Now that M.Pack is more or less gone, what other programs are there for producing MPEG streams or Video CD disc images that are Toast compatible?

-- Donald Cowan (dcowan@flashcom.net), November 13, 2000

Answers

This is also the replay to another question here, but I post this again:

This is my experience with VCDs:

First I tried M.Pack and Toast. Toast accepted the files made with M.Pack but my DVD player didn't play them correctly. In a local store I tested several players. Some played it, some not. I did some research and found, that M.Pack encodes video for VCD with 1120 kbps by default where others do it with 1150 kbps. I tried these settings in M.Pack but the multiplexer didn't accept these settings. Searching for a freeware multiplexer, I found tMPEGenc (among others) and also VCDimager, both for windows. tMPEGenc could multiplex my M.Pack encoded files and VCDimager made VCD image files that could be handled with Toast. tMPEGenc is also a great mpeg encoder (it's the best!). It codes everthing from mpeg1 VCDs to mpeg2 SVCDs. Great quality with default settings. But if your input videos are prepared right (denoised, resized etc.) you get equaly good results with M.Pack. So you can choose between lomger preparation and shorter encoding on the Mac, or no preparation and longer encoding with tEMPEGenc and VirtualPC. I found out, that "HEURIS MPEG Power Pro" (a Mac program) makes Toast compatible mpeg files, although I haven't tested that, bacause I don't have that program. I also found the "Digigami MegaPEGB Demo" which makes Toast compatible files. I havn't fully tested it, because it's a Demo and I didn't buy the full program. There is also Media Cleaner, don't know anything about the new Version. Forget version 4. And I heard that there will be a Mac version of "Nero burning Rom" which can burn VCDs and alxo SVCDs. So all I can say: there's hope for the Mac comunity

-- Michael Strohm (MStrohm@t-online.de), November 15, 2000.

hope? hahahahahahah where??

-- Z (zhadum@softhome.net), March 04, 2001.