DVDs burned on VISTA won't play on DVD player

Can anyone help? I burn DVDs using Roxio (the only software for burning that
came with the PC) but those disks won't play in a regular DVD player, only on
this PC. What program do I need or how do I change the format so they will
play on DVD players?
Thanks,
Sue

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:30:02 -0700, Sue
<Sue@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Can anyone help? I burn DVDs using Roxio (the only software for burning that
>came with the PC) but those disks won't play in a regular DVD player, only on
>this PC. What program do I need or how do I change the format so they will
>play on DVD players?
>Thanks,
>Sue

Roxio is capable of doing all kinds of different "burning". What
version of Roxio are you using and what method did you select?

Another common issues is the DVD player you're trying to play a home
brew type of DVD off of many not support it. Check over at
http://www.vcdhelp.com and look at their compatibility list where many
people have reported results based on DVD player make, model, what
brands of DVD media works, what formats they have had trouble with
etc.. The site has been around a long time and can be a little
intimidating at first with so much information scattered all over the
place but it is a treasure trove of information on all kinds of video
related topics, mostly geared towards low cost shareware and freeware
solutions, still it has a bunch of how-to guides and many forums
covering all kinds of things. I use to hang out there years ago. ;-)

The list I was referring to should be in the left column under DVD
Players.

Hi Adam, thanks. I'll go there tonight when I get off work. I use DVDShrink
to copy movies for when I go oversees for 6 months on humanitarian missions -
on the Windows XP operating system I had, the DVDs would play on our IBMs as
well as on any DVD player. Now, on this VISTA, they won't play anywhere -
only on the same pc. I heard Nero 7 will work, but it's no longer for sale,
only Nero 8 which doesn't work. I have burned in Roxio with VISTA, but
again, those DVDs only play on my pc and not on regular DVD players nor in
anyone else's computer.

Is there another software program you can recommend that will allow me to
play these movies in a regular DVD player or another computer?

Thanks
Sue

"Adam Albright" wrote:

> On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:30:02 -0700, Sue
> <Sue@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Can anyone help? I burn DVDs using Roxio (the only software for burning that
> >came with the PC) but those disks won't play in a regular DVD player, only on
> >this PC. What program do I need or how do I change the format so they will
> >play on DVD players?
> >Thanks,
> >Sue
>
> Roxio is capable of doing all kinds of different "burning". What
> version of Roxio are you using and what method did you select?
>
> Another common issues is the DVD player you're trying to play a home
> brew type of DVD off of many not support it. Check over at
> http://www.vcdhelp.com and look at their compatibility list where many
> people have reported results based on DVD player make, model, what
> brands of DVD media works, what formats they have had trouble with
> etc.. The site has been around a long time and can be a little
> intimidating at first with so much information scattered all over the
> place but it is a treasure trove of information on all kinds of video
> related topics, mostly geared towards low cost shareware and freeware
> solutions, still it has a bunch of how-to guides and many forums
> covering all kinds of things. I use to hang out there years ago. ;-)
>
> The list I was referring to should be in the left column under DVD
> Players.
>
>

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:41:06 -0700, Sue
<Sue@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi Adam, thanks. I'll go there tonight when I get off work. I use DVDShrink
>to copy movies for when I go oversees for 6 months on humanitarian missions -
>on the Windows XP operating system I had, the DVDs would play on our IBMs as
>well as on any DVD player. Now, on this VISTA, they won't play anywhere -
>only on the same pc. I heard Nero 7 will work, but it's no longer for sale,
>only Nero 8 which doesn't work. I have burned in Roxio with VISTA, but
>again, those DVDs only play on my pc and not on regular DVD players nor in
>anyone else's computer.
>
>Is there another software program you can recommend that will allow me to
>play these movies in a regular DVD player or another computer?

It really boils down to being able to make a COMPLIANT set of files
that any DVD player should be able to play. What confused me too when
I started doing this years ago is it is a multiple step process.

I'll try to summarize. Source files (what you start any project out
with) can be a lot of things, something captured with a video camera,
some still images like a JPG, a file you got off the web, whatever.

