Just because some players won't play -R burned media doesn't mean there's a problem with DVDAS, in fact, since some of your players will play the burned disk this says that DVDAS is most likely working just fine. Lots of older players simply won't play -R media. Do a google on "DVD Player compatibility" and you'll see lots of lists that talk about what players won't play (or will play) various types of burned media.

When players were first starting to be made, -R media hadn't even been developed, so it's no surprise that older players won't play -R. When +R first came out, lots of players wouldn't touch the media because they didn't recognize it.

We've found that the best compatibility is achieved using +R media but burning with a DVD-ROM booktype - you need to find a burner that supports setting the booktype of +R media www.cdrinfo.com has lots of reviews of burners. I've been using the LG GSA line and have been happy with them. Setting the booktype to DVD-ROM makes the burned media identify as if it was a commercially stamped disk.

--Scott

Thanks for your help Scott.
I still think it can't be a compatibility issue as I had used the SAME brand DVD DISCs (Fujifilm) from the same packet to burn 2 different DVD projects which had been edited on a ULEAD Video Studio 8.00.0000 program, just before I bought the Vegas program, & they had played on all the DVD players that I have tried to play the Vegas DVD on, so surely it can't be a DVD-R compatibility problem. One of these projects was my grandaughters kinder concert & a number of the parents have copies of that DVD & no problems playing them.

The only variable is the program that created the DVD.

Thanks shams sumon. Do you mean to render the in MPEG-2 in Movie Maker or in Architect? I saved the project files in Movie Maker to the hard drive as .avi files.

If you feed DVDAS a AVI file, it will encode it into MPEG-2 video with PCM audio. There's no need to encode from VMS as MPEG-2.

--Scott

I've had times when some discs would play and others wouldn't. Same box of discs, same player,all burned with dvda2.

Since then I hunted down a firmware update for my burner and all the discs burned with it played just fine.

Still, it could be a problem with DVDaS, or a combination of many factors.

Rob Mack

Just an update on this issue. A friend of mine emailed me the following suggestion....................

"Most programs give you the option to save to disk or burn to DVD. If the files aren't saved as a .VOB ect format then they can't be read as a DVD. If you use the Ulead Video Studio 8 once you have finished editing you can create the files simply by clicking on 'Share', 'Create Disc', then tick 'Create DVD Folders'. That will create the Video_TS folder with the files inside. Then just open Nero and drag these files into the red colored Video_TS folder in Nero."

I burnt another DVD following this method, thus bi-passing DVArchitect2 completely.......I had to create the Title page in Ulead Movie Studio 8. (which is limited) .

I will post this DVD to my daughter to try on the players that won't play the original DVD, but in the meantime , I visited a couple of neighbours to try their players.

The 1st one had a 1 year old Centrex player & it would NOT play the original copy, but it DID play the one I burnt in Nero this morning....both the same project files, but the rendering & burning not done in Movie Studio or DVD Architect2 in the latest try......( also both same brand DVD-R's.)

The 2nd one had an "el-cheapo" new DVD player & it played both DVD's.

The format that DVD Architect2 uses in the final burn must be a little different to other programs & less universally compatible OR maybe I need to change some setting somewhere....I can't find anywhere that I could do this anyway?????

You can certainly do the authoring in DVDa and then do the burning in another program like nero.

The only thing to be aware of is to look for settings in nero (or whatever) to make the disc more compatible. Generally this entails padding out the burn so that it takes up at least a gig of the dvd media.

In nero you just drag the video TS and audio TS files into Nero, I think.

Rob Mack

Thanks Rob, I will try finding the DVDa video_TS & audio TS files & dragging them into Nero & see if that will work. I thought DVDa would use the burning program you have on your computer to burn, but it must set it's own parameters.....that don't seem to be very compatible!

I will send the 3 DVD's to my daughter to test & let you know he results.

I tried going into DVDa & rendering using the "Prepare" button. This produced a video_TS & audio TS_ file. I then opened Nero & dragged these files into the video TS folder in Nero & tried to "Burn".
Nero came up with the following message ...."DVD-Video files re-allocation failed. The resulting DVD-Video might be unplayable. Do you want to continue. DVD-Videofiles realocation failed."

Surely this shows that there is a problem in DCVDa2?????????

