Most DVD players support the VCD format, although the number that support CD-R/RW is much smaller.

If you know your player supports VCD (try a commercially pressed VCD) then you know it is either an issue with the media or in the way you authored the disk.

As DaveT2 said, check the compatibility list at VCD help. It lists players, as well as the supported media (and bitrates for S/X VCD support.) For example, my DVD player the RCA 5215 will play commercially pressed VCDs ... but its support for homemade VCD is pretty bad. I've been able to make them and get them to play, but only using CD-RW disks instead of CD-R.

I think you'll see that the CD-RW/CD-R thing is pretty common in players with marginal support.

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VCDhelp has a downloadable VCD image that you can burn. This will let you test media without worrying if the authoring/encoding is correct. If you burn the image and it doesn't play ... it means your player doesn't support the media (or doesn't support VCD at all.)

You can try burning the image onto various media brands/types to see if you have any success. Even brands sometimes make a difference (different reflectivity).

Like I said, I've found I have pretty good luck with my player using Staples CD-RW ... but even then, sometimes I have to insert/eject the disk a few times before it recognizes it.

1) put project on the time line---
2 put in a blank cd in the cd burner
3 tools
4 burn cd
5 video cd
6---file path--do nothing---
7 format: main concept mpeg-1 (*.mpg)
8 template: vcd ntsc
9 burn speed----select one--- 1x for best result
10 click ok
11 it automatically renders then burns the cd

thanks for the info!