Managed to produce my first ever DVD! But...

linuxlover wrote on 7/2/2004, 4:36 PM
When I place it into a DVD player, the player behaves as NOTHING was placed there... I tried two different players and both "recognize" the disk as 'nothing'. Both players are relatively "modern" (Cyberhome CH-300 and LITEON LVD-2001) , so they probably shouldn't have a recordable media recognition problem.

I used DVD Architect 1.0 to burn on an Imation DVD+R media, using a LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-811S (burnt at 2.4X speed, probably limited by the media since the drive itself supports up to 8X).

At first, I didn't know whether the problem is in the media, drive or DVDA. But then I inserted the media back at the computer and tried to play it using Nero ShowTime. It played.

I then looked at the disc info using Nero Burning ROM and, sure enough, an entire long track was there, but it seems that the disc *is not closed* i.e. for some reason it is recognized as multi-session.... I bet this is the reason why my two players don't like it.

My question is: How do I "close" a DVD disc that has already been burn with DVDA?

And another question: How do I tell DVDA (1.0) to always close a DVD that it makes?

Thanks,
Lynn

Comments

bStro wrote on 7/2/2004, 6:46 PM
I then looked at the disc info using Nero Burning ROM and, sure enough, an entire long track was there, but it seems that the disc *is not closed* i.e. for some reason it is recognized as multi-session.... I bet this is the reason why my two players don't like it.

Hm. Exactly what does it say in the disc info? I'm looking at a disc I burned with DVDA1 that, in Nero's disc info, lists Session 01 with a single track in it. The disc plays fine in the players that I have.

My question is: How do I "close" a DVD disc that has already been burn with DVDA?

There's no "close" or "don't close" option in DVDA. If the disc was not closed (which I'm not convinced of), it was due to an error. Several people have experienced issues using DVDA with Lite-On burners. Search the archives and see if any of the past threads will help you. The most immediate (possible) solution is to try a different media. If DVD+R didn't work, try DVD-R. Not only might this make a difference with your burner, it might make a difference with your players.

Rob
linuxlover wrote on 7/3/2004, 7:36 PM
Rob, thanks again for your always prompt & helpful response.

To answer your question, I took snapshots of the relevant info and posted them at the following URL: http://linuxlover.50megs.com/photo2.html

Does this look different from yours (which play fine)? The "UDF/ISO 9660" next to track looks somewhat suspicious to me, but I am a newbie to this world so I don't really know whether this is the way all Video DVDs should be.

I am going to search the forum now to see if I find any relevant hint. I already discovered that there is an update (1.0d) to DVDA, while I was using the original DVDA 1.0 (build 160). I will try to download and install it and see if it provides any improvements.

Also, it seems that there is a new firmware for the LDW-811S burner. My drive still has the originally shipped HS09, while the newer HSOQ claims the following:

"Most DVD players that can't read DVD+RW or DVD+R discs are the older models. This version firmware allows users to modify the BookType setting of a DVD recordable media, thus enhancing the media read compatibility in older DVD playback devices."

I have no clue what "BookType" is - I really need some education in this field...
However, it seems to me strange that the CyberHome CH-300 player that I purchased only a month ago will be considered one of "the older models".

But then again, my LITEON LVD-2001 has the same exact DVD-ROM drive as in my PC (LTD163D), which Nero InfoTool reports as capable of reading DVD-R but not DVD+R. So maybe we are onto something here...

Lynn

(BTW, how do you create a hot link in a posting in this forum?)

bStro wrote on 7/3/2004, 10:52 PM


The Nero disc info looks okay. In fact, if you put a commercial DVD in there and brought up the same window, it shouldn't look much different.

Your Nero InfoTool screen looks odd to me, all those "n/a" entries you get. Did you have your disc in there when you pulled that up, too? If so, I'd definitely recommend trying a DVD-R disc and see if that fares better.

(BTW, how do you create a hot link in a posting in this forum?)

You have to type in the appropriate HTML tags by hand. For example, to link to Google, type:

[a href = http://www.google.com] Link to Google [/a]

... but replace the square brackets with triangular brackets.

Rob
linuxlover wrote on 7/4/2004, 6:29 AM
OK. Here is what I did:

Thanks to your replies, I first decided to bet on the DVD-R vs. DVD+R direction.
I currently have a 25-disc batch of only DVD+R media (made the wrong purchase I guess). So, I looked for a solution that will "magically" allow to use them.

I found on LITEON's web site a utility called [a href = http://www.liteonamericas.com/us/download_utility.htm]BookType[/a]. It allows changing the BookType/BitSetting of the media from DVD+R to DVD-ROM. (nice trick, eh?)

Unforunately, my LDW-811S's firmware (HS09) did not support this, so I had to download and update my drive's firmware to [a href = http://www.liteonamericas.com/us/download.htm]HSOQ[/a].

This successfully changed the BookType to DVD-ROM (before burning the video, not after), so I happily proceeded with burning my first ever home video movie.

Alas, something (which I don't quite understand yet) went wrong in the middle of the process (I swear I didn't touch anything...) and the disc was ejected after 30 minutes or so with a weird message box that I have never seen before. I tried the disc anyway on the players: The CyberHome was able to recognize it and play the first few minutes. The LITEON went bizerk...

I ran out of explanations (and didn't want to burn yet another coaster without changing anything in my system) so I decided to gamble on the DVDA 1.0d update. I applied it and started the burning process again. It seemed to have started OK, but it was so slow... It took 2.5 hours !!!

But when it finished, it played perfectly on both the CH-300 and the LVD-2001 players. :-)

So now I am happy, but the obvious question is: Why did it take 2.5 hours to burn a video that has less than 2 hours play time? This is especially troubling when Nero Burning ROM (not used for this process) reports that it can burn that DVD at a 2.4X speed.
JaysonHolovacs wrote on 7/7/2004, 7:25 AM
I have had very inconsistent results with burning DVDs in DVD-A. They author great, but the burn process is unreliable for me. Sometimes it gets halfway through the lead-in track and just stops saying the burn completed successfully, but the disc doesn't work. I'm using RW media, so normally I just try again until it works. Also, I occassionally go to Roxio's software(because it came with the DVD drive) and just burn the two folders created by DVD-A to the DVD(AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS). This seems to be more reliable.

BTW, the drive is a Plextor PX708-UF.

-Jayson