I have just bought a DVD player which features says it can play DVD/SVCD/MP3/CDR/CDRw. It's a Shinco Model 160. However, it could not play the MPEG files I burned. The DVD could read the data in the CDR but cannot be played. I then thoroughly studied the menu. What caught my eye was in the menu it only says the player can only play DVD, SVCD, VCD and CD. I am completely amused. Does SVCD mean CDR and CDRw?

Also, do I actually need to encode a MPEG file to a VCD format file in order to play the CDR. I thought MPEG file is the correct format.

I in fact had tried to use TMPGEn2 to do encoding, ecode what I also don't know. But I could not open any of my MPEG files for encoding. What in the world is wrong now.

I intend to check with the DVD seller soon. In the mean time, if you have any advice or solution to my problem, please help. Thanks.

-- Hon Kim Teng (keano2072@hotmail.com), December 06, 2001

Answers

My guess is that something is wrong with the VCD you burned. VCD is MPEG-1 video, but it does require that the video be put together in a specific way. Most VCD burning programs, such as Nero (you can download a trial version at www.ahead.de), convert the MPEG-1 to the correct format for VCD before burning it. Please go to www.vcdhelp.com. They have a lot of guides to making VCDs that can help you. They also have samples you can download and burn to test on your DVD player. Your Shinco should support CD-R and CD-RW with no problem, so I would guess that you must have made a mistake when you made the VCD. SVCD is a higher quality format than VCD. The www.vcdhelp.com website also has information on SVCD and samples you can download and burn. You can even find guides to using TMPGenc there.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), December 06, 2001.