I almost have the whole process figured out from A to Z on how to make VideoCD's but I have run into a snag with VideoPack 4.0. Can anyone help? I want to make a VCD with chapters (entry points) so I can use the remote on my DVD to jump back and forth across the disk, without taking the "long" way (holding down FF or REW forever). I don't need menus and don't use them.

Here is what I do:

I take a VCD compliant MPEG video/audio. It has sequence headers before every GOP, and Videopack 4.0 makes no quarrels with it when burning. It was edited with M2-Edit and created with TMPGEnc 12e, if that makes any difference.

In VideoPack, I pull down the MPEG file multiple times to make several playlist nodes. I then go into each video property and set the desired entry point (00:00:00:00, 00:13:42:17, 00:22:54:05, etc) for where I want it to start on a next or previous button from my DVD remote.

I then turn off auto-routing and show-menu routing. This allows me to set the NEXT and PREVIOUS lines manually to link up the sequence of my video. I basically have several playlist nodes pointing to the same MPEG file.

I burn the whole thing to a CD with my Plextor CD-Writer successfully. It makes the image fine.

The result plays on my PC (using WinDVD) and my Pioneer DV-525 DVD player but with one exception. My entry points didn't seem to take. Anytime I press the PREVIOUS or NEXT button on my remote, it just starts back at the beginning of the VCD.

I have seen this problem reported before as shown here by some Dejanews postings. But no answers.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=eb55ad4a0c4e37d3,2&seekm=399394b5.42317561%40news.earthlink.net#p

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=64f0e2a9cbe90afe,10&seekm=1f9p0tgkopvg1d3bhkamlc0g2t3uuq10j0%404ax.com#p

Can anyone help?! What's the exact procedure to go through? Robert

-- Robert Holmes (valnar@yahoo.com), May 31, 2001

Answers

Not an answer, but an append to my original question.

Does Videopack allow you to tie playlist tracks together? ie 1 goes to 2, goes to 3, goes to 4, etc? Or do you need to tie each NEXT and PREVIOUS from each playlist entrypoint back to a menu? If that is the case, how do they play one after another?

I'm just wondering if I HAVE to use a menu to make entry points work. I've already burned 12 coasters. Can anyone help before number 13?

Thanks Robert

-- Robert Holmes (valnar@yahoo.com), June 01, 2001.

I figured it out. I can now make VCD's with a single MPEG video where entry points (chapters) work. Yah!

When you highlight a playlist node and click on the "modify video track list" button from the toolbar to modify the entry points, IT DOES NOT WORK. You have to right click on the node instead, choose "play item" then "properties.". Only then will it take.

-- Robert Holmes (valnar@yahoo.com), June 02, 2001.