Burning a VideoCD using Nero Burning ROM

Introduction	DVD DIGEST

VideoCD (VCD) is the predecessor to DVD, and exists on CD media. Most DVD players will support the playback of VCDs, although not all DVD players can playback CD-Rs (check your player's manuals for more information).

This guide is intended to teach you how to burn a MPEG-1 MPG file onto a CD-R to make a VCD.

Requirements	DVD DIGEST

Software :

• Nero Burning ROM

Hardware :

• CD Writer
• Blank CD-R (650 MB or 700 MB)

Instructions	DVD DIGEST

1. Ensure your MPG file is MPEG-1 and VCD compliant. In order for your MPEG-1 file to be VCD compliant, it must have one of the following properties (although it may still work in your VCD player if it doesn't follow these standards, it cannot be guaranteed) :
   
   

   Video System	Resolution (width x height):
   NTSC	352x240
   PAL	352x288

   
   
   To check which type of MPEG-1 file you have, load it into a DVD player like PowerDVD or WinDVD and check the information that is displayed in the "information" section of these players.
   
   
   
   If your MPEG-1 file is not VCD compliant, you will have to re-encode it so that it is (eg. using TMPGEnc). Please refer to this guide for more information on how to do this.





2. Start up Nero Burning ROM and you should be presented with "New Compilation" dialog box.
   
   



3. From the left hand side, choose the Video-CD compilation option.





4. Most of the other options are optional can be left alone if you don't really care about making menus, or burning other files onto the VCD. I'll just go through some of the more important options :
   • Video CD window
     • Encoding resolution : make sure you select the correct video system to match your MPG file
     • Create standard compliant CD : enable this option if you want Nero to scan your MPG file to check for VCD compliancy (see above)
   • Burn
     • Finalize CD : enabling this option means you can no longer write to the CD afterwards
     • Write Method : choose "Disc-At-Once" mode
   
   
   Press the "New" button to create the compilation.





5. Locate your MPG file from the File browser on the right hand side, and drag the MPG file to the left hand side into (see picture below).
   
   





6. Nero Burning ROM will scan your MPG file to make sure it is VCD compliant (see above), and will only let you burn a VCD if the file is compliant, or you turn off the "Create standard compliant CD" option.
   
   





7. You can drag as many MPG files as you wish (the MPG files must all be the same type/properties), and each MPG file will represent a track on your VCD (which can be forwarded/rewinded to using the DVD/VCD player's skip track button). You can right click on the individual track titles and select the properties option - here, you can select how much of a pause you want after each track. Note that there may be a pause anyway going from one track to another even if you select 0 seconds as the pause duration, and this is most likely due to your DVD/VCD player's track seeking time.
   
   





8. You can burn around 70 minutes of video per 650 MB CD-R, so don't worry if the file sizes are over the stated capacity of your CD-R.





9. When you have finished, go to the "File" menu and select the "Write CD" option to burn your VCD.