DVD Won't Play in Client's Player

2G wrote on 6/19/2007, 2:07 PM
(Not specifically a DVDA question... although I do use DVDA to create my DVDs....)

I completely understand all the issues with +R, -R, older DVD players, incompatibilities, etc. etc. But I've got a difficult situation. A client has an old (expensive) DVD player completely built in and integrated into their custom built entertainment center (get the picture??). They have zero desire to replace their DVD player and don't even know the guy that originally wired this hodgepodge together. So I gave them their DVD and it won't play. I tried a +R version in their player with no better results. (The DVDs play fine on newer players).

I know the best solution is to buy them a $29.95 DVD player and be done with it. But that's not an option.

So, is there any plan B? Can someone explain what it is that makes older players not play burned DVDs? Would it help if I reduced bit rate? Or is that irrelevant? Would it help if I went to a professional duplicator service and get a DVD from them? Is there some raw stock blanks that somehow work better on archaic DVD players?

Is there any hope for satisfying this customer?

Thanks.

2G

Comments

GeorgeW wrote on 6/19/2007, 2:25 PM
How much space does your DVD take up on the disc, and can you set the book type to DVD-ROM during burning?

Does their player NOT recognize the disc at all, or does it recognize the dvd, but jitter/skip during playback?

ScottW wrote on 6/19/2007, 3:02 PM
Plan B- use +R media, but set the booktype to DVD-ROM when you burn. You can do this with Nero, and there are other bitsetting utilities available; you may also be able to do this with imgburn, but I've not tried it myself.

It's also required that your DVD burner support the setting of the booktype - pioneer burners do not (for example); LG, Lite-On, Ricoh, among others support setting the booktype.
2G wrote on 6/20/2007, 8:10 AM
I'd have to check the exact utilization of the DVD. But I'm pretty sure it's only about 75% full.

When you put either of the DVDs in the player, the player says 'loading' then displays some error code (can't remember the code). But nothing comes up on either +R or -R DVD.

I will look into setting booktype. I typically burn with Nero Express. Is it possible to set booktype there, or do I need to buy full-blown Nero? (Or can you set it using the DVDA burning function?)

Also, could you give me a brief tutorial on what booktype is? I've heard it discussed several times. But I don't really understand it. What does it do? What are the various booktypes? And why would one make a difference over another in my situation.

Thanks a bunch!

2G
ScottW wrote on 6/20/2007, 8:47 AM
You should be able to specify the booktype with Nero Express, as long as your burner supports changing the value. You cannot change the booktype with the DVDA burning engine.

All DVD's are assigned an identifier that tells a player what type of DVD it is. This is called the booktype. The first DVD's (commercially replicated ones) received the booktype of DVD-ROM; as additional DVD types were introduced, they received a unique identifier as well, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and so on.

Many players will examine the booktype to see if they can play the media, and if they don't recognize the booktype, they won't play the media. Older players are usually looking exclusively for the DVD-ROM booktype. Newer players may be looking for DVD-ROM and -R but not +R, and so forth.

Of all the burnable media, only +R allows you to specify what the booktype is when the media is burned (other types of burnable media already have the booktype "stamped" onto it during manufacturing). Because +R will let you change the booktype, if you have the software to do it and a burner that supports this, you can achieve higher compatability with older players.

The booktype was one of the major compatibility issues when DL media first came out. +R DL was assigned a brand new booktype, and even newer players didn't recognize it. Some burner makers realized the trouble this caused the consumer and so they built their burners to automatically set the DVD-ROM booktype with +R DL media (but not with +R single layer - go figure) - Pioneer was one such.

Anyway, my experience has been that most of the old players have cycled out, but for the few I do still see (where customers complain of issues where the player doesn't "see" the disk), switching to +R with DVD-ROM booktype resolves the issue 99.9% of the time.

--Scott
2G wrote on 6/20/2007, 8:56 AM
Wow! Thanks so much for the education. Even if this doesn't fix the problem, I have gained tremendous knowledge. Thanks again.

2G
OGUL wrote on 6/21/2007, 12:21 PM
Besides DVDA and Nero7, I also use UVS10. When rendering with UVS10, there is a box "DVD-VR compliant". I asked this in a forum and someone replied me that by checking this box I can produce DVD's for older type of DVD players.
I didn't test it but maybe this will help you a little.