Hello; It seems that the consensus on this forum is that the best/simplest way to burn VCD's is using a combination of TPMGenc and Nero. I'm fairly new to this, but I was able to burn my first VCD (which played on my portable DVD player) easily using this combination of software. Does anyone know if VideoWave 5 works well for burning VCD and other formats? I know it is advertised as doing such, but their own web forum indicates users are having problems. I actually purchased Pinnacle Express DV just for its VCD authoring capabilities and was amazed at how useless it was (wouldn't even recognize my CDRW drive). Judging by the comments on their own web forum, this is a very common problem that their tech support can't solve. It just sounds like it would be so simple and convenient to do all your capturing, editing, encoding, and burning with one program (ie:VideoWave 5) rather than multiple programs. I have a Gateway Pentium 4, Gateway IEEE1394 card, 80 Gig HD, Hitachi CDRW and DVD drive, Nvidia Geforce3 card, SOny DCR PC7 DV Camcorder, Toshiba SD-P1000 DVD player. Interested in any advice/comments

Fareed

-- Fareed Ali (fareed.ali@sympatico.ca), October 31, 2001

Answers

Always beware of any all-in-one stuff that promises VCD authoring at too-good-to-be-true prices. With the VCD standard's low constant bitrate it's so easy to create/capture/encode downright blocky, washed-out, AV out-of-sync MPEG-1 streams that a lot of these kits apparently do. It probably started along the lines of the Dazzle DVC two years ago. Now that MPEG-2/DVD is becoming more and more mainstream with capture cards, DVD-recordable drives, and media becoming more affordable and available, many companies have jumped into the fray with DVD-authoring programs and the like. Six years ago about the only viable programs to author VCDs with were VideoPack4 and Philip's Video Toolkit, both ghastly expensive then ($thousands). In contrast, now there is a raft of DVD-authoring programs out there, some that can be had around $100. It's probably because with its much faster allowable bitrate anyone can get away authoring an acceptable- looking DVD (that likely had as source material DV AVI clips). So, MPEG-2/DVD notwithstanding, for me, the greater challenge still IS HOW to be able to create VCDs that still look and sound acceptable on a 34" TV and the like. As you have found out, nothing beats Nero/TMPGenc combination. VideoWave (including the new VideoPack5, as well as others), use the Ligos LSX MPEG encoder for preparing MPEG-1 streams for your intended VCD. Although Ligos is fast and quality better than before this 3.5 incarnation, TMPGenc still surpasses in terms of quality. With your Pentium4 TMPGenc encoding times should not bother you.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), October 31, 2001.

my willy hurts!!!!!!!!

-- tiny tim (small@yoke.com.nz), December 27, 2001.

Can someone tell me what software can you use to burn DVD's? I bought the new Gateway 700XL and they have gave the software yet. Please E-Mail me. gkozhill@aol.com

-- Jimmy Miller (gkozhill@aol.com), February 15, 2002.

the best software ive found to burn a goo quality vcd is vcd easy and it is freeware

-- will (WillPJr865@aol.com), December 09, 2002.