• MPEG Stills generation
• Authoring a VideoCD with MPEG still pictures

Principle:

Convert a picture to a MPEG Still (MPEG Picture file), you will choose the options there. Then, you will be able to do the same for a series of pictures, in batch mode (Finally, you will be able to add these MPEG still files to the project, the same way you add Video MPEG files).

The "MPEG Stills" page

Open VCDeasy, go to the "MPEG Stills" page

Click on Browse to select a picture as "Input Image"

Choose a picture using the Open Picture Dialog.
Note that you have a preview on the right.

	Here you can see your original picture
	Select the type of MPEG still you want to create... VCD or SVCD. Although VCD2.0 only supports video clips at a resolution of 352x240 (NTSC) or 352x288 (PAL), it supports single-frame still images at high resolution: 704x480 (NTSC) and 704x576 (PAL) (if you choose "High", See ). As you can have high resolution with both VCD2.0 and SVCD, and because from a home DVD player point of view, VCD 2.0 seems to have a better support than SVCD... I personally prefer creating MPEG Stills for VCD 2.0
	Select PAL or NTSC, depending on your DVD Player and TV. NB: To summarize, select NTSC if you live in US or Japan and select PAL if you live in the rest of the world
	Select High (for High Resolution) there. If the VideoCD you will create won't work on your home player, you can later try Low (for Low Resolution)... as your player may not support High Resolution MPEG Stills.
	This is the Math Algorithm used to resize your picture. Spline gives the best result for most pictures. Note that if the size of your image is equal to the "Best Initial Size", then no resize algorithm will be applied!
	Aspect ratio correction... Without the correct one, you will have distorsion (the image will be stretched or compressed horizontally). For example, a circle on your PC will look like an ellipse on your 4/3 TV if you do not choose "Apply Correction" / "4/3"
	TV Cropping/Overscan... ALL television sets cannot fully display the entire screen. On playback, the TV can crop up to 10% off all sides of the picture (especially at the corners). More realistically, most TV sets will crop about 4% or 5% on most sides. Note that you can choose the color of the background (or margins) that will be added
	You can select here the (approximate) size of the MPEG Stills file that will be generated. This size is directly related to the quality... more size, more quality! Personally, I always use Max Quality...
	Preview of computed picture
	The generation of the MPEG Still file requires temporary files. You do not need them.
	The MPEG stills file will be stored in the same folder as the original picture. Here you can change the location of the destination folder. Useful if you pictures are on a CD where we can write!...
	Finally, click on the "Generate" button to generate the MPEG still file.

Finally, you should have this:

If you never tested MPEG Stills on your home DVD player, you should try now this generated MPEG file, and change back some options if necesseray. 

Note that if you have display problems (like the images appear "staired" or "mixed up"), you can try to replace ( in the 'VCDEasy/Mjpegtools' directory) the MJPEG Tools v1.6.0 beta1 you have by default by the MJPEG Tools v1.6.0 rc2 available in the Beta Versions page. This version fix the MPEG stills display problem with Pioneer DVD Players...

Batch Mode (many pictures at one time)

Once your settings are ok, you can proceed with a series of pictures, in one step.

NB: It will take some time if you have many pictures. A sound can be played at the end of this long task, depending on how you configured VCDEasy.

	If there is no folder name there, each MPEG still picture will be saved at the same location as its corresponding original picture. Note that in this case, the original pictures must not be on a Read Only volume (like a CD-Rom...) Or, you can also select one folder where all the MPEG still pictures will be saved... in this case be careful to not have 2 or more original pictures with the same name... or some of the generated MPEG stills will be overwriten
	Check "Include Subfolder" if you want VCDEasy to search also picture files in the subfolder of your selection
	Better check this option if you have lots of pictures. Note that at the end of the process, you will have detailed feedback (success, failure, cancel...) in the log page
	Click on "Folder" to select a folder.... Note that with the current settings ("Include Subfolder" is checked), all the pictures in the folder "F:\Photos" will be processed, but also all the pictures in all the subfolders ("08-25-2002", "09-25-2002", ...)
	Alternatively, you can also Drag'n Drop your pictures and/or folder. Note that the "Include Subfolder" option is also taken into account when Drag'n Drop (for example, without "Include Subfolder" the "08-25-2002", "09-25-2002", ... folders will not be scanned):

At the end of the process...

And in the "log" page:

Now you should have your pictures as MPEG still files, ready to be used in a VideoCD authoring.

