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.

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.

It's a Panasonic DVD-S35.

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

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.

Generally speaking, I just hook my computer to the tv using s-video. Even normal-quality, 350 mb avi's show up with astonishing resolution on the television that way. I don't really watch on the tv much, but I probably wouldn't bother with SVCD/VCD/DVD unless i didn't have the option of hooking the computer to the television. If you've got a set up like Gud's or Kalshane's, it would be awesome with the computer networked to other, newer comps/drives and just have it as an access machine.

Gud, is yours the Linux box? I'm sorry, I cant' remember.

Excellent NYT article on new, cheaper digital SLR cameras and how they compare to point-and-shoot digital cameras.

Here's something I didn't know:

Compact cameras use much smaller sensor chips than digital S.L.R.’s. Mark Weir, the senior product manager for digital S.L.R. cameras at Sony, said that a typical compact camera sensor is “about half the size of your smallest fingernail.”

“A digital S.L.R. sensor is pretty big,” he added, “about the same as a good-size postage stamp.”

As a result, every pixel on a compact camera’s sensor chip is much smaller than its counterpart on a digital S.L.R.’s sensor. Mr. Weir, whose company also produces sensors for a number of other camera makers, estimates that pixels on a 10-megapixel compact camera sensor are about 2 microns across, compared with 6 microns for a digital S.L.R. sensor of the same resolution. A micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter.

[link]

Gud, is yours the Linux box?

The simple playback PC runs Linux, but it is a special version for video playback called GeeXbox. Mine is installed to the hard drive but you can just run it from a CD-ROM if you want. On a hardwired network you could probably just stream off a shared drive and have a diskless playback computer.

cheaper digital SLR cameras and how they compare to point-and-shoot digital cameras.

That was one of the reasons we wanted a digital SLR, you get better image quality even with fewer pixels.

I just purchased the new Canon Rebel XTi which is a 10 megapixel SLR and the pictures are amazing. My point and shoot is seven megapixel and it doesn't come close.

Also, the low light pictures I can take with the SLR are amazing.

I have a Canon Rebel XT, and it has been a fantastic camera.

I had been planning on getting the Canon 30D and ended with with the XTi because in many ways it is now a better camera than the more expensive 30D.