MovieMaker 2

Hello everyone! I have begun to create Video CD's. (This, because I can't afford a DVD burner, and because most newer set-top DVD players will play Video CD's.)
I use MovieMaker 2 to create simple slideshows of pictures mixed with video clips all set to music as a photo-album of sorts for my family.
Now - When I create the movie, I can play it on my computer just fine, and it looks and sounds great.
Here's where the problem is: When I burn the VCD using Nero, and play it on any DVD player, the audio is encoded at such a level that it distorts. (Now, the same movie plays just fine on the computer, so it's somewhere in the Video CD encoding.)
I have checked and Nero doesn't have any audio-level controls for VideoCD burninig... Any suggestions here?
Thanks in advance Have a great day!

 

Hi Donniesito: Trying to understand this VideoCD stuff is just mind boggling. For example: I make a video CD with Movie Maker 2 and it plays fine on my DVD ROM drive on my computer but won't play on my set top DVD player. So, Using ARC Soft's Show Biz, I make a movie and I copy it with Nero (Show Biz won't recognize my CDRW drive even though it was a rebate bonus that came with the drive!) and the movie plays on the set top box, but the sound is out of sync by running at least 2 minutes ahead of movie.

I've made dozens of attempts to get just one Video CD to work properly, all of which have failed. I just orderd another 100 CD-R disks.

If this keeps up and I keep trying, I'll have a stack of coasters that will reach to the moon. Apparently Microsoft has some proprietary format that prevents it from playing on my GE DVD player. This same DVD player will play SVCDs (MPEG2) made with ARC Soft and copied to CD with Nero but with out of sync sound. It is enough to drive me crazy or drive me to trash the machine.

If anybody out there knows of a VCD movie making program that actually works, I'd sure like to hear about it.

I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions to fix the problem you are having, just this note to let you know you are not alone!

So, I'm subscribing to this message so that if anybody knows how to fix your problem, maybe I can get some insight into what I might do to fix mine.

 

hey Martin

MM2 can't encode into mpeg-2 format, but you can output DV files, which most DVD-authoring programs accept. You can also output in Windows Media 9 format, but not QuickTime or RealVideo.

Does the DVD player specifically state it supports S/VCDs ? I know that PS2s cant and I'm also aware that many of the standalone DVD set-top boxes dont either.

I only output to divX these days but I'll have a hunt for you to see if my old favourties are still around for VCD SVCD converstion

I never use wmv or wma simply because I believe MS are capturing the market by force, and not by quality.

I'll get back to the two of you on this one

Ian.

 

Hello Ian: Thanks for the comeback on this. In the meantime, I was able to use ArcSoft's Show Biz video editing program to produce an MPEG2 movie from MiniDV tape, copy it with Nero as a SuperVCD and play it both on my computer's DVD player and set top GE DVD player with in sync sound. (wonder of wonders) So, I don't know if:
"Does the DVD player specifically state it supports S/VCDs ? I know that PS2s cant and I'm also aware that many of the standalone DVD set-top boxes dont either. "

But it does play the SVCDs burned with Nero. At least, Nero SAYS it is converting to MPEG2 and burning a SVCD. I have no way of knowing what is really going on.

I got to say, on a 32 inch TV, the quality, although the SVCD is considerably better than a standard VCD, leaves a lot to be desired. In shots where the MiniDV camera was panning, the tv shows a lot of moving pixels, apparently in the background where the pixels should be stationary.

I'm uploading the movies from Cannon's MR45 MiniDV camera using Dazzle's 1394 PCI card.

I've pretty much given up on Movie Maker 2 and Dazzle's Movie Star 5 program that came with the firewire card. So far I've found ArcSoft's ShowBiz program the easiest of the three and it will convert to MPE2 without difficulty, but then I have to use Nero to write the SVCD.

You mention you use DiVix, do you make cd's? I thought that was just for streaming.

I appreciate any and all help, any programs out there that will EASILY edit digital video? I particularly have difficulties editing out segments in the middle of a scene. Taking scenes off the front end or back end of a clip is easy, taking something out of the middle of a scene has me baffled.

 

what codec did you use to encode in the first place? like jpegs, each time you re 'render? a movie file the quality of it disintegrates each time. So ideally you want to capture it at as low a compression ratio as possible. The problem, I know is that a lot of the cheaper programs have less ways you can optimize your output.


here is a link you might want to read for more info on SVCD:
http://www.uwasa.fi/~f76998/video/svcd/overview/

I use a 23" monitor to play back the things I make.. and quite a lot of the time, they are photo perfect, with the occasional glitch. S/VCD or divX is not nearly perfect... but it is still much better than what we had before

Also... how much are you trying to fit onto the cd? optimally you should only be putting up to 45mins...

On the topic of divX,
It's a very much alive codec, for both streaming and production.
Its quite a controversial subject, but I believe divX to have the edge on all the others for the quality -> size ratio

the downside to divX is that only 'puters can play them atm I think and after the developers became 'legal' they added adware to their free kit, again alternatives are available.
(divX was originally a hacked Microsoft codec)

here is another little favourite link of mine
http://dvd.box.sk/

although its pretty technical but if you want perfect pictures... fiddle and you should get the results.

detailed tutorials,
utils... and general info about conversion VCD & divX

I'll post back on anymore goodies I find

cheers,
Ian.

 

ALSO

hehe do a search for these proggies
DVD2AVI, TMPGEnc and FlaskMPEG

they are good

 

Hey Ian: you sent me enough stuff to keep me busy for a couple of months!! Ive browsed some of those sites and wow, so much information! I bet, after reading and hopefully digesting all the material, I in time, will be able to make SVCDs that actually work.

Thanks a bunch

 

no worries

do tell me how you get on. !