Video to CD-ROM

MichaelS wrote on 4/9/2004, 5:33 PM
I have a 3 minute video to be distributed by CD-ROM as part of a corporate training kit. The video clip will be all that's on the final disc.

Does anyone have experience, good or bad, with the various formats, bitrates, autorun, etc. Generally, what is considered the best format for this type of distribution. Unfortunately, the disc will go to a variety of companies, so it's impossible to know what computers will be available.

Comments

VegasVidKid wrote on 4/9/2004, 6:21 PM
I assume it will be played on a computer?

In the absence of other information, I'd go with an MPEG-1 (.mpg) format using the VCD quality setting. Any PC or Mac would be able to play that. Don't burn it as an actual "Video CD", though. That would be playable on many DVD players, but most PC/Mac users would not know how to play it.

If it's the only thing on the CD, you could even include a higher quality MPEG-1, Quicktime, and Windows Media version of the clip. (The VCD quality MPEG-1 is almost VHS quality, and you coud fit an hour of video on a CD at that quality).
jdas wrote on 4/9/2004, 7:57 PM
Vegaskid,

When you mention "a higher quality MPEG1", are you referring to SVCD ?
VegasVidKid wrote on 4/9/2004, 10:41 PM
No. An SVCD is an MPEG-2 format, and it doesn't play in many DVD players nor does it play in a PC unless you have an MPEG-2 codec (same as required to play a DVD).

I meant that you could encode an MPEG-1 file at a higher bitrate or a larger frame size than the VCD standard. The standard VCD MPEG-1 format is 1150 kb/sec for video with audio at 44.1 kHz and a frame size of 352X240 at 30 frames/sec. You can go with a higher bitrate, and the quality would look better, but some people's CD Rom drives might not be able to keep up and it would stutter. But you could call one of the files "low quality" and the other "high quality". You may be perfectly satisfied with the VCD settings, though.

As I said before, don't burn the CDs as VCDs, just create the MPEG-1 file accdg to the VCD specs and burn the file onto the CD normally.

You *could* go with an actual VCD, but you would need to tell people without software-based DVD players on theiir PCs to open the MPEG-1 file (the file would get renamed to AVSEQ01.DAT inside an "MPEGAVI" folder) from the Windows Media Player, and it could get confusing. But the advantage there is that many of them would be able to watch it like a DVD on a standalone DVD player. There's a trade-off between versatility and simplicity.

Almost every PC and Mac should be able to play an MPEG1 file, though. If you're confident that your users all have PCs (no Macs), you could go for the Windows Media format (but stick with version 8- not everyone has the version 9 codecs installed).

Check out DVDRHelp.com (fka VCDHelp.com) for add'l info. Hope I haven't confused you!
MichaelS wrote on 4/10/2004, 10:04 AM
It makes good sense. Thanks!