# DVD players & mpegs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-players-mpegs/160354>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 10, 2003, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-players-mpegs/160354 "2003-03-10T17:56:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-players-mpegs/160354/1 "2003-03-10T17:56:05Z")

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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?

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-players-mpegs/160354/2 "2003-03-10T18:14:06Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drifter)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-players-mpegs/160354/3 "2003-03-10T18:15:11Z")

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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

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**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-players-mpegs/160354/4 "2003-03-10T19:16:52Z")

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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](http://www.dvdrhelp.com/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.