Best format to burn a DIVX file to? vcd? svcd? dvd??

[Leigh91]

Hey Guys i am sure the answer to this question is somewhere on this site. But i have read so much info on this site that i am confussed. So please could you either point me to the specific spot on this site, or help me out with some new information. I have downloaded a DivX file, and i want to know the best way to burn it to play in a stand alone DVD player.
If it make a difference i use NERO for all my burning.
Thanks heaps for ur help guys i realy appreciate it
Leigh

[bugster]

I am afraid there is no simple answer to this question, it all comes down to a question of quality and expectations.

Generally, in increasing quality you have VCD, SVCD, DVD. The differences in quality between these formats is mostly due to differences in bitrate and resolution.

So what to do depends on two main things. The first is the quality (as you percieve it) of the source Divx file. A low quality divx is not worth re-encoding to DVD and maybe not even to SVCD. You cannot improve the quality of a video by re-encoding. Garbage in == Garbage out.

The second issue is what quality output you desire/ are able to accept. Even if your Divx is of the highest possible quality for that format, what you convert it to depends on what you want. VCD is acceptable to many people and often compared to VHS for quality. SVCD is better quality (higher resolution and bitrate) but you fit less on a disk (generally anyway). DVD is better still but it really has to be a top qaulity Divx for a conversion to be worthwhile, you also need a DVD burner don't forget and these are still a lot more expensive than CD writers. Don't forget to take into account what formats your DVD player can handle, many cant cope with SVCD and quite a few cant do DVD-r's. If you dont know this info, try looking in the DVD player compatibilty list to your left.

A rather long 'non-answer' I know and I am sure there are points I have missed that influence peoples choice of formats but it should give you something to think about.

So basically, pick a format, do the conversion and see how happy you are with the result!