Converting VCD to MPG or AVI

[InvidWarrior]

Hey all if anyone could help me out here it's so much appreciated.
I have a VCD video of my wedding, (reciently just got married)
and the format they used to make this was a VHS camcorder, it still works so why spend the money for another cancorder?
Anyways, the format they made the video into is a VCD as in the Philippines they commonly use VCD systems, and as i got back to Canada and wanted to convert the files to MPG or AVI as so I can merge the two CDs together and make it as a DVD disc. I checked to see which format the VCD is and can't find out if it's PAL or NTSC. I did get the VCDs to copy some what as MPG but it plays only audio format as it states error code in finding the codec for the video. It was TMPGEnc ver. 2.59.47.155 an old copy I've got that I used to try. Any ideas? Thanks for the help and any info.

[megamachine]

VCD is MPEG-1 and the Philippines is NTSC, and so is Canada. However, if you want to make a DVD from this VCD, you have to convert it to MPEG-2. Some DVD authoring programs will accept MPEG-1 and do the conversion for you while authoring, so the first step is to select a DVD authoring program. Lot's of folks here use TMPGEnc DVD Author. (The TMPEGEnc 2.5 that you have is the MPEG encoder.) If your VCD movie files are still in the DAT format, you will first have to extract the MPEG-1 from that. Since you have TMPGEnc 2.5, you can use MPEG Tools - Merge and Cut to do that. Just load each DAT file into Merge and Cut, set it to MPEG-1, rename the files and run it. Then, just load the resulting MPEG-1 files into TMPEGENc DVD Author and continue authoring.

[InvidWarrior]

Converting VCD to MPG or AVI

I tried it and it sort of worked. The files were stable up to a point of 10 to 15 min into the mpg-1 file. What was happening is that the audio would keep running and the video part would freeze up and hold there. If I tried to click further ahead to fast forward to see if it was ok there, I would end up with a black blank screen and no audio then. Is there another program I can be able to use to do this?

[megamachine]

I am assuming this happened on the authored and burned DVD. Does it behave this way on your TV only, or does it also misplay on your PC? Did you test the playback from the VIDEO_TS folder before burning? The problem you describe sometimes happens when there is a PAL/NTSC mismatch, or it could be a problem in authoring or even burning, so trying the above might provide clues as to the cause. This is the only method that I have used, but I do recall seeing a guide that uses ISO Buster for a similar purpose, so you might want to seek that out on Google and try it.

[InvidWarrior]

Converting VCD to MPG or AVI

The file is located on the VCD in a folder called MPEGAV as a .DAT file. I converted it as you said to my HD and had it made as a mpg file. I went to play it off the HD 1st as to test it before I try to burn it. This video is new territory for me I just bought a camcorder for the trip to make sure I had lots for the family to see. You've helped me nicely. I thank you. This ISO buster, what kind of program is this?

[setarip]

"If I tried to click further ahead to fast forward to see if it was ok there, I would end up with a black blank screen and no audio then."
"I went to play it off the HD 1st as to test it before I try to burn it."

Sounds like your ORIGINAL VCDs are flawed...

[megamachine]

Setarip could be right, that your original VCD is flawed, in which case there is not much we can do. Try playing the original VCD on your TV or in a software player that handles VCDs (I use WinDVD at the moment). That will tell you if you the VCD itself is the cause of the problem. It not, then you can try these ISO Buster guides:

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/141726.php

http://www.digitalfaq.com/convert/vcdtodvd/vcdtodvd.htm