[artlewis]

Can I use Toast to get DV onto a CD-Rom, so that anyone could put it on their computer and play it? iMovie or QT? Is there any 'authoring' software necessary?

[Feathers]

You could certainly burn a Quicktime Movie compressed using the DV codec (QT4Pro) and write it to disk as "Mac Files and Folders" or "ISO9000". The high resolution and framerate of the DV file would preclude all but those with the most powerful machines from viewing it. You know the way even iMovie gives you the choice between Quality of Image OR Smoothness of Playback (Speed) but not both. Better to compress it as Sorenson or MPEG1 which generate similar file sizes.

You can ceratinly use a CD for movement and storage of data for DV(Quicktime) same as any other file but remember also that 650megs is only a little over three minutes of DV video.

As far as "authoring" is concerned, if you haven't already, get QT4Pro, this will allow you to "EXPORT", recompress and do other cool things without the need for any extra software.

[Dan Szwarc]

I've been trying to look into miniDVD for weeks.

It's the process of creating DVD (MPEG-2) content on a CD-R that "might" play in a stand-alone DVD player, and certainly on any computer with the right power and software. I think this might be what you might want to do.

But I Don't know how to do it.

Anyone?

------------------

ok, remember that a dvd can hold around 5 gigs of data. so, a cd can hold about 1/7th of that. also, keep in mind that most standalone dvd players cannot read cd-r discs. they can only read cd-rw.

dabradda

Originally posted by dabradda:
ok, remember that a dvd can hold around 5 gigs of data. so, a cd can hold about 1/7th of that. also, keep in mind that most standalone dvd players cannot read cd-r discs. they can only read cd-rw.

dabradda

This has become interesting and an issue that is not generally understood by iMac DV users.
Because they can insert DVD media into the iMac slot they assume that by copying their imovie project to CD they can also play it on their home entertainment system DVD player.
While I understand the protocols and hardware I am unable to provide the technical info required.
Can someone provide a synopsis or overview for these users along with appropriate technical info/links?

[tonymac]

The comment about DVD players only being able to read CDRW and not CDR is total BS. Just yesterday I was playing a mix CDR (audio) in my Sony DVD player. The problem is trying to get MPEG 2 video onto a CDR. As I understand it, the problem is in compressing the DV stream into MPEG 2 in realtime in order to create the DVD video. There is hardware to do this, but it is prohibitively expensive. It is possible to convert a QuickTime movie into a Video CD that can be burned to a CDR. The conversion is VERY slow (Approx. 30 minutes to convert 4 minutes of video on a G4/400), and the video quality is similar to a JPEG with heavy compression, but you can fit about 2 hours on a single CDR which can be played on most computers and DVD players. The software (Astarte M.Pack) to handle the compression was developed by Astarte, and is now owned by Apple. If anyone knows of a better way to distribute home videos to friends and family, please let me know.

[Feathers]

Just to elaborate a bit on the above post, MPEG1 has about a 10:1 time ratio for compression using M.Pack and that's a framesize of only 320x240(for vcd) although the MPEG1 standard will support framesizes up to 352x288 but not on VCD. MPEG2 with a framesize of 768x576(PAL in my part of the world but similar elsewhere) is four times the size and datarate so compression times are even longer. There are hardware systems such as Minerva that encode in pseudo-realtime and cost about a quarter of a million bucks!!! You can't really have real-time because of the way compression works but it can happen so fast as to appear realtime. (This phenomenon also accounts for audio-sync problems with DV where the Audio stream encodes or decodes quicker and more easily than the video stream and the two run out of sync!!!)

In terms of quality, because of scalability variables used in MPEG compression, the better quality and higher resolution the original, the better the quality of the compressed movie although you would think that 320x240 is 320x240 is 320x240 and so on, incredibly there's more to it than that. In a nutshell, something compressed from 640x480 to MPEG1 will still look better at a given size than something comped from 320x240 although the end sizes are apparently the same....God I hate compression!!!

Appaerently enoding/compressing your video to MPEG2 and getting it on a CD-RW or CD-W is a trick we need to learn to perform.
The video stays of outstanding quality, stays digital, makes showing your home movies easy to show. Just stick the CD in the DVD drive (or Sony playstation 2) linked to the TV.

Maybe Apple comes to the rescue. QT-5 could just give us what we need.

Peter

[blizaine]

just to clarify one more point about how much you can fit on a VCD...

but you can fit about 2 hours on a single CDR which can be played on most computers and DVD players

you can only fit about 1 hour of Mpeg1 and about 2 hours of Mpeg4 on a CD. However mpeg 4 isn't readable by and external players.

ps. wouldn't it be cool if someone eventually came out with an DivX(Mpeg4) player for Playstation2!!

[ussfolsom]

This topic has some interesting points, that's why I've resurrected it. I read that the reason you can't view MPEG-2 video off of a CD-R(W) on a DVD player is because although the DVD player recognizes the disk, it only looks for music or VCD information.

DVDit! looks like a promising piece of software (to at least be able to make small MPEG-2 CD-R's for software DVD players), but I don't think the Mac version ever surfaced. I saw a preview of it during NAB 2000, but the website doesn't seem to have any new info.

How does a VCD look on a TV? Is the quality worse than compressing the movie with Sorenson at a higher resolution?

One other thing. Do you need Toast Deluxe in order to make a VCD or can you use the OEM version?