Its difficult to answer a question without information.

How long was the video?
What encoder and bit rate was used?
Did you encode with AC3 audio or other?
What burner was used to burn?
What format was burned?
What media was used?
How many players were tested?
Any and all info makes it easier to help you......

Ed

Have you burned it with 720x480 resolution with a maximum bitrate of less than 9800bps?

it is a brand new dvd player on a gateway 3.06ghz machine

the video was 30 min (should that matter?)
it was encoded with AC3
it was a DVD-R
the media was meritline (which works with dvd x copy) and i also tried imation
i tested 2 players and 2 dvd roms
the burned is a HL-DT-ST-DVD RAM GMA 4020B

yes it was 720x480 and 8000bps (i think it defaults to that)

Are you still using DVDA version 1.0a? If so upgrade to Version 1.0c

Are you using the default settings?

Are you using DVDA to burn the DVD? That's what I use and the disks play in older DVD players as well as the computer.

Check firmware forums for your burner to see if the firmware you are using is compatible with the media you are using.

John

i have 1.0c
i am using default setting
yes i am using DVDA

Which burner are you using?

HL-DT-ST-DVD RAM GMA 4020B

I talked to a SoFo tech who told me that the problem lay in the type of media I was using. He said that we were only going to get an 83% compatibility rate regardless of who's authoring program we used. He also said Memorex and Imation were two of the worst brands for compatibility. He suggested Verbatim. I tried to burn to a Verbatim DVD and a TDK DVD, still no luck.

Then I received a response to my email from SoFo that said that it was the burner I was using (the HL-DT-ST-DVDRAM GMA 4020B which came standard with my Gateway). He said that it was an unsupported burner and that that was where the problem was coming from. No "fixes" offered up. I guess I'm supposed to go out and buy a different burner, one that is supported. He said that new burners would be supported with each new update, but didn't offer any idea as to when the next would be available or if they were working on the support for the burner we are using.

Does your computer recognize the burned DVD? Can you play the movie back in WinDVD or Windows Media Player? My computer won't even play it back from the DVD. It tells me that there is no disk in the drive. Plays fine in my Panasonic DVD-S35, but I can't get it to play back on anything else.

I think I would talk to Gateway; from what you said they shipped you a non-mainstream burner. I had the same problem with HP with a cd burner once; it would seem they would have shipped an HP CD burner with a preconfigured system--not the case.

I checked out the LG burner you own. It has really good reviews and owner's experience has been good as well.

It requires an DMA 33 cable to work properly. Make sure you didn't attach it with a DMA 66 cable.

Has been tested with various media and works flawlessly with:
Fujifilm, Immation, Verbatim, and Ritek A03

Has problems with:
Princo, Optodisc

With some versions of firmware and some of the models there is an "outer edge" burning problem. Try burning with no more than 4.2GB of data to see if your burner is one of the affected ones. Most recent drives have shipped with firmware version A108, but the newer drives are also "a little different" than earlier ones so a firmware flash update may not solve the problem.

DLA and most versions of Nero software are incompatible.

Try experimenting with some of the above information to see if this helps.

John

all the things u said i did..i have used imations and have the proper cable...wonder what else it could be?

do u know of any external burners that work as of now?

Craftech... if the burner came built into the system, would Gateway have connected it with a DMA 33 instead of DMA 66 cable? I haven't had any other problems with the burner. I create backups of my financial data with no problems (of course, I've never tried to reload a back up file from it, but burning to the CD is no problem.)

I don't understand how it can be a burning problem if it plays on certain players but not on all. One customer just told me that his played fine on his RCA player that he bought at Christmas. He wasn't sure of the exact specs for the player because he was at work when we talked about it. But, his player didn't have a problem playing the DVD. So, there's an RCA and a Panasonic that can play the DVD, even if the computer that created it can't.