Digital convergence takes a blow to the head

[Jason Dunn]

I've always tried to pursue digital convergence whenever possible - why buy a DVD player when a perfectly good PC with a DVD drive can be hooked up to the TV? After struggling with that configuration for two years, I gave up and bought a DVD player. Then when I purchased the XBox, back went the DVD player and once again I was using a single device for multiple uses. I was quite pleased with how it was all working out, until I tried to play a VCD photo disc I had burned - no dice. <br /><br />Upon doing some further research, I discovered that the Xbox doesn't support SVCD, VCD, MP3, JPEG, or basically anything else other than DVD and DVD-R formats. Augh! How can a digital guy like myself cope with such limitations? So off I went last night, <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/calgarysummer.jpg">braving our bizarre weather</a>, to buy a new DVD player. After going way over budget in Cancun, I swore I wasn't going to spend any money for a while, but my inability to play VCDs was downright insulting to my digital persona. So I picked up a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NCWG/jasonsego">rather snazzy JVC player</a> that supported almost every standard under the sun (affiliate link).<br /><br />I had already spent days scouring the web for the best kind of DVD burning software that was tailored specifically for creating slide shows with music, and after trying five different packages, I ended up back where I started (I should have known better): <a href="http://www.qksrv.net/click-703726-1495782">Ulead DVD PictureShow</a>. It's a $29 app that does one thing very well: it burns DVD-player compatible VCD discs of photos with audio in MP3 format. You'd think something so simple would be offered by every competing software product on the market, but I couldn't find anything else that was as competent as the DVD PictureShow - this software truly rocks. MyDVD looked promising, but with no demo they lost me instantly as a customer.<br /><br />So I'm now a VCD burning machine, and even my wife is excited about creating picture discs of our wedding. Anyone else into creating photo VCDs? What software do you use?

[nycipaq]

been burning VCD's on my Mac for over 5 years now & they play on my DVD Player.
http://www.moviemac.com/

[klinux]

mycipaq beat me to it. Seriously considering buying the Mac as it is the only consumer platform that is anything close to nirvana of digital convergence.

[Will T Smith]

SVCD is better. Though less widely supported.

I'm waiting for ULTRA Video CD. MPEG-4 on plain old CD played on set-top video CD players.

Combine an MPEG-4 encoder with a PVR with a 40x burner and what do you get. A mega-media console able to kill commericials and save the good stuff to disc economically.

Such a format is long enough to hold a hollywood movie, or multiple episodes of the same TV series.

Let's go MPEG-4. APEX lets see those BIOS patches ;-)

[Jason Dunn]

mycipaq beat me to it. Seriously considering buying the Mac as it is the only consumer platform that is anything close to nirvana of digital convergence.


What can't your PC do that a Mac can? I'm curious...(not meant to be a platform slam here).

[snowday]

Geez Jason - now you did it! Quit egging the Mac fanatics on... :P

Your post was about VCD slideshows, and these guys turned it into a general-VCD-burning-Mac-vs-PC thing. I'm missing the leap here...

Anyway, back to your topic: If you haven't already, check out http://www.vcdhelp.com/author.htm (and check out the rest of the site as well) - at the bottom of the page there is a section covering methods to create VCD/SVCD Photo-Albums/Slide-Shows. At a quick glance, it looks like you hit on the best choice already, but it might be worth a review. And - hey - lookie - one of the seven methods is even Mac-based!

[Newsboy]

There are several sites on the web on hacking DVD players so they can support various formats, as well as disabling some of the annoying features, like region encoding. Check techbargains.com, they usually have a link to several sites up there.

For instance, on my Sony DVD changer, I can get it to support SVCDs, skip those annoying FBI blurbs at the beginning of DVDs if I choose, and even play European or Asian DVDs.

Now I'm just trying to find ways to hack my Sega Dreamcast, since it *does* use Windows CE! Now if it only played DVDs, I'd have it all, as it is I have a web browser, mouse and keyboard support, DivX video playback, MP3 playback, WMA playback, just about anything you can do w/ a PC you can do one way or another w/ the Dreamcast. Heck, it even supports VGA video out to a computer monitor. Now, if I could get it to talk to my PocketPC....

I hear ya' Jason, I'm waiting for convergence myself. Wish we could just have ONE box.

I recently downloaded the Ulead DVD Factory. Haven't tried it yet, but it got rave reviews on Download.com. Can't wait to make my first VCD.

Oh, and for you gadget geeks (there's one in all of us isn't there?), CompGeeks.com has the Intel Play Digital Movie Creator for $30. It's a digital camcorder built for kids that takes 60 seconds of 320x240 video at 10-15 FPS. GEE, that's the SAME size as a PocketPC movie. Hmmm...... :twisted:

[krisbrown]

I'm glad ULEADS software worked for you, I purchased it and it flatly refused to write a disc on any machine I put it on, 3 different pc's with 3 different burners, the response from ULEAD was useless and if you read their troubleshooting forum, it is full of disgruntled purchasers. ps Segas Dreamcast can be bought for a song and can read ALL types of cdr, there are many image viewers, mp3/vcd/divx/mpg players etc available from enthusiasts and most are available as easy to burn nero/discjuggler images. Try dcemulation.com.

[bitbank]

Jason,
When our precious family movie VHS tapes started to get moldy and rot, we searched for an alternative. VCDs that are compatible with most DVD players are really low bitrate and the video actually looks worse than VHS tape. The only solution is DVD-R. So I bought a Pioneer A04 and am converting my MiniDV family movies into DVDs. The results look excellent and will last a lifetime. Blank DVD-Rs can be gotten for about $1.50 each and the recorder is less than $400.

L.B.

[AZMark]

I'm twelve! I'm twelve!

[marlof]

I've deleted the original post by YUP that invoked MarkAZ's response. People, please reread our posting rules (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=801). Trying to start a flame war by stating obscenities, or ridiculing others will not work (not even when there are smileys attached to those flame starters), as those posts will be deleted. On this site you can disagree with anybody, but just keep it civil and polite. Thanks!