I have edited some digital video on my computer using Studio DV software and exported the video to MPEG-1 format. Using Nero5 I should be able to burn it to CD-R using my burner. Both Studio DV and Nero5 are VCD compatible. My DVD player says it plays Video CD but when I play it the DVD player says it is not a readable disc. I thought this was pretty straight forward but apparently I am missing something. Any suggestions. I have heard something about CD-R versus CD-RW discs. Is this my issue and some DVD players only reading CD-RW discs? Thanks.

-- Joe August (august_2@msn.com), January 02, 2003

Answers

More DVD's are compatible with CD-RW's than CD-R's. I think it has to do something with the way your DVD uses it's laser or something. Anyway, use CD-RW

-- Robert Parham (kickbxn5@aol.com), January 02, 2003.

Robert is correct. It's a long story, but CD-RW offers the best chance for success on DVD players if your player has trouble with CD-R discs. Please be aware that some players won't play any CD-R or CD-RW discs, so you may not be able to make it work. You should go to http://www.vcdhelp.com and look at the DVD Player Compatibility List and see what it says for your player. It may be that your player doesn't play any CD-R/W discs. You didn't say what model your player is or how old it is, but a lot of players were notorious for not supporting CD-R/W and you may have one of those.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), January 03, 2003.

I had the same problem you are experiencing. My DVD player was not compatible with vcd so Ihad to use svcd instead and it worked fine. tmpge offers the svcd free for thirty days then you need to purchase it. I have the latest serial number if anyone needs it.

-- victorya wilde (victorya71@hotmail.com), January 03, 2003.

Well, having to use SVCD is actually good news, in that you get much more capacity onto those discs than with VCD. The downside (and I don't know where you are) is that in the US and much of the 'west', most dvd players do not support SVCD - that format was a far-east format, practically. Now you can find players that do support SVCD, however, sharing with friends and family can be a problem.

The issue I'm having is slightly different, if I can hijack the tread for a moment. I am able but burn VCD's with both cd-r and cd-rw's fine. I did one about a year ago when I burned a screen-cap of Fellowship of the Ring to 3 VCD's. I recall it worked fine and I could play them - even had the menu system working (insofar as there was a title screen and that was it). Now I've gotten some newer software to try- a newer Nero than I used and ULead's DVD Workshop, both of which offer some more advanced VCD menuing systems it seams - however the disks I burn with those packages, don't play any of the advanced menu features. The player recognizes it as a VCD, I can press 1 to play track 1, 2 to play track 2, but I don't get the intro screen or the menus to show up at all. Is this a common problem?

-- T Smailus (tom@rsip.lsu.edu), February 01, 2003.