do SVCD specs allow mono?

Hi, I've converted some mono source tv series divx into SVCD with 192kbit/sec. MP2 mono. And PowerDVD XP refuses to play them - my standalone does though. Normally I would give a shit on what PowerDVD does and just watch them on my standalone, but this one is a birthday present for a friend(actually four Episodes of "Saber Rider" - his most loved tv series...:) ) and because it should be a surprise I cant't check if his standalone can. So my question is, is mono officially suppportet in SVCD. VCDhelp.com didn't help me much: for vcd it says: "The cbr mpeg-1, layer II audio stream is fixed at 224 kbps with 1 stereo or 2 mono channels.It is recommended to keep the video bit-rate under 1151929.1 bps 7." for SVCD it only says "from 32 - 384 kbit/sec MPEG-1 Layer2 with up to 2 Audio Tracks" - and nothing about mono or stereo... thx

Hi Apu, if you have a look at the image under this sentence, you can see for SVCD "Audio: MPEG-1, layer II, bit rate: from 32 to 384 kbps, audio channels: up to 2 stereo or 4 mono ..." - So I would say, yes it is supported and there're also some DVDs that have only mono audio - so I think that the players will play SVCDs with one mono audio too. To be on the safe side, you can convert your mono track to a "pseudo" stereo with a BeSweet plugin (available in audio forum) or something like that. Hope this helps, Gerti

Hi Apu, no, it's "pseudo" atereo not mono. "Pseudo" because it has a left and a right audio signal but they both carry the exact same information and thus sound like a mono file but with that BeSweet plugin you get a stereo stream from a mono source that meets the SVCD specs - so don't worry about that. You can even use the very simple "Nero Wave Editor" to convert a mono WAV to a stereo WAV file. Hope this helps, Gerti

I regularly make SVCDs with mono audio. Usually I downmix the commentary track(s) to mono to save on the bits. I have found that I am able to use 1 stereo plus 2 mono tracks without any problems on my Apex player. I'm fairly sure that PowerDVD plays them fine also.

IS = Intensity Stereo