How to make a VCD disk using a Macintosh

May 24, 2005 12:08 AM

How do I make a VCD disk using the CD burner in my Powerbook? I have an .avi file that I would like to play on my DVD player, but I have no idea what's the best software to use for encoding, burning, etc.
posted by invisible ink to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Have you checked to see if your DVD player will play the AVI file natively? VCD's are a type of MPEG file, which means transcoding and generational loss. Better if you can just play the original file.
posted by nathan_teske at 12:12 AM on May 24, 2005

Toast 6 seems to have a habit of messing up the sync of the audio track with the video track, when making VCDs. I'd avoid it.
posted by AlexReynolds at 12:15 AM on May 24, 2005

Response by poster: nathan_teske- I'm a newbie at this, so bear with me:-) How can I tell if my DVD player will play the AVI file by itself?

AlexReynolds- thanks, you just saved me some $$$.
posted by invisible ink at 12:25 AM on May 24, 2005

I too would like an answer to this exact question...and my DVD player only plays CDs, VCDs & DVDs. No fancy DivX &c.
posted by i_cola at 1:16 AM on May 24, 2005

I asked the same question a little while ago here.

I ended up getting a friend with a dvd burner to burn the AVI to DVD which worked out..
posted by nonemoreblack at 1:27 AM on May 24, 2005

How can I tell if my DVD player will play the AVI file by itself?

If you still have the manual, look for supported formats; if you don't, just google for the model number and you'll probably find user reviews, model, specs etc.
posted by nathan_teske at 2:02 AM on May 24, 2005

Response by poster: nonemoreblack- I saw that thread, unfortunately all the software recommendations are for Windows.
posted by invisible ink at 2:39 AM on May 24, 2005

There seem to be a number of tools via versiontracker.

Not freeware - but certainly shareware there are a number of products that may work

This one works from an AVI file - iVCD
posted by filmgeek at 4:38 AM on May 24, 2005

There's a huge list of tools and articles on Videohelp. Mostly Windows-oriented, but there are Mac tools in there too.
posted by brownpau at 5:19 AM on May 24, 2005

I've used Toast to do this, but was so disappointed with the very poor quality of the VCD that I've never done it again. The only reason to do this is to save the difference in cost between a regular CD and a DVD, and now that DVD's are so inexpensive, I don't know what the point would be.
posted by HuronBob at 5:21 AM on May 24, 2005

I use ffmpegX for damn near everything related to video conversion.
posted by mrbill at 6:15 AM on May 24, 2005

ffmpegX is probably your best bet, but if you're cheap, MissingMediaTools might help, esp. MMT-EZ. I have almost gotten that one to work a couple of times.
posted by britain at 7:22 PM on May 24, 2005