Hi. I just made me a VCD, mainly to see whether I could, using WinOnCD 3.6. Wrote two streams (PAL) into two tracks, added a name, and nothing else. The streams were created with the Panasonic encoder, and I even corrected the aspect ratio before multiplexing. Multiplexing happened with the Womble MPG2VCR.

When I try to play the result with my Matrox DVD software player, however, it finds only track 01 and won't display a picture, only sound. The XingMPEG player displays a picture, yet finds only track 02. Neither of them displays a working time bar, and when I move around in the stream using the one in the Windows Media Player it'll crash.

I have no access to any DVD standalone player able to read CD-Rs, so I can't test that right now. The MPEGs are both there as *.dat files, so I can play them on my computer. But what's the point in making a VCD if not for one's future DVD player?

So, in your experience, is there something wrong with the MPEG streams I've created, the VCD format WinOnCD wrote, or is it something with those players?

-- Ulrich Schreglmann (ulrich.schreglmann@t-online.de), April 07, 2000

Answers

You didn't give much detail about how you created those MPEG streams you used but by what you said it could be they are not VCD White Book compliant. For example, exactly why and what it is did you multiplex?? You used the Panasonic encoder; if you deliberately chose PAL VCD as output format the other parameters like bitrate, etc. get locked and problems that arise on playback of said stream on the created VCD are from something else. Are you using a Matrox card? I'm asking because the DVD player software that is bundled with such is Zoran, which may or may not support VCD; Matrox do not have their own. If you are using a Matrox Marvel vidcap card the PC-VR application can play VCD *.dat files. If Xing can play the second track and your VCD only has two tracks there is a chance you VCD is okay. There is a bug with some Xing versions and installations in which when you choose play VCD it just plays the last track and stops and that's it. To play all tracks on the VCD you have to file>open>then select all tracks. If you do this Xing might play both tracks on your VCD. If you are successful on all this, fine; but you still have to try your VCD on a set-top because that, for me, is the best test.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@yahoo.com), April 08, 2000.