DVD to CD

[shanewisdom]

How do i burn DVD's to CD's and what will i need (as in hardware/software):sly:

[DJ Bobo]

what should I say here? the i word, or the f word? :angry:

Don't even want to bother read the guides?! :o

[jggimi]

Welcome to Doom9's forum!

For hardware, you need a computer with a DVD-ROM drive and a CD-RW drive. That way, data comes off of a DVD, and can then go on to a CD.

For software, it depends on what you're going to use that CD with:

For playback on a DVD player:

You can create a CD-R or CD-RW disc that can be played in most (but not all) DVD players. The format is generally known as VideoCD. There are several different standards, such as VideoCD (VCD), SuperVideoCD (SVCD), and Extended Video CD (XVCD)...and others. The most common in use today, among forum members, is probably SVCD. The most popular encoding suite used by members here is DVD2SVCD. For software and procedures, click on http://www.doom9.org/mpg/svcd-guides.htm.

Be sure to check to see what format of VideoCD your player supports, and if it can use CD-R or CD-RW, too. Click on www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers for a database of players and their capabilities.

For playback on a PC:

Most members here are creating Audio Video Interleaving format, or .avi files. This method allows for many many different types of video and audio formats "under the covers." The most popular video format being used today is probably DivX 5. The last time I checked at that company's website, more than 60 million people had downloaded it. That doesn't include many who got it here at Doom9's site, or at other sites.

The most popular audio format is probably mp3, though many people have Dolby Digital equipped soundcards and retain Dolby Digital (.ac3) format.

The most popular encoding suite used by members here for Divx 5 is Gordian Knot. It can be a little intimidating for first time users -- it certainly was for me -- but after following the guide step by step a few times, I learned that the suite has great flexibility to handle a wide variety of encoding needs. With that great flexibility comes complexity, which is why following the guide exactly for the first few encodings is critical to success. Click on http://www.doom9.org/divx-encoding.htm to get started.

[Edit: DJ jumped in while I was responding. He is right, www.doom9.org has lots of guides. One set that you'll probably want to review, before encoding anything, are called "The Basics." Click on http://www.doom9.org/dvd-basics.htm to learn about the format of DVD video, in sections like "Aspect Ratios Explained" and also, check out Doom9's "Newbie Guide." I had to go through Aspect Ratios Explained several times before I figured out that all NTSC DVDs are made with 720x480 video, which is a 3:2 aspect ratio. But all tv screens are either 4:3 (like a PC monitor) or, if you spend a lot of money, in 16:9. Learning that pixels have "shape" was startling to me.]