There seems to be something in the header record that tells the DVD that it is either DVD-R or DVD-Video. All of the cheaper software that I've used (NEO, Pinnacle) will play. DVDA will play on X-Box and any DVD player that is a multiplayer (mp3, jpg). If it is a DVD only player it won't even read the disc. I've tried RCA, Panansonic.

Tek: Are you authoring and burning with DVDA 1.0c? If not, please get the update and try re-preparing/burning.

SonyEPM,

Yes. I am using DVDA 1.0c (I reloaded the software last night). I will be stopping by and getting different media as someone suggested but my feeling is that it's not writing the lead out properly. it just doesn't make sense that the media I have now works fine with MyDVD but not DVDA. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Tekhead

When I use architect to burn it goes through the whole process (render, prepare, burn) and I get a successfully burned message but the DVDs won't play on either the DVD-ROM or APEX.

Are you authoring and burning in DVDA, or just burning?

>it just doesn't make sense that the media I have now works fine with MyDVD but not DVDA.

It may be a mystery, but it *does* make sense. The DVD world is currently working with an ambiguous spec and different laser technologies. The spec allows hardware and software vendors to interpret things differently, and/or take shortcuts, etc. So you have players, burners, blanks and burning software that may or may not work with each other. There is therefore no "best" blank: What works with one combination may not work with another. It leads to a crapshoot whether something will work or not. This sucks, but believe me, you should have been here a year ago if you really wanted to beat your head against the wall. Plan on another year or so for the headaches to continue :-(

(If it makes you feel any better, the first few years of CD burning were bad as well. It took time for the bugs to be worked out, and it wasn't any individual company's fault. Unless you were dumb enough to buy an Acer burner like I was :-)

OTOH, your particular issue doesn't make sense to me. The Apex is one of those "sloppy" players that handles practically everything thrown at it. (That is why I got one for myself.) IOW, it probably doesn't look too closely at the "header" information, correct or not. If you had a "good" player which was more stringent, it would make sense; the Apex, no clue. Its well known that the Apex should work fine with DVDA. Thus, I would guess that the media brand is not your problem. Try a different one anyway, but don't be too disappointed if it fails as well.

FWIW, I've had no problems with an Apex player, DVDA, a Nec and a Pioneer burner, Memorex-R, Fujifilm+R and CircuitCity+RW. I had problems with the CircuitCity+R 2.4x.

I wonder if there is a driver conflict between MyDVD and DVDA. Perhaps MyDVD wrote over something that DVDA prefers to use. So uninstalling and reinstalling DVDA might not fix the problem if MyDVD remains on your computer. You may have to uninstall both before reinstalling DVDA. Worse, you cannot trust Microsoft uninstall, so you may have to search through the registry and see if there are any remnants.

Keep us informed, please.

<Soapbox>
And keep in mind that the Sonic engineers are about as talented, helpful, and conscientious as anyone out there. (I'm a programmer myself and I've dealt with them privately as well.) Yes, they appear to have been forced to release DVDA slightly before its time, however, the company was at the financial brink and needed a shot in the arm to get the best valuation from Sony that they could. That's biz reality. (C'mon everyone, knowing the moderators here, do you actually think they would have *wanted* to release DVDA without end actions :-?) But most importantly, they are trying to make new software work in a DVD world that is still major league f'ed up due to no fault of their own. We knew what we were getting into when we bought our burners :-/
</Soapbox>

I use VV4 to import from Sony TRV350 via firewire. I then edit video (snip out scenes, add background music to scenes, etc). I then save it in Vegas as Mpeg2 (using the default plug-in). I've tried seperating the audio in ac3 and that didn't work either.
Upon successfully generating an mpeg2, I view it in various dvd application (WinDVD, Media Player 9) and it works fine. I can then use MyDVD to burn that same mpeg2 file on a DVD (without menus other than a simple click action to start movie) and voila. I have a fully functional DVD that I can play in APEX player; complete with edits, music, etc. I truly love Vegas for this functionality.

The issue arises when I used DVDA to create more complex menus. I add the video media (i.e. the same mpeg2 file). I select INSERT SCENE SELECTION (this particular file has 12 chapters). Review the submenus and all the chapters show up. It even runs fine inside the PREVIEW window inside DVDA complete with MENUS.

Then I click MAKE DVD. It renders menus > prepares files > then burns successfully.
I take DVD and it won't play on my APEX. I have an idea however. Tonight I will simply drag the created DVD files and burn them onto DVD WITHOUT using DVDA but another application.

I appreciate the suggestions and I'll keep you posted. By the way, I have two APEX DVD players and it won't work in either.

Tekhead.

>The issue arises when I used DVDA to create more complex menus. I add the video media (i.e. the same mpeg2 file). I select INSERT SCENE SELECTION (this particular file has 12 chapters). Review the submenus and all the chapters show up. It even runs fine inside the PREVIEW window inside DVDA complete with MENUS.

One obvious intermediate test is to create a barebones simple DVD without anything fancy and see if that works. But that would be a desperation test when you've run out of other ideas.

Also, all these tests should be run using RW media. No need to be making coasters.

>Tonight I will simply drag the created DVD files and burn them onto DVD WITHOUT using DVDA but another application.

