Need Advice on CD-Burner Download

I don't have a DVD burner, but I'd like to burn some videos to CD. The free Roxio that came with my computer will not burn video CDs. I see that there's a list of free CD Burners on this site, but can't tell if any of them will burn a video CD.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

If the video CD's (VCD) are in .bin/.cue format, you can use Burn-At-Once. You can also use Burn4Free to burn DVD's and CD's but I haven't used this one personally, so I can't really comment, but it comes recommended. If the files you want to burn are in MPEG/MPG or AVI format, you may have some problems finding freeware that will create a VCD from those formats. You can use VCDGear to create .bin/.cue files from MPEG files and can use any number of free apps to convert AVI files to MPEG files (ImTOO has an AVI > MPEG converter). Creating VCD's is alot trickier that creating DVD's. Here's some links that should be of use:
http://www.vcdgear.com/download.html (VCDGear download page-get v3.55, NOT the beta)
http://www.google.com/custom?domain...:http://www.videohelp.com/;LP:1;FORID:1&hl=en (this is a link to VCD 'how-to' articles at www.videohelp.com)
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/ (links to AfterDawn's guide section-scroll down a bit for the VCD section)
http://www.videohelp.com and http://www.afterdawn.com (both of these sites are devoted to all things CD/DVD/multimedia and are full of VERY helpful info. Register for free at AfterDawn to join the forums)
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/burn4free.cfm (link to download Burn4Free)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php/burnatonce_d3992.html (link to BurnAtOnce)

hd2k

 

Oh yeah.... when burning VCD's, remember to set the burn speed at 8x or SLOWER! It takes a while longer, but the results are worth it. I burn all my VCD's at 4x. Most newer CDRW and DVDRW drives won't go slower than 8x; that's why I have an older 16x max CDRW; it will go as slow as 2x. If you burn VCD's at higher speeds, the picture tends to pixelate or you get 'artifacts' (wierd blocks sprinkled thru-out the picture) and you'll get audio and lip-sync problems; so stick with the slower speeds!

hd2k

 

Thanks for the help.
Is there any way to tell if my burner is only for CDs? I assume that it is, but I honestly don't know how to check if it works on DVDs (this is my parents' computer from four years ago).

 

Look on the front of the drive; it'll say DVDRW or DVD with R/RW under it. Or, you can look in the device manager under CD/DVD Drives, and do a Google search for the model listed and get the specs from there: burn speeds, CD and or DVD compatible, etc....

hd2k

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Nero_InfoTool_d120.html