Next they either get loaded on a storyboard or timeline. This simply
sets the arrangement if you are combining multiple files or trimming
one large file throwing away sections you don't want.

Next comes the first of several critical steps. A process called
transcoding. It's just a fancy word that means take whatever source
files you started with and covert them to a set frame size, like
(720x480 or 320x240) and have them play at a set frame rate (25 frames
a second, 29.997 frame a second, etc. and encode them at some bitrate
or how high a quality the file ends up being meaning how much it gets
compressed...or not.

This is the step lessor video editors mess up. They can't handle
transcoding very well. If you're making a DVD at the end of the
encoding step you have a MPEG-2 file that has one video stream and one
audio stream. To further compound things Movie Maker can't make MPEG-2
files. It hands the project file off to DVD Maker assuming you have
either the Home Premium or Ultimate version of Vista. If you don't
have either you need some third party application.

Next comes the process where VOB files are created from the MPEG-2
files. This is the format DVD Players understand. Thy end up in a
folder on the DVD called Video_TS along with support files that
control any menu system the DVD has so it knows what to do when you
click on some thumbnail, etc.. Typically the audio stream is
recompressed to AC3 format.

If everything has gone well to this point the last phase is the
actually burning of the VOB and support files in the Video-TS folder
to a blank DVD. While there is a Audio-TS folder on the DVD it
normally remains empty.

If the DVD fails to finish burning and pops out before it is finished
likely it had a problem with either the lead-in or lead-out which sets
up control files on the DVD. So if a DVD hangs from 0-4% usually it
means a lead-in problem, if it hangs at 97% or after a lead-out
problem. Hangs anywhere in between some problem with the VOB files.

On top of that a DVD can fail to burn if the blank media is bad.

A DVD player may not play a home brew DVD if the bitrate is too high
or if it doesn't understand the format or if it doesn't like the media
surface. The problem here is each brand has it's own coating on the
burn side that has a different level of reflectivity. If not to the
DVD player's liking the laser bounces off the surface of the spinning
disc and either hangs, sputters, the audio gets out of sync, stuff
like that. If you put a burned DVD into a player and nothing happens
or it just keeps grinding away that too usually indicates a problem
with lead-in or lead-out and the disc is trying to find the disc's
index and can't, but it keeps trying. ;-)

All that said I use Vegas. It simply is reliable and avoids most of
the problems I mentioned leaving you with an bad disc maybe one or two
times out of every hundred burned which you easily fix by reburning.
Almost always it was due to bad media. In other words there was a tiny
flaw in the blank DVD. It happens.




>
>Thanks
>Sue
>
>"Adam Albright" wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:30:02 -0700, Sue
>> <Sue@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Can anyone help? I burn DVDs using Roxio (the only software for burning that
>> >came with the PC) but those disks won't play in a regular DVD player, only on
>> >this PC. What program do I need or how do I change the format so they will
>> >play on DVD players?
>> >Thanks,
>> >Sue
>>
>> Roxio is capable of doing all kinds of different "burning". What
>> version of Roxio are you using and what method did you select?
>>
>> Another common issues is the DVD player you're trying to play a home
>> brew type of DVD off of many not support it. Check over at
>> http://www.vcdhelp.com and look at their compatibility list where many
>> people have reported results based on DVD player make, model, what
>> brands of DVD media works, what formats they have had trouble with
>> etc.. The site has been around a long time and can be a little
>> intimidating at first with so much information scattered all over the
>> place but it is a treasure trove of information on all kinds of video
>> related topics, mostly geared towards low cost shareware and freeware
>> solutions, still it has a bunch of how-to guides and many forums
>> covering all kinds of things. I use to hang out there years ago. ;-)
>>
>> The list I was referring to should be in the left column under DVD
>> Players.
>>
>>

--
math


"Sue" wrote:

> Can anyone help? I burn DVDs using Roxio (the only software for burning that
> came with the PC) but those disks won't play in a regular DVD player, only on
> this PC. What program do I need or how do I change the format so they will
> play on DVD players?
> Thanks,
> Sue