making a disc playable on puters and settops

david-ruby wrote on 1/23/2006, 7:43 AM
I have a client that wants to have a DVD or CDR that will play in cdrom drives and DVD players.

If it was a cdr. What program can be used to make this also work in a settop DVD player?

If DVD. What as well here would work. Also keeping the menu for both on the computer and the DVD players.

Thank you for the advice here.

David R

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 1/23/2006, 9:32 AM
I'm not sure what you're asking for. Any DVD that works in a set-top DVD player will also play on a computer. The same is true of a VCD (which is the term for a CD that has video on it, and which will play both in DVD players and in computers).

As I re-read your question, I think you are asking specifically about cd-rom drives which implies you want video on a CD, not a DVD. You can do this directly from the Tools menu of Vegas. No need for DVD Architect. There are no menus in a VCD, however, although you can make pseudo-menus if you use Nero. To do that, encode an MPEG-1 (not MPEG-2) file in Vegas, and then use the VCD option in Nero and follow the menu directions in their help file. However, I'll warn you in advance that the menus do not operate in the manner you expect. You are probably better off just using the Tools menu in Vegas, burn the CD and deliver that.
david-ruby wrote on 1/23/2006, 12:13 PM
Thanx John. I gave the client a dvd that of course plays in my computers because I have dvdrom drives. They do not. They only have cdr drives. So they want something that can pull up a menu and access their info on ANY computer then also play on a DVD settop. I know progs like Multimedia Builder create these for cdrs. Is it possible to have say the files from the cdr put on a dvd from DVD arch so they can be viewed on either? I thought you could. Curious.
Thnak you again
DR
david-ruby wrote on 1/23/2006, 2:54 PM
What would be a good suggestion to make such a DVD or cd-r? Can you use a autorun program and create your files then drop these in DVD Arch as extras and when inserted into a cdrom would play? Just a thought.

How are you delivering these type of discs to your clients? A disc that plays in both DVD settops and CDr rom drives?

Anyone?

Thank you again.

DR
Sol M. wrote on 1/23/2006, 4:11 PM
The problem is that set-top DVD players require a very specific file structure for DVDs as set forth in the DVD specification. Any deviation from this would make it very unlikely that your disk would play on a set-top DVD player.

If the content to be burned onto disc is small enough (in terms of file size), it is possible to burn DVD-Video data onto a CD-R, which could then be read in a CD-ROM drive on a computer. However, in my experience, a set-top box will not be able to play the video (though the static menus have worked) on the burned CD (possibly because it cannot read the data from the CD fast enough).

Though a VCD offers a certain level of compatibility with both set-top DVD players and CD-ROMs, I see it as too much of a compromise IMHO. Also note that you cannot use a DVD authoring program to create VCDs with menus (the structure is quite different). SVCDs (MPEG-2) offer better quality than VCDs (MPEG-1), but neither of these formats are guaranteed to play on all set-top DVD players (the DVD player would specifically say whether it can play them or not).

Due to the compromises, my guess is that people simply DON'T create these sort of discs (I sure don't). A DVD offers too much value (menus, interactivity, hi-quality video, etc.) to want to deliver on anything less.

You could always create separate versions of the video-- one which would be authored to DVD, and another burned onto CD.

With the price of DVD-ROMs these days ($15-30), I would even suggest to the client that they upgrade their computers.
johnmeyer wrote on 1/23/2006, 6:45 PM
The quality of VCDs is significantly inferior to DVD, that's for sure. However, I've created quite a few for clients for exactly the reason you need to do so: they wanted to distribute to a large number of people to play on their computer, and those computers only have CD-ROM. I have also created dozens of SVCD's, and the quality is significantly better, but you are limited to pretty short videos, and the process is about as far from "cookbook" as anything can be. Done correctly, an SVCD can begin to rival a low-bitrate DVD, but you have to use dozens of tricks. If you decide to go this route, email me and I'll give you a quick run-down of what to do.

With either VCD or SVCD, you won't be able to do much with menus: It just isn't part of the spec. In fact, in my experience, menus actually make matters worse than having no menu, because they don't work at all like DVD menus, and people get confused. Instead, just author the VCD with a 10 second intro that tells you what chapter buttons to push for each section of the video, and leave it at that.
richard-courtney wrote on 1/26/2006, 7:15 AM
If your client does not have a DVD-ROM drive then he/she usually
does not have MPEG2 codecs installed.

WMV or MPEG1 should be on most flavers of Windows.
Try rendering in MPEG1 first to see if your content will fit. Then
look for AUTORUN in this forum and burn a CD.

I don't think you can get around the fact he has to at least have
a DVD-ROM drive to play on both. Some DVD players don't read
VCD anymore. So you may be stuck with two formats.
HaroldC wrote on 1/26/2006, 4:32 PM
Not long after getting ScreenBlaster Movie Studio (I've since upgraded) I used the vcd function fairly frequently. You have to keep in mind that a vcd can only handle about 1 hour or little more of video. Also vcd's will only play in progressive scan dvd players. Even with that, it can be rather pinake. To tell you the truth. If they don't wish to upgrade their computers than the better option might be to make dvd's and put the video in mpeg2 format on the network's server and let people watch off the server.

HaroldC
johnmeyer wrote on 1/26/2006, 5:48 PM
Also vcd's will only play in progressive scan dvd players.

Is that true? I have an ancient DVD player hooked via composite to an old TV set, and it plays VCDs. According to videohelp.com it is NOT a progressive player (Pioneer DV-525).
Chienworks wrote on 1/26/2006, 6:19 PM
Probably lots of players convert progressive files to interlaced on the fly.
johnmeyer wrote on 1/26/2006, 7:06 PM
Probably lots of players convert progressive files to interlaced on the fly.

That may be true. However, I just logged onto the Pioneer site and looked at the specs for my old player. I also downloaded the user guide. The word "progressive" does not appear anywhere. You know, for sure, that if this player had that capability, it would be trumpeted in the specs and in the manual.

This is not a progressive player, and it DOES play VCDs and SVCDs.

I'm not trying to be difficult or argumentative. Rather, the reason for pointing this out is to make the original poster more comfortable with the idea of using VCD where "ubiquity" (if that's a word) is important (i.e., you want it to play EVERYWHERE).

Chienworks wrote on 1/26/2006, 10:18 PM
Ahhhhhh .... a progressive player is one that can output a progressive signal. That would mean that it could take progressive source and play it on a progressive monitor. In the case we're discussing, the player is outputting an interlaced signal from progressive source. This would not qualify as a "progressive" operation, hence no mention of it in the specs.

I know all my DVD players handle this operation flawlessly. Most of the animations i create are progressive and i'll burn a raw MPEG-2 file to a data disc for testing on the various televisions around the house. They all play fine and my TVs are most certainly not progressive.
HaroldC wrote on 1/27/2006, 3:30 PM
Perhaps it is not whether a dvd player is progressive or not. You know what is said about assumptions. I assumed that it was the case. VCD's will play on my progressive player by not on an older dvd player I have. My player is one of the better Sony players compared with a Emerson player.

Sorry.

HaroldC
johnmeyer wrote on 1/27/2006, 8:13 PM
While it is possible that newer players don't handle VCDs (I haven't heard about it until now), up until this point one of the beauties of VCDs is that they would play on just about any player, and would do so on PAL or NTSC, in any region (don't know about SECAM, but who does?).