VCD from MPEG 2

happyg wrote on 6/12/2002, 11:35 AM
ok... here is the thing.. i have tried to make a vcd from mpeg 2 (as i view the quality as just a peg better (no pun intended) but not as good as mpeg 4 has gotten...) i adjusted the frame size, bitrates etc. to run at the exact same speeds as a vcd compliant one. BUT, here is the thing. on my software (which is CD extreme) it says that the audio must be 44,100 and that the video must be NTSC and run at a frame speed of 29.97 and must be at the 352 X 240 standard all of which i have done. am i missing something or can this actually be done

ps. i had to MANUALLY put the correct VBV and constant bitrate in.

although i have not tried this with a variable bitrate......

any help here would be hot.

thanks

Comments

SonyEPM wrote on 6/12/2002, 12:11 PM
VCD requires MPEG-1.
seeker wrote on 6/12/2002, 4:37 PM
Glen,

SonicEPM (Dave Hill) is correct that VCD requires MPEG1. However, if you want to use MPEG2 for its higher video and sound quality, you can encode SVCD (super VCD). If your set top DVD player won't play SVCDs but will play VCDs, there still may be a way. You can "trick" some DVD players to play an SVCD as a VCD simply by putting a VCD header on your SVCD. You can find instructions for doing that by clicking on this link:

http://www.geocities.com/newestmoviesencode/dvdvcd

An equivalent process was described with the following introduction:

"Great news! Now you *CAN* watch SVCD's on your player *WITHOUT* a hack and *WITHOUT* re-encoding. I just did this and it worked on my Sony DVP-NS400 which does *NOT* support SVCDs. Basically, you are tricking Nero and your DVD player into thinking it's playing a VCD file, but in actuality, it's playing an SVCD MPEG-2 file. This process takes about 5 minutes depending on CPU and hard drive speed. Make sure you have enough hard drive space as well."

The writer posts disclaimers, in case it doesn't work. And the parent website itself also posts disclaimers, so you use this stuff at your own risk. You can read the process by clicking this link:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayershack.php?select=Sony%20DVP-NS400

If you already have SVCDs you can convert them to true VCDs, but of course there will be a quality loss. You can find instructions for doing that by clicking on this link:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/mpeg2tovcd.htm

-- Burton --
happyg wrote on 6/16/2002, 12:15 AM
Thank You... i had thought that it WOULD require Mpeg 1 encoding, but was not sure about that. also, is there a way to make it look less grainy.

Thank You
seeker wrote on 6/16/2002, 4:42 AM
Glen,

Have you thought about making an SVCD (Super VCD) instead of a VCD? That would be one way to possibly improve your video pictures and reduce that "grainy" look. The VCD Help site currently shows that 453 DVD players (out of 998 players listed) can read SVCD on CDR or CDRW discs, so it is a fairly widely playable format. You can find some more information by clicking on this link:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/userguides/94288.php

-- Burton --