Why VCDs apear to have 750mb of DATA?

When you are creating a DATA CDROM, you will note that there is a limit how much data you can store on a CD. The CD File System must divide the blank space up into clusters that are exactly 2048 bytes long. For a standard 640MB (or 74 minute) there are 335023 clusters on the blank CD-R. Therefore, the maximum amount of DATA that I can store on a standard CD-R is 686,127,104 bytes. If I copy the .DAT file of a VCD onto my hard disk, it will often be well over 700 MB! Note this is not using the special TDK extended capacity CD-Rs (www.tdk.com/n_80mincd.html)

It is because standard VCD format is dual-mastered: Like a Music CD, there are tracks that are NON-FileSystem tracks (a movie on VCD usually has only one track.) This "track" is not segmented into clusters. Because this track exists outside of a file system, a standalone VCD player does not need an "Operating system" to translate the CD File System into another file system (Like Microsoft's MSCDEX file translates the CDFS into a DOS File System). The VCD player would start reading track 1 like an Music CD player reads track one to play the first song.

"Dual Mastered" means that the file you see in the SEGMENT directory is just a "pointer" to the first track. What looks like a file on your computer is not really a normal DATA file at all. This is why it takes SO LONG to copy the file to your hard drive and also why you can get errors at the very end of the file copy.

Why do some VideoCD's look so lousy?

Bad MPEG encoding hardware, poor video sources, unskilled encoder operators, old technology, etc. are some of the reasons. As with any technology, there are always improvements as time goes on. A major problem is encoding that is done using 'preset' parameters only with no tweaking being done. Unfortunately, you just can't dump video through an MPEG1 encoder and expect to get a great picture out of it. As with anything, you get what you pay for. If you use good encoding hardware, from Beta Cam or better source and operate the encoding hardware properly, your clients will be amazed by VideoCD.

How to play a VCD movie?

You can use it with a VCD player connect with you TV, a computer with MPEG feature and a Pentium Base PC with Power VCD Player, Xing Mpeg Player, or Windows 95/98's Active movie player.

Where can I get a VCD Player software?

You can go to www.cyberlink.com.tw to download the PowerVCD, or www.xingtech.com to download XingMPEG Player. Note that Windows Media Player can also play VCDs..

Why my PC Hang when using a computer to see the VCD movie?

It sometime happened when the quality of the CD is not so good or your cd-rom is dirty.

Can I use my DVD player to play the VCD?

You can play VCD only in DVD that have dual lens (or comparable system). The point is: a DVD drive cannot read a cdr, so you need another (or a combo/modified/dual lens) pickup. In the specific case, Panasonic cannot read cdr. Sony and Pioneer yes. The more simple way is try with a cdr VideoCD  before buy.

Is VideoCD CD-i?

VideoCD 2.0 is a type of CD-ROM X/A Bridge Disc using audio and video formats from CD-i. VideoCD is a sister technology to CD-i, without the complex OS/9 authoring requirements. VideoCDs will generally play in CD-i players with a FMV (Full-motion Video cartridge). High-resolution stills do not display properly in CD-i players. Interactive CD-i CDs will not play in a Video1.1 or 2.0 CD player although CD-i movies will.