CD-ROM vs. DVD-ROM

[Judson]

Does anyone know if video playback performance on DVD-ROM media is any better than playback on CD-ROM media? I was just wondering if a DVD-ROM will perform better than a CD-ROM when playing back MPEG-4 video from the disc.

[Cornucopia]

YES!

While the spin rate is comparable for CD, DVD and BD, the actual off-the-disc transfer rate is very different. DVD is 3x to 11x the transfer rate of CD. BD is above even that.

So, regardless of "Authoring Format", a "FILE" copied from disc to HardDrive goes much faster on DVD than CD, and faster still on BD. And if that includes "playing" it from a software player, the software can MUCH more easily buffer the higher datarate disc than the lower.
Pretty common experience; this is why, for example, burning DVD-VIDEO data onto CD (aka MiniDVD) or BDMV data onto DVD (aka DVD9/AVCHD/MiniBD) is bound to be a problem unless one has compensated for it by LOWERING the bitrate expected in the streams.

Scott

[Judson]

Thanks for the feedback, going to be playing the video in a browser from off the interactive CD/DVD. The build is only 411MB, so it will easily fit on a CD, but if it will perform better on DVD-ROM then I am willing to have wasted space.

Note: This is iPhone .mp4 video files produced by handbrake.

[jman98]

Just burn to CD. I can't give you 100% assurance but it's highly unlikely that the bit rate is high enough to cause a problem on CD media if you recorded it on an iPhone.

[Judson]

I just want the BEST performance playing from disc. Is a DVD-ROM going to deliver better performance is what I am trying to decide.

[Noahtuck]

A CD-R cost's what ?

15 cents!!
Try it and see....

Not gonna break the bank on that little test!!
LOL!!

[jman98]

I just want the BEST performance playing from disc. Is a DVD-ROM going to deliver better performance is what I am trying to decide.

As Noahtuck said - try it and see! What the hell do you mean by "best performance" any way? It seems to me that you're just looking for problems where none exist. Know what I would do? I'd burn it to CD. Odds are high that it will work. I'm not going to give you some kind of 100% assurance here because for all I know you may have something very weird about your file that will make it suck on CD-R, but that is VERY VERY unlikely. It's just not impossible. If you want more assurance than that then you're in the wrong place and you need to find another forum that will cater to your ego if you can't handle the honest "It SHOULD work fine" advice you've been given.

[Cornucopia]

Let take a pretend example:

You've got a video file rated at 4Mbps total (A+V+overhead). If it was created as CBR (constant bitrate) for all streams, it needs to have steady, continuous read rate off the disc in question of that figure or higher. Becomes a little bit trickier if one or both of the files is encoded VBR.

IF so, let's pretend the MAX/PEAK bitrate for this file is 6Mbps. Well, if the disc can put out CONTINUOUS data rates in excess of this figure, it will stream & decode & play in realtime with NO hiccups, etc (assuming you don't have a bogged down PC to begin with).
If the disc can only Sometimes/Occasionally give you that data rate (or better), it might look ok if you get lucky, but likely you will experience some hiccups/skips in the playback.
IF the disc can NEVER give you that data rate, you WILL get skips/freezes!
(BTW, when I say "disc" I mean the whole disc subsystem/chain)

So if these hypothetical CDs can sustain 5Mbps from that drive, but DVDs can sustain 15Mbps from that drive: you'd be better off with using a DVD.
If both CD and DVD can sustain >6Mbps (remember, this is just an example), then either would be perfectly fine to use.

Scott

[Noahtuck]

What the hell do you mean by "best performance" any way?

Yeah i was wondering about that comment also.......

I was wondering if he meant if he converts it to a CD format or DVD format (who the hell know's what people are talking about when they don't know themselves, rip/convert) which one would be better.

Because as far as i have ever experienced, if it is in a specific format small enough that will fit onto a CD-R, it will be/look the same on either type of disc.

Because I don't know about anyone else but,

Note: This is iPhone .mp4 video files produced by handbrake.

That really does not say anything much when it comes to specs or quality of the video.

And Cornucopia is trying, yet again, to make a newbie's head implode!!!
LOL!!

[Cornucopia]

Aww, come on. Is it that obvious?

[Judson]

Video Specs:
H.264 480 x 272
AAC, Stereo 48kHz
29.97 FPS
377.10 kbits/sec


Thanks for the input...going with CD-ROM.