Home DVD player now not recognising certain DVDs

[stormcab]

I have looked through the posts and don't see anything that matches this so here goes.

I follow all the recommended guidelines, so let's get that out of the way, ones which I always have, but now about 70% of the discs I am burning will not be recognised by my home DVD players. They all work perfectly on the computer though as usual. For some reason Ulead videostudio 9 has not been happy burning onto DVD+R, so I have always used DVD+RW, although my wife's year old laptop does it fine. Is my laptop just old at 3 and a half years? a Gateway 3525GB, about 1.5 GB ram, XP sp 2, Intel Pentium M 1.70 Ghz. I have called the hardware line as I have an extended 5 year warranty on the laptop, but they are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

This is my workflow as it has always been-

-Import DV via firewire into Ulead
-Edit in Videostudio editor (with sound)
-Share/Creat Video File
-Custom/mpeg
-Smart render OFF
-25 fps/LFF/720x576/16:9
-PAL DVD 70%/Variable 8000/Dolby Digital Audio 256

When the file is rendered I close Video Studio Editor, then re-open it in Movie Wizard, bring up the exact same settings, chapters, then burn.

Is my drive just knackered after burning hundreds of discs of the last few years? because it can't be something I am doing as I haven't changed my work flow for ages?

Thanks

[Black Lab]

A few things come to mind.
- DVD players seem to accept -/+R discs better than RWs, and -R seems to be the most universal. New players will play just about anything. Older players are more finicky, sometimes not playing certain types at all.
- Are the ones being rejected from the same batch? Could just be a bad batch of discs.
- Have you tried different brands? Some might work better than others.

Personally, I used Verbatim -R and never have any problems.

[Ken Berry]

Though (if I recall correctly) Black Lab does not subscribe to this idea, a number of us also recommend not burning your final DVD at too high a speed. A slower burning speed often has the capacity of being played on a wider variety of players.

Further to Black Lab's comments about discs, have you change your brand recently? Some burners don't like particular brands, or even the colour of the dye on them!!

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

Other than the comments above, try a different brand of disc.
You don¡¦t say which make you use.
I always have used DVD-R type, make Ritek or Taiyo Yuden have always proved successful
Do a search on the internet.

[sjj1805]

Please view DVD Burning / Playback issues

HINT: Pay particular attention to firmware.

[Black Lab]

And just to clarify Ken, I always burn at the slowest speed. You must be thinking of someone else.

[Ken Berry]

Sorry Jeff!! I think it could be the avatar, and I was recalling an association with a dog, or perhaps 2Dogs...!!!

[2Dogs]

Sorry Jeff!! I think it could be the avatar, and I was recalling an association with a dog, or perhaps 2Dogs...!!!

Woof woof! It was me Ken! Oops wrong dog!

You may notice that most 16x DVD blank discs cannot be burned at less than 4x in a pc burner - though you can obviously get them to burn at 1x in a DVD recorder.

To my mind, the most likely cause is a problem with the laptop burner. Compared with desktop DVD drives or external units, laptop burners generally give mediocre write quality, and it may be that wear or dirt in the drive or a duff batch of discs, or a combination of both has resulted in the problem. Since most laptop burners will only burn at up to 8x, it's likely that the OP is burning discs at 4x anyway, the usual recommendation being to burn at one step under the rated speed for the discs/burner.

Although Jeff swears by Verbatim DVD-R discs, none of my burners like them, and I get easily the best results with Taiyo Yuden Premium Grade 8x DVD+R discs which are made in Japan, and generally only available mail order.

Whilst it's true that DVD-R discs are more compatible with the earliest set-top or standalone DVD players, most of those units will be mouldering away in landfill by now. Many burners, though mainly desktop ones, automatically set the disc "booktype" to DVD-Video anyway, so it becomes a moot point.

If you are fortunate enough to have a DVD drive made by Liteon, BenQ (no longer in production) NEC or Samsung, you can use the freeware CD-DVD Speed, part of the Nero suite, to check disc write quality. That can reveal burn compatibility issues. If you don't have a drive made by one of those manufacturers, however, you can still run a read test of the disc using CD-DVD Speed. The easiest way to do this is to click on the "benchmark" tab of CD-DVD Speed with a disc in the drive. The transfer rate graph produced should show a smooth curve, and any sudden dips indicate a problem.

[babdi]

Talking of DVD burners I am confounded with a problem
My DVD writer (Liteon )reads certain CDs, but is refusing to read any DVD
especially DVD RW. The CDs & DVDs I am taking about are data discs/

It happened last year with the SONY DVD writer. I switched to Liteon. The problem does not seem to go away for me. I even cleaned using DVD cleaner

My computer guy suggests me to replace the writer. I feel changing 2 drives in 2 years is very high.

Again I dont use much often. Is this the reason for the writers going bad ?

[2Dogs]

Hi Babdi,

I had a similar problem with one of my burners - but I resolved it by shutting down the pc, removing the errant drive, rebooting, then rebooting again with the drive re-installed.

You might also try re-installing the firmware.

One more thing to try - use the Nero Info tool, part of the Nero toolkit or available free from the Nero site, to check the capabilities of your burner - which should obviously show both a read and write ability for all forms of DVD media.

Liteon drives can run CD-DVD Speed of course, and also the freeware K Probe for the same purpose, and you can also usually get region-free firmware for them.

[sjj1805]

Did you follow my previous suggestion and check your firmware.
Last time I bought a LiteOn DVD writer I found the firmware was already out of date. Even when you buy one from a shop you have no idea how long it has been in stock at the shop and previously at the warehouse.

Firmware updates often resolve several issues with different brands of CD/DVD.

[babdi]

Thanks for the replies.
2Dogs
I did remove the writer and rebooted and attached it later, but to no avail
I need to check for firmware updates. Will revert if I find a solution