Please help

mommystime wrote on 12/14/2002, 1:57 PM
I bought video factory about a year ago. Now I am making a presentation for my mom for Christmas. I put the pictures I want on the timeline, added the transitions, etc., the music, and all seems to be fine but I have a few questions. (I am new to all this so I will probably sound like an idiot) First, playback is pretty smooth except for a few stutters here and there. Anything I can do about that? Will it play back like that if I burn it to disc? Also, I have a CD burner. I was planning on putting this on disc so she can play it on her DVD player. (It's a montague of the grandkids) How do I go about doing that? How do I know it will fit on the CD? It's about a four minute show. Is a CD disc what you would put it on to play it back in a DVD player or is there a special DVD disc? (Clueless, I know!)
Also, is there a special way I have to save the file? Will it give me a DVD option? Please help as I need this done by Christmas. Thank you!

Comments

discdude wrote on 12/14/2002, 2:46 PM
> First, playback is pretty smooth except for a few stutters here and there.
> Anything I can do about that? Will it play back like that if I burn it to disc?

I assume you are talking about the preview window in the lower right hand corner. Depending on the power of your computer, video in the preview window may stutter, since VF is basically assembling your video on the fly. Chances are when you finally render your video, it will not stutter.

> I was planning on putting this on disc so she can play it on her DVD player.

If you have VF 2, this is fairly easy. Just click "Make Movie" and select "Write your movie to Video-CD". You can think of Video CD's (aka VCD) as a special type of CD-ROM. You can use standard CD-R's or CD-RW's to create VCDs. Bear in mind, most DVD players can handle CD-RW better than CD-R so you might want to burn your movie on both types of media, just in case. Also, although VCD's will play on many DVD players, it doesn't play on all DVD players (you'll have to check ahead of time to avoid any embarassing moments). Quality is widely regarded as VHS quality although it is actually step below.

If you have VF 1, you'll need additional software to create VCD's.

> Will it give me a DVD option?

VF cannot create DVD's. You will need special DVD burning software to be used in conjunction with VF to create DVD's.
mommystime wrote on 12/14/2002, 3:12 PM
I have a CD-RW burner. I'm assuming this won't work with a VCD? Also, I have VF2 and I saw the make movie button. Do you have any idea how I would get my movie onto VHS tape? Maybe it's easier to do that...or maybe not! I don't know. Thanks so much for your reply!!
discdude wrote on 12/14/2002, 3:36 PM
> I have a CD-RW burner. I'm assuming this won't work with a VCD?

No, it will work with a CD-RW burner. Philips invented both the CD and VCD. They are very similar. The only difference is how data is stored on the disc.

> Do you have any idea how I would get my movie onto VHS tape?

Sure. I am assuming you have a mini-DV camcorder. Use the "Print your movie to DV tape" option to record your finished movie to a (blank) mini-DV tape. Then, hook up your camcorder up to a VCR. VHS doesn't have the coolness factor of VCD, but it'll probably have better picture quality.
IanG wrote on 12/14/2002, 5:39 PM
Burning both a CD-R and a CD-RW is sound advice. Have a look at VCDHELP and check the compatibility tables - they'll give you an idea which disk you should be gift wrapping! There's also loads of useful stuff about VCD in general.

Ian G.