Okay, why ain't DVDA 4 working for me??...

WillBellJr wrote on 9/20/2006, 9:33 PM

I've downloaded the Vegas 7 / DVDA 4 demos and with EVERY project I burn the disc isn't recognized by my computer or my set top DVD player.

First I tried loading some WMVs and creating a 352x240 sized dvd - no joy. (I make these kinds of discs all the time using DVD Lab Pro)

Today, I captured some DV video using my ADVC 300 and I loaded the AVIs into DVDA4 and created (just to see this time if it would work) a simple direct play disc.

Burned the disc - still not recognized by my computer's drive (says CD Drive with a blank listing) - put the disc in my Toshiba (now this thing plays EVERYTHING) - the door OPENED spitting the disc out! (I've never seen THAT before - way ta go DVDA...)

So I started wondering if it was the fact I was letting DVDA4 encode the videos (I usually encode my own MPEGs and AC3s) I was going to encode some files to see if that was the problem when I decided to try and burn the disc again (DVD-RW) using the demo of DVD Lab Pro 2 (Yes, I'm trying to decide whether I upgrade my DVDLP1x or my Vegas 6 to V7&DVDA4)

So I pointed the DVDLP2 demo to the DVD folder I created with DVDA4 and NOW after the disc is burned it's recognized by my computer AND it plays in my DVD drive! - wtf??

So does this mean that the DVDA burning module is hosed on my system? (HP Pavillion 8080us laptop / Windows Media Center 2002 sp2) or is it the fact that I'm letting DVDA encode the videos for me?
(I guess the encodings is fine since burning the folder using a different tool seems to work?)

Any suggestions on this are appreciated!

I'm trying to want to upgrade to V7/DVDA but right now, I'm not feeling any luv from the experiences I'm having with the demos!

-Will

Comments

ScottW wrote on 9/21/2006, 5:27 AM

It sounds like DVDA isn't finalizing your DVD. DVDA has a long track record of not working well with certain hardware combinations; most people that want to use DVDA and run into burning issues get a seperate utility such as Nero or CopyToDVD to do the actual burning.

--Scott

WillBellJr wrote on 9/21/2006, 6:14 AM

Hi Scott, thanks for the reply!

Well I must say that certainly sux...

Has Sony release any kind of notes to perhaps solve this problem?

I mean sure, I have Nero 7 Ultra and as I had mentioned DVDLab Pro - the ONLY thing that I like about DVDA is the fact that I can preview directly onto my TV and also that the audio is previewed (where it isn't in DVDLP).

I was looking to finally get DVDA to go with my Vegas and the current deal is very tempting, I was even considering grabbing Cinescore even though I'm a hardcore ACID Pro user...

But to use DVDA and instead of buring my disc from there I then have to load up yet another program is a bit much considering what I'll be spending.

I also have to read though the manual about slideshows one more time because I'm sorta wondering - is creating image slideshows really as bad as it seemed to me the first time I tried???

I mean creating panning motions was just horrible with all the steps required?

...Load the image, click the button to make the default animation (which is never what I want), then go into the timeline and make the keyframe adjustments - I still haven't figured out how to shrink the whole image into the title safe area?...

I couldn't even scrub the timeline for the image motion - I had to discretely CLICK in places to move the cursor around - I'm sure that can't be right??

That $50 upgrade to DVDLab Pro 2 is seeming way more logical to me at the moment, unfortunately...

-Will

plasmavideo wrote on 9/21/2006, 7:36 AM

Hi Will and welcome over from the Canopus forums.

What drive and media are you using? I''ve had great success with DVDA3 and my Pioneer, and an Aopen drive after figuring out a few things I didn't understand, so I'm curious what you are using with V4 before I take the upgrade plunge. The demo is working right now on another play computer with an older Pioneer A07 and using several different types of media.

I seem to remember an earlier post that related non-finalizing issues with DVDA to having InCD or another variation of drag and drop software installed and running in the background.

As to the picture compilations, I have not tried it yet as I do mine in Imaginate, but since you've brought it up I need to try it today.

Tom

WillBellJr wrote on 9/21/2006, 10:43 AM

Hi Tom, yeah, haven't been over at the Canopus boards for a quick minute...

Well again, it's a HP laptop and I purchased from Meritline.com a Pioneer DL laptop drive, the media is from meritline as well - for this quick test, I grabbed a 1.4gig (8cm) DVD-RW since I was only burning a short segment.

The thing is, you may have pointed to the problem - when you mentioned InCD!!

As a EasyCD Creator person in heart, I used to use packet writing all the time for internet downloads, pics and stuff.

Nero's packet writing doesn't seem as good as ECDC's was - I had discs start reporting incorrect free sizes and other problems using InCD so I don't really use it like I would if it was ECDC...

So tonite, I'll try uninstalling Nero and reinstalling it without InCD (prolly need to get the latest version anyway as much as they update) and see if that fixes the problem.

If this turns out to be true, Sony needs to put this tidbit about packet writing software into the release notes PRONTO!

Hearing of other problems with DVDA and 352x240 projects I think I'ma keep my monae in my pocket anyway (Or upgrade my DVDLab Pro)...

What's funny is when I initially downloaded the Vegas 7 demo, I installed it, looked around and didn't see ANYTHING that looked different from my Vegas 6 or that I (as a hobbyist) could use (I'm not interested at HD at this point in time) and I uninstalled the demo! LOL!

It's when I heard of the lowered upgrade price deal that I figured I'd give it another go - DVDA again is the ONLY thing that's really attractive to me (along with the AC3 5.1) with this upgrade - if that's not gonna work as advertised for me, I'm certainly gonna keep my money!

-Will

plasmavideo wrote on 9/21/2006, 1:46 PM

Will,

Don't take my word on InCD and DVDA as gospel. I personally have Nero installed and opted out of the packet writing software on install, so I have not checked it. I just remember a conflict being reported someplace with DVD authoring and packet writing software. Nero just put out an update on version 7 which has some much needed bug fixes and some neat new features. I tested it yesterday and all of the bugs I had reported had been fixed - even several that were not in the release notes.

The problem is, I frequent so many different user boards as part of my job in tech support here at work with many different systems, hardware and software, that I'll sometimes file away a tidbit in my memory and when the issue comes up again I have trouble recalling the exact details. I'll check my notes and see if I find out more info. My brain is getting older and is stuffed too full!

Tom

EDIT: OK Will and I checked my notes. The conflict was with Ulead's DVD Work Shop and InCD. I found nothing in my Access database except my reference on this forum about the DVDWS and InCD issue in another post I that I commented on regarding this POSSIBLE CONFLICT issue in DVDA.

WillBellJr wrote on 9/21/2006, 3:33 PM

Well I guess you're right cause I've uninstalled Nero and I went into DVDA and erased and reburned my disc - the disc won't even recognize in Windows - I had to eject the disc to get the system to respond again (smh)...

Well, I'm highly disappointed. Granted, this may work better on my desktop but again, spending ~$150 - $300 that's not gonna work on my laptop just isn't tickling my fancy about right now.

Oh well...

-Will