I called a couple of the major office supply stores and was advised that I can use a CD R disc to burn a video CD. Is this correct? My intended use is simply a slide show using Roxio Photosuite 5.

-- Jim Hermann (jhermann@csvslink.org), May 15, 2003

Answers

To Chris, Jim Hermann is not trying to copy or pirate a VCD. He wants to make his own VCD, which will be a slide show.

To Jim, home VCD can only be make on CD-R or CD-RW media. Your other problem would be to find a PC-CDROM, PC-DVDROM or a DVD machine that is able to read and play CD-R or CD-RW media.

Most VCD machines will play CD-R but not CD-RW media.

Most Chinese designed DVD players will play both medias.

-- the saint (good luck@lucky.com), May 16, 2003.

You certainly can make a photo VCD to CD-R media. Whether it will play in a DVD player is another question though, but it should play fine in most PCs. Some DVD players don't like burnable media and you won't be able to play your photo VCD on those. See http://www.vcdhelp.com and look at the VCD Player Compatibility List before you get started to see if your DVD player will have problems with your VCD. Please also note that Roxio products are notorious for not being 100% compliant with VCD standards. Nero has the same problem. The VCDs that they produce will work in almost all players that support burnable media, but they do deviate a little from the standards and some players will refuse to play these discs. For example, Pioneer DVD players demand total compliance with VCD standards for photo VCDs or they won't play the discs at all. The same players will tolerate a little deviation from the standards on video VCDs but not photo VCDs. The only program I know of that makes totally 100% compliant, by the book, photo VCDs is the free program VCDeasy. Roxio and Nero are a lot easier to use and if they work for you, terrific. You can get VCDeasy from http://www.vcdeasy.org, but hopefully you won't need it. It's very complicated and time consuming to make photo VCDs using VCDeasy, but the great thing is that what you get complies with the standards and if your DVD player or PC won't play it, well, they just won't play VCD.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), May 17, 2003.