DVD Help!!!

[quiescence]

ok this is probably gonna be a weird disjointed bunch of questions but I need some help with types of dvds ...

what's the difference between dvd and vcd?

why would the difference between Pal and NTSC be relevant to a dvd? I thought that was only vcrs ..

and how many moshers around here have dvd players anyway?  

thank you thank you thank you for any assistance you may provide *g*

[class idiot]

I'm pretty sure Pal and NTSC are only related to vcrs not that i'm smart in any of these topics. basically all i know is that dvd's hold more memory and vcd's are more associated with pirated movies ;) but i found some info on the difference between them from http://www.dj-media.com/doc/dvd_vs_vcd.asp


The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) and VCD (Video CD) format is different when it comes to the way they are encoded. DVD is a MPEG-2 formatted movie which is created by using digital audio/video signals and with advanced compression methods. VCD is created by recording the movie from a videotape and with the MPEG-1 format. As you migth imagine there is a difference when it comes to the viewing quality of the films.

DVD has the same physical appearance as VCD and a ordinary CD-ROM, but it provides several times as much data. A DVD can hold up to 18 gigabytes on one disc (double layer, double sided). This is enough to store a an entire movie encoded in the MPEG-2 format on a single disc. For a full movie stored on VCD you need two discs. Compared to VCDs, movies on DVD provide much higher quality, comparable to laser disc or even better.


Some benefits with DVD

DVD can hold about 2 hours of digital video and audio, and on a double sided DVD about 8 hours of audio and video (usual gold plated DVD disc)

DVD support widescreen for movies on standard or widescreen TV (4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios).

DVD can hold up to 8 tracks of digitial audio.

DVD can hold up to 32 different languages in terms of subtitles. You can change subtitling while watching the movie. Some movies are dubbed to different languages and you can change language while viewing the film.

Interactive menu selections. Often the films comes with "Behind the scenes" and with trailers etc.

"Instant" rewind and fast forward, including search to title, chapter, track, and timecode. NO MORE REWINDING! :-)

DVD can be played infinite times with no wear and tear to the movie and audio quality.

Heat do not affect the disc. That is "normal heat" ;-)

A CD-size disc makes DVD discs easy to handle and store.
Videotapes are heavy so this is a blessing. The future gets lighter and lighter.

DVD:s have very high audio quality. With the right equipment you can have a cinema like viewing experience.

Some benefits with VCD

The VCD-players are much cheaper than a DVD-player in countries such as India and Malaysia.

The movies are cheaper and more available.

You can copy movies more easily.

[quiescence]

brilliant thanks class idiot :)

I'm surprised it's only 8 hours though that's a bit of a disappointment... but I guess the "DVD can be played infinite times with no wear and tear to the movie and audio quality. " part will more than make up for that though ...

if you're curious the reason I'm asking is that I've found a program that will convert video to dvd .. and a nice person is giving me a dvd/cd writer for xmas ..

guess who's gonna get rid of all these DAAS/GNW videos that are stacked up everybloodywhere :)  .. all I have to do now is figure out this stupid program and why it seems to give me options on everything to how many times I want to breathe while it's doing it and I'll be set ....

[Mythor]

I have a DVD player in my patooter, but it no workie properly at the moment. :)

Oh, as for the relevance of NTSC/PAL, they have different colour encoding systems, as well as different 'standard' screen sizes.

But more likely to be of concern for DVD's is the region encoding 'anti piracy' stuff. Means you can't play DVD's from the United States in an Australian DVD player (without certain 'illegal' modifications). You can still get your hands on a legal 'multi region' DVD player from some places, but apparently they won't play all DVD's, as some DVD's have special encoding to not let them be played on a multi region DVD player.

The US government beat on Microsoft for 'anti competitive practices', and yet they don't touch such blatant obstruction of competition?

