VCDEasy Mini-FAQ

This FAQ is based on VCDEasy v1.0.7.

Note: Do NOT e-mail me asking for technical support. I make no warranties or guarantees as to the correctness of this information. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. This is not an "official" FAQ and is not endorsed by the author of VCDEasy.

What is VCDEasy?

VCDEasy is the best VCD authoring program... period. Nothing else compares. VCDEasy is also freeware! Download it now and smack yourself for even thinking of making VCDs with a lesser program.

Great! Where can I download VCDEasy?

http://www.vcdhelp.com/vcdeasy.htm#download
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/vcdimagereasy.html (mirror)

What does this Mini-FAQ focus on?

This Mini-FAQ focuses on a frustrating issue involving seemingly bad VCD discs produced by VCDEasy. I say "seemingly" since I have concluded that VCDEasy actually does a perfect job and there is nothing "bad" about the resulting discs.

But I don't have any problem with the discs VCDEasy produces?

Then why are you reading a FAQ if you don't have problems? Maybe your time is better spent elsewhere.

Yeah. VCDEasy gives me bad VCDs that don't work in my CD-ROM drive. I just moved on to a better program. I guess you get what you pay for, right?

Wrong, fool. First, there is no "better" program. VCDEasy is nice and self-contained. VCDEasy is far less likely to replace system files and cause your E: drive to be formatted at midnight on 2/2/02 because of an alleged conflict with your keyboard. Most likely the issue with your "bad" VCD was actually a result of VCDEasy's comprehensive feature support - specifically, support for CD-i.

I have seen the error of my ways. Enlighten me further.

I downloaded VCDEasy recently and was blown away. Everything I needed was there. I proceeded to create my first VCD. In version 1.0.7, CD-i support is enabled by default. I added three MPEG1 files to the "track" list and proceeded to burn. Everything seemed to go fine on the first try. WOW! I immediately popped the VCD into my CD/DVD-ROM drive and played it with PowerDVD.

Video. Check. Sound. Check. Hideous MPEG1 quality. Check. Add a DVD recorder to my list of items to purchase. Check.

I then fired up DiscJuggler (my trusty CD copying/mastering software), stuck a blank CD in my CD writer, and proceeded to copy the VCD directly from my CD/DVD-ROM to my CD writer.

"Dum dee do dum. Man, I'm good. I just downloaded VCDEasy 15 minutes ago and I'm already making a duplicate of my first VCD. Maybe I should research cold fus... holy shimmering Thunderlizards! What's this?!" There, staring at me on the screen, was every CD duplicator's worst nightmare - bad blocks. What?! How?! But... ?!

My first instinct was, naturally, to blame VCDEasy. "What a crappy piece of software," I thought. This Mini-FAQ should've been around so I could have immediately slapped myself and started to troubleshoot the problem. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, I started looking for other programs. "Hmmm. This freeware here seems nice. Let's click on this screenshot link... woah!" I exclaimed as I frantically reached for my browser's Back button. Truly an interface only a mother could love. "Maybe I should just buy another commercial package that supports VCD authoring. Ah, here's a nice looking program. Let's click this Pricing link... scroll down... blink... blink again..."

After deciding that I really did want both my kidneys, I had no choice but to continue my search for freeware. "Why not give VCDEasy another try?" I asked myself. Finally, a voice of reason in all this chaos. I proceeded to read the VCDEasy FAQ; then I read the VCDEasy web page in its entirety. What's this? VCDEasy was written in Delphi. Everyone knows that Pascal is the bestest best language in the whole wide world and that Delphi is the best IDE ever. Why, I hear that assembly programmers cringe in fear when a Pascal programmer walks by. Clearly, VCDEasy could not be at fault.

"So, what is the problem?" I pondered. After much headbanging, and threatening myself that I would wipe my Windows 2000 installation and switch to Linux if I didn't figure this out, I cooled down and proceeded in an orderly fashion.

I didn't ask for an auto-biography. This is a Mini-FAQ. Get to the point.

