I have a karaoke CD with 12 songs but 13 music*.dat on it. The video and audio in some of the tracks are not very stable. I would like to use VCDGear to convert those *.dat files to Mpeg and then use Nero 5 to re-burn them to CD. The question is:- apart from those Mpeg files, which other files I have to put in from the original CD for the menu to work on the newly burnt CD.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Tony

-- Tony (afhung37@hotmail.com), July 09, 2002

Answers

U then r going 2 author a menu VCD from scratch. The twelve songs correspond 2 12 of the 13 tracks, & the one track left is the start track which plays as soon as you insert the VCD onto the player. That being a karaoke VCD u may want 2 examine the contents of the SEGMENT directory where u may find itemxxxx.dat files which r still MPEG files (as opposed to audio/video MPEG tracks), which will be the menus. VCDGear may or may not re-convert these back 2 *.mpg successfully. Nero has mixed results when doing what u want. For one thing it has no provision for a start track; Nero wants 2 immediately display a menu on VCD insertion. For the stills (menus) Nero wants either BMPs or JPGs and may not want 2 accept still MPGs produced by re-conversion from VCDGear. Lastly, Nero will put characters of its own atop the menu pictures which may cover those already in the picture which is why it's preferable 2 start with just a picture (sans letters and numbers on it) for a menu with Nero. Within these limitations Nero works just fine, but more flexibility (& instability) is accorded by VCDEasy from www.doom9.org, including (the first I've seen) a stand-alone applet for encoding BMPs & JPGs 2 still MPEGs, & interactivity as complex &/or as simple as u want it. Not for the beginner: u must have a healthy dose of White Book/VCD basics 2 control, use, & appreciate VCDEasy. For example, instead of using the unstable built-in CDRDAO, best 2 create a *.bin/*.cue image file & burnt that instead with Nero. I would have said 2 use VideoPack as well but that is already passe, & it has been, at the last count, mutilated & made expensive by, u guessed it, Roxio.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), July 09, 2002.

Hi Mehmet,

Thank you for your help. I have burnt a few CDs from my home video but never done anything with menus and chapters like karaoke CDs. So please forgive my lack of understanding in this respect.

In my case, after repairing those corrupted tracks and re-converting them to Mpegs, can I just drag and drop them in Nero together with the "menu" file (if I can re-convert it to BMP or Jpeg),will Nero burn the CD with Menu and chapters working?

You wrote and I quote: "For example, instead of using the unstable built-in CDRDAO, best 2 create a *.bin/*.cue image file & burnt that instead with Nero." Can you please explain a bit more on the above. Does it mean that after authoring the CD, create a *.bin/*cue image file and burn the final CD with Nero? What's wrong with the original CD?

Tony

-- Tony (afhung37@hotmail.com), July 09, 2002.

U can use Nero & forego the start or intro track & chances r it will work ok. But Nero will put characters on top of your menu, not too good if your menu already has numbers & titles, etc. of its own. If u choose 2 use VCDEasy it's like Nero where u include MPEG tracks, MPEG stills (after converting the BMPs and JPGs with the still MPEG encoder tab), define interactivity (should u choose a ver 2.0 menu driven VCD) & after all this u can elect 2 burn the VCD using the built-in CDRDAO tab. VCDEasy is a collection of different programs brought together with different tabs for u 2 create your S/VCDs; it just so happens that the burning function is performed by CDRDAO. CDRDAO is a freeware burning application prone 2 certain ASPI problems the authors admit, but 4 the really heavy it allows u 2 define the track contents down 2 the byte level: definitely not 4 Easy CD diehards & their ilk. Now, instead of using CDRDAO 2 burn the CD, u can elect 4 VCDEasy 2 create *.bin/*.cue files which r generic image files that Nero can accept & use 2 burn your VCD. The native image file format of Nero is *.nrg but failing that Nero is flexible enough 2 accept *.bin/*.cue & happily turn the contents of the same into your finished CD. Like u at first I did not have a clue what program I will use 2 burn these *.bin/*.cue image files with.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), July 10, 2002.

Mehmet,

Thanks for your help.

-- Tony (afhung37@hotmail.com), July 10, 2002.