[MelodyL]

Okay, here's what I have so far.

I have a Desktop, windows xp, HP Media Center, with all bells and whistles (which I've never used, but I want to start). New Mother board, new ram. Everything works fine.

I also have a Lightscribe DVD +- Writer/CD-Writer (I have no idea what this means).

I have a CD rom drive too.

Now separately from all this I have a portable dvd player. It's an Audiovox D1730. I have the battery pack and I have the electric plug thing. It works fine.

What I want to do is make a video using my webcam, put it on a dvd thing, and then take the dvd thing out of my computer, put it in my audiovox, bring it over to my friend and show her the dvd.

There is no computer in her house, she's an elderly woman, she doesn't get out much and I want to share my videos with her.

So let's say I have my vidoes on my hard drive (my sprouting videos for example), and I want to transfer them to a dvd thing.

The only discs I have in my house are over 5 years old.

They are blank Memorex CD-RW Platimum 650 mb 74 min things
On the front it says 2x 4x rewrite speed (????)

Can I use this Memorex thing to copy my videos and then once they are copied to the Memorex, can I put the memorex in my Audiovox and show my friend.

I don't know DVD from CD and This Memorex says CD-RW

Do I need to buy a DVD thing? Do they have this? I have absolutely no clue what to do.

I really want to put my videos (or any videos for that matter), onto a disc (I think this is called burning???) and play them on my portable dvd player.

This way my friend can see what's happening in the world. She really would get a kick out of this.

Thanks if you can advise.

Melody

P.S. I also have a question about the new 3D tv's that are coming out but I'll wait to post that. It's a doozy of a question

[plgerrard]

Hi Melody. I'm going to try to answer your questions, but am going to take them a little out of order.

I don't know DVD from CD and This Memorex says CD-RW

The best way to describe the difference is to think of the CD player for our car. When you go to the music store, you buy music CD's to play in that. When you go to the video store, you buy/rent DVD's to play in your DVD player. Those players have different formats much the same way the old VHS has a different format than the DVD's.

Since CD's came along before DVD, some DVD players will also play CD's - but not all.

A CD holds 650 MB (megabyte) of data. There are 1000 MB in a GB (gigabyte). So, a CD holds 0.65 GB. A DVD holds 4.77 GB - about 7 times what a CD will hold.

The only discs I have in my house are over 5 years old.

They are blank Memorex CD-RW Platimum 650 mb 74 min things
On the front it says 2x 4x rewrite speed (????)

Even after 5 years, the discs should still be good.

RW is short for ReWrite. This means that once you have 'burned' something to the CD, you can add additional data to it - but only using your same computer. You could not take it to another computer and add data.

The 2x 4x speed is how fast it will 'burn'. The discs you have will accept those 2 speeds. So, if you wanted to copy 60 minutes of video, it would take 30 minutes to copy, using the 2x; and 15 minutes to copy using the 4x. The user typically controls the speed based on the capability of their computer. By today's standards 2x and 4x is pretty slow - I typically use 16x.

Another difference in CD's is that they are either '+' or '-'. The CD's you have are '-'

Can I use this Memorex thing to copy my videos and then once they are copied to the Memorex, can I put the memorex in my Audiovox and show my friend.

You would want to check the user manual for your Audiovox to see what formats it will accept. You will be looking for CD-R or CD-RW. If you don't find that, then the answer is No.

If it will accept the CD-R format, then the next consideration is the length of the video. You shouldn't plan more than 30-minutes of recording time on a CD.

I also have a Lightscribe DVD +- Writer/CD-Writer (I have no idea what this means).

I have a CD rom drive too.

Lightscribe is a way of labeling discs. I would wait until you are familiar with the DVD itself.

The DVD is a combo drive. It will accept both DVD and CD, and it can 'write' (burn, copy) to DVD in either the '+' or '-' format. It can only write to the CD in the '-' format.

The other CD drive is strictly for playback or installation programs. You cannot write to it.

Having said all that, I would suggest that you purchase new DVD RW discs. But first check your Audiovox to see what format it will play. You will be looking for DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW. Since your DVD drive will create any of those formats, you want to purchase the discs that match what your Audiovox can play back.

Yes you can create DVDs with Media Center. I am not familiar with the HP Media Center, but strongly suspect that it is their name on the Windows Media Center. Here is the link to Microsoft's instructions:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...s-Media-Center

If those instructions don't look familiar, you will want to visit HP's website:

http://www.hp.com/#Support

In Step 1, choose the option for 'See support and troubleshooting information'. Then in Step 2, click the link for 'Start Detection'. This will find what HP products you have. From there you can locate the user manuals that should have the instructions for the Media Center.

Good Luck. I think what you are trying to do is wonderful. She will really appreciate it.

[Jomar]

Excellent answers, I haven't done much cd or DVD recording so it's not a strong topic for me.

But I did find a Burning program the was easiest for me to use.

Ashampoo burning {free}
http://download.cnet.com/Ashampoo-Bu...=dl&tag=button

I tried quite a few and some were just too complicated, or too involved this one seems pretty basic and easy to use.

I did some photo DVDs to play on TV .

[MelodyL]

Originally Posted by Jo*mar

Excellent answers, I haven't done much cd or DVD recording so it's not a strong topic for me.

But I did find a Burning program the was easiest for me to use.

Ashampoo burning {free}
http://download.cnet.com/Ashampoo-Bu...=dl&tag=button

I tried quite a few and some were just too complicated, or too involved this one seems pretty basic and easy to use.

