I am having a frustrating time trying to trying to burn my kvcds. The problem, I suspect, may be coming from the the CQ settings, but I will welcome any suggestion about how to cure it.

First, I load Dialhot's static script in TMPGEnc and use CQMatic to predict the CQ, then I manually encode the video in TMPGenc. For videos under 120 min I encode with an input CQ, plus the following max and min bitrate settings:

Maximum: 2100 kbps
Minimum: 300 kbps
Enable Padding is checked.

For videos over 120 min I lower the maximum bitrate to 1500. I create the audio file in Headach3e and mux with TMPGEnc as a non-standard vcd.

It usually takes me a few trials (lowering the CQ) to get a file size that will fit on the cd. But then, when I burn the mpeg using vcdeasy I get huge pixielation in the middle of the movie, with squeeks, and loud noises, then the movie just stops. This effect is worse when "Enable Padding" is not checked, so now I make sure it is always checked. And yet I still get the problem. Is this problem related to my maximum and minimum settings, or is it something else? Thanks in advance.

You had problems in the middle of the video and then the standalone stops ? And you have this everytime ?
That's weird !

How is set the "VBV Buffer" in tmpgenc ? Is has to be 40 if you encode in MPEG1, 112 for MPEG2.

Do you burn a low speed (no more than 8x) ?

What standalone do you have ?

The burned cd's also cause problems in PowerDVD. Usually I get blotches of colour and noises, and then a message saying "Microsoft Windows has encountered a problem and has to stop... Do you want to send the error message blah blah blah". I sometimes report the error to microsoft, but I generally click Don't Send and powerdvd exits.

I encode in MPEG1 and I believe the buffer is always at the default, 40.

I burn at 1x and 2x

I don't remember offhand ... I will check when I go home and let you know.

No need to know the standalone if the problem occurs also in powerDVD.
You had a problem during the burn session. There is no other reason for PowerDVD to fails like you report.

Thanks, Phil. I guess it looks like the problem is not with my TMPGEnc settings. That leaves only the VCDEasy settings as the possible source of the problem. Can you think of a possible setting that can cause such problems?

There is no way VCDEasy can do that.
But you say you burn in 1x or 2x: I didn't see a lot of CD that support 1x recently.

be carrefull to not burn at a too low speed !

That's something less know than the "too high speed" problem but virgin medium can't be burn at a too low speed also : the makers of the disc developp everyday new material that support higher and higher encoding speed but in the meantime the lower limit increase also.

Thanks, Phil. I will raise my burn speed then. The reason I burn at 1x and 2x is that when I started I read on one of the forums (dvdrhelp I think) that the lower burn speeds reduce buffer underrun errors.