DVD vs CD?

[gwennabeme]

OK, I hope this isn't a dumb question, but...

Do I HAVE to burn my project to a DVD? I, personally, don't have a dvd burner on my machine, but a co-worker does. I DO have a cd burner. We're making a photo slide show for a retirement party and the restaurant we're having the party at will have a regular DVD player. So, I just want to make sure I can do this.

Thanks

[sjj1805]

Most but not all DVD players will play a VCD or a SVCD disc.
These are standard CD discs and can hold up to 1 hours worth of video in
the VCD or SVCD formats.

[gwennabeme]

^^Thanks!

What would be a good question to ask the restaurant? Should I ask them what kind of DVD player they have?

And, when you say VCD or SVCD, do I look for that on the package when I purchase the disks, or does it matter? And, if I have a CD burner, will I be able to burn to these types of disks?

Thanks so much!

[heinz-oz]

Yes you can burn VCD or SVCD to any CD blank. SVCD is the better of the two quality wise but many DVD players have problems with that format.

VCD quality sucks big time, it's worse than VHS. I would upgrade to a DVD burner. They are very cheap these days and blank disks only cost peanuts also.

[gwennabeme]

Thanks again for the quick responses! If I wanted to show my slide show on a projector screen from a laptop, what would be the best way to save/burn my project?

[sjj1805]

If your hooking your laptop up to a projection system then you can save it using the 'Create DVD Folders' option of CD & DVD PS.

You will be playing it directly off the computer so no need to worry about creating a DVD disc or a VCD/SVCD disc.

The DVD format is higher quality than VCD/SVCD. You need to make sure though that you have some software on your computer capable of playing it.