Sorry, DVD region codes annoy me. Even though I can rip the movie off of any DVD anyway... ;)

[Scarlett]

[quote:post_uid0][b:post_uid0]from class idiot posted at 4:28 pm on Dec. 15, 2001[/b:post_uid0]

http://www.dj-media.com/doc/dvd_vs_vcd.asp
[/quote:post_uid0]

*wanders in to take a look at the topic*......

*reads class idiot's message*.....

*wanders off realising she understood maybe 5% of it*....

*feels stooooopiiiiiiidd* :tongue:

[Mythor]

[quote:post_uid0][b:post_uid0]from quiescence posted at 4:48 pm on Dec. 15, 2001[/b:post_uid0]

I'm surprised it's only 8 hours though that's a bit of a disappointment... but I guess the "DVD can be played infinite times with no wear and tear to the movie and audio quality. " part will more than make up for that though ...[/quote:post_uid0]
I'm not sure, so don't quote me, but you might be able to fit more than 8 hours on if the video isn't "full screen" size. Whatever passes for full screen on DVD (640x480 I think).
Might be worth looking into if you're going to be burning a whole heap of video stuff to DVD. :)

Or of course, if you only want to play them from your PC, you could just encode them as DivX avi's.. might save even more room.

[class idiot]

since we're on this topic.. does anyone know any good [b:post_uid0]free[/b:post_uid0] dvd playing programs (for the computer) which you can change the region codes?? (which also shit me :tongue: ) i reckon region codes should not exist.

[manda]

[quote:post_uid0][b:post_uid0]from quiescence posted at 4:20 pm on Dec. 15, 2001[/b:post_uid0]
and how many moshers around here have dvd players anyway?[/quote:post_uid0]

I got one a few months ago, and it's turned out to be a very good investment... anyone who watches lots of movies should definitely consider purchasing a player!!

[Mythor]

There's a few programs out there that let you change the region code for your DVD player, but many computer based players now only let you change a certain number of times before locking you into one region coding. :frown:

[quiescence]

just an update ... this was a bad idea ...

I tried it just with a one minute clip of one of the vid dates .. took almost an hour to do it and 15mb ....

now if these cd-rs have a limit of 650mb .. that means maybe an hour on each disk? not to mention that it'll take all day to do just one ...

I don't get it ..

[Mythor]

I thought you were getting a DVD burner, not just a CD burner? Coz DVD's hold more'n 650mb.

15mb does sound like a lot for one minute of video, though. I'm not too sure on what the compression ratio is like for MPEG-2 though, so perhaps that is 'normal'. Depends on how much the screen changes and stuff I guess. *shrug*
nug agrees that it's probably a bit outside the boundaries of what is 'normal'.

Totally baffled as to why it took almost an hour to do one minutes worth of footage though. What speed is your CPU? I'm guessing it's no snail, coz of your graphiccy stuff, so that's definitely odd. Might be worth looking at some other software instead. *shrugs*

[quiescence]

yup downloading a different prog now (30mb!!!) that other one made no sense .. ULead is EVIL I tell you!!!

I was getting the 650mb from the cd itself .. if you haven't guessed by now I have no idea about burning stuff ..

[Laney]

[quote:post_uid0][b:post_uid0]from quiescence posted at 4:48 pm on Dec. 15, 2001[/b:post_uid0]

guess who's gonna get rid of all these DAAS/GNW videos that are stacked up everybloodywhere :) [/quote:post_uid0]

but when you copy you often lose so much quality in the visuals, that it's almost not even worth it.

i often see movies where the quality of the picture is so crap i can't believe people would even bother encoding the movie. *i think it'll be hard to make your vids come out on the computer at tv quality, but good lucky...

as for a limit of 650mb, don't get those ones. *get the ones that hold even more. *i got 700mb cds for about 70cents each.

[Mythor]

Often the crappiness of a video file is more due to compressing the video a lot, not a problem with the source of the video.

[quiescence]

yeah thats the current prob .. I've downloaded 6 different programs each one reckons it's better than all the others combined ... most of them don't even work with my capture card and the ones that do compress it til it's like a series of screen captures and the audio resembles Nikki Webster miming a song on speed ..

not happy jan ..