I've searched the questions (and answers) all day, and have been unable to find a possible solution to my problem. System: Dell PIII @600 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 30GB system HDD and 45 GB Video HDD (data only). Software in subject line. Sony TRV 310 Digital 8 camcorder with firewire connection and board as supplied by Dell. No problems capturing, editing, producing DV and putting back out to camera. Now its time to produce VCD's. I produce movies using VCD MPEG1 template supplied with VideoWave - they show fine on PC (of course). Adaptec VCD creator indicates a problem with all mpeg files when I "validate VCD layout", prior to burning, but gives no indication as to source/fix for problem. Of course, the burned CD does not contain any files of significant size (eg. 10 minute movie)I tried encoding files using TMPGEnc (Starting with DV as produced by Videowave, and MPEG1 as well) and Adaptec returns same error message. Any suggestions? Thanks

-- Phil (themountains@juno.com), January 29, 2002

Answers

Download a demo copy of Nero burning software at www.ahead.de. You can use it for 30 days without restrictions. Try to make a VCD with it and see what it says. If Nero has problems with your file, it may give a helpful error message. I do have a suggestion - get a copy of TMPGenc (www.tmpgenc.com or www.tmpgenc.net) and demultiplex and re-multiplex your recorded video to VCD format. It could be that Video Wave is not really recording VCD compliant video and a demux/remux might fix your problems if the audio and video bit rates are OK. VCD requires the muxed stream to be put together in a certain way and perhaps Video Wave is a little off. EZ CD Creator is not a very good program, by the way. I know you will not be happy to read that, but give Nero a shot. You may like it more and Nero has some nice features like support for overburning that EZ CD Creator does not support.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), January 30, 2002.

www.geocities.com/aussie01au; now that you're FireWire the best platform as any for what you want to do will have Adobe Premiere6, the latest TMPGenc, the frame-serving free program AVISynth, and Nero. Flush that Easy CD down the toilet while you're at it.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), January 31, 2002.

Thanks Jason & Turk for the info. I've downloaded a Nero trial version and will give it a try this weekend. I have tried TMPGenc (from www.tmpgenc.net - the latest version (2.51)), and get the same error with adaptec EZCD - from numerous other posts on this forum and MGI's website, it appears that EZCD is the culprit - hence additional evidence to try Nero. I will also try using it to demultiplex and remultiplex video. I can't afford Adobe Premiere, but there other Videowave users appear to be having success with VideoFactory 2.0 (www.sonicfoundry.com)which I will also try a demo of. Your responses raise two other questions however: (1) Does anybody know if Videowave makes mpeg1's exactly "White book" compliant?(using the "Video for CD-NTSC" template); and (2) What is purpose of AVISynth? this appears to be a command line program that would make TMPGEnc redundant. Thanks again

-- Phil (themountains@juno.com), February 01, 2002.

Additional info to above - From numerous posts on MGI website, it also appears that VideoFactory 2.0 (and other software) does away with audio/video synchronization problem that VideoWave introduces into long (6min+) videos. Looking forward to trying these solutions.

-- Phil (themountains@juno.com), February 01, 2002.

AVISynth, far from making TMPgenc redundant, in fact makes it MORE relevant where Premiere is concerned. Ordinarily, to encode the timline contents of a Premiere project to MPEG-1/2 one would have to use an earlier installed MPEG encoder plug-in, like those from Ligos LSX or Panasonic. This is why, do note, you WILL find that for example for Panasonic, THERE IS a stand-alone version, and there is a Premiere plug-in. There plug-ins are essentially frame-serving programs that allow Premiere to output in MPEG DIRECTLY, without having to create an intermediate AVI file first (which, in an indirect manner, also gets past the 2GB or 4GB Windows filesize limitation) and then submitting that file as source to a stand-alone encoder. UNFORTUNATELY, NO specific Premiere plug-in was written for TMPGenc (not surprising because that would have required paying Adobe, etc., etc., which is NOT, at this point viable because TMPGenc IS FREE) and so we are faced with how to encode to MPEG the timeline contents of a Premiere project using the superb capabilities of TMPGenc. AVISynth is a scripting program that frameserves from Premiere to TMPGenc and therefore does away with this problem, allowing all of us to infinitely increase the abilities of a standard NLE that Premiere is, and keeping such expensive and exclusivistic program makers for Heuris and CinemaCraft on their feet. Now if only someone would come up with a reasonably-priced s/w Dolby Digital encoder plug-in to work in tandem with Premiere, TMPGenc, and AVISYnth.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), February 02, 2002.

By the way, the MPEG encoding engine included with VideoWave is a version of Ligos LSX that produces MPEGs that range in quality from merely so-so to downright pukey. You can, of course, output to another DV AVI file before encoding with TMPGenc but not if VideoWave will create type-1 DV, which TMPGenc may have difficulty accepting. Premiere's adherence to VfW legacy in the form of its insistence on DV AVI type-2-only operations have been derided in other quarters but it is that fact that makes it stable in Windows, which, for better or for worse is still what most of us have to use for OS.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), February 02, 2002.