VCDGear for BeOS 1.0

PREFACE

Since BeOS is supposed to be the multimedia operating system, it also should be able to deal with hardcopies of media files.
In our case these are VideoCD's, containing one or more MPEG-1 video files on a CD-ROM (XA) as laid down in the white book
of compact disc standards. Since BeOS already has the media player supplied that is capable of playing MPEG streams, we need-
ed a tool to go the way from the VideoCD (VCD) to the MPEG file on our harddisk. This can be done by this tool, called VCDGear, originally
coded by Dracore (dracore@home.com), and ported to BeOS R5 by myself, Be-NiB (be-nib@web.de).

IMPORTANT NOTICE:THIS UTILITY CANNOT HELP THE LACK IN BEOS TO ACCESS VCD CDS, SO .DAT FILES OF
SUCH CDS CANNOT BE EXTRACTED. EVEN IF YOU CAN MOUNT THEM ON A RELEASE 5 MACHINE, DUE TO THE MISSING
VCD_FILESYSTEM DRIVER IN BEOS 5, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO GATHER THE FILE. IF YOU HAVE BEOS RELASE 4.x YOU CAN FIND
AN EXPERIMENTAL VCD_FILESYSTEM DRIVER IN YOUR /EXPERIMENTAL FOLDER CALLED (vcd_fs.zip - with install instructions)
THAT WORK ONLY ON THIS RELEASE. FOR A TRICK TO GET CLEAN MPEG FILES OUT OF A VCD SEE THE HINTS BELOW.

I WILL WORK ON A SOLUTION FOR THIS PROBLEM IN RELEASE 5, CHECK THE WEBSITE OF VCDGear for BeOS FOR FURTHER UPDATES.

FOR QUESTIONS AND REQUESTS OR PROBLEMS; OR WHATEVER SEND US AN EMAIL; AND MAKE SURE YOU VISIT THE PAGE !

Welcome !

when you start VCDGear for BeOS 1.0 in the terminal, by simply typing its name ("VCDGear") you get the following output:
/boot/home>VCDGear

VCDGear v1.5 coded by Dracore (dracore@home.com)
Usage  :  VCDGear [options] [-track##] inputfile outputfile

Options:  -cue2raw       .cue --> .raw  (.cue to .raw/.bin track image)
          -cue2dat       .cue --> .dat
          -cue2mpg       .cue --> .mpg
          -raw2dat       .raw --> .dat  (.raw/.bin track image to .dat)
          -raw2mpg       .raw --> .mpg
          -cif2mpg       .cif --> .mpg
          -mpg2mpg       .mpg --> .mpg
          -mpg2dat       .mpg --> .dat
          -dat2mpg       .dat --> .mpg

          -track##       extract only track ## from a .cue/bin
          -r####         force read of ####-byte sectors
          -w####         force write of ####-byte sectors
          -nobumper      removes CD-i MPEG sequence bumper
          -fix           fix broken MPEG blocks during .mpg output
Basically, all functions are described by this output. Here some hints:

- take care to write the file and directory names in the case they are ( upper / lower), otherwise the files will not be found.
- check if you have enough space on the target drive before starting an extraction, this helps avoid unnecessary stress :-)
- more hints to come....

Hints to access a .DAT file from a VCD:
- If you have downloaded a CD-Image of a VCD, you can directy extract the MPEG to watch or work with it. Use -cue2mpg method if it
is a .cue/.bin file combination. Use -cif2mpg if it is a .cif file. And if it happens to be a .dat file you use -dat2mpg to extract
the MPEG stream.
- If you have a VCD, and want to watch or work with the MPEG on it on your BeOS machine, you can and also should write E-mails to
Be Inc. asking for the support of the vcd_fs for R5. Customer Service: custservice@be.com.
Otherwise you will have to call Window$ for help, until we find out how to access a VCD. You will need a CD-ROM drive, capable of reading XA
discs ( most 4xSpeed and higher drives can) and a CD-burning application for Windows, if you do not already have one. If you donīt have one,
I would advise you to use CDRWIN, because it it easy to install and runs as demo, and thatīs all we need. With the application you must create a
CD image, possibly a RAM image, but check the programs settings to see how and what you can set. Please also refer to the help of the program
for how to create a cd image. The following table shows the programs and the name of the images files they create, for a reference to which method to
use with VCDGear:

.cue/.bin CDRWin
.raw WinOnCD
.cif ADAPTEC Easy CD Creator
.nrg NeRO Burning ROM
TAKE CARE .NRG IMAGES ARE NOT SUPPORTED IN THIS VERSION OF VCDGear for BeOS
DISCLAIMER:
     BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO
     WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE
     LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT
     HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT
     WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT
     NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
     FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE
     QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
     PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY
     SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. 
     (QUOTE : Free Software Foundation, Inc.)
VCDGear for BeOS 1.0 ReadMe verison 3-6-2000 by BeNiB ( be-nib@web.de )