I’m wondering about the following: If I buy a DVD player that is hooked up to my TV (not computer), can I use it to play mpeg & RealPlayer files that I have on a CD? Is this something that would be possible with any DVD player, or would I need to look for a specific feature?
You’ll need to find out what video formats your DVD player can handle. Many of them will play a special MPEG format called VCD. Nero and other CD-burning software can create one from a video file.
Yes you can play mpegs on your DVD but ony if your DVD player supports the old VCD’s
If so the mpeg would have to have the following specs
Video: MPEG-1, 352 X 240, 29.97 Fps
Audio: 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, Stereo
Or for PAL
Video: MPEG-1, 352 X 288, 25.00 Fps
Audio: 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, Stereo
And you would use software like Nero to burn it onto the CD in VCD format
There are a now a few players on the market that play Divx (and other MPEG-4 compliant video streams), but you’d have to seek one out. Chances are the player you currently have won’t play them. No players play Real Media files.
You can convert from most kinds of video files to VCD-compliant MPEGs. Conversion from Real Media, IME, doesn’t always work right. Of course, it’s been about a year since I’ve done it. The software may have improved since then.