question about blank dvds for movies

[David.Seth2]

so i downloaded an ep of Top Gear, the Vietnam Special, and i wanted to convert and burn it to a DVD so my dad could see it (his PC is really crappy plus he likes watching movies on the TV). i bought some DVD-r, used Convert-x, it burned, but it didn't work in any DVD player i have (which is about 4). even the disc drive in "my computer" didn't recongnize it. i tried it on a friends PC and it couldn't see it either. however, windows media player was able to play it. is it the disc? the program? my DVD writer? all of the above? I did try a few other programs, such as Nero and WinAVI, but that produced the same results. I even converted the avi to a straight mpeg2, burned to the disc... nothing. The thing is, when i use the discs just for data, my PC sees it fine, and other pc's see it too. I'm running windows xp media center, my rom is a Pioneer DVR-111D. i am using some cheap DVD-r's i got from staples. could that be it? anyone familiar with this kinda stuff? any tips would be appreciated.

thanx

 

[Krynn72]

When you use the burning software you need to make sure you're selecting the "Make DVD" option, and not just a video disk. With Nero you should be prompted to go through making menus, chapters and all that jazz. If you aren't seeing those options, then you're doing it wrong.

 

[David.Seth2]

yea i used the make dvd option. and in convert-x there is only one option (and that is to make a dvd lol).

 

[Krynn72]

Well then yo shit is broke. What brand of disks did you buy?

 

[David.Seth2]

<.<

>.>


staples brand lol. do brands of discs make a difference? i remember waaaay back in the day getting a 100 stack of cdr's from compusa. only about half actually worked.

i was thinking that maybe it is broken but then why can i still burn data discs just fine?

 

[PimpinPenguin]

<.<

>.>


staples brand lol. do brands of discs make a difference? i remember waaaay back in the day getting a 100 stack of cdr's from compusa. only about half actually worked.

i was thinking that maybe it is broken but then why can i still burn data discs just fine?

DVD players can be very picky about the quality of the disk, the lazers on them are not as strong as the one on your PC so the quality of the disc can make a diffrence. Are you sure you converted the video file properly? Try using DVD santa to convert the file.

 

[Link]

Try Dvd flick. Trust me, epic, drag and drop in your movies (Almost any format), click burn. Automatically makes a menu, converts the DVD and burns the disc.

 

[Asus]

I would say it is either the way the disc got burned (folder structure, menu, quirks how different programs burn etc) or the player itself. Or both.
Look up your player here and it will tell you what kind of discs people got to play on it (dvd-r/rw/RAM) or if menus from certain programs might not read. I use "Nero Burning Rom" which is as basic as it gets. No menu creation or fancy features. Just burning the correct plan DVD file/folder structure.

Personally I do my encoding (to Mpeg2) with a separate program (TMPGEnc) rather than letting nero,roxio have an impact on quality of my video. If I want to make menus I use a completely different program which combines the Mpeg2 video files and menu I make and creates the folder structure of a dvd on my PC. Then I use nero to actually burn the files. I usually hate all-in-one apps because there is usually a downfall. They aren't good at all their functions that they advertise.

 

[David.Seth2]

thanks for the help. i will try to look up the dvd players on the site when i go to my dads. but what is the most popular type of disc? +r? -r? something else? or does it really just depend on the brand? and i am sure i am converting it correctly. this isnt the first time ive made a dvd, but its been a year since the last time. the first ones i did make i used WinAVI and Convertx... both worked. but i was using a different brand of disc at the time (dont remember which though). i know this might sound weird, but could having deamon tools installed cause any problems? i remember for the looongest time all my source based games would crash upon start up right after i installed that program. after i uninstalled it, they worked fine.


i came across this website just a moment ago: http://www.best-dvd-burning-software-reviews.com/best-blank-dvd-media.asp
acording to this list, my disc is in the "pathetic garbage media" ranking, with 0-50% percent chance of successful burns. maybe ill go get some decent discs and see if that helps.

 

[Krynn72]

Get DVD -R disks. There is basically no difference between the two from what I've heard, but some really old DVD players may not play DVD +Rs. Frankly though, I've been using DVD+Rs for everything recently and havent had a problem.

Also, I use Memorex disks, and they seem to have a high success rate and are not expensive.

The kind I have are the one on the left in this pic, and are RICOHJPN (which are second class according to your site):

EDIT: Ignore what I said about +R and -R, and read this link instead: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/whats_the_difference_between_dvdr_dvdr_dvdrw_dvdrw_and_dvdram.html

 

[David.Seth2]

... you know, im almost positive that the DVD blanks i had before were from memorex. maybe ill buy some of those and see what happens. worse case scenario i have to buy a new burner.

 

[Warped]

I also use Memorex and disks and I have no problems with them. Its Sonys DVDs that usually suck when I try to burn movies for my relatives

 

[Asus]

CD brands really change up where they get their CDs from time to time. Example, I have some older TDK cds and they read with different specs than my dad's TDK CDs he bought last month. They choose what manufacturer probably who is cheapest when they buy. When you really start digging into the manufacture info on different branded CDs it really seems like most brands don't stick to the same discs under the label. Sometimes you can tell like say one 50 stack of Verbatim say they are made in japan but another made in Taiwan. Same exact packaging and cd branding etc. It can seem just random.

 

[David.Seth2]

hey warped, out of curiosity, what kind of discs do you use? + or - ?