better encoding??

[KwOkOMoLe!!!]

I use flask and panasonic encoder to make my mpeg-1 and it comes out perfect and near DVD quality. To make VCDs compliant I have to split the movie into two parts (audio/visual) using VCD cutter and quality is not affected. Then when it comes to multiplexing them again with Xing encoder the quality is horrible. Well not horrible but just degraded and blocky. When first encoded with the flask it was near perfect.

Is there anything better than Xing encoder to muliplex VCD compliant VCDs??? or is there a burning prgram out there that will just burn the Flask and Panasonic combo encoded mpeg-1 file. All my encoding settings are set at VCDs. Xing encoder just doesnt look very good.

[Elurew]

actually, i have no idea why you would need to seperate the audio/video for a VCD. I've only seen that necessary for a dvd_video. I am assuming that this idea you got came from whatever program you use to burn vcd's. In such a case, adaptec ez cd creator will encode to cd directly from a vcd-compliant mpeg file.
good luck

[KwOkOMoLe!!!]

I tried using Adaptec before but it just makes the video come out blocky so I have to use the Xing to make it VCD compliant but still the quality doesnt comapare.

[dchip]

I use Adapted Easy CD Creator version 3.5c to burn Panasonic encoder generated VCD's all the time. Works perfectly.

[fluggo99]

Holy smokes! And it plays in normal players?

What're the steps?

[Spielberg]

KwOkOMoLe,

Try Virtualdub to multiplex your A/V streams.

I guess what you are trying to do is ripping DVD's and burning them on a CD-R, right?
If yes, you should check out this site: http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/su...b_convert.html

Spielberg

[Phil Pugh]

fluggo99,

I also use Adaptec Easy CD V3.5 to write VCD's.

Steps are:

Create VCD compliant MPEG using XING encoder.
Use EasyCD to assemble VCD
Burn image

Nothing difficult here.

I only have SoftDVD player (Intervideo WinDVD) but it plays these VCD's just fine.

I have also created 'mini-DVD' using DVDTOOLBOX to do the authoring and EasyCD to burn a CD-R. This also plays back fine in the SoftDVD player. It's great for ~10min videos - really good quality. It helps to start with really good source video. Any noise will be exaggerated by the MPEG compression process. DV captured video (I also have a RAPTOR in the system) gives the best quality but my MARVEL G200 in Fullframe PAL is more than acceptable for VCDs.

[fluggo99]

It wouldn't be difficult if I knew what a VCD looked like... If I did, I probably wouldn't be asking.

So, basically, of what is a VCD comprised?

[dchip]

VCD is nothing but an MPEG at 352x240,
1150kb/s, 29.97fps.. When this file is put on a CD it is called a VCD. I love the format. Video with fast motion or low resolution JPG stills look real clean in VCD.

[fluggo99]

Oh. Weird. I wonder what everyone's up in arms about then-- saying you need special software to make proper VCD's that play in DVD players and whatnot. Just any filename, standard ISO (or what about Joliet? hmmm....), root folder, go...

[dchip]

You're right, Fluggo. I spent a lot of time reading in that guys VCD Cookbook and was mystified about what VCD was. Only later did I learn how simple it is. Even the terminology "burning cd's" used to seem so frightening. Copying from HDD to CDR is what that turned out to be.

[fluggo99]

I was being sarcastic, but if you're not...

I could've sworn there was some mumbo-jumbo about being aligned on a particular starting sector or something like that.

[dchip]

Nah, I haven't run into any starting sector probs. I just make my VCD compliant MPEG and then copy it to a blank CDR disc. Works great. The only thing I have not been able to put to the test is playing one of my discs in a standard DVD player hooked to a TV monitor. Supposedly there are certain DVD players that will readily play these discs. I tried one, which I think was a Panasonic, and it did not recognize the format.

[fluggo99]

See, that's what I mean. That's the only benefit I can perceive from making VCD's, and if it doesn't work in standard players, there's no point. I'd rather back up high-quality MPEG's or MPEG-2's to my tape drive.

[Fred H]

You are right fluggo99.
Backing the files to VCR is the most secure way today. But the magnetic tape is not as long lived as the CD, so I use to archive my clips to CD-R. Before I burned .avi files ( ) and now I'm playing to find the best qual. MPEG tu burn, maybe the whole prject made with the MSP6. I fount the MPEG2 with PAL 704x576 is quite fine to burn.
Until now I recorded .avi files to VCR because I didn't exploated the G400-TV's DH capabilities, but now I begun to borrow my wifes litle 14" TV ( )as second monitor. I plugged the TV set to the VCR antenna-out. It worked fine using the PC-VCR to capture & record. Note, that I've had the Dual Head disabled and I was able to back to tape only .avi files. With all kind of MPEG only the audio went to the VCR & TV. Enabling the Dual Head for DVD Max settings I could record the MPEG1 & MPEG2 files to tape, using the PC VCR. Tried to prepare (with MSP6) even VCD-MPEG files.
Beginning with this VCD's I run into strange problems.
When I tried to play and record some VCD files with the MS Mediaplayer2, only the video was displayed on the TV and recorded, not the sound. Anyway the audio was present only in my headphones. The MPEG files made the same thing: no sound to the VCR & TV. In one case the video, an .avi, compressed with the Matrox MJPEG codec has been displayed B&W on the TV and color on the monitor (? ) The same clip compressed with the Morgan codec was okay. Maybe accidental.
Loosing the audio in the MPlayer I went to the PC-VCR (1.52) with the same resultat, no more audio from the MPEG files but the .avi run ok.
Now, "listen" carefull I switched the PC VCR to TV mode and back to file mode and I could play, record & show the MPEG files on the TV okay with audio. Strange, isn't it?
Then I turned of and on again the PC VCR, directly to file mode and guess if I could hear any sound? No way...
After hours of try, I found that starting the PC VCR rather in TV mode or capture mode made the filemode to play MPEG's with full A/V.
I am confused ( )
Could you, please or someone out there explain this strangeness?



[This message has been edited by Fred H (edited 08 March 2000).]