DVD on CD-R: Is it possible?

[Theodoric]

I have a few short AVI clips that I would like, if possible, to convert to DVD. However, all I have is a CD-RW drive. I followed the useful links supplied by SMHarman and downloaded the Demo versions of TMPGenc and TMPGEncDVDAuthor and tried them out but found, not unexpectedly, that they wouldn't burn the final files onto a CD-R. However, a bit of Googling hinted that DVDs could be copied onto CD-Rs, so, is it possible to create DVDs on CD-Rs?

I have tried playing the MPEG2 files on my DVD player, but the results are not very satisfactory.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Theodoric

I have a few short AVI clips that I would like, if possible, to convert to DVD. However, all I have is a CD-RW drive. I followed the useful links supplied by SMHarman and downloaded the Demo versions of TMPGenc and TMPGEncDVDAuthor and tried them out but found, not unexpectedly, that they wouldn't burn the final files onto a CD-R. However, a bit of Googling hinted that DVDs could be copied onto CD-Rs, so, is it possible to create DVDs on CD-Rs?

I have tried playing the MPEG2 files on my DVD player, but the results are not very satisfactory.

You can't create "DVD"s on CD's .. you can however copy the contents of a DVD movie (for example) to mpg2 format, compress it and split it over a few CD's.

[mrm1]

On cdr you can create

1. VCD which holds about 60 mins at half the quality of DVD

2. SVCD which holds about 20 mins at 2/3 the quality of DVD, about the same quality as VHS

3. Mini DVD. same quality of DVD, approx 15 mins of video, but only playable on PC's etc.

Only the first two formats can be played on a stand alone DVD player. Even then not all DVD players will play VCD or SVCD but most modern ones should.

Roxio EZCD 6 or Pinnacle studio can create such CD's


Hope this answers your question

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by mrm1

On cdr you can create

1. VCD which holds about 60 mins at half the quality of DVD

2. SVCD which holds about 20 mins at 2/3 the quality of DVD, about the same quality as VHS

3. Mini DVD. same quality of DVD, approx 15 mins of video, but only playable on PC's etc.

Only the first two formats can be played on a stand alone DVD player. Even then not all DVD players will play VCD or SVCD but most modern ones should.

Roxio EZCD 6 or Pinnacle studio can create such CD's


Hope this answers your question

Thanks. From what you say, at least I won't be wasting my time if I look further into it. 60 minutes would be more than long enough and even 20 minutes would be useful.

[mrm1]

Look out for Pinnacle Studio if you can.

Version 9 has recently been released for £ 60 approx so I managed to pick up a copy of version 8 from PC world for under £ 30. Excellent.

I had been using EZCD6 till then, but Studio is much much better.

[Theodoric]

A warning to read the fine print first!

After reading mrm1's useful advice on using either vcd or svcd, I downloaded some suitable demo software and made a vcd. I put it into my DVD player and got an error message saying unknown disk type. So, I looked in the DVD player manual and there was a table giving the respective properties of DVD, vcd, svcd etc. So, I downloaded another piece of demo software and made another vcd, put it in the DVD player and again got the same error message. Back to the DVD player manual and there below the above table were the fatal words, "This player is not suitable for vcd or svcd." D'oh!

I think I will start browsing the 'External DVD Writer' thread that has just started.

[mrm1]

My origanal DVD player (an Alba 108) didnt play VCD/SVCD but after searching the net (I just searched for "Alba 108 Hack" on Google) i found many sites with info showing how my player would play these disks.

it was only a few key presses on the remote, worth a try.

[mdean]

At risk of creating another coaster you might try simply burning your files onto cd as a standard CD rom

My DVD recognises the files and directories and plays MPEG and avi directories of this type even though it will not play VCDs (something my old -stolen dvd did)

[sonygeezer]

This site is good http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdhacks.php