what software to use ?

[joycie]

I'd like to make a VCD which comprises of short clips fom a number of VCDs. I need to make some scrolling titles before each clip starts.
I have already have the short clips extracted fom various VCDs.
I tried using "Window movie maker" to add the scrolling titles but at the end of it, I could only save the file as "wmv", the file size becomes very small.
As I need the VCD to be viewed on VCD, may I know if anyone could recommend a software that will do a good job?

[djr33]

Why VCD? DVDs are quite popular as I'm sure you've noticed, and VCDs have never been very compatible... what would you play it with?

As for video editing.... there are a lot of options. Just use windows movie maker, and convert to a better format, like avi, which would likely be usable in your VCD maker.

I think that WMM can export at full quality DV, which is an avi file (on a pc, quicktime on a mac).
Huge file, but you could convert from there.

If you want a video converter, a company called Thugs at Bay (strange name, yes) makes a video editor called Zwei-Stein that can import/export wmv/avi/quicktime, so it's a nice converter.

[Twey]

If you want a video converter, a company called Thugs at Bay (strange name, yes) makes a video editor called Zwei-Stein that can import/export wmv/avi/quicktime, so it's a nice converter.mencoder from the mplayer package (http://mplayerhq.hu) can do this too.

[joycie]

Thank you. I have finished compiling. I still prefer VCD than DVD because some softwares that I use could only edit VCD files.

I am going to make copies of the VCD to a few friends. I am using NERO to burn copies. I understand one could do a setting during the burning process so that the copied one cannot be recopied.

Would appreciate if someone could help. Thanks.

[djr33]

Honestly, very few people even know what a VCD is. I doubt there would be much trouble with people ripping anything off it.

And, aside from that, yes, there is probably an option so you can try to protect the content, but there are also (yes, arguably illegal) programs that will still allow people to rip the content off.
People rip movies off pro DVDs. Yours certainly won't be more protected.

I really wouldn't worry about it.

Copyright law protects it, so if there is a major issue, you could sue, etc.

[the-disturbed]

i know i know....it stands for video compact disc, and yes thats all i know lmao

[djr33]

It's basically a CD acting as a DVD, that is not very compatible with players.
Generally, the only use I've ever seen for mass production of VCDs is karaoke. Y'know... the kind that displays text on the screen. The graphics are simple, so a lot of compression doesn't usually hurt.

[ItsMeOnly]

Uhm, lol "a CD acting as DVD" is rather unfortunate comparision: it's a CD that contains simple fixed bandwidth MPEG (not MPEG2, like on DVD) stream, holding up to 67 minutes of video+audio. VCD was the first, before DVDs came out, video medium for PC machines- as MPEG wasn't resource intensive to decode.

There's SVCD, which is basically a cut short DVD, but with VCD sector structure, it has vbr MPEG2 stream with multiple audio streams, and usually holds up to 80 mins of audio+video

BTW, I'm with Twey for mencoder- pretty bada** to use, because of commandline, but results are magnificent (and you can encode anything to anything)