STOP using DVDs, START using VCDS!

[Magicman]

Most people here are buying DVD bundles for door to door campaigns and sending these videos out to people for there meetup groups. What they aren't realizing is a format called VCD; you can STILL watch your video on a DVD player and computer with VCD. VCDs are actually CD-Rs. The only issue is that you have 750 mb of space; but that's plenty to put Ron Paul's highlights. Just think how much more cost-effective and how many more videos you can distribute rather then paying more for DVDs!

Guys, if you want to download videoclips from Youtube; go to this website and install Greasemonkey. Now, you could make a VCD off of the videos you download. Follow the instructions:

http://mashable.com/2007/05/29/youtube-greasemonkey/

[Starks]

Also, do Iowans even have DVD players?

[aravoth]

Actually, if you get a DvD player with "Divx" imprinted on it, you can copy as many Ron Paul vids on a dvd as you can fit, put it in your dvd player, and play Mpegs and Avi's. Most people can't even tell if it's true DvD or not. I do it all the time. It's extremly cost effective.

Philips has a dvd player for about 40 dollars that can literally play anything. I have yet to find a format (besides .flv) that it can not play. The only caveat being, that if the format is xvid, instead of divx, you'd need a 5.1 surround system to hear the audio. If you're going to do things like this, Just make sure that the audio codec on the video your burning is MP3, not AC3. Some TV's are old and don't have the ability to compress it.

[Chase]

Eck... I wouldn't recommend this. There are still way too many players in circulation that won't play VCDs. If you produce a VCD and hand a copy out, you've lost time and money if the person you've given the disk to can't play it. And you miss an opportunity to create a new Ron Paul supporter!

[rockjoa]

I've thought about this, is it possible to burn a cd using the dvd files(would have to be small) and have it play in most dvd players. Most will play music cds so would it read a cd as a dvd?

Must research

I would avoid both vcd and svcd, I've messed with these and play back varies greatly between players

[Man from La Mancha]

http://www.meritline.com/

They hold 6x as much as cd

[rpf2008]

Eck... I wouldn't recommend this. There are still way too many players in circulation that won't play VCDs. If you produce a VCD and hand a copy out, you've lost time and money if the person you've given the disk to can't play it. And you miss an opportunity to create a new Ron Paul supporter!

Agreed. VCD is good if you know the player supports it but some players do not. We don't want people getting disc from us that they can't use.

[risiusj]

Also, do Iowans even have DVD players?

You punk.
I'd say that most every family with kids has one. People don't like to spend money in Iowa. So if it's an older couple with kids that have in or graduated from college for several years now, I would doubt that they have a DVD player.

This issue of using VCDs was one that came to my mind right away when I saw DVDs being handed out. The problem is that some DVD players don't play them, so I dismissed it.

[Magicman]

This can still be disputed buying a bulk of VCDs is twice as less as DVD. Also, even if they can't play on DVD player they still can play on computers.

Here's a list of manufacturers that play VCDs. The majority of them allow the format to work:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

[buffalokid777]

Still VCDs will not work in alot of older DVD players....

I have made VCDs for some of my friends before.....before DVD burners were common....and about half my friends players wouldn't play VCDs...

Many of those friends still have the same DVD players that won't play VCDs

I wouldn't recommend it.

[ShaneC]

VCD's are nice in their own right, but not for trying to reach people. The compatibility is still lacking on most stand alone players, and there's a multitude of people who'd have other issues trying to play it on some PCs.

[Capitalism]

If you go to salescircular.com and click on your state, you can find where DVD+Rs and DVD-Rs are on sale in your area each week.

[ratsbew]

Also, do Iowans even have DVD players?

Uh....Yeah
Iowa is no different than any other state, the percentage is probably identical to anyplace else in the country.