I did some photo DVDs to play on TV .

Well!!! I am going to try and wrap my 62 year old brain around what you wrote, and try to copy a video (3 minutes worth) from my computer to one of those Memorex thingees that I have. Then I will try and play it on my portable audiovox.

Oh, I downloaded the manual for the audiovox and on page 18 it lists the PLAYABLE DISCS

It just lists 3 types of playable discs. DVD, CD AND MP3

So I guess I will have to see if I can learn how to do this.

Good Lord.

If I succeed, I'll make a youtube video and you'll see if I was successful

And I CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH for taking all that time to explain it to me.

Let's home my brain understood some of it.

lol

Melody

[MelodyL]

Okay. here's what I just did.

I actually burned my first cd. At least I think I did.

I placed the (I used Smart and Friendly CD-RW)in the dvd lightscribe thing.

A menu came up and I just said okay.

It brought me to this screen where it asked me if I wanted to burn a cd. Then it prompted me to download some REALPLAYER software and when I said OK, it downloaded but then my anti-virus Macafee thing told me that it could contain spyware and it would impact my registry so I did the "block" thing.

Anyway, I found a way to burn it. I clicked on "avi" files. It coped all the avi files from wherever avi files are, to this list on the screen.

So in front of me were all my videos. I selected one that I have up on youtube, called Sexy blouse. I did the 'BURN' option and lo and behold, it took a few minutes to do this (It's only 14 seconds long), but it told me SUCCESS.

So, thinking I just burned my first dvd, I then x'd out of the screen, I went to my computer, I selected Drive E (which is the light scribe thing), but it came up blank. I then thought it would play in the other drive, so I took it out of E, and put it in the CD-ROM drive. Same result.

So what did I do wrong??? (I'll never learn this, believe me, I'll never learn this).

lol

Melody

[Jomar]

I tried Roxio, burning Nero and some of the other "top" burning software and I could not get it right til I used the ashampoo one, I don't know why ,

[MelodyL]

Originally Posted by Jo*mar

I tried Roxio, burning Nero and some of the other "top" burning software and I could not get it right til I used the ashampoo one, I don't know why ,

I'm doomed, doomed, doomed.

And we live in a Star Trek Generation with 3D televisions coming out.

I'm doomed!!!

lol

Melody

[plgerrard]

Melody, Burning video can be a little tricky if you want it to 'autoplay' (start to play when the disc is inserted).

So, let's see if you actually burned anything to the disc:

• Put the disc in the DVD+-RW/CD drive.
• Click on your Start button
• On the right side, you should see a choice for 'My Computer' - click that
• Now you should see icons for the drives you have on your computer. One will have a picture of a DVD with the a name below it something like: 'DVD-RAM' - Double-Click that.
• That should open Windows Explorer - do you see any icons in it, or is it blank.
• If you see an icon, double-click that and see if your video starts to play.

Let me know what happens, and I can try to guide you from there.

One other note:

Oh, I downloaded the manual for the audiovox and on page 18 it lists the PLAYABLE DISCS

It just lists 3 types of playable discs. DVD, CD AND MP3

It doesn't look like your Audiovox will be capable of playing a DVD or CD created on your computer. If it could you would see either +/-R following it's name. You might try looking for a basic DVD player that you can leave at her house. Now that BluRay has hit the shelves, the price of a basic DVD player has really come down. We just purchased one for $49 at SamsClub, and it plays all formats, including +/-R.

[MelodyL]

Originally Posted by plgerrard

Melody, Burning video can be a little tricky if you want it to 'autoplay' (start to play when the disc is inserted).

So, let's see if you actually burned anything to the disc:

• Put the disc in the DVD+-RW/CD drive.
• Click on your Start button
• On the right side, you should see a choice for 'My Computer' - click that
• Now you should see icons for the drives you have on your computer. One will have a picture of a DVD with the a name below it something like: 'DVD-RAM' - Double-Click that.
• That should open Windows Explorer - do you see any icons in it, or is it blank.
• If you see an icon, double-click that and see if your video starts to play.

Let me know what happens, and I can try to guide you from there.

One other note:


It doesn't look like your Audiovox will be capable of playing a DVD or CD created on your computer. If it could you would see either +/-R following it's name. You might try looking for a basic DVD player that you can leave at her house. Now that BluRay has hit the shelves, the price of a basic DVD player has really come down. We just purchased one for $49 at SamsClub, and it plays all formats, including +/-R.

I'm hysterical. SHE HAS A DVD PLAYER. Only she doesn't know how to use it. She has to call up her son to come up and press the play thing on the remote. (I know, I know).

Anyway, I did what you said, THE MY COMPUTER THING.

Here's what came up.

SEXY BLOUSE (that's the name of the video)

I clicked on this and 5 folders came up

CDI EXT MPEGAV SEGMENT VCD

Which one is the video?

Melody

[plgerrard]

That's a good sign - we know that you actually burned something to the disk. Now we just need to figure out if it will play.

The file is probably in the MPEGAV folder. Try that first. The next folder to check would be the VCD. It won't hurt to explore each of the folders. It might help to switch to Detail view.

To do that, go through the previous instructions to get to Windows Explorer. In the top menu bar, click on 'View', then click 'Details'.

You will now see 4 columns - Name, Size, Type, and Date Modified. Open each folder and look in the Size column. The file you want will be the largest, and most likely around 4,000 KB.