CD in DVD-readable format

[AlanMiller]

I have numerous "series" of .MPG files, which I can currently play on computer, using playlists (.M3U files) from CD in a fairly "seamless" manner. This is important, since they are essentially framed animations of things like chemical reactions and noticeable "breaks" between files would wreck the continuity.

We were given a Sony DVD player (secondhand, sans instruction manual) which is connected to the TV. Its display indicates it can read DVD, VCD and CD. I'm wanting to burn a CD that is playable in the DVD player, using these playable series (or some equivalent) preferably from a menu that appears on the TV screen. I have heard of software that can copy DVD to CD, so that it's playable on a DVD player. I'd need something like this, but also with the ability to produce "playlist" menus on the CD. Is this at all possible? Any recommendations?

thanks

Alan

[Bowlie]

Alan,
Don't know if this helps but over the holidays I copied (drag and drop and burn) a bunch of jpeg files onto a CD for my Sister in Law. Just to see if it would work I popped the CD into our (cheap) DVD player and using the DVD player menu was able to play a slide show of the images. Of course MPEG is a little different, but can't see why a Sony player wouldn't be configured for all types of media. Give it a go, what do you have to lose? (except a blank CD and some time)!

[bleduc]

Alan,
I know your partial to Freeware, but on this I have not found any that was worth it's salt - so to speak. For the playlists you can't beat Nero and for the burning of VCD I've found it hard to beat Xequte's software. Price wise it's reasonable and it's author supports his products.
This of course is only my opinion, but one that I willingly share.

Bob

[AlanMiller]

Hi Bowlie

As you may have gathered, this is uncharted territory for me. I just tried your idea with a CD-R full of .JPGs, but the machine grunted & groaned and finally displayed NO DISC. Even though it claims to read CD and VCD, maybe it's picky. I'm trying to find some specs on this DVP NS300 model, but I'm in the pits of confusion at the moment with all the formats etc. to wade through.

Alan

[AlanMiller]

Thanks Bob. I figured there wouldn't be much in the way of freeware (did some checking first <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15> ) but I do have Nero, which came with my CD burner. I've never tried its playlist features though - must do so. I'll have a look at Xequte to see what it might be able to offer.

cheers

Alan

[IanWilson]

Alan

I have a Sony DVD player as well. Mine is the DVP-NS400D, so not quite the same model as yours. I've experimented a bit with putting photographs on a disk with Nero 6. I found that if I make a slide show on a video CD, the DVD player plays it OK, but the quality wasn't very good. I also tried getting it to write me a super vdeo CD, but like you I got the 'No disc' message. The best results were using Nero to write the slide show to a DVD.

You can download a manual in PDF format for the DVP-NS300 from the Sony website here http://www.sonydigital-link.com/manuals/ma...=en&m=DVP-NS300

Ian

[AlanMiller]

Many thanks for your insights Ian. I suspect it's going to be a trial & error learning exercise, especially since this is totally new ground for me. I do have Nero, and now also the PixPlay application mentioned by Bob, so that's a start.

And a thousand praises <img src=/S/bow.gif border=0 alt=bow width=15 height=15> <img src=/S/bravo.gif border=0 alt=bravo width=16 height=30> <img src=/S/thankyou.gif border=0 alt=thankyou width=40 height=15> for the link to the Sony site. I found my DVD listed, but there are four English .PDF files listed as "the" manual. Guess I'll get all of them and see which is the real McCoy.

Alan

[bleduc]

Alan,
Hang in there, this is a 'huge' learning experience and sometimes a minor change in routines will open a whole new understanding.
I remember a couple of years back (a long-long time) I was having a very hard time getting VCD's burned on my CD burner so that my DVD player (then a Panasonic) could view them. I wasn't even thinking of the players that my proposed receivers had. One thing that did help me a lot was to use only CD-R media to burn these videos on. While more expensive than the CD-RW's to experiment with, the CD-R had the most widely acceptable results than any of my CD-RW attempts. I even got to the point where I could burn some SVCD's that were readable on my Panasonic player. Again, best advice I can give is perseverance - and read the FAQ's on that Xequte site - as there is a lot of good, solid knowledge there from people who have been there and done that.
In any case, have fun.
Bob

[cbran250]

Have you tried VCDEasy? http://www.vcdeasy.org/index.php I have used it in the past and the free version does make CD's that play on a DVD player. The resolution of VCDs is not great, so the site also tells you how to hack a higher resolution SVCD onto a VCD. I am not sure whether the result will be compatible with your specific DVD player.

The free version available now looks like it is slicker than the version I used, but with more limitations on the result.

[AlanMiller]

The (web) specs for our player indicate that it will play:
CDRW
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD+R
DVD+RW
VCD
XVCD max 4300kbit/s

but not:
CDR
SVCD
DivX
JPG
MP3
WMA

I guess this is in "raw" form, before such software does its magic "transformations". I also read that CD-RW is a better medium to use that CDR. I can see I've got lots to fiddle with, including now VCDEasy.

cheers

Alan