Tuesday, May 7, 2002
Digital convergence takes a blow to the head
Posted by Jason Dunn in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 04:20 PM
I've always tried to pursue digital convergence whenever possible - why buy a DVD player when a perfectly good PC with a DVD drive can be hooked up to the TV? After struggling with that configuration for two years, I gave up and bought a DVD player. Then when I purchased the XBox, back went the DVD player and once again I was using a single device for multiple uses. I was quite pleased with how it was all working out, until I tried to play a VCD photo disc I had burned - no dice.
Upon doing some further research, I discovered that the Xbox doesn't support SVCD, VCD, MP3, JPEG, or basically anything else other than DVD and DVD-R formats. Augh! How can a digital guy like myself cope with such limitations? So off I went last night, braving our bizarre weather, to buy a new DVD player. After going way over budget in Cancun, I swore I wasn't going to spend any money for a while, but my inability to play VCDs was downright insulting to my digital persona. So I picked up a rather snazzy JVC player that supported almost every standard under the sun (affiliate link).
I had already spent days scouring the web for the best kind of DVD burning software that was tailored specifically for creating slide shows with music, and after trying five different packages, I ended up back where I started (I should have known better): Ulead DVD PictureShow. It's a $29 app that does one thing very well: it burns DVD-player compatible VCD discs of photos with audio in MP3 format. You'd think something so simple would be offered by every competing software product on the market, but I couldn't find anything else that was as competent as the DVD PictureShow - this software truly rocks. MyDVD looked promising, but with no demo they lost me instantly as a customer.
So I'm now a VCD burning machine, and even my wife is excited about creating picture discs of our wedding. Anyone else into creating photo VCDs? What software do you use?
Upon doing some further research, I discovered that the Xbox doesn't support SVCD, VCD, MP3, JPEG, or basically anything else other than DVD and DVD-R formats. Augh! How can a digital guy like myself cope with such limitations? So off I went last night, braving our bizarre weather, to buy a new DVD player. After going way over budget in Cancun, I swore I wasn't going to spend any money for a while, but my inability to play VCDs was downright insulting to my digital persona. So I picked up a rather snazzy JVC player that supported almost every standard under the sun (affiliate link).
I had already spent days scouring the web for the best kind of DVD burning software that was tailored specifically for creating slide shows with music, and after trying five different packages, I ended up back where I started (I should have known better): Ulead DVD PictureShow. It's a $29 app that does one thing very well: it burns DVD-player compatible VCD discs of photos with audio in MP3 format. You'd think something so simple would be offered by every competing software product on the market, but I couldn't find anything else that was as competent as the DVD PictureShow - this software truly rocks. MyDVD looked promising, but with no demo they lost me instantly as a customer.
So I'm now a VCD burning machine, and even my wife is excited about creating picture discs of our wedding. Anyone else into creating photo VCDs? What software do you use?
