Um, well, we listened to aggressively cheerful music sung by people chosen for their ability to dance. Then we ate cookie dough, and talked about boys.

Giles ,'Get It Done'


Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?  

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


Polter-Cow - Oct 31, 2006 4:20:54 pm PST #9367 of 10003
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

I used Nero. Open Nero, tell it you want to burn a VCD, drag the .avi file into the box, away you go. Of course that only works if the .avi is small enough to fit onto the CD; the HDTV files aren't always, and the conversion process makes them bigger.

Interesting. I have Sonic MyDVD, and it seems to be able to do the VCD thing, although I can't...hold on a sec, a VCD is an actual CD, right? Not a DVD? I wonder if my DVD player can play those things.


tommyrot - Oct 31, 2006 4:30:37 pm PST #9368 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I wonder if my DVD player can play those things.

Newer DVD players are more likely to have that feature.


Polter-Cow - Oct 31, 2006 4:36:24 pm PST #9369 of 10003
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

Mine's a few years old. I am wary. I'll try it out tonight. But my friend has a pretty high-tech one that also burns DVDs and shit, so it would probably be able to play them.


Consuela - Oct 31, 2006 5:32:02 pm PST #9370 of 10003
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

My crappy old dvd player could play VCDs, although I ended up replacing it when it started choking on home-burned dvds & vid collections.


DCJensen - Oct 31, 2006 7:21:54 pm PST #9371 of 10003
All is well that ends in pizza.

What model do you have P-C? Maybe we can find out what formats it plays on The Internets or using The Google.


Kalshane - Oct 31, 2006 7:30:59 pm PST #9372 of 10003
GS: If you had to choose between kicking evil in the head or the behind, which would you choose, and why? Minsc: I'm not sure I understand the question. I have two feet, do I not? You do not take a small plate when the feast of evil welcomes seconds.

Some of the older off-brand DVD players actually have a lot of undocumented capability. It took my dad several tries to get an Apex (I believe) DVD player that actually worked, but once he found one it could play pretty much any format you threw at it as long as it could fit on a DVD or CD. The newer ones don't have the same level of functionality, though.

As for more name brand, my Phillips can play DVD, DVDRs of assorted formats, CD, VCD, SVCD, mp3, mpeg1 and mpeg2 and it cost me something like $80 4 years ago (I bought it specifically because it had VCD capability so I could watch Firefly eps on it back before the DVDs were even rumored to be happening) I wouldn't be surprised if yours could handle VCDs.


Polter-Cow - Oct 31, 2006 11:06:23 pm PST #9373 of 10003
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

What model do you have P-C? Maybe we can find out what formats it plays on The Internets or using The Google.

It's a Panasonic DVD-S35. I think it may be able to play VCDs! I'll try it out tomorrow.


Gudanov - Nov 01, 2006 5:23:03 am PST #9374 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping

I have a Cyberhome DVD player that was the cheapest DVD that BestBuy sold at the time (about $30) and it played VCDs. I used to use SonicDVD to make them, but now I use tovid or KDE DVD Wizard.

However, I largely don't use DVDs or VCDs anymore. I just use an old computer (P3 500Mhz) to play video. A cheap ATI video card with TV-Out and a mini-jack to RCA plug cable will let you hook up to a TV. Of course, you need have the old computer and a way to get video on it. But it makes DVDs and VCDs feel primitive.


Sue - Nov 01, 2006 5:32:51 am PST #9375 of 10003
hip deep in pie

It's a Panasonic DVD-S35.

I have a Panasonic that's about 4-5 years old and it plays VCDs.


Kalshane - Nov 01, 2006 7:48:27 am PST #9376 of 10003
GS: If you had to choose between kicking evil in the head or the behind, which would you choose, and why? Minsc: I'm not sure I understand the question. I have two feet, do I not? You do not take a small plate when the feast of evil welcomes seconds.

This review [link] says it will play VCDs, XVCDs and SVCDs.

However, I largely don't use DVDs or VCDs anymore. I just use an old computer (P3 500Mhz) to play video. A cheap ATI video card with TV-Out and a mini-jack to RCA plug cable will let you hook up to a TV. Of course, you need have the old computer and a way to get video on it. But it makes DVDs and VCDs feel primitive.

That's what I do these days. I picked up an old PC from work we were getting rid of, slapped in a new hard drive and my old video card (which has a S-Video out) and hooked it up to my TV. Saves me having to take the time to burn things to SVCD.

Of course, I had buy a larger surge protector. I was using two separate ones for the TV and the PC, which caused a ground loop on the audio. But once I got that cleared up it's been working great. I also bought a couple of USB converters that let me plug my Playstation 2 controllers into the PC, so I can play old video games on it as well.