i just started making my own vcd's.i read thru the posts here for about 2 hrs but culdnt read them all so i hope im not irritating any of you by doubling up on questions.i play a game called planetside and capture screen sequences for my clan.the sequences are to long to post on a website so we all agreed ill make the movie and distribute it to all of us via mail delivery on a vcd since everybody has a cd burner and everybodys dvd players will play a vcd.

#1-my dvd player will (it says in documentation)play only ntsc color format not pal but everyone here explains pal.is pal u all refer to the same as ntsc because its not color format or are they 2 seperate things and will my dvd player use pal?

#2-i want to be able to convert any video format to mpeg-1 as all the different clips everybody will send me will be in various and probably ungodly formats as our clan is worldwide.what is a good program for this.

#3-i have roxio 5.5 and nero 6 but i read a few places u all said for quality dont use roxio,instead use nero.is there a specific reason?

#4-i read that sound has alot to do with quality and since sound is really irrelevant mostly in the game since its always just explosions an gunshots,id like to remove my sound and just have video.can i get more time on a vcd of footage and will it increase the quality and decrease the blockiness if i do this?also how do i remove the sound from a mpeg-1 and is there a program i can get that will do this if i need one?i would like to achieve both,increased play time and increased quality if this is possible.

#5-does it matter what video format i convert to mpeg-1 in as how long the finished result will be.as in if i take 15 min of avi and 15 min of lets say mpeg4(just got it from top of my head i think its a real format)will they both come out the same lenghth of time as mpeg-1 and if not is there a quality difference?if so is there a better format to use for quality when converting to mpeg-1.like maybe avi produces better than mpeg4?

#6-after i take and convert the video to mpeg-1 and hopefully edit out the sound is it possible to put on like a music track with windows movie maker 1(ill use #2 if i have to but its so much more confusing) and if it is will this degrade the video quality as afforementioned.

#7-i got 250$ to spend on this endeavor as the third highest ranking member of my outfit(keepers of johari{u might have heard of us})and i need to know what softwares i will need by name so i can purchase them(as long as i really need them as i dont want to frivolously waste my money)from what i know all i need is a video conversion tool because my nero or roxio will burn the cd(nero i bought because my computer guy said it was better and roxio came free with my systems cd-burner and i just purchased the upgrade to full version figurin if i own it might as well be complete).is all i need the video conversion tool beacause i can burn with these and create with windows movie maker or do i need something more?

i do want this to be highest quality possible so any extra help is much appreciated worldwide as my outfit has members in england,america,canada,australia,and europe.im hopin after i make this video of our outfit in action and sending it to everybody as everybody will be participating in filming(well mostly everyone because some people are to cheap for the 29$ for the fraps program)that we all submit it to fileplanet repeatedly and they will host it and u can all download it and see it.then u all will experience firsthand the glorious ass kicking of the keepers of johari.an elite outfit that prides itself on professionalism and teamwork which is why we wont even accept you unless ur halfway up the battle experience ladder allready.

thanks in advance for all the help any of you provide

ravage777 (thats my name in planetside also)

-- george solomon (ravage777@earthlink.net), April 15, 2004

Answers

This is just the bare minimum answers:

1> PAL is a television format used in Europe, NTSC is North America and Japan. If you have a DVD player that will only play NTSC, then a PAL video will not work.

2> Tsunami MPEG Encoder (TMPGEnc) is the best for converting clips to MPEG-1. The program is free if all you want is the MPEG-1 portion of it. Do a search for TMPGEnc and you should find it.

3> Nero works well if you've got a file ready to burn into a VCD. If Nero has to do any recoding, it tends to screw things up. As for Roxio's program, I personally don't like it because it's destroyed more than one of my operating system installs.

4> Sound has nothing to do with the quality of the video. If you have a poor video source, you're going to wind up with a poor VCD. Sound does eat up space on a CD, so if you remove it, you can get more video on one disc. TMPGEnc will also do this for you, but I don't know if the Video CD specification allows for no-sound discs. Anyone else know?

5> 15 minutes of 29.97 video is 15 minutes of 29.97 video in any format, as long as it was encoded properly. Quality depends mostly on source material. You are going to lose some quality each time you re- encode video. When you work with TMPGEnc, you'll find that it has what is called "Motion Search Precision" - basically, the slower it goes, the better it can check the video. Set it to slowest. It takes 5 times longer (on my machine) but you get a nice-looking video.

6> TMPGEnc can add audio also, but you will need to convert it to .MP2 at a bitrate of 224k - get a (freeware) program called CDEX 1.51 to do this. it will be under Options>Settings>Encoder>Internal MP2 Encoder. I assume you'll be working with .WAV or .MP3 files. If you're using something else, you'll need to convert it to a standard format.

7> If you have Nero, you probably don't need to buy any other software. I do fully support buying TMPGEnc tho, it's a great program for $42.

One of the other things worth mentioning, You'll probably be resizing video to NTSC's 352x240 size - this will cause some quality loss, especially if you've got an odd or very large sized video.

Check sites like www.doom9.org, www.afterdawn.com, www.dvdrhelp.com for info on making VCDs.

-- Bryan (gryps-innocens@gryphon.zzn.com), April 15, 2004.

Excellent response, Bryan! I'm not sure if you can "legally" remove audio from VCD. Photo VCDs are within spec to not have sound, so it might be possible to do this and stay within specs, but any space savings will be so small, you might only get a couple of extra minutes of room for more video. With regards to PAL vs. NTSC, I would generally recommend that George make a NTSC VCD. It has been estimated that 95% of the world's DVD players are capable of playing NTSC video. Quite a few DVD players sold in America, such as George's, won't play PAL video at all, so NTSC offers the best chance for compatibility. There are a few PAL DVD players that won't play NTSC video, but not many. It might be interesting to note that Brazil, which is a PAL country, makes music DVDs in NTSC format and does not region code them. This means that they can be played just about anywhere in the world since most PAL DVD players can play NTSC video. It's actually pretty trivial to convert NTSC video to PAL. I do want to mention that no matter how perfectly you make your VCD, some DVD players may still refuse to play it. Some models don't like burnable media, although these days just about everything will play CD-R and CD-RW discs. I have even heard of a few DVD players sold in America that wouldn't play VCD on any media. However, whatever you make should be viewable on a PC if all else fails.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), April 16, 2004.