Gee, I've been in the middle of a long thread the past few days where everyone was stating just the opposite, namely that DVDA makes the most compatible disks (that conform with the DVD spec) and other authoring software uses relaxed rules that may result in discs that don't play on all players. I believe the people that made these posts know what they are talking about, and perhaps they can offer some advice.

The only thing I can think of is this: If you still have your DVD-A project, go to File -> Optimize Disc and see if the bitrate for the project or for any of the individual data files has somehow been set above 8 Mbs. I think one of the few ways you could make an "illegal" DVD that might not play on all players would be to set the bitrate incorrectly.

I sent 10 DVD's out to my family last week made with DVDA. That's 10 different DVD players in 10 different sections of the country. All 10 have reported back blown away by the quality of the DVD. The only negative I can report is finding a bad batch of media that DVDA couldn't burn to, but that didn't have anything to do with DVDA and was replaced by the store. Once replaced all was well. I hope you find out the problem.

It might be your media. I use Fuji media or Vebatim and never have a problem.
Fuji is made by Taiyo Yuden which is a company noted for it's high quality media. Fuji costs around $2.50 per disk.

John

Craftech and Tampa are correct: The media can make a big difference. My favorite is the Maxel DVD-R 2x branded (comes in an orange box). Taperesources sells it at a good price (they also have great prices on DV tapes).

Back to the Maxell DVD-R: There have been several surveys over the past six months that have show this media (and the Verbatim mentioned by craftech) is the most compatible, so it's not just my personal experience that I'm talking about here.

Funny you should mention Maxell John. It was Maxell that I had problems with. I bought a Maxell 10 pack 2x DVD-R from Staples. About the 5th DVD-R I was to burn from this pack I started to get fatal burn errors. Since I had just burned 4 DVD's back to back I thought the drive maight have become over heated. So, I shut the system down and came back a couple of hours later. Nope, same burn errors. I recompiled my MPEG, re-booted, tried formating a disc for data, but I kept getting the burn errors. Since Staples isn't that far away I decided to take the balance of the discs back to see if they could burn them. Nope, they couldn't get the discs to burn either. So, 6 out of the 10 Maxell discs were bad. Staples gave me a replacement 10 pack of SONY 2X DVD-R's. I burned every one of the SONY discs without error. To date I've tried Maxell, SONY, Office Depot generic, TDK, and Verbatim. Maxell is the only brand I've had burn problems with. Just my .02 cents!

Tampa,

Wow, that's very interesting. Also very definitive. The fact that Staples couldn't burn them either makes a pretty airtight case.

If I had your experience, I would never use Maxell DVD-R again. The only thing I can say in "defense" of Maxell (I put that in quotes, because I have no real reason to defend them or their media) is that what you had was a bad media problem, not a compatibility problem. I have read similar (although not as well-documented as yours) reports about some batch of media not working at all. The QA standards at some of these plants clearly isn't what it should be.

What I'm trying to say here is that there is a difference between manufacturing defects and design defects. If the media had been manufactured correctly, I think superior "design" of the Maxell media would have made them work just fine in all those DVD players.

You're probably right, but I'm willing to give Maxell one more try. However, if I have a similar problem AGAIN with Maxell it will absolutely be the last time. I'm brand agnostic until a problem like we've discussed repeats itself. It would be a differnet story if I had lost $ on the Maxell discs, but since Staples replaced the bad discs the only thing I lost was time.

I've had problems with the Maxell DVD-Rs from Staples as well.

One brand that I have consistently had success with is the CompUSA brand. It is only 1X media but it has been the most consistent of all the brands I have used to this point. Not only has the media been reliable, I can completely fill up a disc. Some discs appear to burn fine but crap out near the end at playback.

CompUSA often runs sales where the media can be had for about $1.00 per disc.

Good Call! Now that you mention it, it was COMP USA generic that I have used before with success. Earlier I said it was Office Depot, but it wasn't it was COMP USA!

This is odd, because I get 100% failure with Fuji DVD-R discs. To look at them, the purple emulsion is much darker than on TDK or even CompUSA brand discs. I bought sisx boxes at a good price, and they're only good for DVD-ROM work, not for set-top video.

I wonder why you're having good luck and I get the above results...?

I too have had perfect success with CompUSA brand, and they have the best prices! Only the 1x aspect is a [minor] bummer.

I have had about a 50% failure rate (in set-tops only) with Maxell. I do not mean coatsers--the discs burn fine--but set-tops cannot read them.

Fuji for me have been 100% failures, yet others here report good success! I don't get it! Burner compatibility? I'm using an industry-standard Pioneer A04.

I used to have bad luck with TDK DVD-R, but when they changed to their new label, they may have changed the formulation of the emulsion, because now I get 100% success.

I used to get perfect results only from Circuit City's "Digital Media" brand, but they RAISED prices to $6 per disc while name brands like TDK LOWERED prices, so... the heck with them.

Right now it's TDK and CompUSA for me.