Powerbook dvd burning

[hogman]

So, I'v been thinking about geting some movies off the itunes store, mostly because it's so much cheaper. Now, although I can do more than most people, I will admit that I dont know a whole lot about the hardware of computers, mac or otherwise. So heres my problem, I am useing the g4 powerbook, I want to say 2004 but im not sure. When I look at the disc burning secton of my system profiler it says

CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R

So, I'm prity sure that that meens i can only read DVD's and cannot burn them, is this right?

Also, if i can burn DVD's, can i make a DVD of an Itunes bought movie, or can i only play it on my computer?

P.S. Yes, I do know that part of the reason Itunes is so cheep is because its quality is lower than a reguler DVD, I dont realy care about that to much.

 

[balamw]

So, I'm prity sure that that meens i can only read DVD's and cannot burn them, is this right?

Also, if i can burn DVD's, can i make a DVD of an Itunes bought movie, or can i only play it on my computer?

No, it means you can burn DVD-R media, not DVD+R media...

You can't make a DVD from iTunes that you can watch in your standalone DVD player, but you can burn it on a data DVD-R and watch it on any computer with iTunes you authorise and furthermore, you can also copy it to your iPod and connect that to your TV via the A/V cable or the S-video out on the universal dock. Soon you will also be able to watch those movies throgh iTV or whatever they end up calling it.

B

 

[hogman]

Thanks dude, a bit technical for my current knowlage, but i get the gist of it.

 

[m3henn04]

You can convert an H.264 MP4 which is what your iPod will play and it is what you download from the iTunes store using a program called ffmpegx. The problem I have found is that when converting something to Video TS (which is the file system your dvd player reads) it seems to play fine on the computer but when you burn it to a disc the video doesnt play back properly and it tends to be very jumpy like the disc is skipping.

I use the program to create 3gp files so I can watch whole movies on my SLVR cell phone and I use it to make divx files from DVD's that I own. The program is quite powerful and fairly fast depending on how much ram you have. There are many different types of conversions you can do using the program including taking DIVX files and converting them to H.264 so you can play them on your iPod.