Hi, I have a petting zoo and captured movies of events. Using MGI VideoWave III I made them into mpeg2 640x480 movies. I created a menu using an Autorun program. Our logo comes up and has buttoms with movies to select. I have a Hi-Val burnig with Nero 5.5. I tried to burn a cd ISO with the files. I could run it on my PC but the movies won't run on other pcs (menu works) The other PCs says it can't read the file (mpeg) Sorry this is long but I'm getting fustrated and going through alot of cdrs Thanks Jon

-- Jon Lawson (petzoo@hotmail.com), January 05, 2002

Answers

The other PCs can't read them because they don't have MPEG-2 MCI. This gets installed along with, for example, a DVD-player program like WinDVD or PowerDVD, which is probably what u have to do. The original PC had its MPEG-2 installed likely with the Ligos that came with VideoWave (spastic combo if u ask me). Why don't u move up to, say, DV/Premiere6/TMPGenc/AVISynth?

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), January 06, 2002.

Hi, What is DV/Premiere6/TMPGenc/AVISynth? Is it expensive? I'm on a budget. I'm looking for mpeg that will run on must machines. I like the 640x480, the mpeg1 is too small. Can I inclulde somthing on the cd that will play it. I will be sending the cd to people with various pcs. Thnaks Jon

-- Jon Lawson (petzoo@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

I don't know anything about the tools you are using. Premiere, which was mentioned in a reply I think, costs a lot of money ($500 US I think). If you want these to be easily played on PCs, you probably shouldn't use MPEG-2 video. MPEG-2 is not free - you have to pay to use codecs for it. You would have to include the codecs with any CD you distribute and explicit instructions on how to install them. You would have to understand that no matter what you did, some morons would never be able to install them correctly anyway. It is possible to make miniDVDs and put a small software player on them. DVDit supports this. I've never done it and I can't tell you how it works, I just know that it is possible. You could make VCDs using MPEG-1 video. The resolution is lower, but any sane PC should come with the MPEG-1 codec preinstalled. You'd just have to give people instructions on how to play the video file in something like Windows Media Player. If you want to search the archives, I think there are old posts here about how to make VCDs that will autoplay on PCs. A web search on this topic might also be helpful. I've never done it, so I can offer no practical tips on how easy or hard it is. Most people I know of who are trying to do what you suggest have done it on VCD. The quality is lower, but the compatibility and ease of us is significantly higher. It is possible to get very good quality with MPEG-1 video if you have the right tools to work with. TMPGenc does an excellent job of encoding, although it is somewhat time consuming.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), January 07, 2002.

If all you are interested in making movie for PC, then try using divx4.12 to create (MPG4)AVI instead of MPG2. It provides good quality playback and can be made at 640x480 quite easily. You can easily fit an hour of video into a 650Mb(74min) CDR. As for menu and such, you can try Micro DVD player.

-- (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), January 09, 2002.

Premiere is just US$300 when bought bundled with a FireWire card like ADSTech PyroPlatinum kit. Funny, but it's cheaper this way than when bought on its own alone. While MGI VideoWave, Ulead Video Studio and others are fine for simple stuff I have mentioned Premiere as a way to go when you intend to put videos on CD to make money in a professional situation, and not just casually. TMPGenc and AVISynth, both free, complement Premiere, and together with Nero you have an ideal package with which to make high-quality VCDs.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), January 10, 2002.