AutoPlay for VCD

[Captain Vidd]

I'd like to create some VCDs to send to friends and family that do not have DVD players. They would play the VCD on their PC. Some are not sophisticated users and may not be able to easily get Win Media or REAL to function and show the movie.

Is there a way to include a "player" when authoring the VCD, so that the "player" would execute and show the movie when they put the disk into their drive? Kind of a fool proof method.

[crazeplaya]

That's a very good question. I don't think it would be possible though because if you put an autorun.inf file onto the VCD it wouldn't be a VCD anymore. You may be able to set it up so that it will autoplay standard movie file put on the CD in file mode, but not as VCD

[Vejita-sama]

Well yes and no. Since WMP plays MPEG1 video by default you really should set your autoplay to it. You can include a deafult player but it'll take up space and unless you write an install program run from the CD/DVD-ROM drive.

https://www.videohelp.com/autorun.htm

[NarmeR]

Have you tried SmartPlay ?

This utility scans CD content and autoplays the files with the player you want. Including VCD's

I've been using it with Divx movies. Just insert the disc and SmartPlay will launch it...


http://www.illusionsoft.net/products/smartplay.htm

[Gees]

How about either of the methods above, plus a second CD with a player installation included?

I see a few freeware players in the tools list
https://www.videohelp.com/tools#VideoPlayers
and you'd only have to send the player CD one time to each person.

[NarmeR]

SmartPlay autoplays VCD's or Divx movies without any extra burned files.

Simply choose the files you want to autoplay (VCD's in your case) and the player. Files will be automatically scanned and played...

[Gees]

SmartPlay scans and autoplays the multimedia content of your CDs with the player of your choice and without the need for extra burned files on the CD. Use you PC as a multimedia player and play all your Music or Movie files instantly.

You can use SmartPlay to AutoPlay specific media files from inserted CD’s with your favourite players. You can, for example, use it on a multimedia PC to automate the process of watching video files. Just insert a CD with a movie on the CD Drive and sit down, SmartPlay will launch the movie with your favourite Media Player.

AutoPlay your multimedia CD's with SmartPlay in 3 easy steps:

Choose a Media Player
Associate the media files to launch automatically with the player
Add the player to SmartPlay monitoring list

So you'd still need to provide a player to the vcd recipients who may not have one, or....... if Captain Vidd wants to only have to talk them through one set of instructions on playing. :cD

[theDruid]

You might want to have a look at DuckWare's WinOpen...

..which is affordware, and is pretty useful for making autorun CD's, when you're not sure how the machine the CD's going to be put into will be set up - in terms of file associations etc..

I don't think, however, it will work with an authored VCD (i.e. you'd have to just burn an MPEG onto a data CD).

Also, I don't think it works with other platforms - Linux/Mac etc.. - the name's a bit of a give-away! (although it's probably not likely the unsophisticated users will be running anything but Windoze.)

cheers,
mcdruid.

[Spicuzza]

Captain Vidd, you can simply burn the MPEG-1 file directly onto a CD-R.

Then it's all they have to do is put it in the their CD-ROM drive, click on My Computer, click on the CD-ROM drive then click on the video file.

The video will play just fine, no need to author an actual VCD.

[NarmeR]

Maybe you can find someting on the launchers section at :

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/index.html

I've found smartplay there...

[Cornucopia]

You'll find plenty of info on creating a perfectly compliant, but also autorunning VCD, by searching through my past posts. Lots more options than what has so far been suggested.

You can make the disc, but you have to remember that PC users may have their autorun turned off. Leave a "readme.txt" file of instructions for this contingency in the root folder.

Scott

[Gees]

Cornucopia - maybe?? :c) you could put a couple links to some of your threads?

You have so many posts and I'll I've found so far say "find my past/prior posts" and I am already up to page 5!

Just how past/prior are they? :cD

How about if I say pretty please?

[Hardcoreruss]

Not sure what I have done on mine. I have XP home, when I insert a vcd windows media pops up an autoplay icon and the vcd plays. Does this happen for anyone else ?

[theDruid]

that's just XP - it scans CD's when you put them in, and if it finds media, it asks you what you want to do with them (e.g. play them with WMP).

I think there's an option to say 'remember my answer and always play these files with WMP etc..' - which is probably what you've done.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[Gees]

Yes, I always have autoplay off - so now any CD inserted calls up a "what do you want me to do with this?" box. I tick "absolutely nothing, I'll do it myself, thank you.!" Hardcore must have ticked "play the thing".

I think the original poster wants to have same player and method for all his vcds for family.

[Roderz]

The uglyist burning app I come accross - Winon CD6 has options to include a windows software player on the vcd/svcd's it makes (the player can also play DVD-mpeg2 quite well) don't know if they auto run though.

And thats all the good I can say for Winon CD6.

I'v written a little app will autorun just about ANY type of file you specify
http://www.roderz.uklinux.net/freeloader.htm

just my 2pence worth.