cDVD - New DVD on CDR format

[cjyo~]

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 2000--Sonic Solutions announced today at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB) an extension to the DVD format that allows PCs to play CD-ROMs formatted as DVD-Video discs.

Called cDVD(TM), the format makes use of a new, embedded software-only DVD player developed in collaboration with RAVISENT Technologies (Nasdaq:RVST - news) that makes it possible for Pentium-level PC users to view DVD-formatted Video titles delivered via CD, DVD, or any other storage media. The new cDVD technology will be included in all Sonic DVD authoring systems -- including DVDit!.

full story here on GA-Hardware:
http://www.ga-hardware.com/article.c...415&category=7

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[wkulecz]

Doc,

The key issue is can the miniDVD, cDVD or whatever be played in a stand-alone DVD player?

If not, its just another in a long list of "standard" computer video file encoding formats to further confuse the average computer user.

If they are claiming software only DVD playback on only a "pentium-level" (P100? P200MMX?) I'll believe it when I see it. I do still have an old p200MMX laying around that I could try it on :-)

--wally.

[cjyo~]

I wonder if the #pcdvd crowd can sue?

[DrMordrid]

This is where the rub is, but it seems to be easing.

Many of the new players support MPEG-2 on CD for SVCD support. Some of these players can also play the cDVD/miniDVD disks, so there is reasonable hope support will become more widely available. Some will even play a CD that has a properly formatted MPEG-2 file in the root directory.

Also many of these new DVD players have their operating systems on FlashROM's that can be updated with a special disk to use new standards.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by DrMordrid (edited 13 April 2000).]

[DrMordrid]

It's already here.

It's been commonly called miniDVD and DVDit! has had it for months.

I've been burning them with pretty good luck on my HP8100i.

Dr. Mordrid

[wkulecz]

Doc,

You are way ahead of me here. How do you produce some of the various CD formats you've mentioned. I'd like to make a few to take with me when shopping for DVD players.

All I have so far is a simple single level VCD 2.0 format on CD-R and CD-RW media that I made with Adaptec VCD Creator 3.0 (3.5 wouldn't accept the MPEG1 files I had made with GoMotion). Quality wise they are useless but it lets me see which players can read VCD 2.0 on CD-R or CR-RW media. I'd like to do the same for these better quality formats. 10-20 minutes at "DVD quality" on CD-R would be useful indeed if it played on a decent percentage of stand-alone DVD players!

I'd like to know how to produce these various "miniDVD or SVCD" test disks that are known to work in at least one readily available stand-alone DVD player.

If I hack up something on my own and it doesn't play, how do I know if its the player or my adhoc format causing the problem?

For example, what defines the "properly formated" file in the root directory? Strict ISO9660 format CD or "joliet" for the CD? etc.

--wally.