier menu structures correctly?

I'd like to try it out, though apparently there is no demo version. (The "test drive" is the codec only, and the codec is not my problem). If you would verify that it plays your VCD's correctly, then I'll shell out the $25 to give it a try. Thanks!

-- Joe DeFuria (joe@defuria.com), August 04, 2000.

Oh...I just read the last bit of your original post!

I do have one link for three players that you haven't mentioned:

InterVideo's WinDVD 2000: http://www.intervideoinc.com/jsp/Purchase.jsp

(There is a free trial version).

Ravisent's Cinemaster 2000: http://www.ravisent.com/products/index.html (No trial version I know of available)

Mediamatic's DVD Express http://www.mediamatics.com/dvdexpress-info.htm (No trial version I know of available)

I have tried Win DVD2000 with not much success with menu navigation. Your milage may vary. I have not tried Cinemaster at all.

I have not tried CineMAster 2000. (Nor am I sure where you can downlod it from.)

I HAVE tried DVD Express, but do I know of anywhere you can download or purchase a retail version of it. I know IBM licenses it and uses it on most of their lap-top machines (which is where I got to try it...a friend's IBM lap-top.) It may be OEM use only...but I'm sure you could work out a licensing deal with Mediamatrics...This player ALMOST played my VCD right. The only thing it didn't do was "loop" my audio track in my opening menu. It just played it once. This player (unlike every other one I tried), allows you the option of using the mouse to select "hot spots," rather than just the standard number keys to select tracks, etc. Very nice.

Is that worth a license for SoftPEG? :)

-- Joe DeFuria (joe@defuria.com), August 04, 2000.

Have you tried InterVideo WinDVD 2000? I tried it on Windows NT and 98 to play VCDs that I made them myself.

www.intervideo.com

You can download a trail version for free and $29.95 for a full version.

-- Yuping (yuping@yupingli.com), August 04, 2000.

allllllllll

-- abedrehan5 (abedrehan5@hotmail.com), May 17, 2004.