It worked when I took the Vegas project .avi files & rendered them in Ulead Movie Studio8 & then dragged the resulting video_TS files into Nero & burnt the DVD.

Surely others have had the same problem or is there something I am missing? This is meant to be a useable program for home video users!!!

Common issue with DVD Architect 1.0 and DVD Architect Studio. They create files that aren't quite the right size. Search this forum for "Nero" and "allocation", and I believe you'll find that almost everyone who has experienced this has found that the resulting disc plays just fine despite Nero's warning. Nonetheless, some of those threads also contain solutions,I believe, to correct the allocation problem.

This problem was fixed in the versions of DVD Architect since then, but DVD Architect Studio is still on its first release. There was an update in November 2004 (have you applied it?), but I don' t know if it addresses this issue.

Rob

Yes, I agree with Rob's post, just ignore the Fille Allocation warning in Nero.

I'm one of those people that never uses DVDA to burn DVDs because of it's limited burner support. When I had DVDA-1 this allocation error always occured in Nero for DVDA-1 prepared projects, but never had a problem ignoring the Nero warning. DVDA-2 fixed this warning.

Regarding DVD Player compatability, my recommendation is use DVD+R (not dash R) media and set the Booktype setting to "DVD-ROM". Depending on the DVD writer's firmware, it may force the Booktype on DVD+R media to "DVD-ROM", or it may allow the user to control the setting during the burning prcocess using programs like nero.

--Rob B.

Thanks for your suggestions. i will go ahead & try to burn in NERO.
I have DVDA 2 & have downloaded the Build 22 update......that's what it says when I open the program!

I purchased Vegas Movie Studio & DVD (which I understood is Movie Studio 4 & DVDA 2?), in mid-March. I would never have got 'up& running' without the wonderful help on this forum...thankyou , but it shouldn't be so difficult. Are you saying Rob, that there are 2 different Architect Studio programs?

Are you saying Rob, that there are 2 different Architect Studio programs?

Not exactly.

DVD Architect can be purchased with Sony Vegas.

DVD Architect Studio is a "stripped down" version that comes with Sony Vegas Movie Studio (which, in turn, is a stripped down version of Sony Vegas).

DVD Architect is on version 3.0. When Vegas Movie Studio came out, Sony added DVD Architect Studio and gave it a version number of 2.0 -- I guess in order to keep it a "schedule" similar to DVD Architect, which was on 2.0 at the time -- but it's more like DVDA 1.0 than it is DVDA 2.0. (Sony reps have said it's based on 2.0's code, but it has the same features and a lot of the same bugs as 1.0 that were fixed in 2.0...so who knows.)

Clear? :)

Rob

Thankyou for clarifying the product I have. It is Vegas Movie Studio & DVD Architect Studio.

Why would SONY sell a product with a known "bug" in it....given that they have a "fix" for it in later versions???

I don't need the "full-blown" product, as I just want to preserve the many precious videos I have on DVD, but not much point if no-one wil be able to play them.

I am disappointed that this has all been so hard , when the program is so good to use for editing.

I have burnt the DVD using NERO & ignoring the warnings. It plays on my player, but the test will be to see who else can play it.????

I have burnt a DVD using DVD AS to prepare it, & then dragged the Video_ts files into Nero to burn. I have ignored the warning that Nero throws up about "file reallocation failing etc" & the resulting DVD seems to be ok ...have tested it on 3 players that wouldn't play the same project burnt in DVDAS, & it plays ok. Seems this is a solution, but hope the errors don't cause problems later on.

From reading the posts here it seems a widely known issue with DVDAS & DVD1 not supporting many players, but that this problem was fixed in DVD2. I did not realise that in having DVDAS, I have in fact got DVDA1 although it says 2 Version22. Surely there is a "patch" or "fix" to solve this issue. Does anyone know of one?

Today my daughter received the DVD-R I sent her that I edited & prepared in Vegas Video Studio & DVD, but I actually burnt the DVD in Nero......ignoring the error warnings.

It has played perfectly in ALL the players that the DVDAS burnt DVD would NOT......so the problem in fact is a DVDAS software problem.

Thankyou for all the help here to help me work it out.

