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View Full Version : MPEG stills without using VCDEasy


FredThompson
22nd June 2003, 00:22
VCDEasy can make single-frame MPEG stills which are very handy for menus. However, it wants a 640x480 source image which is then resized.

Well, what if you've got true resolutions like D1, 2/3 D1 or 1/2 D1?

Using VCDEasy requires resizing those twice; once to go to 640x480 then it resizes to 2/3 D1. (VCDEasy WILL accept proper source resolutions but then letterboxes and resizes to 704 wide. Thing is, 704 isn't always correct. It will slightly squash full frames like those from a camcorder.)

Is there a fairly easy to use, freely-available program to make proper stills? It would be really nice if such a program also generates an "empty" audio track so programs like Nero won't choke on the file.

This seems like a fairly easy thing to do, it's just an I-frame with an empty soundtrack. The program should take an image file as input and spit out a compliant MPEG-2 file.

Does anyone know of such a program and where to find it?

smiller667
23rd June 2003, 09:42
This link has a fairly detailed discussion about aspect ratios and the creation of stills: http://www.vcdimager.org/guides/mpeg_still_images.html ... it also has a link explaining how to make stills using the freeware Philips VCD toolkit (http://www.geocities.com/mikk999/VCDStills.htm).

FredThompson
23rd June 2003, 19:15
thanks