PC GURU'S (Burning Video To CD's

[Woodman]

You can digitize analog music to anything from a loss less format to MP3 using the free program Audacity. all you need is a line out from your cassette player and a line in on your computer.

[Nepeta]

Until I read this thread, I was unaware that video could be saved on CD’s.

The Video CD format has been around about 20 years. It remains commonplace in the far east; a lot of movies and tv series aren't available any other way. I'm not sure why VCD format never caught on here. A movie on VCD usually has to be split in 2, but they take up a fraction of the storage space of a VHS tape. I have Chinese tv series here with 40-60 VCDs to a box.

[gura]

Just burn the files to a CD as.....files. No formatting or conversion required. IF they play on your PC they’ll play on your PC off of CD.

[Aliska]

I was curious so I burned one of my favorites, Dances with Wolves in four formats. .flv .mov .mp3 .mpg/mpeg

.flv plays on my Total Video Player (the conversion software I use is Total Video Converter and the player came with it). .flv is associated with TVP.

.mpg and .mp3 play on my Windows Media Player by double clicking. .mp3 is audio only and that only plays a shorter clip on both players so I'll have to figure out why it didn't convert the whole sound track.

Actually I got a message on Windows Media Player that it would try .flv and .mov. It plays them, but I had to do an open with.

So it looks like WMP and TVP both will play all four.

I haven't tried to burn any dvd's on the imac yet. I got an external dvd burner for my pc, but there's a conflict with Roxio cd burner. Since I didn't want to remove that because it's so intuitive, I can't use the dvd player on my pc.

I sure love that video.

[marshall_t]

There is a format called “video CD” (VCD) that is very popular in Asia. Some DVD players recognize and play this format directly (check your manual). A better quality version of this format is a “super video CD” (SVCD). Again some DVD players support this format as well. I have gotten several VCDs from Thailand and the quality is quite good on a regular TV. There was a site that provided a set of programs to convert DVDs to VCD/SVCD. I think these programs would also convert other video files formats to VCD as well. I have converted a few DVDs to SVCD format just to see how they compare. Frankly, I could not tell the difference on a regular TV.

[plinyelder]

I am now convinced that there is NO way to put a movie on a cd to play in ‘any’ dvd player.

Thanks To All

[Wrath2121]

Ok first off forget about play on blue ray,you can’t burn blue ray onto cd because of the way the burner lays down the data. To play your avi files on DVD player from a cd:
Convert avi to DVD,I use DVD Flick
Burn converted files to CD, I use Nero.
Insert Cd into player and watch.
If it doesnt work... You did it wrong or you have bad disks or you exceeded the space limit of the disk(which should produce an error before you start burning). I’m not trying to sound cute or snobbish about it but it really is that easy. If it’s not working it’s because the files aren’t in a proper format or the burn to the disk is somehow messed up. Try just the avi files with the programs I mentioned and see if that at least works and you can then work on the other file types.

[antiRepublicrat]

Video CD is very low quality, MPEG-1. This is early 90s stuff. DVD is a bit better, MPEG-2, and any decent authoring tool can make DVDs of your content for you. If you’re on a Mac, the included iMovie will do it brain-dead easy. Not sure of the best for a PC, but there’s a lot out there to choose from.

If you want a CD with data files that can be read and played, the best standard that is most widely supported is MPEG-4 (mp4). That’s the codec that’s behind most Blu-Rays.

[rawcatslyentist]

VCD's play in just about all players.

I believe it is an option on nero. Just select CD for format to burn, then the video section or VCD. Slow yer burn speed down to no faster than 4x.

It will hold aprox 70 mins of vidio. If you leave off the menus it works better and, it will loop/repeat play.

[Wrath2121]

I forgot to mention when burning converted files use DVD Decrypter or Ripit4me( google). Point to your converted files, and they will analyze them and then burn them to the disk using your burn software. Both work best with Nero. Sorry that was an important part I left out.

[ThunderSleeps]

First, you want to check out your CD burning software and make sure it can create video CDs. (VCDs) You may have to search for a program if yours doesn't include this output format.

Then you want to find out what video file format the CD burning program wants as input.

Then you get to convert your video files to that format. The best video format converter I've used is a program called Handbrake.

[rawcatslyentist]

http://www.videohelp.com/vcd

[Intolerant in NJ]

I’m just completing putting a bunch of old film and VCR tapes on DVD using Windows Movie Maker - you import the raw video into the program, build your project using what ever clips you want and then convert the project to permanent form for which you have several choices including writing it to CD - if you have or can get hold of WMM it sounds like what you need....

[Aliska]

I am now convinced that there is NO way to put a movie on a cd to play in ‘any’ dvd player.

Probably not on a pc. So I decided to try it on the imac. It can tell the difference whether there is a cd or dvd in the slot.

But what a trip that was figuring out how to get it to play and ejecting it. I did, but I need to mess with that some more so I can play in full screen or larger window without the other distracting windows in imovie. I just played the .flv, seems to play ok, but my speakers have better quality sound on my pc. That took some doing, quite a learning curve on the imac but I'm getting there slowly.

I love the big screen and nice color, but that's about all I like about it. Safari I'm getting used to and a couple other features. So it mainly is a backup plus my daughter likes to watch youtube videos on it, browse and check her email. We both can watch different youtube videos at the same time with my dsl and router which surprised me. But the tech guy never was able to get the two computers to talk to each other; I don't know why. The only way I can transfer files is via my external Passport drives, and I haven't tried that yet.

[dan1123]

Probably, the best hope you have is to just burn a data cd of the best compression available (mpeg4 of some sort, like divx or h.264) and hope that the dvd player will be able to read the filesystem on the CD.

My Blu-Ray player will play HD mpeg4 video from CD just fine (you just can’t fit much video on the CD). Most recent DVD players will as well.

The problem is, if you’re wanting to send someone a video, their dvd player is probably old and doesn’t support anything but a plain DVD (maybe not even a burned DVD). So you essentially have no hope at that point.

[Still Thinking]

Are you saying you want to resulting media to play in your DVD player? If not, if you just want it to play in your PC, and it fits, you can record it on any media you want. If the first thing, then it’s somewhat dependent on your DVD player’s capabilities. Some of them are somewhat PC-format-aware. Mine will play audio CD’s; one time I put a CD with a bunch of photos in to see what it would do. It put up a screen of thumbnails you could navigate with the remote and offered to do a slideshow!

But seriously, if you’re just doing this to be able to use the 200 CD’s, why bother? You can replace the same GB capacity in burnable DVD’s for like $7.00!

[MaryFromMichigan]

Oh, I see you have the tech support list! :)

I have a somewhat related question.
I have a bunch of home movies on vhs that need to be converted to dvd.

What is the best way to do that?

/minor hijack

[ShadowAce]

I believe some of the right hardware is required.

Start a thread about this, and I will ping the list. :)

[MaryFromMichigan]

Will do!
Gotta go shopping now, though!
Thanks!