Newbie question re: Apex DVD + VCDs

[PeteyBoy23]

I am a bit confused on how to play a VCD with the Apex DVD player. I burned a movie onto 2 cds, and dropped the cd into the player, and I got a menu. Just some more info regarding the way I burned them. They were CD Image files (iso, bin/cue), which I burned. I can't figure out how to play a VCD. I apologize for the "newbie"-ness of the question. I've searched for answers, yet have found none. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[Hoser]

Here's two links that might help you.

http://www.afterdawn.com/articles/ar...eocd_guide.cfm
http://www.afterdawn.com/articles/ar...eocd_guide.cfm

When I burn a video CD, I usually use a CDRW disc because I'll try different looks for the menu. When I get everything right, I'll burn to a CDR disc. I do have two Apex DVD players (AD-600A with the loophole menu and AD-700), and both of them play my VCDs fine.

I usually use DVDx (http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Decoders/DVDx_1_8a.zip) and burn each chapter individually. Then I can play any chapter, just like a DVD, or play the entire movie. You have to remember to set the interval between chapters to 0 seconds, or there'll be a pause between chapters. I also create a background for each VCD by creating a picture 720X480 and putting a picture on the right side of the screen. Here's an example.



I'm doing this for someone, so don't laugh at the content.

The chapters will be listed on the left side of the screen. Pressing a number will play the corresponding chapter. You can also have the chapters listed with a small picture from each chapter displayed on the screen, it all depends on what method you like better. If you've got any other questions, you can e-mail me and I'll try to answer them.

[Apex]

Originally posted by Hoser

I'm doing this for someone, so don't laugh at the content.

Riiiiiiight. We believe you.

[speedracer120]

[PeteyBoy23]

Thanks for the response. I think I should have been a bit more clear, and I apologize for that. I get these movies that are bin/cue that I burn straight from that. "screeners" and "tele-syncs" and the like, if you get my drift. They are already in VCD format, as an image, but doesn't seem to want to play, as when I stick them into the DVD player, it's gives me the MP3/File menu. Am I just assuming too much, that these should play without any modification/interaction by me?

I guess, if I am truly assuming too much, I can convert the bin/cue to an ISO, then to an MPG, then perform the steps listed in the link you gave me. It just seems like too much effort, when the cd image is already a VCD.

Any thoughts?

[Hoser]

I've never burned a VCD that way. When I put my VCD in the player, it pauses for a few seconds displays a couple things and sits there. I have to press play to start the menu. You would think that the VCD would automatically play like a DVD. I don't know if this is just a quirk with my players, since I haven't tried any others.

[PeteyBoy23]

Originally posted by Hoser
I've never burned a VCD that way. When I put my VCD in the player, it pauses for a few seconds displays a couple things and sits there. I have to press play to start the menu. You would think that the VCD would automatically play like a DVD. I don't know if this is just a quirk with my players, since I haven't tried any others.

What type of VCDS do you play? How did you create them? I usually grab the kind of stuff shown at isonews.com. That will give you an idea of where I get these movies from. Thanks a ton for your help.

[Hoser]

I play VCDs that I make from my DVDs. I use Smartripper to rip the files of the DVD. Then I use TEMPGEnc or DVDx to create the VCD. I can also create DIVx files with these programs. It all depends on where I'll play the files. Divx files can only be played on a computer. DVDx is nice because you can split the movie into individual chapters just like a DVD. I'll usually create VCDs in the background while I'm surfing the web. I don't notice any slowdown and it saves me a lot of time.

[drake]

@PeteyBoy23: If you are getting releases that are posted on isonews, I am surprised that you do not know how to do this already.

If the file is in bin/cue format you will need to burn the disc by using either CDRWin (1x demo at www.goldenhawk.com), an older version of FireBurner (1.06 has bin/cue support, 2.x does not, I think since I have not used it for a while), or the latest version of Nero. If you use Nero you might want to test on a CD-RW in case Nero has problems with the cue file, I don't know if this has been fixed by Ahead.

If you are thinking of converting to ISO format, just get ISOBuster and extract the large *.dat file from one of the folders and change the filename to *.mpg and burn as a VCD with Nero or EZCD.

As for the Apex DVD player, it should play anything that you throw into it. Mine (1500, regionless) will not play (S)VCDs by pressing the play button to close the disc tray, I need to press it a second time after I get a message on my screen that the loaded disc is either VCD or SVCD.

@Hoser: if you are making backups of your DVDs, have you tried using DVD2SVCD from doom9's site? I have been using it with great results on my DVD collection. With 700MB cd-rs you can get about an hour of video to a disc and rip all of the chapters as they are laid out on the DVD.

[donchristo]

Another easy thing to do is rip it from the Bin...

Use isobuster and then lookin the mpg (?) directory...

The file in there is a .dat...

Open it with Windoze Media Player...

I do this to check the quality if it's a bad cam rip I don't bother..
Just watch and wait till later for the SVCD...

If you still have problems with CDRWin... Then rename the file with an mpg extension and burn with Nero...

Hope this helps...