What does it need to encode data from an (s)vcd to hdd?
Is it possible to only take some parts?

Pretty simple really. Just copy the av file from cd to harddrive.

to make it more complex:
cd is not visible on ambient.
accessing cd0: through shell doesn't work either.
and limiting capturing to parts of the video is not done too.

a couple solutions . I'll think more after you have discovered more problems :)

- Copy the file using a pc and transfer via network
- Copy file using pc, burn the file on an rw and take it to Pegasos
- Forget the damn videocd :)

extract the data track with makecd and then you will be able to play
that file with frogger or mplayer (only tested with frogger)

Try VCDSave (http://benderirc.de/xsvcd.html). If you can play videocd on your computer with frogger, vcdsave should be able to copy video track(s) from cd to hd, as they share the same direct cd accessing engine.

Maybe you could read VCD track with MakeCD as imagefile and convert it to mpeg with vcdgear?

To extract video from a (s)VCD to the harddrive from a CD that MOS
isn't supporting the filesystem for, you'll need to have FroggerNG.

Install FroggerNG, as per the instructions; then, you will need the
application so aptly named, VCDSave!

FroggerNG Page <- More about
Frogger.

FroggerNG
Dowloads Page <- Find extra things, like VCDSave
here.

The included instructions should be enough to get the movie saved to
the hdd.

thank you all so far, will come back later with more questions

You're welcome!