How to use ATI MMC 7.1 to create assets for the Philips Video CD 2.0 Toolkit:

 

Create a VCD 2.0 compliant custom profile.

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1.      Start the TV app.

2.      Open the Setup window.

3.      Select the “Digital VCR” tab.

4.      Set “Recording Quality” to Custom.

5.      Press the “Set Custom” button.

6.      Press “Create New”.

 

 

7.      Enter a Name. “Video CD 2.0” is good.

8.      Select MPEG as your capture type.  Press “Next”.

 

 

9.      The following settings are critical for VCD compliance:

a.       Video Standard Lines: NTSC (525)

b.      Size: 352 x 240

c.       Audio Format: 44.100 KHz, 16-Bit, Stereo

d.      Select MPEG-1

e.       Visual Masking is optional.  Press “Next”.

 

 

10.  Set P-Frames to 4, B-Frames to 2.  This is the default.  Press “Next”.

 

 

11.  The following settings set up MPEG encoding:

a.       Select Constant Bit Rate

b.      Set Bit Rate slider to be as close as you can to 1.15 M Bit/Second.

c.       Set Motion Quality slider to 99.

d.      Motion Estimate settings are optional, but 32 Horizontal and 16 Vertical works well.

e.       Press “Finish”

12.  Press “OK” to close Custom settings.

13.  Press “OK” to close Setup.

14.  Stop the TV app.

 

Modifying the MMC 7.1 registry settings for VCD 2.0 compliance.

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1.      Download the ATI AIW MMC Reg Tool: http://www.vcdhelper.com/MMC_Reg_Tool.zip

2.      Unzip and install it on your PC.

3.      Start MMC_Reg.

 

 

4.      Select the custom profile you just created.

5.      Press “Edit Profile”

 

 

6.      The following settings are critical for VCD 2.0 compliance:

a.       Set the VCD Bit Value to 1.

b.      Set the Bitrate to 1150000.

c.       Set VBR Mode to OFF.

7.      Press “Update”, then answer “Yes”.

8.      Press “OK”, then “Exit”

9.      Start the TV app.

 

 

10.  Open the setup window and make sure your new custom profile is selected for recording.

11.  Record your capture in real time and save to a capture file.

 

The resulting capture file is almost perfectly VCD 2.0 compliant, but it’s multiplexing is slightly off spec.  However, it sufficiently compliant for creating simple VCD’s with Nero.  However, if you want to use your capture files with the Philips Video CD 2.0 Toolkit, then you will need to re-multiplex the capture file with a VCD 2.0 compliant multiplexer like VCDMUX, which comes with the Toolkit.

 

Re-multiplexing ATI MMC 7.1 captures for total VCD 2.0 compliance.

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There are several tools that can demux the capture file.  You need to use a VCD 2.0 compliant multiplexer.  I prefer TMPGEnc12a for demuxing and VCDMUX for compliant multiplexing.

 

1.      Start TMPGEnc.

2.      Select File -> MPEG Tools -> Basic demultiplex

 

 

3.      Select “Browse” and find your capture file. The video and audio output filenames are automatically selected for you.

4.      If you are using VCDMUX, change the video output filename to a DOS 8.3 format with a .mpv extension.  Change the audio output filename to DOS 8.3 with a .mpa extension.

5.      Press “Start”.

6.      Press “Close” when done.

7.      Start VCDMUX.

8.      From the menu, select Functions -> Auto Mux.

 

 

9.      Select Browse and find the video stream.  If you did not use the .mpv extension, list all files.

10.  If your audio stream has the .mpa extension and it’s in the same directory as the video stream, it will be automatically added.  Otherwise repeat the step above to find your audio stream.

11.  Press “OK” to multiplex the video and audio streams.  The multiplex file will have a .mmd extension.

12.  Start the Philips Video CD 2.0 Toolkit program.

13.  Add the .mmd VCD file as you would any other asset file.