Playing a SD DVD Folder Directly (Without Media)

[George Tyndall]

I may be the only member of the site to NOT know what I just discovered, but (at the risk of looking like a doofus) I will nevertheless share this discovery with the other members: It is possible to play one’s SD DVD folders directly, in other words, there is no need to actually burn the folder to a physical DVD in order to view the project.

This discovery is tremendously helpful to my particular work flow for the following reason: Although all my work in PRE7 is on a Hi Def Timeline (either 1920x1080 or 1440x1080, depending on whether the project consists mostly of either stills or video), I’ve found that the quickest way to play the completed project back smoothly to check for flaws is by outputting it to a SD DVD Folder and then burning a SD DVD from that folder. This has proven much faster than either rendering the Hi Def Timeline or outputting is as an MPEG2/m2t file. But because of what I’ve just discovered, I no longer need to burn–and then find a place to store–a physical DVD.

I have Windows XP MCE 2005. There are two different methods of playing back the SD DVD Folder with MCE:*

- Open the Media Center and then scroll to My Videos, browse to the HDD where you’ve saved your SD DVD folders and then click to open the desired folder. (The title that you have given the folder will be adjacent to the folder icon.)
- If you have any version of PSE installed and you have “gotten” the SD Folder into the PSE Organizer, then from within the Media Center program scroll down to Other Programs and click on the PSE icon–this will open the PSE Organizer from within the Media Center program, and you can then scroll to the proper locations in your Organizer. In my case, this is also how I view any MPEG2 file that I have created after playing back the SD DVD Folder to ascertain that my project is flawless.

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*I’m not sure of this, but if memory serves most of the PC versions of Vista also have media center capability, including the ability to play one’s media with a remote control.

[Shrimpfarmer]

That's a useful find George, many thanks for sharing. I try my absolute best to stay away from dvd discs these days. I was foolish and bought cheapo disks once and ended up losing some files. My fault entirely but I much prefer to back up files across hard disks these days and play them on my PS3 in my lounge. The dvd still rules though when it comes to passing on to family and friends. Any tips for making that a less painful process are always worthwhile.

[RJ Johnston]

That's right George. Just about all software DVD players allow you to pick a DVD folder, the VIDEO_TS folder, on your hard drive. I don't remember how I discovered that, and I'm sorry I didn't share that information with you.

[George Tyndall]

There are two different methods of playing back the SD DVD Folder with MCE....

Clarification re MCE2005:
--SD DVD files (VOB) can be played from within Media Center Edition 2005 by scrolling down to My Videos and then selecting the file
--HD MPEG2 files can be played from within Media Center 2005 by first scrolling down to More Programs and then clicking the PSE icon which will take you to the PSE Organizer, where you can then select the file

[Ronnie]

I like the sournd of your PSE method. I will have to give that a try.