Playing an SVCD?

[Terry Pinnell]

I recently made a 'video' of photos and music for my son and
daughter-in-law. I used a program I bought recently called
MemoriesOnTV, which allows 3 options for output: VCD, SVCD and DVD; I
chose SVCD, as I don't have a DVD writer on this XP PC.

The resultant CD-R played fine on my TV via my 2-year old DVD player.
But I was surprised to find that my son's DVD player could not play
it, presumably because, being older, it doesn't support SVCD. (No
mention of SVCD in the user guide.)

I then tried it on his XP PC, but WMP reported that it didn't have the
necessary decoder; so one possibility I'll pursue in other newsgroups
is to find a suitable decoder to achieve this. But is there any
freeware video viewer for he can use instead please?

 

[fathom]

I recently made a 'video' of photos and music for my son
and daughter-in-law. I used a program I bought recently
called MemoriesOnTV, which allows 3 options for output:
VCD, SVCD and DVD; I chose SVCD, as I don't have a DVD
writer on this XP PC.

The resultant CD-R played fine on my TV via my 2-year old
DVD player. But I was surprised to find that my son's DVD
player could not play it, presumably because, being older,
it doesn't support SVCD. (No mention of SVCD in the user
guide.)

I then tried it on his XP PC, but WMP reported that it
didn't have the necessary decoder; so one possibility I'll
pursue in other newsgroups is to find a suitable decoder to
achieve this. But is there any freeware video viewer for he
can use instead please?

If you look at the directory structure of the SVCD, you'll find
the actual movie file in \MPEG2\AVSEQ01.MPG

Copy that to the hard drive, and any software that can play an
mpg will work.

You might try Ace Divx Player or Ace Media Player. I like them
better than WMP.

http://www.gustosoft.com/

 

[Onno Voors]

WMP reported that it didn't have the
necessary decoder; so one possibility I'll pursue in other newsgroups
is to find a suitable decoder to achieve this

You'll need a software DVD player or an MPEG2 codec. Elecard has a freeware
one. There is more on www.videohelp.com.

 

[Mike S.]

I recently made a 'video' of photos and music for my son and
daughter-in-law. I used a program I bought recently called
MemoriesOnTV, which allows 3 options for output: VCD, SVCD and DVD; I
chose SVCD, as I don't have a DVD writer on this XP PC.

The resultant CD-R played fine on my TV via my 2-year old DVD player.
But I was surprised to find that my son's DVD player could not play
it, presumably because, being older, it doesn't support SVCD. (No
mention of SVCD in the user guide.)

I then tried it on his XP PC, but WMP reported that it didn't have the
necessary decoder; so one possibility I'll pursue in other newsgroups
is to find a suitable decoder to achieve this. But is there any
freeware video viewer for he can use instead please?

Media Player Classic

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358

 

[Terry Pinnell]

You'll need a software DVD player or an MPEG2 codec. Elecard has a freeware
one. There is more on www.videohelp.com.

Thanks both. I'm beginning to wonder whether the fundamental obstacle
might be the inability of my son's DVD player to handle MPEG2? I now
recall that my brief glance through its user guide mentioned MPEG1.
Probably a consequence of its being 6-7 years old.

On first installing MemoriesOnTV and creating my first video, I was
restricted to the VCD format, which was disappointingly fuzzy. I then
saw that if I bought the MPEG2 add-on I could use SVCD and get better
quality, which is what I did at once. (The SVCD quality is very much
better; I suspect the limiting factor for most images is the original
photo quality.)

If my analysis is right (I'll talk to my son within next day or two to
make sure), then presumably the only two routes open are
- I replace one of my two CD drives with a DVD writer
- He upgrades his (lounge) DVD player; I assume all modern ones
support both SVCD and MPEG2?

 

[q_dise]

To convert digital photos into SVCD and view them on TV, you may try
Photo2DVD application. It has a nice slideshow with music. It's not a
freeware, but it's inexpensive. Try it and see if fixed your need. Good
luck!

 

[Terry Pinnell]

To convert digital photos into SVCD and view them on TV, you may try
Photo2DVD application. It has a nice slideshow with music. It's not a
freeware, but it's inexpensive. Try it and see if fixed your need. Good
luck!

Thanks, but the software I just bought does that perfectly well.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Media Player Classic

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358

Thanks, I'll take a look at it.

 

[Onno Voors]

I'm beginning to wonder whether the fundamental obstacle
might be the inability of my son's DVD player to handle MPEG2?

A stand-alone player? In that case it can handle MPEG2, as DVD uses MPEG2
compression, but not all of such players support sVCD.

 

[Susan Bugher]

A stand-alone player? In that case it can handle MPEG2, as DVD uses MPEG2
compression, but not all of such players support sVCD.

listed on the links page: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/Links.php

VideoHelp.com
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php
DVD Player VCD;SVCD;CD-R/W;DVD±R/W Compatibility list

Susan