Random trouble when converting to VCD

[randy98m]

Not sure if this is something with Sage Recorder or not, but this is the best place I've got to ask right now. I'm using Recorder V1.0 (1.4 is another problem for another topic), a PVR250 on a machine with an Athlon 1.1 underclocked to 900 with 512 meg ram, Radeon 7500 with 64 meg RAM. I encode with Sage set to DVD Standard quality. From there, I convert the files to VCD using Tmpegenc. My trouble is about 30-40% of the files don't see the audio. It's there with PowerDVD or WMP. Do I have a setting wrong in Sage, or is there a fluke with Tmpeg? Seems odd that some files work while some don't, even switching back and forth with files recorded sequentially (one will work fine, the next will have no audio, the next will work fine...)

Help! Please!

[Xleon]

The VCD that has no audio, have you tried converting the same clip again in case it's a weird TMPEG problem.

I guessing by what you say, all the original recordings from Sage have audio, but the audio is missing once you've converted to VCD?

[randy98m]

Actually, when I try to drop certain files into TMpeg, it instantly shows me that there is no audio. In the wizard mode, there is a line that shows the video file and a line that shows the audio file. Normally they automatically both fill in when I drop a file in. But with the problematic files, the audio just doesn't show up.

[Xleon]

Can you list your settings?

Are you using CBR or VBR video?

[randy98m]

DVD Standard Play is 6.4 VBR. I've done 6 files now using "MPEG2 MAX QUALITY", which is 12 MBits CBR. Maybe that's the problem? I'm going to start using "Best NTSC" as it's 6 MBits CBR, so the files are easier for my machine to work with.

[Xleon]

I've never found the need to go as high as 12Mbs. 6Mbs is a good maximum and it's still quite wasteful if you are only going to convert to VCD anyway.

If you don't need the DVD quality recording, why not create a setting so you can record VCD directly from SageRecorder?

Or, record in say 4-6Mbs and convert to XVID or DIVX? You'll get a smaller filesize and much better quality than VCD.