SVCD seek problem (Apex player)

[darkmoon]

I have an Apex AD-700 standalone player (down here they call them 'Hiteker' instead of 'Apex') and I can't seek within tracks on an SVCD.

I've made SVCDs with many different combinations of CBR and VBR MPEG2 parameters but, no matter what, I can't get the player to do random access inside a track. "Go to" doesn't work at all and fast forward just plays the first segment of the track at a higher speed, over and over again. The player plays tracks just fine and can handle seeking on DVDs and VCDs without a problem.

Any thoughts? Anyone seen this sort of problem before?

[Antonio S.]

What program you are using to make your SVCD ? NERO...

Antonio S.

[darkmoon]

It's a little more stupid than that. I have a pre-historic Philips CDD521 so what I do is:

Encode MPEG2 streams with TMPGEnc
Create BIN/CUE with VCDimager
Use Binchunker to split BIN into tracks
Burn tracks with Cequadrat WinOnCD

[Faceman101]

did you try to make chapters with VCDImager? my Apex 1500 will sometimes use them, sometimes not. your method of splitting the image can be your problem.

[24hourloop]

Originally posted by Faceman101
did you try to make chapters with VCDImager? my Apex 1500 will sometimes use them, sometimes not. your method of splitting the image can be your problem.
VCDImager / VCDEasy / DVD2SVCD all work fine on my APEX. Nero sux.

[darkmoon]

I'm using VCDImager, usually with a couple of separate tracks (one per MPEG2 file) and using BinChunker to split the resultant BIN/CUE because I have no other way of burning it.

As I said, this works fine for VCDs, I just can't seek (i.e. fast-forward) in an SVCD.

[svcd_guru]

I had similar problems. Try using vcdimager version 0.6.2 . The newer versions are screwed as far as creating scannable svcd's to use with an apex player.

[UT00475]

I use Nero last version to make SVCD or Video CD. My Philips Q50 DVD play with no problems DVD or VideCD but only can play the first 5 or 7 seconds of every SVCD track, then stop. Why? May I try to change my burning program? Problems with Nero? I can see it perfectly on my computer´s dvd. Nedd help, please.

[Bubba]

Darkmoon,

First of all, I have a SAMPO DVE-611, and I had the same problem as you have originally described (By the way, I used NERO to burn the SVCD):
* Fast-Forward just plays the first 30-40sec of the track at a higher speed over and over, again.
* "go-to" seems to perform a VCD "go-to"...You push go-to and enter 22:30 (22min 30sec), it jumps somewhere 18:30. The "22:30" seem to be a VCD time.

Anyway, lately after creating the SVCD MPEG file, I ran it through VCDEasy to create "Chapters". VCDEasy create a BIN/CUE file, and I burn it with CDRWin. Guess what? Everything work fine now. I can now Fast-Forward or Backward. The "Go-to" function jump to exatcly where I enter the "min-sec" mark, etc. And or course the "Next/Prev Chapter" work fine also.

My conclusion I guess is VCDEasy create a correct SVCD image while Nero doesn't?!!

Hope this will help.

Cheers,

[darkmoon]

Dang nabbit, I'm said I was using VCDImager (which is the backend to VCDEasy.) I've tracked down a copy of VCDImager 0.6.2 (http://www.vcdimager.org/pub/vcdimager/vcdimager-0.6/vcdimager-0.6.2.win32.zip) like svcd_guru said, but, unfortunately, I haven't had the time or the MPEG2 streams to test it yet.

(My dad has me encoding a 1923, black-and-white, silent version of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame he got on eBay. It's an EP NTSC tape and he wants it in a VCD flavour instead)

[disturbed1]

A couple of settings to try in VCD Imager,

Always include the seqment folder,

and try either MPEGAV/ENTRYSVD or MPEG2/ENTRYVCD for the settings.

These are easily set with VCDEasy.

My Apex needs an empty segment folder, else it doesn't play correctly.

[24hourloop]

Originally posted by Bubba
Darkmoon,
* Fast-Forward just plays the first 30-40sec of the track at a higher speed over and over, again.
* "go-to" seems to perform a VCD "go-to"...You push go-to and enter 22:30 (22min 30sec), it jumps somewhere 18:30. The "22:30" seem to be a VCD time.


Had the exact same problems. I believe the time offset is a 29.97/23.976 issue but not sure.

Using DVDSVCD with VCDxBUILD solved some of this for me. GOTO doesn't work but chapters and FF/FR. This is good enough for me as it allows me to get to pretty much any location in the movie quickly.

[darkmoon]

svcd_guru, you're my hero. VCDImager 0.6.2 worked like a charm - I can skip between chapters, as before, but also seek within tracks like I wanted to.

I also found out a couple of things about MPEG2 encoding with TMPGEnc - always encode as non-interlaced. That way you get all 50 fields (I'm in a PAL country) and you don't get the annoying vertical jittering that happens when playing back an interlaced encode. I capture live video (as in, directly from a camera, not off tape) using a miroStudio DC 10 Plus and VirtualDub, capturing half the horizontal resolution but full vertical. Then I use this handy AVISynth script to resize and swap fields:

AVISource("whatever")
SeparateFields
BilinearResize(480,288)
ComplementParity
Weave

[24hourloop]

Originally posted by darkmoon
[B]That way you get all 50 fields (I'm in a PAL country) and you don't get the annoying vertical jittering that happens when playing back an interlaced encode.

There are a lot of disadvantages to frame-based playback of originally interlaced material. Loss of motion detail is only one of them.

The jittery comes from either loss of proper interlace (if you resize etc.) or improper field order.

It takes some experimenting to get it right but the results beat deinterlaced material every time.