I recently purchased a Sony Mavica FD92 digital still camera which also has an MPEG mode on it. What I want to do is take MPEGS and combine them, then convert them to VCD compatible files so I can watch the MPEGS on my DVD player. Is this possible?

-- Carlton F. Borcherding (C-Borcherding@worldnet.att.net), December 09, 2001

Answers

yes, i use nti cdmaker pro. basically, all you need to do is select the vcd program and drag and drop the files. very easy to use. did you check at www.vcdhelp.com. there is a section on the left hand side of the page that shows you which dvd players run vcds. some only use rewritable cds, other use both, and some aren't able to play vcds. i have a pioneer 525 and it seems to play all types. if you have any further questions, let me know. ryan

-- ryan (rbatc@home.com), December 09, 2001.

Yeah, but the quality is going to suck big time. I have a different Mavica and while you certainly could do it, you won't be happy with the results. My camera can't record MPEG-1 video at resolutions greater than 320x240. VCD requires 352x240 NTSC or 352x288 PAL, so first of all, you will have to convert your original clip to the appropriate size. This can be done with programs like TMPGenc (www.tmpgenc.com), but you will lose quality in going up in resolution like this. VCD requires a bit rate of 1.115 Kbps in the video stream so you will have to convert to that too. I know that the Sony cameras can only record for maybe 10 seconds in 320x240 mode. I tried all the modes and the longer, lower quality modes are truly awful You will be VERY disappointed with the results of them. If you are determined to do this, go to www.vcdhelp.com and read up on what you have to do to make VCDs. It is not going to be trivial to do this, but it certainly can be done. As the previous reply stated, you also need to find out if your DVD player supports CD-R or CD-RW media. Many do not. You could be going to a lot of trouble for nothing.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), December 10, 2001.