DVD won’t work in client’s DVD Player

[Edward Troxel]

Does their player support your media? Have you tried different media? (both brand and type). Some players don’t support some types and some media is better quality than other types of media.

Edward Troxel

[Terry Esslinger]

Things to try:
1. Burn to a different brand media – some brands seem to be much more compatible than others. But even brands are unpredicatable. You will find various manufactures making the same “brand”. You “get what you pay for” can apply here.

2. Burn to a +R. While I think generally -R are considered more compatible, who knows.

3. Depending on how good a client he/she is, buy a new cheap DVD player for the client.

LOL

[Josh Meredith]

I can’t offer much help, other than to confirm that your problem is not unusual. DVD issues like this make me wish that clients still wanted their videos on VHS tapes. I’m not suprised the DVD worked in your client’s computer. In my exprience, computers play DVD’s better than any set-top player, especially burned DVD’s. All of my burned DVD’s play 100% correctly in my laptop and my desktop computer, but at least 80% of them skip horribly in the player attached to my TV.

Did you put an adhesive label on the DVD(s)? They are known to make burned DVD’s even less reliable than they already are.

You may consider your burner. I am constantly disapointed in the lifespan of the burners I buy. I usually get about 1 year of use out of them before they start spitting out terribly flawed discs, and I don’t really burn that many DVD’s before they go bad – usually about 100 or so. Also try different brands of blank DVD-R’s. For some reason, I’m currently having the best luck with red labeled HP DVD-R’s in my external Memorex burner. Ironically, Memorex blank DVD-R’s don’t work very well in this burner, but they work OK in my computer’s internal Pioneer burner.

I usually tell clients that if playability issues are going bother them, the only real solution is to get the DVD’s pressed, which is expensive, but results in a DVD that any player can read.

[George Wing]

I agree with everyone on trying different media, etc…

What make/model DVD Player does your client have? DVD Architect inserts some invalid references in the DVD Info files, and while a majority of players don’t mind the code, recently some LG DVD Recorder/Players have had an issue with the code in question. It’s possible your client has a player that doesn’t like the bad reference info…

Regards,
George

[Larryreavis]

I’ve read on another vegas forum that pgcEdit.exe can correct the faulty streams created by DVD Architect. Note that faulty streams only occur when you create a DVD that has menus. For more info, go to

https://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=22&MessageID=471476

[Terje A. bergesen]

As others have pointed out, it is probably a factor of your media. The vast majority of players will play the best media, but a lot of players will not read bad media. The problem is that it is hard to know what media is good and what is bad. Most of the media out there is produced by a few vendors, and several of the brands use DVDs from multiple vendors.

Memorex is a good example, if you buy Memorex, what media you actually get is not entirely possible to know. Memorex is just re-branding media, they do not produce media.

So, a poor DVD burner enthusiast (or professional) must be picky. You should not get re-branded media at all. Sadly re-branded is almost all of the media in the stores. Online is a good place to get what you need, and know that what you get is what you wanted.

You should also get a piece DVD identification software so that you know exactly what media you are getting. All media has a media identifier.

I think consensus these days is that MCC and Tayo Yuden is the best reasonably priced DVD media.

Check out https://www.videohelp.com/ to learn everything you never thought you had to know about DVD media.

Oh, and one more thing, burn your DVDs slow. 2x at the fastest is my recommendation. 1x is probably better. Don’t burn on 4x or faster, it makes your media less readable.

[Anoni Moose]

Yes, Taiyo Yuden is the brand I use too.

If you have a Plextor drive (what I use) you can
bring up the software that comes with it and measure
the error-rate (usually only showing correctable errors).
The Taiyo Yuden 8X “-R” discs burnt on the Plextor shows error rates
way way way below the max allowable spec. in my experience
and is why I use those discs (error rates varied with brand in
my testing). Might help with compatibility if error rates are marginal.

[Chris Franklin]

Thanks to everybody for all of your help. I’m not sure if it has a specific name, but I’m using a Sony DVD burner that I bought from Office Depot in March. I had been using Memorex DVDs from Office Depot, but I just switched to Sony DVDs.

Like I said before, I can play them on my DVD player, and it seemed like the Sony DVDs have a better picture quality than the Memorex DVDs.

Oh Yeah, I am using stick on labels. I would love to use a DVD printer, but those things are a little out of my budget right now.

Others–feel free to keep posting as it sounds like there’s more people out there that have the same problem.

Thanks!!

[Doug Lewis]

Check out this site for info on downloading software to identify the DVD manufacturer https://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/

I, too only use Taiyo Yuden discs which I order from supermediastore.com, they work great!

Burning at 2X is a good idea, but I seem to have discovered that one of my burners does best at 2X and the other at 4X.

Lastly, check out the Epson printers for printing directly to the disc. I have the Epson Photo R200 printer which works great. The newest model of this printer sells for less than $100.00.

[Edward Troxel]

[cfranklin_av] “I had been using Memorex DVDs from Office Depot, but I just switched to Sony DVDs.”

I’d still try a different brand.

[cfranklin_av] “Oh Yeah, I am using stick on labels. I would love to use a DVD printer, but those things are a little out of my budget right now.”

And I’d also try it WITHOUT the label. CD/DVD printers are under $100.

Edward Troxel