Putting Videos on CD (*.avi or DVD)?

[J D Sauser]

I've been thinking to put my "Jeff's" and other steel and guitar videos on CD.
I have a P-II-266MHz/Win'98/96Meg-Ram machine with a Video IN and an external CD burner (HP-8200, <small>which I don't think will handle the DVD format</small>).
What are the problems , experiences and what's the recomended software?

Thanks! [email]jaydee@bellsouth.net?subject=SG-Forum/Computers/Burning Videos on CD[/email]

[Jack Stoner]

You would have to have a DVD Writer (burner) in order to do DVD as it is a different format than CD. DVD writers are just coming on the market so the current cost is high.

You are probably better to convert them to some video format, such as AVI that you can write to a standard CD. I haven't really got into "movies" but there is S/W around to do what you want to do. The "video in" that you have, is it a standard TV video in or is it some other format??? It it's a standard TV composite video then you are probably OK as far as hardware.

[J D Sauser]

Hey Jack, how are you doing?
Thanks for your interest and comments.
The Video IN (and OUT) are for TV and Video in PAL <u>and</u> NTSC.
I also agree that I will have to use the .avi format, which is quite decent <small>(at least as decent as Jeff's tapes )</small>.
I just don't know which Software to go for and I have lost all hope to get trustable help from the sales people @ CompUSA...
So, I hope somebody out here could share some positive experience on some S/W.

Thanks! [email]jaydee@bellsouth.net?subject=SG-Forum/Computers/Burning Videos on CD's[/email]

[Everett Cox]

JD-- I have not attempted to put any video on CDrom so cannot offer any real experience. However, I did a quick search on one of my favorite download sites and came up with some things in which you might be interested.

(Ziff-Davis download library)
http://www.zdnet.com/swlib/

(A couple FREE programs to get you started)
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,001EPI,.html

http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,0018HE,.html
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,0009IO,.html
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,000ZAG,.html

http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,001AAY,.html

The second one, above, requires QuickTime and DirectX - hence the additional URL's.

On my system, I have an ATI All-In-Wonder video card which has video in/out and came bundled with software to capture and edit from a variety of sources. It creates .AVI video files which I save to hard disk. That is OK for my needs but you would probably want to use a compressed format, instead.

My .AVI files are HUGE - from 10 to 30 MB for each minute of video, depending on resolution, frame rate, etc. Since your product would likely be used only with a computer, you should be able to use any of several formats for the resultant files.

Along with 'standard' types such as .MPG, there are proprietary ones like 'VDOLive'. Go to the ZDNet site (first URL, above) and do a search for 'video capture', 'video compression', etc. Clicking on the name of any 'hits' will bring up a page containing a synopsis of the program, purchase info, size, and a download link.

I've put a few on my machine and will give them a try. Perhaps I can then be a little more helpfull.

--Everett

[J D Sauser]

Thanks, Everett.
So, now I've got homework .
I've got a friend of mine in Europe, and he's copied full DVD movies from his computer DVD-Rom onto a CDRW on his computer. The burning is done, he said, in .avi (Full screen size!). I've seen one of them and you almost can't tell the difference, except maybe for the sound quality (it's still very good).
But now you, at 10-30MB a minute... well that's 1-3GigaB per 100 miuntes... still a bit more than a CDR holds (850Megs).

Live ain't easy... but thanks! [email]jaydee@bellsouth.net?subject=SG-Forum/Computers/Burning Videos on CD's[/email]