Slim,

What Riredale said. Only I think SVCD might run closer to 30 minutes of playing time. And my favorite video CD-R format is miniDVD, which puts a standard (but short) VIDEO_TS directory on a CD-R. The advantage of miniDVD is that it is even higher quality than SVCD but, of course, the playing time is shorter. Typically a miniDVD will hold from 15 to 18 minutes of full DVD quality video and audio. Only about a quarter of the standalone DVD players will play the miniDVD format, so if you are thinking in that direction, check the player compatibilities on the DVDHelp website. As for authoring, my plans are to buy Vegas 4+DVD before the special upgrade offer runs out on March 15 and use Sonic Foundry's DVD Architect as my authoring software. I already used Nero (I think it is important to use the latest version 5.5.10.7b of Nero that just came out a few days ago) to burn the DVD-Architect sample project to a CD-R as a miniDVD, and it played just fine in my Daewoo DVG-5000N player.

My very first attempt at burning a miniDVD from DVDA was successful. Incidentally, its video quality and audio quality were great; just as good in my opinion as the commercial DVDs. My oldest son has the same Daewoo player, and my younger son has a Toshiba SD-2705 5-disc carousel changer that was also listed as compatible with miniDVD, but not SVCD.

So I plan to make a bunch of miniDVDs with Vegas 4 and DVD Architect for distribution among my family and I really like it that they will cost only about 20 cents each. And the short playing time is not necessarily a bad thing. It is easier for you to put together a 15 to 18 minute video, and the audience frequently enjoys a "short subject."

This information is extremely helpful - Thank you VERY much. Now go to bed.

I have a question, I think relavent to this thread. I am going to upgrade to VV4, but not sure about buying the DVD option. All of the Editing software that I have purchased in the past says that I could make VCDs that would play on most DVD players. Well, I have two DVD players (JVC and Toshiba) but niether recognize Video CDs burned on my system. Both players are less than two years old. WILL I run into the same problem with VV DVD? I mean, will DVDs I burn using VV4 work on my present players? If not, what should I look for in a player, so that it will be in the "most....." catagory?

I have not bought a DVD burner yet, so if any of you have recommendations, (brand/ model names)I would apreciate your advice.
Thanks for your advice.

(Vegas Video is great. Found out about it by accident. I would have saved a lot of money if I had known about VV sooner).

Ohm:
As I mentioned in my above post, I am much more fond of the DVD format than the VCD format, but others might have different opinions. I bought a Cendyne/Pioneer -05 burner last month for all of $150! This is a DVD-R burner; others have DVD+R burners and like them, too.

Probably 90% of the DVD players out there will play burned DVDs, and I would guess a similar percentage can play burned VCDs. Sorry to hear about your bad luck regarding VCD compatibility.

As a past sufferer of the VCD world I would like to drop in on this one if I may...OK, so my Sony DVD Standalone player (the one hooked up to my TV) plays VCDs...COOL! (I think)off I gog an burn my first vcd and...it a no go! What?, says I..So I contact Sony: there answer is "It will play back VCDs, but only industrially produced ones..." So like the industrious litlle person I am, I go off, do a lot of research, and find out HOW I have to burn the VCD and with what media in order to be able to watch it on my player. I then promptly contact Sony again and tell them that they are wrong of course...

Anyway, the moral to the story is that the VCD world is complicated to say the least: each player seems to have its little preference, with regards bitrates and especially what media you burn your vcd on (branded vs non-branded; RW vs R) etc...So beware: what works on your player may not work on your neighbours/family player! By the way, a VERY good informative website with all sorts of information and vcd/burning specs is VCDhelp.com (now dvdhelp.com I believe) Check it out and you will most probably find the info you need: they list hundreds of dvd players and vcd/dvd compatibility.

One last thing: DVD burning, albeit not so dramatic, suffers from similar issues to VCD. Par example, one dvd I burnt would play off my Playstation but not off my friend's!! (and we bought them within 6 months of one another....)

Welcome to the confusing world of home-made digital media!!!

BEST OF LUCK!!!

Marquat:
Not sure what you mean by "de-interlaced" video. Also, HDTV has nothing to do with DVD (presently), and there are multiple flavors of HDTV, some with interlace, and some without.

"What is the standard format for DVD video?"

