******ShaneB's VCD FAQ******
  ***Shop at http://www.popdstore.nu for the newest VCD's avaliable!!***

version 2.4 (thanks to everyones input)

changes in 2.4 - added another PSX VCD addon salesman
changes in 2.35 - added Screener tidbit
changes in 2.3 - added support for Popd. Do me a favor and check him out!!
changes in 2.2 - removed my ICQ number. ha!
changes in 2.1 - fixed Popd's URL, added Horus' URL, added Screener info

helpers - Beener on #VCD; Rice2's VCD site: http://members.xoom.com/Rice2/

This FAQ is a rudimentary description of various common VCD terms and 
software. 

Table of Contents:

1. What is a VCD?
2. How are they made?
3. What do they look like?
4. What is PAL and NTSC?
5. How can I get them?
6. OK, how are they distributed?
7. How big are they?
8. I don't want a BIN/CUE! I want an ISO, or maybe even a DAT! I have a DAT,
   but now I want a MPG!
9. I have one big 700+meg file! I need to edit my file!
10. I wanna burn using CDRWIN & the cue doesnt work/load or says wrong header!
11. OK, I have the VCD (or file). Now how do I watch this dumb thing?
12. Hey! I don't know where to get this software!!
13. How do I know what VCD's I can get?
14. Wow! Thanks ShaneB!


1. What is a VCD?

A VCD is basically a video MPG file on a CD. They can be played using 
various programs on your PC, on the Playstation (with an external addon),
and on most DVD players. Usually they are movies that are not avaliable
on VHS/DVD yet, meaning movies in the theaters. The VCD's discussed in
this FAQ are most likely *illegal* and should be downloaded at your own
risk... or something.


2. How are they made?

Well, I don't *really* know where they come from (most likely the far east,
and Academy VHS pre-release tapes), but here is how most are probably made:

a: A VHS tape of the movie is played into a video capture card. It is then
encoded into a MPG. Then it can be converted or whatever to be ready for
sending.

b. They can also be ripped/created off of an original DVD/VCD from a video
store. They are usually in DAT format and better quality.


3. What do they look like?

Well, there are 3 major categories of quality:

1. Screener - Usually taken from a VHS tape. Usually have good sound and 
picture quality. Most likely will have a message like "If you have bought 
this movie, please call 1-800-WE-SUCK!". Rumor has it that Screener's are
released a few weeks after a movie hits the theaters, because thats when 
the VHS tapes are made by the movie companies. (90-99% are in stereo)

2. Telesync (TS) - Filmed with a camcorder on a tripod. The best TS's are
on par with the typical Screener, and are quite watchable. (Depending on
whether or not the operater used direct audio-in on the camera, the sound
may be of varying quality.)

3. Hand-cammed - A dying field. Filmed with a hand camcorder in a theater.
Bad picture and sound can be expected. (Unless a stereo mic is on the
camera, the audio is mono and awful. Well, it's awful anyway..)

Other terms used may be:
35MM - A film scan of the movie. Usually screener quality.

TCR Coded: This means a small timer is set somewere on the picture. Usually 
on the bottom left.

Widescreen: Also known as "Letterboxed" - Widescreen means that the picture
is much wider, meaning you can see more of the action, because it is the
full theater screen. Up to 40% of the sides are cut off in a "TV" format!

WorkPrint: Like a screener but not the final realese, sometimes parts are
missing, like special effects, They are replaced by blank screens.


4. What is PAL and NTSC?

PAL is the European (aside from France) TV format. It is 352x288 at 25 FPS.
NTSC is the USA and Japan's TV format. It is 352x240 at 29.97 FPS. Both use
224kbit/s stereo sound. 

PAL VCDs on an NTSC player will work (and the other way around) but as you
might imagine, an NTSC player playing PAL VCDs will miss out 48 scan lines.
A PAL player playing NTSC VCDs will run letterboxed. Your TV might be able
to compensate for this. Your TV may also not be able to play PAL VCD's. It
will look like the vertical hold is messed.


5. How can I get them?

It takes work. Good ways to start are join VCD channels like #vcd on Efnet.
NOONE will give them out. It can take as many as 20 hours or more to get a
full movie. This means that the people are usually trading to get what they
want and cant waste the upload bandwidth to allow people to leech (they would
be screwing the people they are trading with). And most people don't want to
waste *their* hard work by just giving it out to someone.

Your best bet is to buy a new release (yes, buy) from an online retailer such as www.popdstore.nu and trade with that. Then you are on your way. Remember that 
NOONE will give you movies for free. More dealers are http://highvcd.cjb.net/
and http://www.horus.nu.
Remember that none of these are personally sponsored by me and I take no re-
sponsibility for your experiences with them.

