I recently won a camcorder that includes a "burn VCD" function. Unfortunately it does not support a "burn DVD" function. In any case, I tried this function by connecting the camcorder to my PC, put in a CD-R to the CD burner drive, and tried the "Burn VCD" function. On the camcorder it said everything completed normally, but took an incredibly long time.

I ended up with a CD, but have no idea of how to play it either on the PC, Television, or in a DVD player. Couple of questions, do I have to use a special media called a video CD for the burn? Is that the same as a regular 700 Mb CD-R or CD-RW?

Do I need special software now that I have a CD with stuff burned on it?

Is there a way in future to convert these movies burned as VCD to DVD or PC playable files?

Can I copy VCD files from the burnt CD onto the computer, or another mapped drive and play them from there.

Sorry for the stupid questions, Just I am completely lost with this. JS.

-- J. Spitfire (mgm23@bluewin.ch), July 21, 2004

Answers

You have a lot of reasonable questions, although I would like to politely suggest that maybe you should have done a web search on VCD before starting this. VCD is a very old video format. It was the first format for putting digital video on CD discs. Normal CD-R or CD-RW discs are fine, but standalone DVD players may or may not play the discs you make depending on whether they support burnable media or VCD format itself. http://www.dvdrhelp.com can answer most or all of your questions.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), July 21, 2004.