The vcd's I've been creating play perfectly on my dvd player (Panasonic DVD-RV32), but not so on a friend's dvd player (Toshiba SD-2815) - although the Toshiba is supposed to play vcd 2.o just fine. On the Toshiba, the vcd is recognised and does try to play, but both the audio and video are hopelessly jerky (although audio and video are in synch, if you can call it that).
I have read the Toshiba's manual and tried all setting options. In reading posts to this forum, I have tried burning at 4x, even 1x speed, with no imporovement. I've only tried 2 brands of CDR's (cheap - Office Depot, Imation), and in both cases, they play great on the Panasonic and horribly on the Toshiba.
I'm converting avi files (captured from TV) with TMPGEnc, and burning them with VCDEasy.
dvd's can be like that. i have a phillips dvd player that plays svcd's great but unless i use a high quality cdr, it will not play vcd's well at all(it does the same thing yours does - stops,jerks and stutters). But that same vcd will play great on my friends memorex. The bottom line, different players handle vcd/svcd's differently.
I wish the DVD manuals would tell you what works, but I guess they don't really test that (seeing as how the players are primarily for DVD's, not VCD's).
HaroldW -
I'll give CDRW's a try, but it's an expensive way to go, given that I want to archive these things and wouldn't ever re-use the disk.
dbecker -
What brands of CDR's have you found that work on a fussy DVD player?
believe it or not, i have found the brand Optium to work the best. These are considered cheapo's (i buy a 50 pk at big lots for 10 bucks). I think it's more my cd writer likes them than my dvd player.
That's just the way some set top dvd players are, adritrist. Some are superb for vcd playback while others are pitiful. There is likely *nothing* wrong with your vcds at all.
For example, my Sony set top plays back vcds beautifully, smoothly, with perfect audio/video sync. But another machine I had, which I returned *twice*, a GE 5-disc-changer, played vcds back so poorly I couldn't watch them. (Slow motion, then fast, jerky playback; a/v sync *way* off, etc.)
Even if it says "VCD Playback" on either the player's front panel, or in the manual (or both), you should take that capability with a grain of salt. I would never, for example, buy a new machine at the store, without first testing out a vcd that I had brought with me. (As I did the last time).
Well, at least MY dvd player plays them beautifully. I'm just concerned about down the road, when I might have a different player (thanks for the tip about testing players in the store). I'm hoping to preserve some tv episodes that aren't (and my never be) released on dvd. My friend would have liked to play them too, but oh well.
The funny thing is, her player (the one that basically won't play the vcd's) is a 5-cd carousel player with bells and whistles. Mine is a fairly cheap, single-dvd player.
At least I know I've not overlooked something obvious with regards to making vcd's. Thanks!
