Try it in a standalone DVD player to rule out the laptop as the problem. The media itself may not play in your laptop. What is the media ID code?
I haven't had any discs returned burning with DVDA 1.0, but many people tell me the discs won't play in their laptops.
John

Can you actually see that something is physically burned on the disc? Possible that you burned in simulation mode where nothing is actually burned on the disc??

Yes, when I flip the DVD over, I do see the data ring extending out from the hub, so I do believe the data is getting written, just that it doesn't get recognized on my laptop's player.

I'm going to try it on a standalone DVD player, but just wondering -- is this expected, or is there something wrong here? Can I try a different brand of DVDs to 'fix' this? Am I missing something in the DVDA settings? I'm going to be sending this out to fests, so I'd like it to have as much compatibility in players as possible...

How do I determine the media IDCode?
Kunal.

I'm going to try it on a standalone DVD player, but just wondering -- is this expected, or is there something wrong here? Can I try a different brand of DVDs to 'fix' this? Am I missing something in the DVDA settings? I'm going to be sending this out to fests, so I'd like it to have as much compatibility in players as possible...

How do I determine the media IDCode?
=============
You can determine the media ID Code by downloading the free DVD Identifier or the free version of

That's wierd. Only part of my reply is being displayed???

I downloaded the DVD identifier that you posted in the link but it doesn't identify my DVD drive. I'm going to try inserting a different DVD in there later tonight to see if it is just this DVD that is not getting identified or if it's something else..

what was the other part of your message ? ;)
I hope I can get this thing resolved..especially since I really like using DVDA and would hate to move over to another s/w (if it is indeed a DVDA issue)

Kunal.

I downloaded the DVD identifier that you posted in the link but it doesn't identify my DVD drive.

That's because it doesn't identify your drive.
It tells you details about the blank DVD itself.
For more info on this tool, check out Videohelp's site.

Mike

So I guess that I can't really retrieve my media IDcode in that case?
hmm..what other options do I have at this point...?

thanks for the help on this folks,
Kunal.

So I guess that I can't really retrieve my media IDcode in that case?
hmm..what other options do I have at this point...?

thanks for the help on this folks,
Kunal.
===========
Are you saying that at the top in the drop down space your drive isn't listed?

If it is listed and you select it you should be able to click on "Identify" and the code should appear in the big box at the bottom along with a bunch of other numbers. A typical code for Verbatim would be MCC 02RG20 for example.

Don't forget to try the DVD in a standalone player. That is more important at this point.

John

I tried the DVD in a standalone player and it didn't work there either..any clues? Also, I noticed that the data ring extends a lot further away from the hub on the DVD that I burned using InterVideo DVDCreator (which plays well), than it does on the one burnt using DVDA -- not sure if that's related to the compression differences between the two softwares, but if it isn't, then it looks like DVDA didn't burn the entire movie onto the DVD...

Also, the way I didn't render the video/audio from Vegas to an mpg-2/acm-3 -- I did the prepping in DVDA on the .avi file that I had rendered from Vegas -- that shouldn't affect the burning though, right?

Kunal.

Well, something happened. The way to do it, is to use Vegas to render your Mpeg2s. (File/Render as/Save as type/ MainConcept MPEG-2, then instead of using the default template, open the dropdown from 'default' and choose DVD NTSC. If your video is approx. 1 hr and 20 min. or less, it will fit. Then author your DVD in DVD-A. Start the authoring from the beginning, don't use your old authoring. If you delete any media, while authoring, start over, fresh in DVD-A again. Import the MPEG2 you rendered in Vegas. When you're ready to make your DVD, DVD-A will rerender your audio to an AC3. I've never burned a bad disc in DVD-A yet.
Later, you can learn how to maximize your AC3 sound by doing that yourself, instead of relying on DVD-A to do it for you. The above settings should work fine.
PS: you can check your MPEG2s in the DVD-A from the "Preview" button. They may not play smoothly there, but they will once they're on a DVD and played traditionally

I tried doing what you suggested but it still doesn't play in either my laptop or the standalone dvd player. (The movie is only about 17 mins long.)

I also just tried using InterVideo DVDCreator and that burns okay, so I know the problem is not in the drive. I doubt if it's a media incompatibility with DVD-A? Here's the media IDCode for the Verbatim DVD-R:
DVD-R: MCC 03RG20

What's also odd is that it shows up as a CD after DVD-A completes the burning, instead of showing up as a DVD...

