Appendix
139
The Right Technology
With a seemingly unending array of technologies in the digital
video industry, selecting exactly which is suitable for your movie
may seem overwhelming. Should you burn your movie to CD or
DVD? Should you use HQ, SP, or LP video quality? What are
NTSC and PAL? This section takes the guesswork out of digital
technology, so you can turn a daunting choice into creative
freedom.
CD vs. DVD
In broad terms, discs are divided into CD (which, being the
earlier technology, is more widely supported) and DVD (which
holds much more content). CDs and DVDs look the same and do
pretty much the same thing: store data. Both can be used to
record your movie, so how do you decide which to use?
The most important factor is compatibility, which can be decided
by answering the following two questions:
• What disc type is supported by my disc burner?
• What disc type is supported by my disc player?
The answer to these questions may decide the disc type you use,
but if you are still faced with several choices, consider that DVDs
hold 7 times the amount of video than CDs, and can contain
menus pages. CDs, on the other hand, are cheaper, and may be
sufficient if you plan to make numerous copies of a short video.
Disc Type Overview
Below is a comparison chart of the major disc types:
VCD
74/80 mins of video; VHS quality
SVCD
35 mins of video; quality close to DVD
DVD
60-90+ mins video; highest quality
