Another dumb question from a newbie

M

milo

Member
I\'m sure this has been asked a hundred times, but doing a search I didn\'t find my question asked as I would ask it.
Anyway, I do not have a DVD burner on my computer. I do have a CD burner and can play DVDs on it though. Do I have any choices at all on burning DVDs of my downloaded files?
 
Think that if you don\'t have a DVD writer you could only write to VCD format - you\'d be limiting yourself to how many players accept this format, but crucially the size - you will not be able to fit a feature length ISO on for example.
 
Right. I would only be able to burn 700mb. I was wondering if there were any way I could transfer the files to my super 8 camcorder, then copy that tape to my DVD/VHS burner.
 
Sorry Milo, not so sure on that.

Have you exported to the camcorder before? (I\'m presuming you\'d do this via Firewire?)
 
Are you just trying to watch the video? It doesn\'t need to be burned to simply watch it.
 
If you have firewire on your camera it`s possible - though I`m not sure video8 had it -It`s rather long-winded though; with the price of even external single layer DVD burners nowerdays it`d save you a lot of hassle to try to obtain one, assuming as TheBeets said you do what to burn and not just watch.

To transfer to the camera from the PC you`d also need software to send the video to the camera; mearly playing it on WMP wouldn`t work. An almost free way (but very time consuming) is to ensure all the files are WMVs (menaing some would need to be converted first), exporting them into Windows Movie Maker, then saving them to your firewired camera from Movie Maker.

Either that, or your graphics card may have a TV out socket, though the quality wouldn`t be great unless it was S Video at the very least.
 
Some of the newer Digital8 camera\'s that play the older Video8 would allow a firewire passthrough - but if you don\'t already have a newer camera, as Martin rightly said, the external DVD drive would be a much cheaper option - that is, unless you were planning on upgrading your camcorder anyway :D
 
I have an older super 8, so that won\'t work. I can watch most of the files on my computer, but I would like to be able to watch them on my tv also. Secondly, from what I\'ve read, to watch iso files, they have to be burned to a disc first to be able to watch them.
So what I would like to know from all of you that know how this all works is, what do I need to do, download, or buy to be able to burn my files to a disc. I also have movie files from my digital camera that I would like to do the same to .
thanks all
 
you don\'t have to burn iso\'s to watch them, you need a program called daemon tools, it mounts the iso\'s to make your computer think you have a real dvd-drive in your computer, when it is just a virtual one, so it thinks you have a dvd in yoru computer and you can watch it that way.
 
Riight...

For ISO Playback see above :)

For burning anything to disc you have 2 options - CD or DVD. As mentioned earlier, you can use normal CD-R discs to make a video CD or super video CD (the latter is better quality, but fits half the ammount of a normal VCD on - 40 minutes I think as opposed to 80ish. Also, SVCDs may not work in all DVD players)

To make a VCD I`d recommend Nero, sometimes called Nero Nurning ROM or Nero Express; I was lucky since it came pre installed so have used it to make a lot of VCDs and can recommend it as such. Also be aware VCD resolution is quite low - why I don`t use them anymore - as downloads have approached semi pro or better quality, a VCD is still limited to 352 pixels across.

To make a DVD you seem to have one option; a DVD burner. This is your best bet IMHO. As I said, the prices now are nothing like they used to be. Even an external drive with USB connection is £40 at my local store; around $70US. This will burn all your downloaded videos, ISO files, and camera videos (assuming they are AVI, or MPEG1/2/4)onto DVD. Some drives come bundled with software; see if any has it (again, I`d go for a basic OEM Nero) - Nero 7 is an $80US download right now, but it`ll burn everything apart from unconverted FLV files in my experience. Others may have their favourites.
 
Thanks for everyone\'s help. I did end up downloading Daemon tools and with some work, I got everything to play.
By the sounds of it, my best bet would be to buy a DVD burner since VCDs would constrict me on quality and the size of the files to be burned on the disc.
Next, I need to work on getting the uploading thing down since I have alot of stuff that might be worthwhile.
thanks again
 
good job on figuring out the problem Daemon tools is a nice program. I would highly recommend getting a DVD burner.

for uploading, you will need to contact a admin for further information.
 
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