[ale] DVD Question

[aaron]

On Saturday 20 November 2004 15:25, Christopher Fowler wrote:
> If I record something on my GoVideo and it is less than 650mb then why
> can I not place it on CD-R media instead of DVD-R media?  The quality
> should be the same since the amount of data will fit.  Is there
> something *special* about DVD media?

I don't know what media codec schemes are supported or used by the GoVideo 
card and software... but you are of course correct in the "data is data" 
assumption, and any digital data can be stored on either DVD or CD media 
without special considerations beyond file system and [-/+] record type. 
However...

What DOES differ between the two disk media forms are the types of file 
systems they recognize and the codec schemes being supported in relation
to those different file systems.

Depending on model, current stand-alone disk players support a number of file 
system delivery schemes for both  DVD and CD, including VideoCD, SVideoCD, 
VideoDVD, Music CD (redbook) and data CD (though usually requiring Joliet 
extensions  to the 9660 CD file system). In addition to addressing various 
file system and [+/-] record type combinations, they must also support a long 
list of (mostly) proprietary codecs to deal with numerous A/V compression 
schemes. Most current players minimally support Mpeg1, Mpeg2 and DivX for 
various video  disk file options, as well as Mp3, Ac3, Aac, Aif and Wav 
formats for audio (the last 3 being required options for audio track specs of 
video DVD). 

There are also at least two open source, free (as in speech) bright spots in 
the corporaped, proprietary, anti-standardization, format soup of the digital 
audio video world. Both are receiving increasing commercial support, and both 
are published under the reciprocal Gnu Public License. 

On the audio side there is Ogg (vorbis) <http://www.vorbis.com/> , which is 
now, reportedly, a supported codec on some of the latest generation of flash 
memory and CD based portable music players.

For video there is XviD , an open source codec project <http://www.xvid.org/> 
based on the published, public ISO Mpeg4 standards (very similar to and 
supporting the commercial DivX products).   Reportedly, some of the newest 
standalone DVD players even list XviD as a supported media codec. 

One very important and closely related note is that our favorite convicted 
monopoly extortionists, Micro$haft, are following their usual criminal 
patterns of deceit  by fraudulently labeling their latest media codec formats 
as Mpeg4. Those viral 4M$-peg media codecs, of course,  do not conform to the 
published ISO Mpeg4 standards or provide player compatibility with true 
Mpeg4. Understanding how these criminals can get away with usurping and 
corrupting a published ISO "trademark" defies reason as well as ethics.
( Which is why I find it important to highlight their fruad whenever media 
formats are discussed by stressing that m$p4 and wm$v files are NOT Mpeg4 
compatible.)

peace
(because He never said  "blessed are the arrogant, imperialist warmongers")
aaron