Which players play DVD format on CD-R/RW?

For testing purposes, I'd like to burn "mini DVDs"
onto CD-R/RW and then check them out on a standalone player.
(After making sure everything is ok, I'll burn full length
DVDs.)

I've been told many/most players have firmware restrictions
that don't allow you to do that. However, I've heard
that some players, such as Sampo??, will play CDs that
contain DVD-formatted information.

So I'm looking for a list of standalone dvd players
that will play DVD-formatted information off of
CD-R/RW media.

[Khizhiy]

As to testing purposes, I would recommend to play with DVD-RW instead of CD-R, because the players that can playback miniDVD's are not as good as those that can't. Furthermore, you can always simulate your DVD-authoring on the PC. You can use the 'subst' command in MS Windows and make a certain directory behaive as a drive.

As I understand, the main problem with miniDVD on a standalone unit is the 2-speed drive. It is enough for a DVD because it has greater information pit density (hence, bitrate) then CD-R(W) media, while you will need something like a 6-speed drive to playback a miniDVD with the same bitrate.

Nevertheless, you can find a list of miniDVD-capable players here at VCDHelp. Just go to the homepage and you will see a link.

[Kdiddy]

"As I understand, the main problem with miniDVD on a standalone unit is the 2-speed drive. "

No actually it is the firmware. Most DVD standalones possess a 1X drive, 2X if you are lucky. Anyhow, 1X DVD speed = ~10X CD speed. 10X = ~12 mbps and most DVD video is well below 12 mbps. So the drives arent the main concern, it is the firmware.

[kinneera]

Really, it's both.

At 1x spin, data can be read from a CD at the bitrate at which VCDs are encoded. In fact, this is the reason that bitrate was chosen for the VCD specification. Most standalones have 2x drives, which is why SVCDs are typically the upper limit of their capability. Assuming an average bitrate of 5Mbps for DVD video, it would take at least a 4x drive to read this off of CD media, a speed few standalones are capable of. The fact that the firmware often does not support it is probably more a corollary result of the manufacturers figuring it isn't worth it to provide firmware support for something you can't do anyway.

If you still don't believe me, try making an XVCD or XSVCD at a DVD bitrate...most standalones will choke on it even though the firmware recognizes the format.

[cdd1001]

I can play XVCD or XSVCD's with bit rates up to 4Mbps on my Denon AVF100 DVD player. At this bit rate, quality is really getting extremely good. On the otherhand, I don't think these kind of bitrates are really practical until one has access to DVD burners. I don't want to be changing CD's every 15 mins or so.

[Kdiddy]

"Most standalones have 2x drives, which is why SVCDs are typically the upper limit of their capability."

I agree with you there. Im speaking more in the practical sense that I assume that most people would not actually try to put full DVD bitrate movies into miniDVDs from a practical sense of not having 6-8 disks per movie. I probably should explain myself further in that to me, a practical true miniDVD is basically SVCD with Ac3 sound. Where the video bitrate would stay around the 2mbps range in oder to keep the movies to a max of 2 disks. Thus in this case it would be well within range of the speed capability of the drive, but then the major problem would default back to as you stated "The fact that the firmware often does not support it is probably more a corollary result of the manufacturers figuring it isn't worth it to provide firmware support" So yes, my revise statement. In theory, BOTH, more often than not, the firmware will get you before you even have a chance to figure whether or not the drive is capable, even if someone was to lower the bitrate (XminiDVD) to acceptable levels, you firmware would still reject it.

[Khizhiy]

I can't agree with the opinion that miniDVD's have no use. Yes, putting a feature movie on 6-8 CD is weird. But I've got many home videos that do not exceed 15-20 minutes. Burning them on CD-R's would be great to maintaint their original Hi8/DV quality.