My, aren't we impatient. Anyway, first I tried to copy all the files on the VCD disc to a temporary folder on my hard drive. Remember, this was under Windows 2000. I received the following error dialog every time I attempted the copy operation:

Error Dialog

That's funny. Weren't we supposed to believe that there was no DOS residue in the NT family? So I searched on the error in the Microsoft Knowledge Base and here's what I came up with:

MSKB Article Q155120 [cached]

That's nice, but I don't use NT 4.0 Workstation. I use Windows 2000 Professional. "Maybe this has something to do with the fact that I upgraded my NT 4.0 Workstation installation to Windows 2000 Professional," I thought to myself. "I knew I should've just installed clean." Or maybe Microsoft had just not updated the article to include Windows 2000 in the list of affected operating systems. After all, Windows 2000 is based on NT technology.

I was doing it again. I was making a simple problem complicated. The next step was to search Google Groups. Doing so yielded some interesting results:

VCD Format in W2k Help? [cached]
Can;t view .DAT Video File [cached]

Well, it seemed like it was a Windows 2000 issue, so I booted into Windows 98 to test my luck. The VCD miraculously worked perfectly under Windows 98 and I proceeded to make a copy. "Typical Microsoft," I grumbled for about the 728th time. The copy came out perfect. Well, problem solved, right? Wrong!

I booted back into Windows 2000. The plan was to burn VCDs in Windows 2000 and then boot into Windows 98 if I ever wanted to duplicate. I authored 3 more VCDs and I wanted to duplicate one of them so I booted into Windows 98, fired up DiscJuggler, click, click, click, and... NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Now I was mad. I was gonna friggin decompile system EXEs and DLLs if I had to. I attempted to play the VCD under PowerDVD and, as one of the newsgroup posters had experienced in a linked posting above, this time PowerDVD locked up. There was definitely some fundamental issue that was common to Windows 98 and Windows 2000. On a hunch, I put the VCD into my CD Writer and... everything was perfect. Hmmm... maybe VCDEasy was to blame. I quickly remembered my Oath of Allegiance to Pascal and removed these blasphemous thoughts from my head. I made a duplicate (under Windows 2000) using just my CD writer, knowing full well that the original might be bogus.

I slept.

The next morning I had another hunch, I tested the VCD on my test workstation running Windows 95. Perfect. Tested it on my sister's computer, also running Windows 95. Again, no problems. I tested all the VCDs I had authored the day before on these two systems. Flawless. Maybe I was dreaming. So I did what I always do when I know I'm dreaming and I wanna wake up - I tumbled down the stairs. Nope. Definitely not dreaming. I hobbled to a friend's house and tested the VCDs on his computer under Windows Me. Beautiful. Tested on another friend's brand spanking new Windows XP workstation. No problems here.

I had finally solved the problem. My CD/DVD-ROM drive was apparently incompatible with VCD discs. I would have jumped up and down, but I had sacrificed my back for the greater good. Later I was able to narrow the issue down to a combination of CD-i support and my CD/DVD-ROM drive (see below). VCD discs without CD-i support work fine.

What are the results of your final tests?

VCDEasy v1.0.7   [Test Results]
OS: Windows 2000 Professional
CD Writer: SONY CD-RW CRX100E
CD/DVD-ROM Drive: HITACHI DVD-ROM GD-7000
Standalone VCD Player: Kingwon VCD/MP3/CD (KW-870V)
VCD 2.0 w/ CD-i: CD/DVD-ROM Drive: ERROR
Standalone VCD Player: OK
VCD 2.0 w/o CD-i: CD/DVD-ROM Drive: OK
Standalone VCD Player: OK
VCD 1.1 w/ CD-i: CD/DVD-ROM Drive: ERROR
Standalone VCD Player: OK
VCD 1.1 w/o CD-i: CD/DVD-ROM Drive: OK
Standalone VCD Player: OK
Comments:
    • I believe this test supports my assertion that the combination
      of CD-i support and CD/DVD-ROM drive is to blame.
    • In rare circumstances, instead of an "Invalid MS-DOS function"
      error, EXPLORER.EXE would crash.
    • As stated earlier, sometimes VCDs w/ CD-i support would work
      under Windows 98, but this was very rare.
    • The CD/DVD-ROM drive was purchased through retail and was
      packaged under the PINE brand name.
    • FYI: The Kingwon VCD/MP3/CD Player is PAL only (imported from
      Hong Kong).

What's all this I hear about SCSI1HLP.VXD?

