Films on CD and playing in a DVD player

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

Very quick quickie.

Mrs zcacogp's sister is in town, staying at zcacogp towers.

She has a short film (10 mins) on her laptop, and wants to show it on a friend's TV via their DVD player.

The format of the film is *.wma.

If I was to burn this onto a CD (I have CD burner, she doesn't), will this show the film OK via a DVD player?)

(The obvious question is to burn the thing and put it in a domestic DVD player, but we don't have one!)

Thanks for any help you can offer ...


Oli.

p.s. The other answer is to hook Sister-in-Law's lappie up to the TV directly, but it doesn't have a TV-out port, and I don't have the cabling to do this anyway.

[GregE240]

zcacogp said:

Chaps, Very quick quickie. Mrs zcacogp's sister is in town, staying at zcacogp towers. She has a short film (10 mins) on her laptop, and wants to show it on a friend's TV via their DVD player. The format of the film is *.wma. If I was to burn this onto a CD (I have CD burner, she doesn't), will this show the film OK via a DVD player?) (The obvious question is to burn the thing and put it in a domestic DVD player, but we don't have one!) Thanks for any help you can offer ... Oli. p.s. The other answer is to hook Sister-in-Law's lappie up to the TV directly, but it doesn't have a TV-out port, and I don't have the cabling to do this anyway.

Oli,

You'll need to create a VCD, which will convert the video on the laptop to the correct format.

It will be wmv file format, not wma - wma is Windows Media Audio mate.

If you've got Nero, you can do this via Nero Express or Smartstart.

HTH,
Greg

[FourWheelDrift]

Not all DVD player will play VCD.

Google your DVD player or read the manual if handy and check the formats it can handle.

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

Thanks for the responses.

Greg - I said that the film is in WMA format ... I could be wrong and it could be WMV ... I'll check. I do know it payed as a default in Windows Media Player. When you say "Create a VCD" I presume this is the file format I need to be making? Yes, I do have Nero, thanks. However, I have never explored the depths of the video file format functionality ... fun fun fun all in store, no doubt!

4wheeldrift, thanks, unfortunately I don't know the model of DVD player they have, and I'm kind of hoping that someone will be able to recommend a format that they will all work with. If it's not VCD, what should I be trying to create?

Thanks again.


Oli.

[GregE240]

zcacogp said:

Greg - I said that the film is in WMA format ... I could be wrong and it could be WMV ... I'll check. I do know it payed as a default in Windows Media Player. When you say "Create a VCD" I presume this is the file format I need to be making? Yes, I do have Nero, thanks. However, I have never explored the depths of the video file format functionality ... fun fun fun all in store, no doubt! 4wheeldrift, thanks, unfortunately I don't know the model of DVD player they have, and I'm kind of hoping that someone will be able to recommend a format that they will all work with. If it's not VCD, what should I be trying to create? Thanks again. Oli.

Oli,

I'd take a punt with VCD....my old Sony snotter (a 329 vintage from 1998) played them no worries.

Basically, in Nero, you need to click on:
Nero Express (Nero 5) - Videos/Pictures, then Video CD, or;
Smartstart (Nero 6/7) - Photo/Video, Make Video CD.

HTH,
Greg

[zcacogp]

GregE240 said:

I'd take a punt with VCD....my old Sony snotter (a 329 vintage from 1998) played them no worries. Basically, in Nero, you need to click on: Nero Express (Nero 5) - Videos/Pictures, then Video CD, or; Smartstart (Nero 6/7) - Photo/Video, Make Video CD.

Thanks very much. I'll see what I can do. (Not sure what version of Nero I have, but this is really helpful stuff.)

GregE240 said:

HTH

It certainly did! Thanks.


Oli.

[pdV6]

Like Greg says, you'd be really unlucky if their DVD player didn't cope with a VCD... my old Sony (that does almost nothing fancy on top of playing DVDs) will even do VCDs on CDRs (although its a bit fussy about what brand of media you use).

[pentoman]

Your DVD player will almost certainly play a Video CD. If it doesn't you might as well give up and move to the moon.


PS It's very likely you might run into a problem with converting a .wmv file. I believe they are protected by Microsoft getting shirty and anal about their rights and so no software may decode wmv into another format (which is what you would do to make a video CD). I may be wrong - see what Nero gives you.

It's the price of using Microsoft's "free" and quite efficient wmv codec.

Russell

[FourWheelDrift]

pentoman said:

Your DVD player will almost certainly play a Video CD. If it doesn't you might as well give up and move to the moon.

Cheap ones don't and neither do some expensive ones from around 4 yrs+ back which do handle pre-recorded DVR+/- DVD discs. I'm speaking from experience here of different players and formats

I'd always recommend conversion to .vob files and burned to DVD because of the lower quality of VCD, although if he's starting with a WMV the quality will be poor no matter what format he uses.

[pdV6]

FourWheelDrift said:

pentoman said: Your DVD player will almost certainly play a Video CD. If it doesn't you might as well give up and move to the moon. Cheap ones don't and neither do some expensive ones from around 4 yrs+ back which do handle pre-recorded DVR+/- DVD discs. I'm speaking from experience here of different players and formats

IME the brand of blank media can have a significant effect. For example, my 5 year old Sony will play VCD on CDRs, but only on Verbatim media (which I have a bit of a job to find - not that I'm that bothered as I don't make a habit of creating VCDs)

[FourWheelDrift]

Another good point

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Similar...but different.

How do you capture a still pic from a DVD?

or can you?

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

FourWheelDrift said:

Generally if it's a commercial DVD you could rip the DVD using DVDecrypter, load the .vob into VirtualDub (MPEG-2 version) find the place you want hit the PrintScreen key and paste into your favourite paint package.

Ta

So...if its a DVD you recorded yourself from camcorder...similar?

[zcacogp]

Guys,

Back to the original point ... I have burned it as a *.vcd, and it works on my PC-based DVD-player (Power DVD), so this bodes semi-well for it working on another dedicated DVD player.

Thanks very much for your input - I'll keep you posted when it has been tried "in the field."

Back to the conversation about printing stills from DVD's ...


Oli.