DVDs not playing on PCs? (i know this is not the best forum for this, but starting here)

[Steve Brame]

It helps to narrow down where the problem is coming from, you or him.

First question – Can your client still play previous DVD’s from you? If so, then the most assuredly coming from your end. If not, then it’s more than likely something going on with his machine.

If you determine the problem is yours, have you recently changed DVD brands? Did these particular DVD’s come from a different batch?

When you say that you client cannot play them, is he also getting the “Windows Media Player needs some other decoder” error?

Has he tried an alternate player, like VLC?

Asus P6X58D Premium * Core i7 950 * 24GB RAM * nVidia GeForce GTX 770 * Windows 7 Premium 64bit * System Drive – WD Caviar Black 500GB * 2nd Drive(Pagefile, Previews) – WD Velociraptor 10K drive 600GB * Media Drive – 2TB RAID0 (4 – WD Caviar Black 500GB drive) * Matrox MX02 Mini * Adobe CC * QuickTime 7.7.5
——————————————-
“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions

[Jon Doughtie]

In your in-house test you indicated you are going as far back as WinXP. Windows Media Player at that time did not play DVD’s natively.

System:
Dell Precision T7600 (x2)
Win 7 64-bit
32GB RAM
Adobe CC 2014 (as of 7/2015)
256GB SSD system drive
4 internal media drives RAID 5
Typically cutting short form from HD MP4 and P2 MXF.

[Tad Newberry]

XP is the only Windows OS i’ve ever had in this place. i’m a Mac guy but keep the XP machine around for a few things: Quicken and DVD dubs on my Primera dubber…

my client also only uses XP. he can’t play the new ones, but he can play the old ones. i’m totally stumped, since i’m making the DVDs the same way i always have. i suppose it COULD BE the brand/stock of blank DVD media. could that really be the case in that they play everywhere else (Mac, DVD player, BluRay player) and just not on a PC?

i don’t know what else to try.

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3 / Adobe CC
3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro
24GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5870
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Chris Wright]

dvd-r is used by all. dvd+r came later and really old dvd players can’t read it.
also, make sure your bitrate isn’t too high. higher than 9mpbs and some players crash.

[Steve Brame]

All this has just reminded me that I have a duplicating tower sitting here that needs to be sold.

But yes, back when we were ‘mass-producing'(500-1000 discs) DVD’s for clients, we soon discovered that certain brands, and yes, definitely the DVD-R vs DVD+R battle could affect playback. We actually constructed a waiver that if the client opted for duplication over replication we could not guarantee playback on all devices.

Asus P6X58D Premium * Core i7 950 * 24GB RAM * nVidia GeForce GTX 770 * Windows 7 Premium 64bit * System Drive – WD Caviar Black 500GB * 2nd Drive(Pagefile, Previews) – WD Velociraptor 10K drive 600GB * Media Drive – 2TB RAID0 (4 – WD Caviar Black 500GB drive) * Matrox MX02 Mini * Adobe CC * QuickTime 7.7.5
——————————————-
“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions

[Tad Newberry]

thanks, but the only problem here is reading them on a PC with XP. . . and having said that, i haven’t tried it on a PC with any newer OS (don’t have any in the house). i doubt it’s bit rate…same as before, and hard to tell if these are -R or +R, but i’ve only been buying -R in bulk from SuperMediaStore (JVC Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R). i’m really stumped.

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3 / Adobe CC
3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro
24GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5870
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Steve Brame]

Slightly off topic, but still relevent…

For the past 10 years or so I’ve backed up files to DVD or Blu-ray using Nero Burning ROM. NBR will take a large backup set and automatically span it over multiple discs. As it finishes writing one disc of a set, it asks for the next one to be inserted. A few months ago it suddenly stopped being able to recognize that I had inserted the next disc. I replaced the burner with a brand new one, but nothing.Uninstalled and re-installed everything up to the OS(Win7). Nero Support has been working on it for months, to no avail. They have finally given up. Something has changed on my machine that is causing the error, and no one can determine what it is.

Point being, things change over time, and something has probably crept in to your machine, or perhaps needed in your machine, that is causing the issue. Maybe a burner driver update, maybe a burner firmware update, a WinXP update, who knows?

Asus P6X58D Premium * Core i7 950 * 24GB RAM * nVidia GeForce GTX 770 * Windows 7 Premium 64bit * System Drive – WD Caviar Black 500GB * 2nd Drive(Pagefile, Previews) – WD Velociraptor 10K drive 600GB * Media Drive – 2TB RAID0 (4 – WD Caviar Black 500GB drive) * Matrox MX02 Mini * Adobe CC * QuickTime 7.7.5
——————————————-
“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions