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Aminet 41 (2001)(Schatztruhe)[!][Feb 2001].iso
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VCDGear.lha
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VCDGear
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faq.txt
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2000-12-31
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Table of Contents
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linux / MacOS
1.1 - there's a little 'p' shaped symbol on the left side
1.2 - keeps saying that it can't find the file
1.3 - how do I create VCDs under the MacOS?
1.4 - I get invalid DAT signature when I use DAT-to-MPG
Windows 9X/NT/2k
...system
2.1 - does VCDGear work with AMD K6 chips?
2.2 - how fast does it usually take to process an entire file?
2.3 - can the speed of VCDGear be improved?
2.4 - can VCDGear take advantage of SMP? (multiprocessor)
...general information
3.1 - what is Track 0?
3.2 - what is a CD-i MPEG bumper sequence?
3.3 - what is the RAW format? Is it like a BIN/CUE?
3.4 - how does a DAT differ from MPEG?
3.5 - when should I use the RAW-to-MPG or RAW-to-DAT option?
...program information
4.1 - what do I use the Fix MPEG Errors (-fix) option for?
3.2 - what do I use the Remove CD-i MPEG Bumper for?
4.2 - what is the Force Sector Read/Write size (-r#### or -w####) for?
4.3 - what does the Join Tracks (GUI version) option do?
4.4 - what does the Include Track 0 option do?
...troubleshooting
5.1 - how do I get best MPEG output possible with least number of errors?
5.2 - I get large number of errors corrected when I use Fix MPEG Errors
5.3 - I get few errors corrected but output file is impossibly small
5.4 - slider moves in Media Player but video is frozen for couple seconds
5.5 - video suddenly stops and Media Player thinks video has ended early
5.6 - video plays but is cut off by black bars at top/bottom of window
5.7 - why does VCDGear cut the beginning/ends of the movie early?
5.8 - my VideoCD plays fine but ending frame is screwed up or is green
5.9 - why do garbled blocks appear every once in while on the video?
5.10 - double-clicked VCDGear in Windows Explorer, and it did nothing
5.11 - cannot create a SVCD image file with MPG-to-BIN
...miscellaneous
6.1 - will there be a Linux version of VCDGear?
6.2 - will there be releases for other operating systems?
6.3 - does VCDGear support long filenames?
6.4 - is there support for batch processing?
6.5 - is it normal for an extraction to not reach 100%?
6.6 - will there be an option for VOB-to-MPG in the future?
6.7 - will there be an option for recreating a BIN/CUE from an MPEG file?
6.8 - does VCDGear have a homepage?
-[1.1]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: How come there's a little 'p' shaped symbol on the left side during
processing?
A: Leave X-Windows or change your terminal type.
-[1.2]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: It keeps saying that it can't find the file. What's wrong?
A: Make sure you spell the filename correctly. Also note that Linux is
case-sensitive.
-[1.3]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: How do I create VCD images on the MacOS that are writable with Toast?
A: Apparently there is an issue regarding Toast only accepting MPacked files
so there is a slight problem trying to create VCD images. However, upon
browsing some forums, a clever method of creating a VCD was posted -- this
will be posted below.
Currently I have obtained sample Toast/MPacked files so look forward to a
future release that will allow ability to write compatible Toast/MPacked
outputs. Hopefully this will make VCD creation easier on the Mac platform.
Dec. 30, 2000 UPDATE: Toast output has been implemented into v1.6c!
Here's the clip from a forum as posted by Jeffrey Johnson on ripdifferent.com
"<snip> After compressing your MPEG-1 video and
audio and the resulting file plays properly for you in
QuickTime, you have two options. The first is to write out
a VCD1.1 disc.
You can take VCD Gear 1.6a (available from vcdgear.com) and
convert .mpg to .raw. The resulting output (which only works
on 1.6a... Get-Info shows 1.6, the a is shown during conversion)
is two files: VCD_000.001 and VCD_000.002 for example. There
will be a smaller track, 1 to 8MB, and a 500+MB track.
Load up Toast 4.1 or higher, select "CD-ROM XA Multitrack",
make sure Audio isn't selected, and click on "Add...". Add
the small track as track #1, and the large track as track #2.
Burn the resulting image to disc. If you exit Toast or save
the file as a Toast Image, toast will refuse to load it up
again, stating it isn't an Astarte Toast-ready format file.
The resulting VCD was identified as a VCD1.1-complaint disc,
and played properly in my Philips-Magnavox DVD Player, using
standard CD-R media. You'll need CD-RW to play on Sony and
Toshiba DVD players that support VCD playback. <snip>"
-[1.4]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: I get invalid DAT signature when I use DAT-to-MPG
A: This is most likely due to the fact that Microsoft adds a special header
when you first read in the DAT file off the CD. This header probably
is not present on the Mac platform.
During DAT-to-MPEG conversion, there is code in VCDGear to look for this
header so it fails on the Mac. The solution is to simply choose the
RAW-to-MPEG option. Turn on Fix MPEG Errors and optionally leave the
Remove CD-i Bumper option on default (or change if you need to).
Turn on Force Read -- set it to 2352. Turn on Force Write -- set it to 2324.
Hopefully you shouldn't run into any problems after that.
-[2.1]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Does VCDGear work with AMD K6 chips?
A: There should not be any problems at all, however, I have heard a report of
the non-GUI version running into problems with a K6-400 (o/c).
Unfortunately, I have not heard from that person since so I do not know.
For the rest of the AMD crowd, VCDGear seems to work just fine. If you do
run into a problem, please contact me.
-[2.2]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: How fast does it usually take to process an entire file?
A: This depends on the following factors:
1) which option you pick
2) how big the source file is
3) how fast your system is (mainly hard drive and CPU dependent)
4) where the source file is located
Depending on what options you pick, some may be faster than others. Turning
on additional options such as Fix MPEG Errors will slow down the processing.
Also, the larger the source file, the longer it will take. VCDGear depends
heavily on how fast your system is -- but mainly the hard drive and CPU. A
fast bus would be nice and perhaps even a SCSI or a high speed IDE. If the
source file is located on a CDROM, expect the time to be much longer than if
the file was on the hard drive.
On average, it would take around 5-6 minutes to handle a full CD image on a
Pentium II and a regular IDE hard drive.
-[2.3]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Can the speed of VCDGear be improved?
A: Perhaps, but not without rewriting important sections of the code and
duplicating a lot of it as well. This would be difficult to manage the
program when it comes to adding new features and/or making fixes. Most of
the loss of speed is due to the checking code while the file is being
processed. If all the checking code was removed, you most likely will not
notice much improvement... and of course, VCDGear will not work properly =)
-[2.4]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Can VCDGear take advantage of SMP? (multiprocessor)
A: If you run many CPU intensive programs in the background, VCDGear will run
fine on SMP and it should not take up a large load. However, if you do not
have SMP, VCDGear will take up a reasonable load. But having more than one
processor will not double or triple the speed at which VCDGear runs.
I suggest that you select the priority level (with GUI VCDGear 2.0) that you
want VCDGear to run at. That way, you can balance how much processing power
you want over speed (depending on how many tasks you are running in the
background).
-[3.1]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What is Track 0?
A: On a VideoCD disc, there is physically no such thing as Track 0. Video
tracks begin on Track 2 and the file directory info is on Track 1. However,
when VCDGear reads in the CUE file, the first video track will been named
Track 1. Thus, Track 0 is the file directory.
Track 0 may also contain the CD-i MPEG bumper sequence in case you are
interested in extracting it. WinOnCD/VideoPack will place the bumper in
this area.
-[3.2]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What is a CD-i bumper? What does the Remove CD-i Bumper option (-nobumper)
option do?
A: A CD-i MPEG sequence is often applied by any VideoCD writing program.
WinOnCD and VideoPack have this capability and possibly even Adaptec VCD
Creator. A CD-i bumper is simply an MPEG sequence that is placed in the
first track of a VideoCD. The reason being that a CD-i player will always
play this MPEG sequence first.
Unfortunately, this MPEG bumper causes problems for software players. Some
symptoms include player lockups, early ending time, slider freeze, top
and/or bottom of video getting cut off by black bars, and a/v sync problems.
All these problems are possibly related to the MPEG sequence having a
different packet size. The packet size of the bumper most likely does not
match that of a VideoCD. While the software player is able to play the
bumper, as soon as the movie comes up, the packet size changes and this is
probably the main reason why all the problems occur.
VCDGear 2.0 now has a Remove CD-i Bumper option that is supposed to fix the
problem. Users using the non-GUI version of VCDGear will find a similar
option (-nobumper).
-[3.3]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What exactly is this RAW format? Is it like a BIN/CUE?
A: First of all, a BIN is an image of a CD. The CUE file that accompanies a
BIN tells where the tracks of the CD are located within the BIN image. As a
result, you can have many tracks all stacked upon each other written in
different modes -- and you can still recreate the original CD as long as the
CUE file exists.
A RAW file is also an image file, not as an entire CD, but rather just a
single track.
NOTE: VideoPack generates CD images with a .RAW extension -- this is a
track image. VCDGear will be able to extract your MPEGs from these files
using the RAW track image to MPEG (-raw2xxx).
You might run into problems with this option if the RAW track image includes
a CD-i bumper sequence generated by WinOnCD/VideoPack. With VCDGear 2.0 and
1.5, there is an option to remove the CD-i bumper and theoretically should
be able to handle the problem.
People who have used BinChunker should recognize RAW track images as a .TAO
or .MM2 file. This is exactly the same thing. A RAW track image does not
contain multiple tracks so a CUE file is not necessary.
-[3.4]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: How does a DAT differ from MPEG?
A: A DAT file is basically an MPEG file with the exception that it is bigger -
but for a good reason. A DAT file contains extra information inside such as
error correction information and extra sector information, but it also
contains the MPEG stream. The MPEG file, of course, does not contain all
the extra data that a DAT contains and is smaller.
-[3.5]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: When should I use the RAW-to-MPG or RAW-to-DAT option?
A: You should use this when you have a VideoCD track image that does not have
its own CUE file.
NOTE: this should be a LAST RESORT option because it may not work for ALL
VideoCDs (most have worked for me, others have not).
This option can also be used for a BIN/CUE file. If you are missing the CUE
index file, try to get the CUE file before attempting the RAW-to-MPEG/DAT
option. The CUE file is more accurate at pin-pointing where the MPEG data
is located.
-[4.1]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What do I use the Fix MPEG Errors (-fix) option for?
A: The -fix option makes sure that your output MPEG file won't have broken
blocks. Usually players can handle files with broken(missing) MPEG
blocks but I don't know how this will affect the sync timings. I have been
told that this option fixes the "slider problem" in the Microsoft Media
Player. This may also fix up some areas where screen artifacts, or
a sudden display of coloured blocks appear on the screen for no reason.
-[4.2]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What do I use the Force Sector Read/Write size (-r#### or -w####) option
for?
A: This option is used only if you have a track image that does not include a
CUE file and it has a non-standard sector size.
Example: If your track image was written with 2336-bytes/sector, you would
type in the non-GUI VCDGear:
vcdgear -raw2xxx -r2336 inputfile outputfile
If you are using VCDGear 2.0, you can simply checkmark the box and enter in
the value.
If the image does have a CUE file, don't worry about this option. You won't
need it -- just stick with the usual CUE-to-DAT/CUE-to-MPG options.
-[4.3]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What does the Join Tracks (GUI version) option do?
A: The option allows you to join multiple tracks to one continuous file. In
theory, this should work :) But I have not tested this feature extensively.
-[4.4]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What does the Include Track 0 option do?
A: The Track List will not display the Track 0 information as it may cause some
confusion between some people. However, if you wish to display it...
perhaps for the reason of extracting an MPEG stream from it, you can turn on
this checkbox to include Track 0 into the Track List.
-[5.1]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: How do I get the best MPEG output possible from an extraction with the least
number of errors possible?
A: With VCDGear 2.0, enable the Fix MPEG Errors option. Depending on some
MPEGs, you might have to enable Remove CD-i Bumper option (please read up on
what this option does and when to properly use it).
With VCDGear 1.5 (non-GUI), use the following command at the DOS prompt:
vcdgear -xxx2mpg -fix inputFile outputFile
where the 'xxx' represents the first three characters for the type of input
file - which is either 'cue', 'raw', 'dat', or 'cif'. Upon completion,
the number of errors will be reported.
NOTE: This will NOT fix corrupt data in your MPEG stream. (Usually causes
the playback software to lock-up or crash). Please use a separate
program such as VCDCutter or Pixeltools MPEG Repair to remove the
areas with problems.
-[5.2]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: I just used the Fix MPEG Errors (-fix) option and it reported 123823 (or
some other REALLY large number) MPEG sections fixed! Is there something
wrong here?
A: First see if the MPEG is playable. If you notice that there are problems
playing the file back, then there are three possible causes:
1) Your source file is not MPEG-1 - e.g. trying to use VCDGear with an
MPEG-2 VOB file.
2) Your file is an MPEG-1 system stream that is not VideoCD compatible
due to different packet sizes. If you have preprocessed your file
using WebFlix, the resulting MPEG file will not be Whitebook
compatible and running VCDGear with your MPEG file will cause more
problems.
3) Your valid MPEG file contains a LOT of errors!
-[5.3]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: I just used the Fix MPEG Errors (-fix) option and it reported 3 (or some small
number) MPEG sections fixed but my final output file is too small.
A: There are 2 possible causes:
1) VCDGear could only locate 3 MPEG headers. If your source file is
large in size, then apparently *most* of your source file did not
contain any MPEG information.
2) The source file may not be an MPEG file
-[5.4]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: How come the slider moves in Media Player but the video doesn't? The video
appears to stay frozen for a couple seconds?
A: It is probably because of the extra data it has to process in a DAT file.
This can happen especially when using RAW-to-DAT (see why it is a last
resort?) because it doesn't really know where the DAT truly starts/finishes.
There is no CUE file to help VCDGear determine where to start/stop
processing.
The better solution is to use the RAW-to-MPG option instead. It uses a
smart search to locate the MPEG header rather than guessing. Also, you
might want to turn on the Fix MPEG Errors (-fix) option.
-[5.5]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: The video was playing and then suddenly stops. Media Player thinks the
video has ended but it's nowhere near the end. How can I fix that?
A: The most likely problem here is because there might be a CD-i bumper in your
MPEG file. Try to see if you can remove it first. You might also want to
try enabling the Fix MPEG Errors option too.
-[5.6]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: The video plays but seems like the video is messed up. There are some black
bars at the top/bottom and it's on top of the video so some of the video is
getting cut off. How can I fix that?
A: First of all, this question does not mean "widescreen". Again, the most
likely cause of this is that there is a CD-i bumper in your file. Try to
remove it and you might want to enable the Fix MPEG Errors option as well.
-[5.7]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Why does VCDGear cut the beginning/ends of the movie early?
A: First of all, I am assuming that the movie has been encoded properly and it
is not the person who encoded the video that cut the ends too quickly (e.g.
to skip the credits because there wasn't enough space).
There have been a few reports about this problem but unfortunately, I have
been unable to trace this problem since it has never happened to me. What I
can recommend is try all the options. Try extracting the movie with the Fix
MPEG Errors (-fix) options turned on, and also try extracting it without the
fix options. Then compare the output... are they both still missing the
beginning/end? Also you might want to try comparing the output of a DAT and
the output of an MPG.
-[5.8]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: My VideoCD plays fine... even the ending, but sometimes the ending frame is
screwed up or is green. What's going on?
A: This green part is the junk that is not part of the MPEG. Turn on the Fix
MPEG Errors (-fix) option to correct this problem.
-[5.9]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: What are those little garbled blocks that appear every once in while on the
video?
A: Corrupted data within the MPEG stream usually cause garbled blocks to
appear. Sometimes these can be corrected by enabling the Fix MPEG Errors
(-fix). If you already have the file in .MPG format, you can try
reprocessing it using the MPG-to-MPG option.
-[5.10]------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: I picked up a version of VCDGear, double-clicked it in Windows Explorer, and
it did nothing. A quick black box popped up, but then closed. Why is it?
A: What you have is a console version of VCDGear and runs using the command
line. To run it, you must access it by going to Start -> Programs ->
MS-DOS Prompt. From there, you will be able to run VCDGear with the
appropriate command line.
-[5.11]------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: I can't create a SVCD (MPEG-2) image with MPG-to-BIN!
A: As of version 1.6 of VCDGear, MPG-to-BIN does not yet support SVCDs,
but it can, however, create VCD images. SVCDs are in the To Do list
and will hopefully be implemented in future releases.
-[6.1]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: When are you going to release a Linux version of VCDGear?
A: Ports of VCDGear to Linux and other *nix operating systems have already been
done and can be downloaded from the homepage at http://www.vcdgear.com.
-[6.2]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Will there be releases for other operating systems?
A: A list of what it has been ported to is available so please check the
homepage. If there is something you'd like to see, please let me know.
-[6.3]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Does VCDGear support long filenames?
A: As of version 1.4, VCDGear does support long filenames in both Win9X/NT/2k.
-[6.4]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Is there a way I can get my VideoCD(s) that I just downloaded, extracted and
ready to play without having to be beside the keyboard? In otherwords,
batch processing.
A: The slickest utility for that is available with VCDGear 1.4 (Linux). Check
out the awesome VCDMan program coded by malloc. It can unrar->sfv->vcdgear
your VideoCDs (Yes! Batch process too!) without the need for you to be
there. Please check his documentation file to find more info about it.
For Linux only.
-[6.5]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Is it normal for an extraction to not reach 100% when it's finished?
A: Yes, it is possible for the percentage to not reach 100% even though the
entire MPEG has been extracted. It all depends on how big the source file
is. Under normal circumstances, it should usually hit somewhere near
98%-100%.
-[6.6]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Will there be an option for VOB-to-MPG in the future?
A: No, there are no plans to incorporate option. There are some programs
already available to do such a thing so you'll need to go search for it.
-[6.7]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Will there be an option for recreating a BIN/CUE from an MPEG file?
A: This option has been implemented starting from version 1.6 of the console
release, and version 2.5 of the GUI release.
-[6.8]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Does VCDGear have a homepage?
A: Yes, it is at http://www.vcdgear.com. Thanks to X69 for hosting the site
for everyone!
... oh my gosh! we've got a reader! :)