OT-ish - Burning VIdeo DVD w/Windows Media Player

Soniclight wrote on 6/7/2013, 9:15 PM

"You may say. "
Lemme 'splain.

I'm going to go to a friend's house - who does NOT have Vegas or DVD Architect - who has a CRT SD TV, albeit a large one (42") and he only has the Windows Media Player that comes with Win7 Pro 64-bit. He has a collection of mostly SD 640x480 .WMV video files that he would like to view on his CRT TV instead of his rather small 19" 4:3 LCD computer screen. The recliner is also more comfortable than the dinner table chair he has as a computer seat...

So that's what I'll be working with to burn the DVD to play on his TV. When I return here later, hopefully I'll have more info on his stand-alone DVD player plugged into his TV (to see what files it can and cannot play). I've never used WMP for burning a movie, but it's not that difficult. But here is what I'd like to do:

-- Autoplay (which I know can be selected in WMP's process).
-- Some menu or some interface whereby he can choose what clip to watch (may be asking too much of WMP, dunno at this point.)

Now, he may have Nero installed and/or I can bring my disk down and install it IF using Nero would be more intuitive and easy to pull this off. And obviously we're not dealing with high tech and HD expectations due to that the TV is 640x480. But he's fine with that.

If you have any suggestions or tips going either route, they are welcome.

Comments

Soniclight wrote on 6/8/2013, 1:03 AM

Eh, dead air here...

But I suppose that's what one gets for asking a dumb-ish question in the wrong place :) I'll probably figure this out on my own, yet if someone wishes to frisbee in some wisdom, I've cued up my bows of gratitude.

ushere wrote on 6/8/2013, 1:04 AM

philip, try to persuade him to buy a $15 media player off ebay. that, and a 4gb thumb drive should make life both easy and comfortable on this recilner ;-)

ritsmer wrote on 6/8/2013, 3:05 AM

Definitely the best solution - and you won't have to drink his cold beer every time he needs to get something converted...

Soniclight wrote on 6/8/2013, 3:09 AM

"philip, try to persuade him to buy a $15 media player off ebay. that, and a 4gb thumb drive should make life both easy and comfortable on this recilner ;-)"

Not sure what you mean by "media player". Also, remember, this is a old CRT type TV that doesn't have USB or HDMI or such interfaces. Just coaxial and basic yellow-red-white RCA, and maybe composite - from what I remember.

ushere wrote on 6/8/2013, 5:15 AM

http://www.ebay.com.au/gds/Tips-on-Choosing-an-External-Media-Player-for-your-TV/10000000016540883/g.html

craftech wrote on 6/8/2013, 8:00 AM

If he has an Xbox those will play wmv files from a USB stick from the Xbox dashboard.

Windows Live Movie Maker.lets you burn wmv to a dvd.

Also there is the Western Digital WDTV Live that ill work with a USB stick.

John

Soniclight wrote on 6/8/2013, 11:41 AM

Thanks for replies, I'll look into it.

Soniclight wrote on 6/8/2013, 7:28 PM

Due to his current financial situation (disabled veteran) -- and again, this is NOT an HD capable TV, it's not the right time to invest in a new player situation. He's used to using his +/ 9 year old DVD + VHS player with his TV and that is what I'd like to make a DV-RW for.

Below is a link to his player's user manual. See the last page for specifications for it seems that is the only place it gives a clue as to what this player will play -- MPEG 2. But his files are available as downloads to him in either .WMV or iPod (MPEG-4 standard). The majority of content is encoded at 1000 kb/s and at 640 x 480 resolution.

I realize this is a rather retro and antiquated approach for most of you here; due to his disability, he can get quite flustered with new information and new learning curves (I've been his "techie" for years, so I know him well). I'm simply trying to help him with what he has: an older non-HD CRT TV and the DVD player-recorder he already uses.

Thank you for your understanding and advice.

DVD-VR330 User Manual PDF

John_Cline wrote on 6/8/2013, 7:50 PM

His 9 year-old DVD player will play nothing but a standard DVD. You will need to convert his WMV and MP4 files to DVD-compliant MPEG2 files and author the disc in DVD Architect. The conversion can be accomplished in Vegas.

craftech wrote on 6/9/2013, 6:36 AM

Does his computer have a firewire output?

That DVD recorder / player has a firewire input. You could use his recorder to create the DVDs. First see if they pass through. It may not recognize wmv so use Vegas to convert them to DV.

John

Ron Windeyer wrote on 6/9/2013, 9:49 AM

I hesitated at first as I was sure others would be wiser than I am - never done this. However: to stay with your fixed requirements:
My laptop has Win 7 Pro 64-bit. I notice that it does also have, for free, Windows DVD Creator. So, start that up. It accepts wmv files - just add them one at a time. Specify PAL or NTSC, 4:3 (sounds like it will be this) or 16:9. That's about as complex as it gets. You can type in some text for the menu and play with the background a bit.
Then burn.
A quick play around suggests that this should work for you. Best of luck.

Soniclight wrote on 6/9/2013, 1:44 PM

Thanks for further replies. Since he does not have DVD Architect on his system (as alluded to in my opening lines in this thread), we need this to work for him with WMPlayer or other freeware, etc. prog so that once I teach him how to burn stuff, he can do it on his own.

After some more Googling around, it turns out that WMPlayer's conversion can create DVD player ready (MPEG-2) files that can play on basic DVD players. Or I'll find out whether that is true or not.

Either way, time to close this thread.
Thanks for the input from all all of you.

~ Philip

dxdy wrote on 6/9/2013, 3:16 PM

Ron's is the best tip of the week (Windows DVD Maker). I threw half a dozen .flv's at it, encoded and burned. Of course it only used four threads to encode, and averaged 16% usage on my 3770k, and no GPU use, but it ran.

It inserted some chapter markets spaced throughout the longer items, nice menu. There are complaints on various boards about aspect ratios, but if your target is 4:3, it worked great for me.

Thanks, Ron!

B.Verlik wrote on 6/10/2013, 5:59 AM

You could just get one of these VGA to RCA/S-video converters for $14.50 and a long RCA cable and just use his computer VGA output to his TV
http://www.sainsonic.com/pc-to-tv-video-converter.html?___store=en&___store=en
(copy & paste) or
http://sewelldirect.com/pc-to-tv-adapter.asp?gclid=CLOMzfmm2bcCFc9FMgod9TcAcg $19.95

You may need an 1/8th inch jack to RCA adapter plug for the audio too.

This way you could also use VLC media player and watch about anything;, because whatever he can see on his 19" computer screen will pretty much be the same on this TV. Unfortunately, he'll have to control it from the PC
Probably not interested, but .... it's another option.

Soniclight wrote on 6/11/2013, 2:51 PM

dxdy & Ron WIndeyer,

Thanks to the first for pointing out the suggestion of the second :) Must have been brain-dead when I was here before -- nice to find a "Duh..." easy solution within Win7 as the WIndows DVD Maker.

B. Verlik,

Thanks for RCA cable idea -- akin to the kind of stuff I tend to do at times, but it will be easier for my friend to deal with just his DVD player and his remote than being a contortionist launching and viewing his clips through his PC. :)