I hope there will be an update released soon for Vegas Movie Studio & DVD to address these difficulties. The manual says that this "software has everything you need to create & burn professional DVD's on your computer".........I need Canopus EZDV & Nero 6 software as well to make the Vegas Studio software work!

This is a problem I have a lot. Aggravating, indeed, especially since my cheapo $70 DVD player has been playing everything I burn, but others who have $300+ players can't play the same disks. Finally did some research and discovered that it IS the software that makes the difference in compatibility with players. It's good to see you're having luck with Nero, which I will now try regardless of warning.
Someone above posted that -R wasn't around earlier or that older players won't play them, but my research says it was the first type and a friend who has one of the earliest players can only play -R, but +R is supposedly taking over.

-R was the first burnable media available, however, DVD players were being made and sold before -R media was available.

Many DVD players, even new ones made today, look at the booktype field on the media to determine whether they will play what is inserted. Early players often looked to make sure the booktype was DVD-ROM and wouldn't play any other booktypes. Eventually, many players started looking for DVD-ROM and -R booktypes; then along came +R, which again, since many players were only looking for DVD-ROM or -R booktypes, they wouldn't play.

However, +R media had an advantage, it would allow the booktype to be changed if the DVD burner supported doing that, and so you could burn the +R media with a booktype of DVD-ROM, thus fooling the players that were only looking for DVD-ROM or DVD-ROM/-R booktypes into thinking they had media they could play.

Even later +R DL media became available, and it too has a new booktype which once again many players do not recognize and so they won't play. This is probably the single largest problem with playability that people have been complaining about. But, as with +R SL, some DVD burners allow you to change the booktype (in fact, some DVD burners make the booktype DVD-ROM by default).

My personal experience has been that anytime a customer has returned a -R DVD because it wouldn't play, if we simply copy that DVD to a +R media with the booktype set to DVD-ROM, then they can play it.

This is not to say that there aren't other issues. For example, many DVD players expect there to be a minimum level of content on the DVD (1GB as I recall); if your project doesn't have that minimum level and the burning software doesn't automatically add "filler" then you could have problems with playability as well.

--Scott

I will be interested to see if the "Nero work-around" helps the playability of your discs too biketowork.

I have now tested the 2 DVD's on 11 varied DVD players & 4 computers......The DVDAS prepared & burned copy will only play on 3 of those players -(2 being 'el-cheapo brands) & 3 of the computers. The Nero burned DVD played on them ALL.

My logic says it HAS to be a software problem or limiting factor.

Thanks, Scott for your suggestion re - changing the booktype. I will try that too....but not sure where you can change that? Is it in DVDAS?

To change the booktype you need:

1) +R media

2) A burner that supports this - every DVD burner review at www.cdrinfo.com indicates whether the burner supports changing the booktype - there appear to be only a few that allow this anymore for single layer media, though many allow it for DL media.

3) Use Nero for burning and turn on the option in Nero that says "use DVD-ROM booktype" - sorry, I don't remember offhand where this option is located exactly, but it is there, if you look around at the different burning options you'll eventually find it. DVDAS doesn't allow you to do this, though your burner may have a seperate standlone utility that does this.

--Scott

I've had a similar problem and it seems to be related to the age of the DVD player. The older players will play the menus normally, but when I try to play a title (movie) the DVD stops. This happens on my older (2001) Philips player (MX1015), but plays fine on my newer (2003) Philips DVDR985 and PC DVD drives.

This also happened with the Sony Vegas 5/DVDA2 tutorial DVD, made by the "pros" at Sony! This was likely authored with DVDA2.

DVD's I made with DVDA1.0 work fine on all my DVD players.

So when they added all those extra features to DVDA2 and 3 they also did something that the older players don't like!

Further to this problem.......A friend of mine who does video editing professionally had a look at my 2 DVD's. The one burnt in DVDAS of course wouldn't play on his player, but the one edited Vegas Movie Studio 4 , BUT burnt using Nero did play. He then copied the 1st disc that wouldn't play, using Nero & the copy plays on all the players!!!

He said that Nero was the only DVD burning program loaded on his computer, & wondered if DVDAS found my Roxio burning program when I "hit the Burn button", as I have both Roxio & Nero on my computer. I will uninstall Roxio & try another burning another DVD in DVDAS & see if it makes any difference.