Problem copying VCD - Please Help!

[Karl Marks]

I have a couple of VCD'S I would like to copy. I tried using NERO 6.0 and CLONE CD, and I picked the lowest writing speed possible- X4.
Everytime I get a 'writing success' message, but when I play the VCD, the picture is extremely distorted and there are sound problems as well. The VCD is absolutly un-viewable.
What can I do to fix the problem?

(By the way, I tried copying from a 700MB CD to a 900MB CD, and from a 700MB CD to a 700MB CD, and I get the same results..)

[echooff]

Pull the vcd off as a image file. Use either iso, bin/cue, or nero's native nrg. Then burn it as a image. This should give you a perfect reproduction.

[Karl Marks]

Which software pulls out VCD into image files?

[echooff]

Nero

[Karl Marks]

Dear echooff,
I tried doing what you said, but I still get the same results. Maybe it's because I use VCDEASY to create chapters and Image file before burning my VCD'S. I don't know...

[smiller667]

What do you mean by "image distortions"? Data errors should manifest themselves in blocking or breakup of the image, not distortion.

VCDs do have error detection (but no correction), thus software like ConeCD or Isobuster should be able to tell you if the image was correctly created.

Adding chapters etc. in vcdeasy hasn't created problems for me.

[Karl Marks]

Smiller667

[Karl Marks]

Smiller667 - I can't find the exact words to explain the problem, but I'm sure you have seen something similar in the past: When I try playing the copied VCD I have just created, most of the picture is blocked by blurred pixels. The sound stops occasionally and there are loud squeaking noises that appear every couple of seconds.
I tried extracting the VCD to Image file with NERO and CLONECD, and nothing helped. I spent 10 900MB cd's already...

[smiller667]

OK, let's try to be systematic about this ... let's try to find out if it is a reading or a writing problem - or a problem with playback (what's your playback device, btw?).

I assume the original VCDs play just fine. Make a bin/cue image of the vcd using e.g. clonecd, vcdeasy. Now install daemon tools and mount that image. Use your software player and see if it plays OK.

If it doesn't, try a different drive or software for reading.

If it does play ok, then burning might be your problem. Try slower write speeds, and use a different cd-r brand. 90 min blanks are not necessarily the best. Consider trying a (fully erased) 700MB CD-RW.

Does it play OK? If no, try to rerip the vcd you just burnt and see if you can do so successfully. Errors here -> try a different combination of cd blank/write speed/writer.

If you can rerip successfully, then your playback device just doesn't like the brand of media.

[Karl Marks]

I created an image file from my VCD. I tried VCDEASY, NERO and CLONECD. DAEMON TOOLS was not able to mount any of that images except for the one extracted by CLONECD, and then it gave me the same contents of the VCD CD. Still - no VIDEO file what so ever...

[smiller667]

Hi,


no idea why daemon tools can't mount a nrg image (I don't do those, maybe it is a version problem). However, vcdeasy bin /cue images should be mountable in Daemon Tools. And yes, the idea of an "image" is to get an identical copy of a disc's content (so that you can then write that image to a blank disc, thus recreating the original disc).

Whatever, you are now apparently mainly interested in getting a video file (?). For a vcd, it usually resides in mpegav\avseqxx.dat. You can either convert this to an mpeg using cdxa2mpeg (e.g. in vcdeasy) or vcdgear, or burn it straight away in Nero.

Still, I originally thought you were interested in finding out what went wrong in your copying process?

Good luck,

Steve

[Karl Marks]

Steve,

I'm intrested in cloning a VCD. As simple as that. If DAEMON TOOLS gives me the exact contents of the VCD, I can only burn it as a DATA CD, and I'm not sure it will work as a VCD. I'll try though. I'll keep you noticed. Thanks a bunch for your help and patience.

[smiller667]

Hi,


sorry if I sounded a bit impatient :) ... if you can mount your image in daemon tools, you can use e.g. Nero's "copy" function and you will get a copy of your VCD.

My rather lengthy earlier posting was just aiming to identify the cause of your problem - basically at what stage you get the problems. Once you get an image on your harddisc, try to play that image using a software player and daemon tools. If that plays OK, you are not having a reading problem, but sth else at a later stage.

Steve

[LeonMcNichol]

VCDEasy rips to bin/toc and not bin/cue, but it also rips the contents of the vcd as well as the XML file. So in essence, you should be able to load the xml file in vcdeasy and get another cue/bin file. Don't forget to check the mpg files that were extracted. If they don't play right, then you probably have something wrong with your cd drive.

Alternatively, you can probably burn the bin/toc file using vcdeasy.

[ronnylov]

I had a SVCD that I could only read to an image file with Blindwrite suite. Then I used the VCDrip function in VCDEasy to extract the mpg file. I remuxed the file to compliant SVCD again and used VCDEasy to create a new disc which worked. Maybe you can use the same method on your VCD.

Have you tried Isobuster to extract your CD image with Isobuster?
Sometimes this program is good on reading scratched discs.