You can read about it here: http://www.vcdhelp.com/plaympg.htm#playproblem [cached]

All my tests under Windows 98 were run with SCSI1HLP.VXD present, but I still had problems when using CD/DVD-ROM drives that allegedly do not support CD-i discs. However, if you have a CD-i compatible CD-ROM drive, and SCSI1HLP.VXD is "disabled", then "enabling" the VXD may help you out. For the record, my testing under Windows 2000, and Windows XP was conducted without the presence of SCSI1HLP.VXD. Under Windows 2000/XP, I could not find the VXD anywhere on the filesystem.

You can browse to the following forum thread and see that some people independently support my findings:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=52286&forum=5&0 [cached]

As you can no doubt tell from reading the thread, there is still some confusion over the specific reason that some people are unable to read VCDs. I discuss this further below.

What's so special about CD-i support that causes problems?

I really don't know yet. It just does.

[Update] I was able to ask the author of VCDEasy and here is his/her hypothesis:

"The CDI_IMAG.RTF file is (must be) added as a full 2336 bytes sectors file. I think this is the problem for some cd readers..."

Are you going to test further?

To further verify my conclusions, I might test with other CD writers and I may give details for CD-ROM drives that work perfectly with CD-i discs and CD-ROM drives that do not. I am also curious to see what happens under Linux. Furthermore, I would like to try out the CD-i Filesystem Driver (discussed below) under Windows 98.

[Update] I have tested using mastered/pressed (i.e., "normal", "factory") VCDs with CD-i support and I get the same exact results.

[Update] The following CD-ROM drive has been verified to have problems when reading CD-i discs:

But don't I have to have CD-i support? All the VCDs I own have CD-i support.

The author of VCDEasy him/herself has stated:

"CD-i works with VCD 1.1 and VCD 2.0... and is completely optional if you do not need to play the VCD on a CD-i player."

Did you have to make this Mini-FAQ so long?

I wanted to present my complete experience so you don't waste time trying something I have already tried.

Did you really tumble down the stairs?

No. There is no need to alert the proper authorities.

Don't you realize that VCDEasy is just a shell over a couple of GPL'ed programs?

Don't you realize that Google Groups is "just a shell" over Usenet?
Don't you realize that Capture the Flag is "just a shell" over Quake?
Don't you realize that Windows is "just a shell" over KERNEL32.DLL?

That made absolutely no sense.

It's heartwarming to see that you care so much. Why don't you voice your concerns here...

Any final thoughts?

I am fairly confident that my results above are conclusive, however I have not done as much testing as I would have liked to do. There are still a few things nagging at me. First, I was able to download the PDF manual for my DVD-ROM drive from Hitachi's web site:

http://www.hitachi.com/documents/Storage/opstore/gd7000_manual.pdf [cached]

The manual states that my DVD-ROM drive does support CD-i discs. I have sent in a support request to PINE. If PINE fails to respond, I will try and contact Hitachi directly. (It is obvious that Hitachi OEMed the DVD-ROM drive to PINE.) Furthermore, I have been searching Google some, and I have come up with a few interesting results:
  1. http://www.pinegroup.com/pine/products/product?iCategory=46&iProduct=198 (click the [more] link) [cached]
  2. http://www.pinegroup.com/pine/products/product?iCategory=46&iProduct=199 (click the [more] link) [cached]
  3. http://www.icdia.org/sw_pc/disctools.html [cached]
Viewing item 1 and 2 above, you'll see that the PINE 12X DVD-ROM drive specifically mentions CD-i support, while the 16X DVD-ROM drive does not. Is this an oversight, or does the PINE 16X DVD-ROM drive actually not support CD-i? Item 3 is the most interesting. There is a section entitled "CD-i Filesystem Driver 2.0 (Beta) for Windows 95/98/Me". As you may recall, I was able to read VCD (w/ CD-i support) discs under Windows 95 and Windows Me (with "good" CD-ROM drives) without using a CD-i Filesystem Driver. Maybe the CD-i Filesystem Driver is only for CD-ROM drives that don't fully support CD-i? Or maybe the CD-i Filesystem Driver is meant for CD-i discs that house non-video (i.e., interactive) content?

Am I making a simple problem complicated? Maybe I should just test with the CD-i Filesystem Driver and get it over with. Or maybe I should get some sleep. That sounds about right...

Last updated: February 17, 2002

Feel free to e-mail mujty@yahoo.com if you find errors in any of the information above.

Copyright © 2002 Mujtaba Ali. Microsoft, Windows, VCDEasy, CD-i, Thunderlizards, PINE, Delphi, SONY, Hitachi, Kingwon, Google, Compaq, and other trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.