My current It’s-Too-Damn-Cold-To-Do-Anything-Outside project is taking old family movies and burning them to DVDs for relatives who don’t have a PC. I’ve collected about 30 gigs of digital video from family around the world and decided to give it a try.
Imagine my surprise when the first attempt actually worked fine on my DVD player. Menus, audio, and video were all fine.
And that was the last one that worked…
Every one I’ve attempted since then just results in a “No Valid Disk” message when I attempt to play it. They do however work fine and dandy on a PC. AFAIK I have changed no settings since the first attempt.
What am I doing wrong?
Some particulars…
The burner is a Memorex 8X
I’m using Nerovision Express 2.0
I’ve tried both +R and –R disks
The original file formats were .avi, .mpg, .wmv, and .asf.
This wouldn’t be so pissy if the first disk hadn’t worked.
I would double check to make sure you’re buring to the right standard NTSC or PAL., whichever is correct for where you are.
Another question would be if you have changed media in any way. Still using the same brand and type as the one that worked before? You didn’t switch from -R to +R for example?
Look, I don’t care how cold it is outside, burning DVD’s is not going to warm you up!
All kidding aside, have you forgotten the “complete disc” step? IIRC, CD-R’s and DVD-/+R’s all require some sort of “finalization” step that allows regular players to recognize them. Try taking one of these “bad” discs and going back into your DVD Writing software and seeing if there is such a function. Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve done this so I don’t remember the specific name of the command.
It’s not uncommon to have homemade DVDs that play fine with your PC DVD player work on your PC and not work on a standalone DVD player. The standalone DVD player has much less tolerance to glitches in the DVD. A couple of things to consider:
(1) Have you tried burning the DVDs at a slower rate? I note that your burner can work at 8x, but have you tried burning at 2x? Sure, it’ll take longer, but you’re more likely to end up with DVDs that work on your standalone player. Better than adding to your stack of coasters.
(2) Are you putting labels on the DVDs? Labels will tend to screw up the playback on standalong DVD players. Will work fine on your PC, but like I said, the standalone players are less tolerant. Use no labels or use DVDs with printable tops.
(3) The first DVD you made that worked could’ve been the fluke. So consider switching brands.
I second the question “Have you switched media brands”. Provided your burner can burn both + and - discs (they are different formats) there are vast differences amond brands of media regarding compatibility with burners and players. I suggest www.dvdrhelp.com for more resources.
How many standalone DVD players and DVD applications have you tried, and what program are you using to author the DVDs?
The DVD specs are tricky, and with some programs it’s easy to create DVDs that don’t quite fit the specs. Some DVD players are more tolerant than others… for example, newer, cheaper players that use off-the-shelf MPEG decoder chips and play (S)VCD and .MPG files won’t complain about nonstandard frame sizes, but older players and players with a lot of custom DVD-only hardware will only work if the frame size is exactly right. Players designed for an international market will accept Dolby Digital and MPEG audio streams, but US-only players might not support MPEG audio.
If you can, try the disc in a few different standalone players… you might be able to deduce what’s wrong with it. I also suggest trying Mark’s Tray DVD Player, a DVD player app designed for DVD authors. It has a log showing exactly what it’s doing, and one of the buttons will take you to a list of possible DVD authoring errors that it found.
IANAE, but I anticipate having the same problems. An internet friend who burns a lot of DVDs assures me this…
(emphasis added by me).
I’ll let you know if it works for me, but since you’re much farther ahead in the process than I am, you’ll probably find out before me. I own a Toshiba SD2108 player. If you look it up, you’ll see that it’s incompatible with every burned media type. I figure if it works on my DVD player, it’ll work on anyone’s. Again, I’ll try to post back if I have any success.
I’ve had exactly these kinds of problems; I can only burn DVDs (for video) on a select few brands (Emtec is the one I’ve settled on) - if I want data, or if I want it to just play on a PC, any media works. Reducing the burn speed seems to help with playability on domestic players too.
Does the drive read standard disks? (DVD and/or CD)?
Is this a burning only problem.
the reason I ask the questions, is that I recently purchased a Memorex Dual Layer drive, which came with the same software. It would install, and read/burn disks (both CD and DVD) fine, but then mysteriously stopped being able to read them. I moved it to another machine, and had the same experience.
I ended up returning it and getting an HP drive. Memorex wanted me to send it back and wait 14-21 days for turnaround. I had the drive for less time than that! Support was stumped as I could see the drive, and even reinstalling the hardware didn’t help.
No. I did find a method that works, though. I use Nerovision to convert the files and the have the program write to the hard drive and then burn with Nero.
All the DVDs I’ve made with this method have worked.