Another way is to do a search for leech fservs & get something - anything. 
Anything you get has the potential to trade with (no matter how lame, old,
or how many people currently have it). Someone is always looking for stuff.

DO NOT. I repeat: DO NOT try to screw people. They can come after you with a
vengance. I have heard horror stories of people sending blank/empty files and
all sorts of crap. Because of this,  you should always verify the file you are
getting (unless you are very trusting). Download a few megs (5 or 6 to get past
the intro/warnings) and view it.


6. OK, how are they distributed?

Usually in RAR compressed files, from 15 to 20 megs each. When unrarred, it
will either be a BIN/CUE, a DAT, or a MPG file. BIN/CUE files can be 
burned with CDRWIN.

DAT files can be viewed on your computer with software, as can MPG files. You
can burn these files with VCD Creator, a part of Adaptec CD Creator Deluxe. It
is a standalone program in the directory that cd creator is in. WINonCD
is also a popular program.

You can also just burn the MPG/DAT files directly & watch them that way. If
you are crafty with a little progrmming, you can make an autorun file to have
it start up when you insert the cd (don't ask me how.. I sure dont know).


7. How big are they?

10 Megs for each minute of a movie. So a 60 minute movie would be 600 megs.


8. I don't want a BIN/CUE! I want an ISO, or maybe even a DAT! I have a DAT,
   but now I want a MPG!

OK, then. You need to get a program called VCDGEAR. It can convert from
DAT to MPG, BIN to DAT, and many other conversions. There are also programs
for converting DAT to MPG. If you want to make a CUE/BIN into an ISO, get
Binchunker.

Binchunker is pretty straight forward... just load the BIN/CUE and go.

VCDGEAR is a little trickier, but i will try to give you an example.

a. Make sure you have vcdgear in the directory of the files 
b. Go to a dos window and type:
   vcdgear -cue2dat movie.cue movie.dat 
   (movie.cue is the name of the current movie file and movie.dat is what you 
   want to call the new file)


9. I have one big 700+meg file! I need to edit my file!

Myflix is a good program to do this with. Unfortunately the file has to be in 
MPG format, but it is good to cut, paste, delete, and split MPG files. You can 
also take screen shots using Myflix.


10. I wanna burn using CDRWIN & the cue doesnt work/load or says wrong header!

This is a common problem when you try to burn the BIN/CUE using a program like
CDRWIN. You need to edit the CUE file. This can be done using dos edit.

a. In DOS or Windows Notepad: go to the directory where the CUE is
b. Make a backup of the CUE & name it moviecue.jic or something (just in case)
c. Type: edit movie.cue
d. Change the top line (header) so the right directory is there - where the CUE
is.
e. Remember to remove the quotes! (")
f. Give it a shot - if it doesnt work.. I don't know what you need to do.

If your movie didn't come with a CUE, for whatever reason, make one by editing
an old one, and replace the file name. (Should work.)


11. OK, I have the VCD (or file). Now how do I watch this dumb thing?

Get a player, such as PowerVCD, or XingMPEG player. You can also watch it
using the active movie viewer in windows. (make sure you have the "all file
types" selected or the DAT may not show up)

If you have no hardware decoder card, you need about a Pentium MMX-200 or so
for quality video performance. If you want to have a hardware card (with TV out-
put), you can get the Creative Labs Encore DXR-2, or the Hollywood+ card. Check
for prices at www.pricewatch.com.

You can also watch them on most DVD players. An external player is also made
for the Playstation. You can buy it in the US @ http://www.buyrite1.com, and in 
the UK @ http://www.lizzard.demon.co.uk/vcd/vcd.htm ;or; http://www.twocom.net/
psxacces.htm


12. Hey! I don't know where to get this software!!

Well, you can get most of it off my site. SET YOUR FTP CLIENTS TO 30 SECOND
RETRY OR I WILL BAN YOUR IP!! NO MODEM USERS!! Meaning NOONE UNDER 10k/SEC!!
129.137.216.38:998 l/p:software/vcd

Also my man Jargin has a free software site up last I checked:
jargin.resnet.auburn.edu:21 l/p:vcdprog/prog


13. How do I know what VCD's I can get?

Ask. Or if you see SirNikon around on #VCD, be sure to type !vcdupdates to get
the latest VCD releases on EFnet and URL's to VCD dealers.


14. Wow! Thanks ShaneB!

No problem.

email: beerssl@email.uc.edu

   ***Shop at http://www.popdstore.nu for the newest VCD's avaliable!!***