I need help choosing a DVD-compatible resolutions! HELP!

[garibaldo]

I am trying to take my music video collection off VHS tapes and burn them with menus and the works onto DVD-R. I want to give this collection to at least 10 of my friends and they have different setups and different DVD players. I thought about doing CVD, but I heard it is only compatible with 1/3 to 1/2 of existing DVD players. THat's not very good for me. Should I just waste space by capturing at full D1 resolution at 720x480 and burning that? How much more compatible would that be? How many DVD players are compatible with DVD-Rs and what brand of DVD-R would you guys suggest? I'd appreciate any help with these questions! THANKS!

[kinneera]

I think the information regarding CVD being compatible with only 1/3 to 1/2 of all DVD players is relevant only when those video specifications are being burned to CD media - a CVD is a CD format.

If you are working with DVD-R, you should have absolutely no problems with MPEG2 at CVD specifications (MPEG2 352x480/576, 48Khz audio) because it is allowed within the DVD specification. The only issue will be media compatibility - you should be able to get some feel for this by browsing the DVD Players Compatibility list to the left.

[garibaldo]

Can anyone give me an idea of how compatible DVD-Rs are across the board? I'm thinking Philips or Apple DVD-R media. Can anyone give me some good prices on those in the $4 per disc range?

Kinneera, when you said that CVD is a CD format, did you mean that it's traditionally burned to a CD, but it's perfectly valid on DVD? Does it have the same compatibility as full D1 resolution?

[kinneera]

Exactly: if it's on a DVD, it's not a CVD - it's just a DVD at a lower quality specification. It should be just as compatible as CCIR-601 encoded DVDs.