Burning is a problem for some users... See the "How to burn" guides to know how to configure/use the integrated CDRDAO, or to have alternate burning methods (in these cases, you do not have to use CDRDAO) From now, for this guide, I will use the integrated CDRDAO as the way I am burning the VideoCD. Note that if you have display problems (like the images appear "staired" or "mixed up"), you can try to replace ( in the 'VCDEasy/Mjpegtools' directory) the MJPEG Tool v1.6.0 beta1 you have by default by the MJPEG Tools v1.6.0 rc2

You should read the "How to make the first VideoCD" and have successfully made a VideoCD before reading this guide, as I won't review the settings related to your player here

Let's start a new VideoCD

The "Main" page

	Select VCD2.0 or SVCD 1.0, depending on the kind of MPEG Stills you made. NB: You can not use VCD1.1 to have MPEG Stills as they requiere PlayBack Control (and there is no PlayBack Control [PBC] support in VCD 1.1)
	If you want to use CDRDAO to burn, choose your CD writer in the drop down list, and better choose "Simulate" first, and not "Burn". When the simulation will end successfully, eject your CDR or CDRW, uncheck "Simulate", check "Burn" and hit "Go" again.
	You can put what you want here, it will be the name displayed when you will put your VideoCD in your computer
	This is the location where the CD image files and the XML file will be. This is important for you if you planned to use another burning application. You can change this location in clicking the "Browse' button" NB: Do not check "Generate the XML file only"
	Drag'n drop your MPEG Stills files in , or click to add them. NB: The first MPEG file in this list will be displayed first. NB: Always check "Analyse MPEG files". It will gives you extra facilities in VCDEasy. For example the ability to have "Perform some MPEG compliance check" turned ON. If your MPEG files pass the checks, it does not proove many things, but if your MPEG files fail these checks, there is a greate chance that you won't build a working VideoCD

The "Options" page

	Authoring a VideoCD with MPEG still pictures requieres you to turn PBC (PlayBack Control) ON. The "Interactivity" page is then shown. NB: A consequence of that is... your player must support PBC information otherwise you won't be able to play this kind of VideoCD
	This is the time each picture will be shown before your player displays the next one. This can be changed on a picture basis if you want in the "Interactivity" page.

No need to use the "Chapters" page, it is for videos only.

The "Interactivity" page (Optional step)

This page seems to be quite complexe but this is the place where you can make really powerful VideoCDs. You can choose there the behaviour and the actions related to each video/picture that will be played. In defining actions to a video or a picture, you can build a menu.

You do not need to use the "Interactivity" page if the default behaviour configured by VCDEasy is ok to you: Show each picture one after one every X seconds (X is what you put as "Time to wait..." in the "Options" page) Pressing next/previous on the remote shows immediatly the next/previous picture

NB: The grey color instead of the white color in the drop down lists or the other components mean "Default by VCDEasy". The white color is used when you overwritten a default value assigned by VCDEasy, or when VCDEasy has no need to update the value.

NB: It means that if you, for example, move several MPEG files in the "Main" page, the "On timeout", "Next" and "Previous" will be updated accordingly as long as the you did not put your own value.

	Choose here the picture (can also be a video in other projects) you want to see/change its behaviour and the actions related to it
	A picture can only be played once (as opposed to a video) This means the player will show your picture
	Then, the player will, in this example, wait for 10 seconds (the picture is still shown during that time), then (on timeout, i.e after 10s) the player will show "Segment-0962 - P0004039.mpg" in this example (in fact, you need to take a look at "Segment-0962 - P0004039.mpg" using to see exactly what the player will do) If you choose "wait infinite" there, then during play back on your player, you will have to press a button to "go" somewhere else. ("Wait infinite" is otfen used for menus) NB: You can change this.
	This is where you will go during play back on your player, if you press the "Previous" button during the 10 seconds display of the picture NB: You can change this.
	This is where you will go during play back on your player, if you press the "Next" button during the 10 seconds display of the picture NB: You can change this.
	Pressing the "Return" button (if you have it on your remote) will end the VideoCD play back, here. NB: You can change this.
	Pressing the "Default" button (if you have it on your remote) will do nothing here. NB: You can change this.
	You can assigned an action to a number (pressed on your remote)
	Check "Overwrite this default assignment" if you want to set your own
	Use this to set your own actions related to a number (from 1 to 99) on the remote

As an example, instead of stopping the play of the VideoCD when you press the "Return" button (if you have it on your remote) as defined by , let's say that we want to go to the beginning of of VideoCD, i.e play here "Segment-0001":

Use the drop down list and select "Segment-0001":

This change applies only for the current play item "Segment-0961"

If you want to apply this change to all the pictures, click on , a box will appear:

	Click here to select all the segments (pictures)
	You can also select the items from here using the mouse, and the CRTL and/or SHIFT keys
	Then click Ok

The "ISO files" page (Optional step)

	Create a new folder called pictures under the Root of the CD, and put all your pictures in it using the buttons. You can also simply Drag'n Drop directly your images folder from Windows Explorer. You then will be able later to easily access these pictures in your computer, just insert the vcd in your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and browse to that folder.
	You can also add your images viewer and an 'autorun.inf' file under the Root of the CD, if you want
	The approximate size of the ISO File System part of the CD is displayed there. But a VideoCD is more than that! Check the approximate size of the VideoCD in the "Main" page to see the approximate total size

In the case your player does not support PlayBack Control...

If your player does not support PlayBack Control, or if PlayBack Control has been turned OFF on your Player, you should see a screen like this:

The option in the VCDEasy "Settings/(S)VCD Player" page is related to that (it tells which message, as PAL or NTSC, to put on the VideoCD in the case of no PBC)

Last, hit the Go button
NB: Burn preferably on a CD-RW so you can test.

At the end, you should have a box like this: