DVD Writers....

[Littlerich]

My idea is to get a DVD writer and then output any films, etc... I make to a DVD, so you can watch them on a standard DVD Player...

Anyone out there know of any such hardware for the home market?

Would a normal CD-R work, and if so, what software would I need?

Thanks.

P.S. Glad the board's back up!

P.P.S. Hello to those I've not said Hello to in a while!

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KEEP FOCUSED!
Little Rich.
http://go.to/littlerich
[email protected]

[Mods]

I think the one we have in school is a DVD writer, I'll check.


Mods

[RedRaven]

Hi Littlerich

well, I'm not an expert but I do know a normal CD-R drive will NOT record a DVD!

DVD-R drives are becoming available now, but I don't think they are within the reach of the home user. There are companies starting up who are offering to record your own films onto DVD for a few hundred pounds each, so I expect they've shelled out for a DVD-R drive and are trying to make their money back.

[marti-c]

Hi Rich
I think these dvd writers are out of the general public's price range at the time but if the material is not too long in length then you could encode into mpeg and write onto a cdrw disc and put on vcd format . This is slightly better quality than vhs. I think there is also another format up fom vcd(something like svcd but can only be played on certain dvd players which are not really that popular.)
I know this does not address the quality that your striving for but i have transfered most of my videos onto vcd and find it much more convienient for playing and accessing.(plus it's great for doing away with the terrible light/dark protection that is on dvds when you record them to tape)

marti

[This message has been edited by marti-c (edited June 21, 2001).]

[machead]

There are DVD writers available about ?500 but as far as I know you can't burn a DVD movie with it,you nead DVD authoring software which must be compatible with the writer.With the exception of the Apple G4 750mghz machine which has the software and the superdrive all included(pricey though ?2500+VAT).


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MACHEAD
http://www.apple.com

[miker]

as I suspected the 'superdrive' is Pioneer's DVD-R

and, contrary to popular belief, you can burn a DVD onto CD-R, but it will only be about 5 minutes long (well, short anyway, I can't be arsed to do the maths)

you can burn a VCD or a SVCD, these will also play in modern DVD players but are VHS and SVHS quality respectively.

the underground format is DivX ;-) (MPEG4) but no DVD player I know of can play them back

Some French company reckons it's just squeezed DVD quality out of really low-bitrates (ie for streaming over a modem) but I would consider that bollocks.

DVD authoring is not a subject to be taken lightly, unless you love those trashy wizards

Which authoring program will you use? Again, there are many to choose from.

And do you really want to use a single speed writer?

Unless you are an early adopter (or a show off), avoid.

Also, DVD+RW and DVD-RW are two competing formats just around the corner.

Then don't forget all the big distributors sticking their oar in for copyright protection ... big, bloated, film studios - don't ya just love 'em

[Littlerich]

Cool! Thanks Guys and Girls!

------------------
KEEP FOCUSED!
Little Rich.
http://go.to/littlerich
[email protected]

[Vertino]

miker is right...

you can format a CD-R to a DVD format... its called one of two things... miniDVD or cDVD

here's a good site about miniDVD... http://www.robshot.com/

you'll get great quality, but very short playback!


like miker mentioned, use VCD or SVCD... its a good starting point if you want to distrubute digital video.

Good Luck

[marti-c]

One additional note is that a lot of dvd standalone players will not playback cdr discs but are happy with the slightly more expensive cdrw ones.

marti