Burn Videos to a CD? Maybe Not!

Q: I would like to know if there is a way to burn videos to a CD with a regular burner?

A: Well....you could... but I don't know if you'd want to do that.

DVDs are optimized to store the massive amounts of data that a movie holds. They can hold up to 25 times more information primarily because you can record on both sides. It's also 9 times faster in displaying this information. The biggest advantage, as you would probably suspect, is the image quality. On a DVD, it's full screen and motion video, can display wide-screen and even multi-camera angles. That's better than watching television.

Along with offering superior cinema quality video and better audio, it allows for multiple channels of audio. That's why you can hear a movie in English as well as French, Spanish, and Cantonese if you like. And we can't forget 5.1 surround sound.

None of these features are available using a CD. If you were to put that information on a CD, you'd have to compress it down to ¼ to ½ size of the screen resolution. You'll also probably have to convert it to a format that would allow it to fit on one CD. Otherwise you're looking at breaking it up into a multiple CD-ROMs.

The emergence of DVD-ROMs is an indication where the new standard is being set. DVD-ROMs are backwards compatible which means they can play CD-ROMs. However, you can't play DVDs on a CD-ROM. All of these things should be taken into consideration if you plan on legally (I had to add that) burn videos.