Creating and Playing
a DVD

Once you have downloaded a DVD from our site, you will want to play the DVD files from your hard drive OR burn the files into a DVD. This page explains how to do this.

Download File Formats

Our download DVDs come as a set of ZIP files. As an example, the DL-DVD01 "Cosmic Inner Smile" is downloaded as four separate files:

1. DL-DVD01-CIS_0.zip
2. DL-DVD01-CIS_1.zip
3. DL-DVD01-CIS_2.zip
4. DL-DVD01-CIS_3.zip

Unzipped File Formats

Once you have downloaded all the files for a DVD, they must be unzipped before you may use their contents. When these files have all been unzipped, they will create a hierarchy of directories (folders) and files, as follows:

Playing a DVD from Your Hard Drive

If you have software that can play a DVD from you hard drive, you can play our DVDs from your hard drive. Different software packages may operate slightly differently, but in this example we will discuss how to use the CyberLink PowerDVD program for Windows to play a hard drive DVD.

1. First, click on or select the menu action that lets you select/specify the source of the DVD information. On PowerDVD, this is done with a small button located below and to the right of the circle of controls.
2. Next, select the "Open DVD files on hard disk" action.
3. Navigate through your directory tree to locate and select the VIDEO_TS directory of the desired DVD.
4. Select the VTS_01_0.IFO file for playback.
5. When the controls are lighted, start the playback.

On some DVD software packages, selecting the VIDEO_TS directory may be sufficient.

If you do not have a software package that can play DVDs from your hard drive, you can obtain a free player from www.videolan.org. This program is available for Windows, Mac, and Unix and it does play DVDs from hard drive.

Burning a DVD

Using your DVD burner program, making a DVD is quite simple. You must burn the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories and all their contents onto the DVD. Do not burn the ZIP files onto the DVD, and do not burn the DVD organizing directory ("1-Cosmic-Inner-Smile" in the example above) into the DVD. DVD players are quite rigorous in their format requirements; our files match these requirements, but you must burn only the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories and all their contents to make a functional DVD.

In most DVD burning programs, you can "drag an drop" files and/or directories from a selection window pane to a DVD construction window pane. Dragging and dropping the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories to the (empty) root directory of the new DVD is all that needs to be done. Then you can start the burn.

Be sure that your DVD is "finished": do NOT select any MultiSession option or option to "leave the disk open for additional writing", and DO select any option to "finish" or "close" the DVD after burning these files.