New to this whole idea, I just bought myself a home vide system, thought I'd get smart and save money by copying movies, but now I'm told that there is no way to burn a movie to a CD that I can watch on my stand alone DVD, is this true? If this is not true, how CAN I burn a CD and watch it on my DVD player (without a computer) and how do I get good DVD quality

yes this is true. You cannot burn a dvd onto cd and play it on a standalone. DVD has a certain structure of files - a standalone checks for this structure and will only play it if on a DVD-disc.

You have to either get a dvd-burner and burn to dvd-r or create vcd or svcd instead which will play on some dvd-standalones.

Creating vcd or svcd is an etirely different thing - which dvd2one cannot help you with. You need some other tools for this - read up on all the guides floating on the net.

Besides you can never get good dvd quality onto a cd - thats nonsense. A dvd holds 9gb and a dvd-r holds 4.7 gb but a cd-r only holds 800 mb - the compression needed to fit a whole dvd on a cd will make it unwatchable.

So even if I do this as vcd or svcd, it will not be good quality, will it be surround sound?

If I purchase a DVD burner, will I have GOOD quality and Surround sound? How much does a decent burner cost? And is the dvd itself more expensive than a CD

svcd can have ac3 i think

have a look here

www.vcdhelp.com

www.doom9.net

and here
http://gordianknot.sourceforge.net/

Come on damiandimitri - judging on the questions from shelloz its not very likely hes going to produce svcd with ac3 sound for a very very long time as this requires alot of experience and knowledge and tools.

Basically NO - you will not have surround sound and you will not have menus and extras and selective languages and so on. You will simply just have a movie with a 2channel stereo sound. Creating svcd in descent quality requires 2-3 cd-r, creating dvd on dvd-r only requires 1 dvd-r, so even if a blank dvd-r cost a litle more than a blank cd-r the difference is almost none.

Creating a dvd with the tools today is much easier and faster than creating a good svcd.

A burner is about 200$ - but its an investment you wont regret.

The days of vcd and svcd on cd-r are long gone

If I purchase a DVD burner, I can download a movie from Kazaa (or wherever) and then burn it to a DVD and watch it on my DVD stand alone player correct? Is the quality as good and is it surround sound, or still 2 speak sound? Is the DVD much more expensive than purchasing a CD, and are there re writeable DVD's?

no - usually the movies on the net are not DVD - simply because of size. Mostly they are divx format which can only be played on the computer.

I cannot answer the question about price of dvdr versus cdr as this depends on which country you live in. You will have to look it up yourself at your local resellers.

yes there are rewriteable dvd-r - they are called dvd-rw


Not to be rude, but I judge you are quite new to this whole videobusiness and this forum is really for questions about dvd2one. I suggest reading the guides and explanations about all of these general things on for instance http://www.dvdrhelp.com

@dvr105

there are tools and guides that allow even new people to do this
every one has to start......that is why i posted the links


svcd times or not over...much dvd burners are for most people to expensive

damiandimitri

I doubt a completely new user with no experience at all will start out creating svcd's with ac3 sound - but thats just my opinion.

naturally I didnt mean there was anything wrong in posting the links - you were only trying to help - I do realize that

And Ill give you that there still may be a market for vcd and svcd - but I dont agree with you on the cost reason. If people want to create vcd and svcd - they would allready need a computer and a cd-rburner. If they do have money to get this the difference in getting a computer and a dvd-r burner is so small. And theres no difference in mediacosts.

perhaps you are right too

not every one wants to rush into to things like me

@shelloz
talking about downloading stuff from KAzaa und burning them, is not allowed on here

please, use the links i gave...look on those webside for "guides" they can give you a lott of info what is possible...from vcd (easy), svcd and dvdr


here in Holland the media is still expensive for dvd
cd's from 30 euro cent....dvd-r i think still cost 2 euro's per piece

As long as I keep getting these TY's at the current price compared to dvd media I will stick to making svcd's.

you can almost buy 5 cd for 1 dvdr

Try 20.

Check out the guides by Chickenman @ DivX and Video Editing Forum first. If you're still having trouble, check out doom9.net

And please don't double post.

But one dvd holds as much mb as almost 6 cdrs - which makes dvd-r cheaper pr. mb and if you can live with svcd-quality you can have 2 movies on one dvd-r, which would require 6 cd-r, which also makes backup on dvd-r cost less pr movie - thats simple math

not to mention you can watch 2 movies and not leave the couch, where as with svcd you have to get up and switch disc 5-6 times

media price is not a reason to keep making svcd's on cd-r !!! Beleiving so is a simple calculationerror

Only the price of the burner can be a showstopper for some

for many people it is

calculate it or not.....it is just a habbit people have....take it if it is cheaper

I don't know where you buy your media but I have 4/ 50 count spindles of TY's I purchased for about $3.00 per spindle. I don't know where you can get DVDs at a comparable price.
Also if you are new at burning dvd's you are going to make a few coasters from what I gather from the dvd burning forum. I would rather make six cent coasters than $ coasters. My television isn't that far from my sofa.

I'm pretty sure you can keep ac3 with svcd, but its really not a good idea in the long run because you'd be talking 4-5 cdrs for a movie. If you want your 5.1 or dts getting a dvd writer is a better idea. Then you have a few choices, either you split your movies over 2 dvdrs a la dvdxcopy, you transcode for a noticable quality drop depending on the movie a la DVD2One, or you go the harder route and re-encode and reauthor with CCE and DVDMaestro/Scenarist which yields better quality (Yes it does Peter ) but has a much steeper learning curve.

On a sidenote, even mentioning Kazaa or any off those other p2p networks will make many people not want to help you. You can blame all the DMCA and federal attention to online piracy on those services you so nonchalantly employ. Cmon feds, shut those things down please! Flame on you p2p junkies.

/MLS

The best application to copy from DVD to CD, in my opinion, is Amigo DVD Ripper. Just put in the DVD, pick VCD or SVCD, and the program splits the files to fit onto individual CD's. About 3 hrs per DVD