As riredale wrote: " is generally 480x720 pixels, usually in a 4:3 presentation, with a frame rate of 29.97 frames/sec and audio sampled at 48KHz " However, depending on your authoring software you can often do 1/2 & 1/4 frame sizes - this makes for smaller files that use less compression and can look better -> on a PC the graphics card will do the upsizing to full size or full screen. The spec limits you to something close to the 4:3 ratio - to get widescreen you squish your video into the 4:3 box & the player spreads it back out... that is unless you do something half size which takes less then full width but both fields so it's taller. The original spec calls for mpeg2 video, but MS is trying to change that to include winmedia 9 - Sonic authoring products (& those written using Sonic libraries) are supposed to accept winmedia 9 files without re-encoding them. Player support is reportedly coming.

"Also what is the difference between VCD and SVCD"

Go to vcdhelp.com - Both are formats that never quite caught on in NA, but are still quite popular elsewhere. VCD uses mpg1, SVCD can use mpg2 & uses a 480 x 480 size. Like DVDs, they can be played using something other then a PC.

"Is there an opinion out there as to the best video format to use when editing clips from a camcorder if my goals are to output to VHS tape AND output to DVD/VCD/SVCD"

If you've got a DV camera, stay DV and print to your tapedeck for VHS. If you've got analog, capture your video to HUFFYUV, do your editing, render to avi or segmented avi files probably using an mjpeg codec like picvideo or morgan, then depending on your hardware etc., play back or print to tape whilst recording with your tapedeck.

You can try and save a step by just rendering once to mpeg2 for example, and playing that back to your tapedeck - the risk is that the mpeg2 file will usually not be the same quality, & not all hardware handles playing these highly compressed files back to your deck as well as mjpeg.

"A VCD is a mediocre-quality disk that uses MPEG1, the predecessor of MPEG2. The quality is roughly analogous to VHS, though I think it is actually worse."

Ironically, the standalone DVD player is also limited to VHS quality playback so you don't copy the DVD that way. OTOH, most TVs can't display that much better then VHS anyway.

"An SVCD is kind of a hybrid of the two above-named formats. It burns to a CD, but uses MPEG2 to do the encoding. Quality is much closer to DVD, but the playing time is only about 20 minutes or so......."

As with DVDs or VCDs, you can increase the compression levels to squeeze more video onto the disk, though quality decreases and if you go too far it may not play back everywhere. Then again as noted in several posts, compatibility with standalone DVD players stinks anyway, depending not only on format but also brand of media used.

"And my favorite video CD-R format is miniDVD, which puts a standard (but short) VIDEO_TS directory on a CD-R. The advantage of miniDVD is that it is even higher quality than SVCD but, of course, the playing time is shorter. Typically a miniDVD will hold from 15 to 18 minutes of full DVD quality video and audio. "

You can burn an hour's worth of video to a CD if you set the compression high enough & go to a smaller frame size (don't rely on the templates). With mpeg2 the quality will suffer of course, but you might not be able to notice that much on your TV - it will look much better if you use DiVX, winmedia, or real, but you lose the ability to play it back on a standalone player.

"Are there any problems with playing back de-interlaced video on DVD players? Will HDTV use interlacing?"

If you take apart a Commerically released DVD, you'll normally find that the movie has been encoded at the original 24 fps progressive format - the DVD player does the nec. work to send it to your 29.97 or 25 fps interlaced TV, so no, not a problem. HDTV to my understanding is progressive, but other then that, most everything depends on the circuitry attached to the HDTV. Your PC's monitor is progressive, but it will play back interlaced video - how well depends on your graphics card, software, & drivers - IMO same thing more or less.

"I film in PS on my DV-camcorder, plus I find for conversion of VHS tapes that the PS (de-interlaced) version looks better on my computer monitor, but the PAR is wrong so I have to convert to "640x480, Square Pixels, Do Not Letterbox" in order for it to look correct on my computer monitor. I wouldn't mind burning this result to DVD for viewing via a DVD-player to TV's of today. Do DVD-players play back PS video without a hitch (even if the DVD-player has to re-interlace for standard TV's)? Would the same DVD-player not have to re-interlace to play correctly on HDTV?"

To go to DVD you'd want your picture at 720 x 480. Prob. you're coming up against is that a TV uses overscan - the picture sent to your TV screen is actually larger then 720 x 480 [full screen DVDs are usually 720 x 500+ something if/when played on your PC]. While a 320 x 240 picture is all that's required to fill up your TV screen (really) (640 x 480 represents both fields), you would likely have prob.s on some TVs with black bars at the side, if you could trick a DVD authoring app into accepting 640 width mpeg2.