£550 DVD-R or £120 CD-R writers

[Gary Palmer]

I was about to buy a new CD-writer to burn CD-Videos for playback in a DVD player.

Now DVD writers are available. The DVD writers and discs cost much more but I assume picture quality is much better ???

What should I do ?

[StephenR]

Firstly, where can you get a DVD-R writer for £550? I want one!

To answer your question, it really depends on what you want to use it for. If it's only for occasional use then perhaps the quality of VideoCDs would be acceptable, but personally I find the quality of home made VideoCDs to be unacceptable. Results vary depending on the source material and the encoder, but the limitations of MPEG-1 mean picture quality may be worse than VHS.

Of course, to create high quality DVDs you need more than just a DVD-R drive. You would need an MPEG-2 encoder and some suitable software, but these are not too expensive. I'd like to use such a system to transfer DV camcorder footage to DVD.

Also, note that not all DVD players can play VCDs, but almost all can play DVD-R discs.

[GarethH]

I would wait for the technology to develop. At the moment 1-layer recording is possible, but dual layer recording will soon be available. Give it another year or two and the drives will be cheaper. Do keep in mind that blank DVD-R discs cost £15!

Give it a year and your looking at £5 if your lucky. 2 years i would say £3-4

[Reiner]

Name a DVD player which cannot play VCD!?

[Metric]

toshiba 2109u wont play pressed vcd

[Reiner]

I guess you mean it won't play "home-made" VCD recorded on CD-R?
That however has nothing to do with the VCD format itself but rather the player's hardware (single laser).

Surely it will play pressed VCDs.

Do not forget about SVCD which can be read by most DVD players and are written on normal CDR's.

[Gary Palmer]

Thanks Chaps.

The drive is avaiable at PCworld but only in their business section for 499+vat.

It is very expensive but I was planning on buying a DV camcorder and transferring to DVD.

Originally I was think of DV video on CD-R...

In both cases, playback on std DVD players is a huge plus but not entirely essential..

Has anyone done either ?

Thanks
Gary

[Ars longa, vita brevis]

Originally posted by Reiner:
<STRONG>Name a DVD player which cannot play VCD!?</STRONG>

lg 2330 or something, i dont know the exact digits, but my freind has one and it wont play vcd's, he has to come use my dvd player ha ha.

[StephenR]

I meant home-made VCDs when I said that some DVD players couldn't play them - should have been clearer about that.

Regarding price of DVD-R discs, Apple sell a 5-pack for £35 + VAT. Bear in mind you can get 2 to 3 hours of MPEG-2 video on a DVD-R but only 74 minutes of MPEG-1 video on a CD-R. Making SVCDs reduces the capacity even more.

For storing DV camcorder footage I wouldn't consider VCD or SVCD to be an option. I've been waiting a long time for affordable DVD writers and it looks like they're finally coming.

[Metric]

nope, my old told wouldnt play pressed vcd

[Reiner]

Metric, Ars: this seems very strange, every DVD player should be able to handle pressed (manufactured) VCDs.
The MPEG-2 decoder is downwards compatible and should hence be able to decode VCD (MPEG-1).
As the laser can read CD it should also be able to read VCDs.

Though of course there could be some problem with the firmware in the player.
Perhaps check the manual (or even the front panel of the player) and see what it says, if it says that it's able of playing VCD I would claim warranty.
I owned a Toshiba player before and it had no problems nor do my old and new Yamaha player.

[StephenR]

Originally posted by Gary Palmer:
<STRONG>The drive is avaiable at PCworld but only in their business section for 499+vat.
</STRONG>

Business section - does that mean only business customers can buy it? I've seen it for sale at Jungle for £939.99, so £499 + VAT seems like quite a good deal! It is the Pioneer DVR-A03 isn't it?

[Paul O]

"every DVD player should be able to handle pressed (manufactured) VCDs."

LG players can't play VCDs. Don't know why, but it states on all reviews that it won't play them, copies or pressed. Which is a shame, as I was thinking of buying one of their players until I found this out.


With regards the main point of the link, why not record your DV movies on S-VCD? I thought that these were DVD quality on a CD-R. The limiation being they only fit 25 mins or so on them. But I don't know many people who make home movies longer than this. Might be worth looking into??
My capture card records at MPEG2 and Nero will burn a S-VCD. Tried it on the DVD and it works fine. I have a normal camcorder though, not a DV one, so I can't test the difference in quality between an original DV and S-VCD.

Can anyone clarify?

Cheers,

Paul.

Originally posted by Reiner:
<STRONG>Name a DVD player which cannot play VCD!?</STRONG>

my sony 345