Why VCD, SVCD or DVD?
Because you want to play the video on
your standalone DVD Player. If you only want to play
the video on your computer and/or share to your friends
over the internet other video formats are better suited
for that like DivX, WMV, RM, MOV. Some new standalone
DVD Players supports AVI, DivX, XviD and then you don't
have to convert to VCD,SVCD or DVD, it is just to burn
the video directly to a CD or DVD and watch.
What format shall I choose then, VCD,
SVCD or DVD?
If you want the best video quality, but
note that the video quality depends on how good the
source video is - Garbage in Garbage out, you should
choose DVD . A DVD can hold about 2 hours video with
great video quality and if you choose to lower the video
quality a bit you can store several(3-6) hours on one
single DVD. DVD requires a DVD Writer but remember that
you can replace your old CD Rewriter because all DVD
Writers can burn CDs also. Before you buy a DVD Writer
be sure to check that your standalone DVD Player supports
DVD-R/W or DVD+R/W in our DVD Player list.
If you want to use your current CD Writer
with ordinary CD-R or CD-RW discs VCD and SVCD is your
choice. With VCD you can store about 70 minutes video
on 74 min CD, it means that you have to use 2 CDs for
movies, with decent video quality and also with simple
menus and still pictures. VCD has very good compatibility,
almost all DVD Players supports it on either CD-R or
CD-RW. With SVCD you can get much higher video quality,
especially much more sharpen picture than VCD because
of the higher resolution, but then only about 45-60
minutes/CD and far from all DVD Players supports SVCD.
I recommend you get a Dual DVD Writer
($100) and burn DVD.
Download and test a VCD
sample here, SVCD
here and DVD
here.
Check here to see what formats your DVD
Player supports. |
