PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS IF YOU KNOW A LOT ABOUT VCD!!!

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I sold a VCD on eBay. The person who bought it received it, and then tells me that it doesn't play right on her DVD player, SONY DVP-S550D or the DVD-RAM DRIVE on her HP Pavillion 780. She says she has "780c" but I only found Pavillion "780n".

She tells me that the audio and the video isn't synchronized, and that there's a lot of freeze-ups.

I've already checked the DVD player's compatibility against VCD's and it is compatible. I'm still checking on the DVD-RAM DRIVE at HP website.

Here's where the story gets interesting. She says there's a scratch on the bottom of the VCD. I didn't send it scratched, but she says it is.

My question is this, if there is a scratch on the bottom of the VCD (I'm pretty sure all CD's are read from the bottom), would that produce that effect with synchronization and freeze-ups? Or is it just compatibility, and compatibility only that produces such undesirable effects?

-- Y.D. Kang (justbrw@talentg.com), March 20, 2002

Answers

I can help a little, but I can't solve your problem. CDs are written from the inside towards the outside. I am assuming when she says bottom she means the outer parts of the disc. A scratch there would only affect the last part of the movie. It would not cause the freeze up and synchro problems she sees. Most likely, this is a compatibility issue. I'm not familiar with this particular model, but some Sony players don't officially support CD-R or CD-RW. These players work well with CD-RW discs and they will play the Prime Peripherals brand of CD-R. They will not play other CD-R brands. She might be unable to play it on her PC because she doesn't know what she's doing. I'm not trying to be rude, but if you are selling VCDs through Ebay, I suspect that you are burning them to the cheapest CD-R media you can find. Cheap CD-R media often causes problems in DVD players. All CD-R media is not the same and it really does make a difference which brands you use. Some are better than others. Try giving it to her on CD-RW and she most likely won't have problems. I should add that some DVD players are more prone to sync problems than others. Some VCDs or SVCDs will work perfectly in some players and if you put the exact disc in another player, it will exhibit sync problems. I don't know how you made the disc, but the burning software you used could have a lot to do with it. EZ CD Creator is konwn to have bugs and often causes problems on discs that are made with it. Of course, you may not have used EZ CD Creator and may have done nothing wrong other than maybe using cheap CD-R media. In the world of homemade VCDs, there are no 100% guarantees. Even if you do everything right and use good quality media, there will still be some DVD players that will refuse to play it or you'll run into idiot customers who won't know how to play it correctly.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), March 21, 2002.

Your suspicions are wrong. These are original, commercially made movie VCD sets I've sold. They were received in its case and the case inside its jackets. Don't you know, assumption is the beginning of many mistakes.

-- Y.D. Kang (justbrw@talentg.com), March 21, 2002.

just thought i'd add to jasons comments....think of a disc like an old record..it has grooves..the laser reads in the grooves(we will call them valleys) on each side of the valley then would be a hill. if you put your 2 fingers up like a v then the laser is reading the disc in the valley but just a bit to the side.in a dual layer disc the laser would read just a bit to the opposite side..so when a disc gets scratched..if it is scratched...it only scratches the hills (hopefully) and doesnt affect skipping(if you notice you can play some pretty scratched discs no problem..but if you notice if there is fingerprints on it it skips..thats because the oil and dirt from the hand went into the valley...but then again like jason said ...this has nothing to do with the sync problem..i just thought i'd put this here for future reference..lol

-- john boy (johnbmx4christ@yahoo.com), March 21, 2002.

also that is why you are told to clean them by wiping from the inside out(not in a circular motion) but from the inside out in a straight line.because if the cloth scratches it it simply scatches the hill a little bit.

-- john boy (johnbmx4christ@yahoo.com), March 21, 2002.

john boy,

-- Y.D. (justbrw@talentg.com), March 21, 2002.


john boy, What would make a VCD cause sync problems and freezes in a DVD player? Anything other than (in)compatibility... Or is exact the compatibility problem?

-- Y.D. Kang (justbrw@talentg.com), March 21, 2002.

john boy, What would make a VCD cause sync problems and freezes in a DVD player? Anything other than (in)compatibility... Or is it exactly the compatibility problem?

-- Y.D. Kang (justbrw@talentg.com), March 21, 2002.

yes..like jason said..its the dvd player.

-- john boy (johnbmx4christ@yahoo.com), March 22, 2002.

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