How to explain to clients that not ALL DVD's will play

[ozab]

Hello All:
Can someone please tell me how to explain to some people that if your DVD player is old it will not play burned DVD-R.

Also, what if the client says: "how come the blockbuster DVD plays on ANY DVD player"?

Thanks for your help guys.

[Ziffelpig]

I think it's your responsibility to buy the best media possible and to find media that will work on their old players or you will not get much in the way of referal or return business. Ask up front what their player is, there is lots of information on player/media compatibility on this site.

[Gazorgan]

Point out to you clients that they can:

a) Buy a newer player that's rated for DVDR's for $39.95
b) Pay for a minimum run commercial pressing DVD at...what? $3500 for 500 pieces?

[lenti_75]

just do bitsetting on +R's and those should work an ANY dvd players....
no more compatibility issues....it's working for me

[Phantom Of The Opera]

just do bitsetting on +R's and those should work an ANY dvd players....
no more compatibility issues....it's working for me

What is "bitsetting"?

[phelix]

Hello All:
Can someone please tell me how to explain to some people that if your DVD player is old it will not play burned DVD-R.

Um.. mabye you shouldn't. I have a first gen panasonic player (A110) that plays DVD-R and DVD+R just fine. I also have a new xbox that cannot play DVD+R. Just state that not all players are compatible and leave it at that.

[solarfox]

"Bitsetting" is an attempt to fool the DVD player into thinking that it's dealing with a pressed DVD-ROM disc rather than a burned DVD+R by deliberately mis-setting the "book type" code on the disc to lie about what kind of disc it is.

Yes, it overcomes some compatibility issues, but not all. Some older 1st and 2nd-generation DVD players simply will not play recordable media of any variety, no matter what it is or claims to be, due to physical limitations. Recordable media always has a lower reflectivity than pressed discs, meaning that less of the laser's energy is reflected back to the detector instead of being absorbed and dissipated or scattered by the materials the disc is made out of, and some players designed and made before the standards for recordable media were nailed down just don't have the capacity to compensate for this.

[petar]

Why don't you do what I do? I have one DVD-R and one DVD+R for testing. If I get a client that's not sure what burned DVD works on his/her player I give them the test DVDs to try first (ask for a small deposit which you give back when they return you the discs; just to avoid someone changing his mind and deciding he couldn't be bothered to give you the discs back). Between the two (+ and -) I haven't yet had a client that I couldn't serve. Just make sure you use good media.

And if they ask you why blockbuster DVDs don't have this issue then they obviously don't know much about the DVD technology and they'll trust whatever you tell them (so just invent something). I tell them the truth though and they understand.

[Ironballs]

Just tell them to visit this site and read up!!

[Redd]

You're pretty safe using -R media...good quality media that is. I haven't had any complaints when using Ritek media.

If I'm really concerned I'll ask for the name and model number of their stand alone machine and look it up here

[jimmalenko]

How to explain to clients that not ALL DVD's will play

Your DVD player is at fault.

Also, what if the client says: "how come the blockbuster DVD plays on ANY DVD player"?

Blockbuster DVDs are pressed. Pressed DVDs play on all DVD players. This has been burnt. Your DVD player needs to be able to play burnt DVDs to play this one.



Thats how you explain it.

[ktnwin]

The best approach in my mind is:

1) ask the customer about his DVD player (brand - model)

2) do research to find out which media is going to work without any issue

3) if you found one or many solution, burn a sample DVD (your own commercial for example, with a deposit) on that media and gave to your customer to a try-out. If it works great then go ahead. This step may be skipped if you are really confident that it is going to work for sure.

4) if there is no solution, refuse the business and then explain to the customer that his DVD player cannot play recordable DVD discs. At least, you tell upfront and that creates trust (which is very important for doing business and repeated business).

Well, that's what I would do. Charging someone for a non working DVD (although it works in your player) and try to explain why it does not work is not a good approach. You have to return money anyway and lose trust a long the way.

[jimmalenko]

Charging someone for a non working DVD (although it works in your player) and try to explain why it does not work is not a good approach. You have to return money anyway and lose trust a long the way.

I disagree. By the same token, you buy some software that has mimimum requirements in order for it to run properly. Your PC does not meet these minimum requirements but you decide to install the software anyway. Your fault or the software's ?

My point is, if you specify a minimum requirement (ie. you must be able to play DVD-Rs) and then notify a user that his/her configuration is at fault, you have done all you can. The onus is then on the user to rectify.

The way around all this is to get your DVDs pressed.

[gmatov]

I would not take the recommendations in the "Players" section as gospel.

As a for instance, I researched the site to see which player I should buy for my daughter, and the Samsung M101 played "everything".

To date, I have not burnt a single disk that it will play, "No Disk".

On the other hand, my g'daughter's PS2 would not play VCD, SVCD, CVD, -R, +R, no matter the brand of media.

With my LiteOn and Booktype tool, bitset to DVD-ROM, no problem, same as a pressed disk.

So the "Booktype" bit is not fooling anything, it is telling the burner the right write strategy to use for DVD-ROM. It works for me.

Perhaps that is what you should do, set the Booktype to ROM.

Cheers,

George

(Yeah, but my burner doesn't DO that.) Sorry.