If it works, you'll feel better and will have a technique that lets you go forward, but you still won't know the "real" culprit. For example, I had a case where this did *not* work. I had prepared with DVDA, then used Nero to burn. The Apex worked fine, but two other players (both older, one expensive) did not work. Possibly I had selected DVD instead of selected DVD-Video in Nero, but I'm not sure and I haven't gone back to verify.(*) OTOH, a direct prepare and burn from DVDA *did* work. To muddy the water, I can do Nero->burn without any problems. It was only my one-time Vegas->DVDA->Nero->burn operation that failed.

(*) I actually copied the DVD contents back to the hard drive, then created a new DVD using the DVD-Video template in Nero. This didn't correct the problem.

The problem I'm having with this issue is two fold.

One, I looked up the specs for the APEX 600. From what is listed, it says it won't play RW media and will only play DVD-r (seems like a waste of a box).

But I digress.

Burning DVDs with MyDvD is limiting - but if they work they work. What I don't get is why the DVDs you burn/author won't play on your PC...let alone the TV Top DVD Player.

On the down side, I don't happen to have the multimedia (+/-) burner. Maybe (just maybe) that has something to do with it.

When you are in DVDA, does it list the correct version of your device?

How new is your device? As in....is it even fully compatible with Architect?

Are there updated drivers?

Of course, you could run the test of just preparing the DVD with Architect and then burn the files with another application (like Nero). But, Architect should work just fine.

I'd check to see if your burner is fully compatible with the application. Like I suggested (or tried to), I only know of the issues with a device that burns either or....not all of the formats.

And if I could suggest....I wouldn't get to the point of throwing the baby out with the bath water. So far, for my money, DVDA is pretty much all I need. I have created some super duper DVDs - I'm really stretching my skills with DVDA and Vegas to create very sophisticated motion menus, animated background, animated cursors.

Yeah....the no end actions kinda suck - and not being able to link to where I want to go sucks - and not being able to create transitions from menu to movie (directly) kinda sucks....but, I know some ways around that - and I'm pretty happy.

Oh yeah....if you are listening Sony-Guy.....another thing that sucks (sort of)...I should beable to have the entire screen area to work with and not have to worry if a little bitty teensie weensie edge of an action item is in the upper left hand corner. That sucks (sort of).

Hey....will it work if I drop all the safe zone's down to zero? Hmmmmmm....I think I'll try that on the next DVD I make. Great suggestion!!! THANKS!!!

"I then save it in Vegas as Mpeg2 (using the default plug-in). "

Tekhead,

Try using the DVD Architect template instead of the default if you are going to burn with DVD. The only thing is you will have to click on 'include audio' in the 'custom' menu because the DVDA template, for some reason, excludes audio by default.

The DVDA template may work out for you.

Jake

Ok folks I found the solution or at least a work around.
I looked at the rendered dvd files and played them with WinDVD and voila they work perfectly. Menus, links, audio, etc.

Next step is I used the HotBurn application that came with my dvd burner and simply dragged the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders onto the dvd disc and burned them. Guess what! It WORKED. The entire video played perfectly (with menus and background music) on my Apex player.

I made the following observations. Whenever I burned using DVDA, the max speed it detected was 2x despite the fact that I have a 4x drive with 4x media -bug?. The second thing I noticed was that after DVDA "burned successfully" it failed to eject the disc from drive -bug?. I thought this a bit odd since all other dvd burns using other apps have ejected the disc after it was done.

I can conclude that there is a glitch between DVDA and the final burning process (perhaps it doesn't do the lead out properly?). clearly it is generating the proper VIDEO_TS & AUDIO_TS files so my other suspicion that the chapters and menus got hosed was wrong.

i will continue to use this method to complete my dvds since its no big deal to drag, drop and burn from the other app but in my opinion this is clearly a bug of some sort either with the DVDA interface to my IOMEGA SUPER DVD +/-R +/-RW -RAM drive or the burning process in general. This is a brand new drive released not to long ago and it has the latest drivers.

Thank you for all your suggestions it gave me some ideas that eventually led to this solution. And buy the way MEDIA had nothing to do with it!

Tekhead

Glad you have found a solution- workaround such as it is.

That said, wild guess- if you uninstalled ALL the other DVD burning tools on your machine, I bet DVDA would work just fine.

We see this quite often- DVDA works, user installs xyz burning tool, now DVDA doesn't burn correctly, user uninstalls xyz burning tool, DVDA works correctly.

Well... the problem of course is that I need the other burning applications to burn data dvd using RAM media for archival purposes as well as other uses. I am happy with the current solution but it'd be nice if this got fixed in the next version of DVD-A or at least make it play nice with other burning apps.

tekhead

>it'd be nice if this got fixed in the next version of DVD-A or at least make it play nice with other burning apps.

Unfortunately, if the problem cannot be duplicated by Sonic it cannot be fixed. And the combinatorial issues mean not everything can be tested...they don't even know there are problems until people like us report back to them.

I, for example, have the opposite problem to you: I can burn with DVDA; I cannot burn with DVDA->Nero.

Let's just be thankful we both have working workarounds. It'll all be worked out within a year or so...in time for the next technology leapfrog to start it all over again :-)