comparison DOCS/xml/en/cd-dvd.xml @ 14153:7c96fa55ac93

more details about the structure of VCDs patch by R. Bernstein <rocky at panix dot com>

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and play the resulting file with <application>MPlayer</application>.
</para>

<formalpara>
<title>VCD structure</title>
<para>VCD disks consist of one or more tracks:</para>
</formalpara>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
The first track is a small 2048 bytes/sector data track with an iso9660
filesystem, usually containing Windows VCD player programs and maybe other
information (images, text, etc).
</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
The second and other tracks are raw 2324 bytes/sector MPEG (movie)
tracks, containing one MPEG PS data packet per sector instead of a
filesystem. Similar to audio CD tracks, these tracks <emphasis role="bold">cannot
be mounted</emphasis> (Did you ever mount an audio CD to play it?).
As most movies are inside this track, you should try <option>vcd://2</option> first.
</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
There exist VCD disks without the first track (single track and no filesystem
at all). They are still playable, but cannot be mounted.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<formalpara>
<title>About .DAT files</title>
<para>

14153:7c96fa55ac93

and play the resulting file with <application>MPlayer</application>.
</para>

<formalpara>
<title>VCD structure</title>

<para>
A Video CD (VCD) is made up of CD-ROM XA sectors, i.e. CD-ROM mode 2
form 1 and 2 tracks:</para>
</formalpara>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
The first track is in mode 2 form 2 format which means it uses L2
error correction. The track contains an ISO-9660 filesystem with 2048
bytes/sector. This filesystem contains VCD metadata information, as
well as still frames often used in menus. MPEG segments for menus can
also be stored in this first track, but the MPEGs have to be broken up
into a series of 150-sector chunks. The ISO-9660 filesystem may
contain other files or programs that are not essential for VCD
operation.
</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
The second and remaining tracks are generally raw 2324 bytes/sector
MPEG (movie) tracks, containing one MPEG PS data packet per
sector. These are in mode 2 form 1 format, so they store more data per
sector at the loss of some error correction. It is also legal to have
CD-DA tracks in a VCD after the first track as well.
On some operating systems there is some trickery that goes on to make
these non-ISO-9660 tracks appear in a filesystem. On other operating
systems like GNU/Linux this is not the case (yet). Here the MPEG data
<emphasis role="bold">cannot be mounted</emphasis>. As most movies are
inside this kind of track, you should try <option>vcd://2</option>
first.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
There exist VCD disks without the first track (single track and no filesystem
at all). They are still playable, but cannot be mounted.
</para></listitem>

<listitem><para> The definition of the Video CD standard is called the
Philips "White Book" and it is not generally available online as it
must be purchased from Philips. More detailed information about Video
CDs can be found in the
<ulink url="http://www.vcdimager.org/pub/vcdimager/manuals/0.7/vcdimager.html#SEC4">vcdimager documentation</ulink>.
</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<formalpara>
<title>About .DAT files</title>
<para>