Many of us out there have heard of DVD before - but what about miniDVD, VCD, or SVCD? Let's take a closer look at the specific formats there are to choose from:
The DVD format requires that you have DVD-R or DVD-RW burning hardware in your computer.
The other three formats can be created with CD-R/CD-RW burning hardware, which many new computers are coming with already.
Each of these formats has their own properties, which should be considered depending on your audience and the use of your video material. Your choice to produce a VCD, SVCD or DVD format on CD-R/CD-RW will depend on the length of your video and the quality you desire. Here are some questions you should ask yourself:
- How long is my project?
- What quality do I need?
- Who will be watching this and what player will they have? (stand-alone or PC based player)
VCD
The VCD format is the best for long projects, holding approximately 74 minutes of video, and it can be played on two thirds of the stand-alone DVD players out there in the market today. The frame size of this format is 352x240 pixels. When played on a TV it will stretch to fill the whole screen and the resulting quality will be about the same as a VHS tape.
SVCD
The SVCD format will hold around 35 minutes of video. The benefit of SVCD is that it is closer to DVD quality, and it can be played on one third of the stand-alone players out there in the market. Its frame size is 480x480.
MiniDVD
The final format which Ulead DVD Plug-in can output on CD media is a MiniDVD. It's named so because it acts just like a DVD but can't hold as much video. This of course is the best quality media that you can create from a CD-R/CD-RW. Its frame size is 720x480 or 704x480 pixels so the image quality is much sharper. Unfortunately, there are only a few DVD players available right now that will play a DVD format burned on CD media. For a list of stand-alone DVD players available and the different formats they can play, check out our DVD Player Compatibility page.
But don't lose heart! All computer-based DVD players will play all three of these formats on CD media with no problem. If you get yourself a DVD-R/DVD-RW burning device, then you will have no problem playing your DVD media on stand-alone DVD players.
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