DVD playback

[Sugardog]

hey...could someone tell me the best (yes, and cheapest) way to playback the DVD's that I burn. I know how to burn but they won't play on my home DVD player. I've got Vista Home Basic, btw. What to do? Remember to be gentle with replies, I told ya'll I am lo-tech. Thanks....

[enter8]

Convertxtodvd will convert AVIs to a format your player can handle. It takes a while, though (about 2 hours on the average computer) and completely ties up your system/prevents you from doing anything else.

If you're burning AVIs, get a DivX compatible DVD player. That allows you to just burn them and watch them without all the re-encoding fuss.

[Sugardog]

Thanks a million! How much should the DivX compatible DVD player cost? Can I DL one or does it have to be external? Also, can I ask you this: why do some of my burned cd's play in an external cd player and some don't? I'm blowing $$ on blanks. Geez, being a dumbass is expensive, ha. Thanks again.

[enter8]

Well, I'm not really sure what types of files you're burning, but generally speaking, regular non-DivX players can handle mpgs but not AVIs. They also do fine with DVDRs, which is the traditional video_ts folder format (commonly 4.4 gb, but can be twice that).

Philips is one of the better known brands of DVD players (external). Walmart has one for $40. I can't guarantee you that it will last forever (I had one Philips player last me a year and now I'm on my second), but it will play just about everything you throw at it.

If you're willing to watch movies on your computer monitor or have a TV out video card with the right cable (usually an S-Video cable) to connect it to your TV, you can bypass DVDs/burning completely. DVD Player software tends to give you a lot more functionality/options than a physical player does, and, if you have a decent monitor, the picture is a lot crisper than the traditional DVD player/tv combo. My 2.2 ghz system/cheap pcix 16 video card seems to be able to handle high res video as well, such as x264. I don't download that much, but when I do, it's really sharp.

[devils.master]

Dont have an idea, but you can try to burn them in other format.:drunken_s