Kunal.

Render the video only as Mpeg 2 using the DVDA NTSC Video Stream at a Constant Bitrate of 7000 into a folder.

Render the audio only as Dolby Digital AC3 into the same folder.

When you open DVDA and import the Mpeg 2 file the audio will be there with it if it is in the same folder. Do your menus etc then optimize. DVDA should NOT re-compress the file if you did it right. After DVDA authors the files and you go to burn it check the following:

MCC 03RG20.

As you will notice, people are having mixed results using MCC 03RG20 media. See if you can find one of the users who used the same BURNER as you and had GOOD results. Burn at the same speed they did. Hopefully they had the same FIRMWARE for their burner as you as well.

If you can't find anyone in the list who used the same BURNER or if they had POOR or MIXED results using the same burner then you will have to experiment with the burn speeds.

Hopefully you didn't buy a lot of that media. I would recommend TYGO1 media burned at 2X, but RITEKG04 also works well for most people as well as MXL RG02.


John

Have you tried using a DVD +R instead of the -R? I was having your problem a long while back and I've been successfully burning with DVDA 2 since.
II should mention that 'm technically challenged so this may have been pure coincidence.

Thanks for that link John. I rendered the video as MPEG-2 and audio as ac-3 in the same folder with the same name, however, when I click optimize while doing 'prepare and burn', it does say that both audio and video would be compressed. Is that a sign that something's already incorrect at this point?

Also, besides meritline, is there a store chain that sells RITEK in a physical store? If so, I'd like to just stop by and pick some up as I do need to complete this before thksgiving..

I'm going to try DVD+R based on oops' suggestion, but I'm not sure if my laptop's dvd-burner is compatible with DVD+R, although when I did a dvd-identifier check, it did identify my drive as DVD+R capable as well...

Kunal.

Do not click Optimize, unless your files are too large. That's why it recompresses. Only if you exceed 100%

I just saw this in the 2.0b release manual:
Notable Changes/Fixes in Version 2.0b

A bug has been fixed that could prevent burning to -R/-RW media when using the Matsushita UJ-810 drive.

Of all the drives in the world, this is the one that my laptop has, and now I'm wondering if this bug has indeed been fixed in 2.0b...

Maybe I should try +R in my drive, although I'm not sure if it is +R burning compatible. In case this doesn't work, does anyone out here have the same drive and has been able to burn succesfully with 2.0b+ versions? I might think of upgrading my DVDA in that case (or buy another drive, whichever is cheaper..)

Kunal.

You'd be better off investing in a copy of Nero and using it to burn. Upgrading DVDA or changing to another drive are still a roll of the dice as far as whether DVDA will burn correctly.

--Scott

You'd be better off investing in a copy of Nero and using it to burn.

I agree with Scott 100%. Use DVDA to "prepare" the files but something else for the actual burning.
I've personally used RecordNow Max for a number of years and have never had any problems.
Like a lot of other folks here, I've never used DVDA to do any burning as Sony has been generally been very slow to release support for new burners.

Mike

So you're saying that I just do the 'prepare' part using DVDA and then just do a data-burn of the audio_ts and video_ts folders using some other s/w? Interesting..I didn't know that some people don't use DVDA for the actual burning...

So you're saying that ...

Exactly!! Based on responses in this forum and elsewhere, I'd say most users don't use DVDA to so their burning, probably because they (like me) had some other app from their CD burning days that's been updated to handle DVDs. Try it and see if this solves your problem.

Mike

however, when I click optimize while doing 'prepare and burn', it does say that both audio and video would be compressed. Is that a sign that something's already incorrect at this point?
========
I use DVDA 1.0c I don't think this part has changed.
If you did it the way I said it shouldn't re-compress the video.
You can't buy RitekG04 in a store you have to order it. 4X media is hard to find these days. Same with Taiyo Yuden 4x (TYG01).
You might find Verbatim 4X media in Walgreens and if it says Made in Japan it is probably MCC media which is very good. But even that is hard to find. If you are stuck, search that website I linked to look for the most relieable 8X media or let one of the others here who uses 8X media direct you. 16X media so far has been a complete dog.

John