Downloading? I assume you are refering to d/l off the net/FS program. First, let me say that piracy is illegal so this explanation is totally hypethetical. If you download a video from a sharing program such as Kazaa (found at downloads.com) you could burn it as a VCD or DVD if converted. Look at the DVD-R for newbies section to help you out with the burning process. Personally I wouldn't waste my time d/l movies from the net b/c ofter waiting 6 hours for a 700mb file the quality is barely good enough for your computer let alone a TV. DVD movies are normally about 4.5gb.
Hypotheically-speaking, if such piracy acts were achieved, you could find some mind-boggling perfect-quality movies (some, *cough*, I hear, are junk. such a theoretical act would involve your looking for movies marked as "DIVX" or "DVD RIP".
As far as burning it to VCD/DVD, you'll likely find it a futile task. Presently, technology is working against you like a tsunamai (sp?) against an infant surfer.
EVERYONE: We need to be praying for the developers of the world to make all this stuff easier for us.
Maybe if you have dial-up connection then it might be a waste of your time. Otherwise, if you have broadband, just search (hypotheticaly) whatever divx movies (which are legal by the way) you want right before you go to bed at night. in the morning, weed out the false downloads (I.E. instead of downloading Signs what you really downloaded was Debbie Does Dallas with "Signs" as a filename)
I have downloaded allot of new realeases that are in great quality, just take your time and do your homework. If you know that a 90 min. divx movie is normally around 600 to 850 megabytes, then use that a a refernce for good quality. No way in hell is "the Godfather" going to be 300 megabytes, so that could be rules out as a "bad file". So on and so forth. Make sure you pay attention to the real filename themselves, they are often a good indication of what the file really is. It's often pointless to do a search for files that say "DVD Rip" or "DIVX". You could rename a file anything. But by paying attention to the real filename and the size of the file, you can count on which are worth your time and which ones aren't. Oh yeah, no matter what it is.....do yourself a favor and scan it for viruses before you open it. Email me, if you have more questions.
Oh Yeah I almost forgot. DVD Movies (the kind you buy in a store)are not really 4.5 gigs. The manufacturers of these movies had intentionaly put in "Ghost Files" in the DVd's so that they would take up allot of space and be more of a hassle to rip. But now there's software everywhere on the net that distinguishes these "ghost files" (I forgot the actually name of these files, so for now I'll stick with "ghost files' until I stand corrected). After a DVD Rip, it might actually be possible to burn a DVD Mov onto a CD-R, and still have the same visual quality. I have done this with "Titan A.E.". With animation the quality is always there and for some reason always takes up less space on a CD-R Or DVD-R (Unless its a Disney Movie- Those bastards have their own tricks to the trade)
jackolope_, the "Ghost files" you mentioned... Not really useless files... they tend to be all the extra features (FBI warnings, Deleted scenes, menus, etc.) that you'd want to weed out when backing up and ripping your DVDs...
Owning a DVD-burner my self... I'll only decrypt the DVD files and strip the video and audio tracks, and leave the files without needing to re-do the size in a file re-encoder or using a DIVX codec...
A little known fact... most retail DVDs are "DVD-9" (or 9.4GB) where it's a dual layer disc, holding double that of a single layer disc, like a DVD-R would hold. That's why most DVD-Rs are known as "DVD-5" or 4.7GB.
