which format do I use?

[[email protected]]

My client is making 2000 CD's of a 3min video I created. They want it to automatically play when the person puts it into a CDROM drive. (not DVD).

I need to make a master file for them to burn to discs. I can make it from the timeline but I have no idea which one I should use. Normally, between the clinet and I, I make QT files for preview and FTP them to her.

keep inmind these people are not the most tech savvy... and it needs to play in all machines with no issues.

HOW AND WHAT?
THANK YOU!!!!
S.

[GrassValley_BH]

That's a bit of a tough one... Are there any "rules" for your clients? Do they all have Internet access? Are they Mac OS, Windows, or something else?

[[email protected]]

EXACTLY my issue.

Assume they have no internet access, will put in the disc and watch the video.

WMP? most people can play this, even tho it's not great.

AVI? Better quality, can be slow/stuttery for slower machines

QT? Needs a player and not everyone has one - and i'm not including it on the disc. They want it to autoplay.

MPEG? is this an option????

:(
S.

[wags]

MPEG 1 will play on MAC-PC and you need no internet and it will play on slow computers.

QT good for MACS but not for PC.
WMV good for PC's but not for MAC's

You cannot make autorun CD's for the OSX anymore, they turned that feature off.

[STORMDAVE]

I recommend Flash in a webpage on the CD. Much easier and very compatible.

It's easy to make an autorun.inf file that will launch the html page in the default browser.

OSX usually opens the folder when you pop in a cd/dvd, so you can name the html as "OPEN ME" or something like that.

[wags]

I was going to say flv as well but what if they they do not have FLASH installed, I know everyone has it now days but you never know.

If using FLASH flv I would wrap it up in projector then you are sure it will run but you will have to have one for MAC and one for PC on the CDROM. You can make hybrid CDroms pretty easy to run on both.

[tdtinker]

We do this often using a WMF and Typhoon 4 autorun program to create menu pages or links to the web. Never had any problems. You can also make a MPEG-1 and use that instead of WMF. Typhoon is a great program for making CD and it's not very expensive.
tdtinker

[GrassValley_BH]

MPEG-1 would be as cross-platform as I can think of for modern computers at least.

[Jim N]

It is amazing that people think the ubiquitous old-faithful MPEG1 (VCD) is still the most cross-platform format out there! Hopefully the day will come when a newer more efficient codec will be as universally accepted. Perhaps Flash will achieve this.

In the meantime I could'nt find an MPEG1 preset in the Edius 5 converter. Is there one there?

Jim

[[email protected]]

dang. I was hoping that there were a few options.... mpeg (my initial thought) would be the best (ok, not best but best in this circumstance).

I am interested in that Typhoon idea - any links?

I concidered Flash too but discarded it for the Mac/PC compatibilty - making 2 files...

Ok, so, they will get this, put it in their CDROM drives, get the window asking what to do (open files, play etc..). RIGHT??? I can't have it auomatically play?

S.

Jim - There is if you use Prodcoder.. at least in 4.5 - click "cdrom" and it will pull up the menu,

[3chip]

Link

http://www.autoruntyphoon.com/download.htm