Videopack 4.0

[droopy]

Hi ya all,

I've asked this question on the forum already once before with no replies. In the meman time I've been more busy testing and trying to get in my eyes very good video quality in MPEG1 for videocd usage. Got that sorted out now so back to the videopack 4.0 problem again.

I hope that some of you guys can help as Cequadrat does not seem to be interested in providing any support at all, not even in answering questions on this. Probably comes cause I purchased the software second hand from a sale of a company that went belly up.

The problem is that vcd's made using videopack 4.0 don't seem to work on my Yamakawa 715 player. The software accepts all the videofiles or bmp pictures I use for menus without complains and makes the CD's. When trying to play in the Yamakawa all fails and it sometimes even hangs up completely.

Files used are made using the panasonic plugin for premiere with the VCD PAL setting. Oh another thing, when I try to play the DAT file from the vcd made it all plays well, so there must be something wrong in the menu part or application files used on the vcd.

Please help as this is currently the only barrier between making nice archive vcd's and a mental institution for me.

I know there's other applications, but I purchased videopack and would like to use it, especially since it should support entrypoints in a videofile.

Thanks for any response or help for this matter.

Leon

[Frankie G]

Have you tried different media? DVD players can be picky about
what they'll accept. My Philips DVD-825 will reliably play
only CD-RW, with all CD-R I've tried it does the same
things you describe. And I use Videopack to make my VCD's,
tried Adaptec but got blocky artifacts and lockups.
Hope that helps.

[droopy]

Hi Frankie G

Thanks for your reply. I only tried CD-RW since I thought those would be best for testing. Come to think of it it saved me a lot a costers cause of those I already have enough.

I don't think your suggestion is my problem as I tried copying a shop purchased VCD to my CD-RW for that already and that copy worked fine. I also tried a friends copy of Easy CD creator de luxe and a normal VCD without menu's made with that worked fine too. But I like the entry point option which Easy CD Creator does not have.

It's so annoying you know, I know the product must work as I've seen positive suggestions and references to it on this forum. It's even the reason why I bought it without testing first. So I'm sure its something in my setup or installation or whatever.

Thanks anyway for the tip Frankie G.

If someone can help, PLEASE

Regards, Leon

[wargaz]

Originally posted by droopy:

If someone can help, PLEASE

Regards, Leon[/B]

Hi,

Go to this forum: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-an...pic=Video%20CD there you can find some answers to your problem, like this one:

Yes, you can make menu-driven VCDs with Adaptec Easy CD Creator Deluxe (VCD Creator). It me a while to figure out how to do it since the documentation is piss poor in this area. Here's how to do it:

- In addition to creating your individual MPEG files that will end up being the specific chapters in the VCD, you'll want to create two more MPEGs: one is used by VCD Creator as the "start sequence", the other MPEG is used as the actual menu screen.

- When you burn a menu-driven VCD with a start sequence, menu screen, and your MPEG chapters, the idea is that, when you play the VCD, the start sequence will always play first, then the menu screen will come up. The
menu screen MPEG should include text indicating the menu choices (I usually add an additional menu choice for "Play all chapters" as well). The menu screen will continue looping until a choice is made with the remote. I sometimes use a DolbyDigital intro or THX intro for the start sequence as a joke. For the menu screen I generate
a 720x480 AVI file with the appropriate menu choices (I use MediaStudio Pro that came with my RainbowRunner [which I don't use anymore since I got the Dazzle DVC]) and then convert that to VCD MPEG with Xing MPEG Encoder. I find that doing it this way gives me crystal clear menu screens.

- Anyway, using the Wizard works well once you've figured out what it's doing. Here are the basic steps in the Wizard:

a) Select "One Menu Level Structure", hit "next" b) Add all of your play items, including the MPEG files for the start sequence and menu screen. Hit "next". c) Hit "next" to create the menu and play sequence. d) On the left select the MPEG(s) you want to use as the start sequence (START_SEQUENCE), and click on "Add>>". (You can use "Add File" if you forgot to add it in step b). Hit "next". e) Hit "next" to select the menu page. f) Select from the pull down list the MPEG file you want used as the menu screen. Hit "next". g) Select the number of menu
choices you have available from the menu screen. For example if you have five choices on the menu screen MPEG, enter 5 in the little box. This will create 5 "play sequences", each play sequence can consist of either one chapter, or multiple chapters. You'll be defining the play sequences in a moment. Hit "next". h) Hit "next" on this
screen. The default setting here is fine. Advanced users can tweak with this later. i) Now you'll see a screen saying
"Adding Pages to the Menu". Hit "next" for now (since we are making a single level menu). j) Now here is where you set up the play sequences. You should be at a screen that says "Creating a Play Sequence." On the right it should say Sequence:PLAY_SEQUENCE1". On the left should be all of the MPEG files you included in step b above. From the left select the MPEG file(s) you want the VCD player to play when the viewer selects "1" from the menu screen. E.g. PLAY_SEQUENCE1 is the sequence of files played when option 1 from the menu is selected. When you have added your file(s) defining what is to played in PLAY_SEQUENCE1, click "next".
Now, you'll need to do the exact same thing for the next PLAY_SEQUENCE, and for the next, etc. Thus, if you have 5 items on your menu screen, you'll need to define 5 play squences, PLAY_SEQUENCE1 through PLAY_SEQUENCE5. Note that a play sequence can have multiple files in it (but does not write the same MPEG multiple times to VCD). It's handy to create play sequence that will play all chapters all the way through because
the VCD will return to the menu after a menu item is played. When you hit "next" after all play sequences have been defined you'll see a screen with "Playing VCD Layout" k) Here you can test the layout of your VCD before
burning it. You can play it select menu choices to see how it will work. This is strictly optional. I usually skip this
and click "next". l) Now, select how to actually make the VCD. Note: I ALWAYS create an image file for the VCD, then burn the VCD at 1x speed from that image file. Reduces chance of wierd blockiness in the final VCD
(that's my experience anyway). I have consistently found that VCDs burned at 2x don't play as well as those burned at 1x. m) Burn that sucker!!

Hope that helps, and hope it all makes sense. Would have been nice if Adaptec had explained how to do this in the manual, but it can be figured out with some tinkering. Best of all, it's actually pretty logical once deciphered,
and it works great!!!!

BTW I am using Easy CD Creator Deluxe 3.5C, but this also works with older versions back to 3.0.

Cheers, hope this clears it up.


Ok, get it ? So, if you have the chanse get Easy CD Creator Deluxe.
Cheers.

[droopy]

Thank for the reply Wargaz. I'm defintely going to check the URL you've included to see if I can find some answers to the problems I have with videopack too.

Regarding menus with Easy CD Creator, I knew it was possible to do that. Check following URL for a very good and complete pictured description, if its still there at least as I downloaded it over 3 months ago. http://www.members.home.net/richa/ezcdmenu.htm

The problem with Ease CD creator though is that you can not use entrypoints. Each menu item needs to be a separate MPEG file. And since I would like to use it to make vcd's of holiday videos, etc I'd like to make use of entrypoints.

Thanks very much for your tip.

All the best, Leon