I have a new computer with 2GHz. I was able to create MGEG1 files using the Dazzle DVC-USB. Then I dropped $80 to buy the Roxio CD Easy Creator Platinum with the intent to create the VCD playable in most stand-alone DVD players. But Roxio is just full of bugs and totally and absolutely useless (worth less than useless). Can someone tell me which "stable" "reliable" VCD Author software works on the Windows XP? Thanks.

-- Ray Poon (rpoon2@aol.com), March 17, 2002

Answers

Have you ever try NERO 5.5?. Download a free trial at www.nero.com

-- Hmong (cher_her@juno.com), March 17, 2002.

Hmong: Thanks you for you response. I have not tried Nero. After Roxio ruined my $80 and a whole weekend, I am a little timid and very cautious with cd burner software installation. Can you tell me a little more about Nero and XP? Thaank you. Ray

-- Ray Poon (rpoon2@aol.com), March 17, 2002.

I'm using NERO for a long time now and it works fine on XP if you are using a recent version (5.5.3.x and above). I never had any serious problems or crashes and it always seemed to be a bit more stable than it's competitors. I tried (all?) other software I could find, but always returned to NERO later. (NEVER try to install two of them at the same time!)

However, I strongly recommend NOT to install ANY of the "Packet- Writing" software (DirectCD, InCD, ...) that allows you to use a CD- RW like a hard disk. I tried all of them several times during the years, but I always got stability problems and performance drops, so I'm sick of them all now.

NERO does a not-too-bad job when you're authoring (S)VCDs and mine play fine in the stand-alone players I've come across (strange: the cheaper the player, the more "compatible to everything" they are).

But please keep in mind that all of these programs, including NERO and WinOnCD, are multi-purpose applications. None of them is specialized on creating full-featured (S)VCDs.

For example, in NERO you CAN have a main menu with a background picture and preview pictures for the scenes, but you can only choose from a small number of templates. And you CANNOT set chapter marks within an MPEG-file, so you have to cut a long file into several pieces (with TMPEnc for example) to create chapters. This will cause a short interruption of several miliseconds between the scenes. And the navigation with the remote control of your DVD is - well - quite poor.

That's all not really a problem (and still much better than what the competitors do) but I wanted it more perfect. WinOnCD has some additional features and others are missing, but in total the result is quite similar. It works, but the result is not as professional as I would like it. And on my PC it was not so stable and crashed sometimes.

The other competitors can't reach these two at all and you're right, EasyCD is simply terrible.

I'm still looking for a good authoring solution. Next I will give the VCD2-creator from Philips a try: a software from 1995, designed for Windows 3.x and unable to write to recent CD-recorders, but I heard it still is the only professional VCD authoring solution and one should be able to make it work with some effort and fumbeling....

We'll see. As usual, I'll prepare an image of my Windows with "DriveImage" to return to where I started from in case of any serious trouble.

-- Kasima;-) (kasima@gmxpro.de), March 19, 2002.

Thank you Kasima and Hmong. Nero and Windows XP seems to work. I just made my very FIRST VCD !!!!!Wow that's exceiting!!!!!!! Now I can send my family video to the older family members who only have set-top DVD player. This is something I wanted to do for sometime.

After the installation of Nero, the Roxio CD Creator BASIC seems to be still working. I just used the CD copier.

-- Ray Poon (rpoon2@aol.com), March 19, 2002.

But if you're serious about not having a nervous breakdown best you completely uninstall Easy CD, using a sledgehammer on it to ensure it's not going to be used again, and dumping it.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), March 20, 2002.

Uninstall that Roxio product and just use Nero. It can do everything you need it to do. WinonCD can make Interactive VCDs and SVCDs that are a little more robust then Nero, but Nero is much easier to use. As for sending the VCD you created to relatives, make sure that there standalone DVD players will read CDRs. Alot of the cheaper ones won't or will only read CDRW discs. Get the make and model # of the DVD player and check out www.vcdhelp.com to find out what it supports for media.

-- FanofPJ (fanofpj@hotmail.com), March 20, 2002.

I have a Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303 running Windows XP. I have used VCDEasy to author and burn VCDs without any problems. I'm using the last freeware version that was offered. Check the site http://www.vcdeasy.org/

-- Carey Guess (guessca@aol.com), March 03, 2004.