DVD won't play

[maxxcorp]

Using MyDVD and Roxio Easy DVD to author and burn, unable to get DVD to play in my standalone player. According to this website and the GE website, GE 1101P is "supposed" to be able to play DVD-RW. Have tried Memorex (silver coated) and Sony (gold coated) DVD-RW blanks. The files are actually being transferred to the disk and most of the time the DVD burner, my internal DVD-ROM and the standalone machine won't recognize the disc. What I should say here is, when I use windows explorer to try and browse the disk, it sometimes tells me to insert a disk in the drive, but when it does want to recognize the disk, I can see the files are there... One more thing, if it even matters... When I insert the disc in my computer, either in the DVD ROM drive or the burner, it launches WINDVD but won't play... I can however, get it to play in my computer using the interactual player...

I download the trialware for TMPGEnc, authored the DVD and burned it with the same results... Tried using creating an ISO file and burning it that way, it works in my mom's GE 1101P but not in mine... With some issues, skipping, stopping, but when I stop the disk and restart it, I can play a few chapters then it acts up, stop it, start it, plays fine, starts acting up, etc...

The files I created are photos and home videos with music I ripped from my home CD collection and used for background music. The files are created with Video Explosion Deluxe and the output I use is MPEG 2.

The template name is main concept MPEG-2(*.mpg) and the description is
Audio: 224 Kbps, 48,000 Hz, Layer 2
Video: 29.97 fps, 720x480
Use this setting to create an MPEG-2 file with an NTSC DVD-compliant video stream, and an MPEG layer 2 audio stream.

Have browsed thru most of this website trying to find people with similar issues but nothing I do seems to work...

As a test, I used the same MPEG2 file and allowed Nero to convert it to make a Video CD and it played in my standalone...


When I bought the DVD burnerand installed it I was using windows Me.. I tried copying one of my home DVD's just to see what it would do... It played for a little while then locked up... Since then I have upgraded to windows XP and then started on the family photo album trek. All the software named above was telling me to reinstall, which I did... Have not converted to NTFS yet but my files are an average of 3 minutes long so I don't think I am vioating any file size restrictions (or am I??)

I am sure there will be follow up questions but have tried to provide as much info as I can think of (sorry for the book, but don't wait for the movie haha) How id it that these production companies can make DVD's that work on almost any standalone machine?

Thanks in advance for any help...

Maxx

[maxxcorp]

A little update - Downloaded the trial version of DVD-Lab. When I imported one of my MPEG 2 files, I selected the option to demux to elementary streams. The audio portion listed :
<filename>.mpa
- cause bad header or unknown error
- this file does not seem to be MPEG audio
- check if it is not a wrongly named ac3

When I play back the resulting wma file using windows media player, it runs just fine. When I look at the listing in windows explorer, it says it is a Movie File (MPEG) but DVD-Lab won't let me import it? I guess it demuxed it with the errors and that is that... ? The original file used when authoring was an MP3 file. When I call up the original file in Gspot and click the render button, the audio src says MPEG1 Audio payload

By the way, the original MPEG 2 files play very nicely in windows media player

Does this stuff still fall under authoring or should I move it to another forum?

Thanks,

Maxx

[maxxcorp]

Update - Removed DVD writer and uninstalled the drivers along with all software mentioned in previous posts... Re-installed everything including ASPI layers... last step, enable burning on the DVD drive...

Results - Burned a DVD-RW the first time I put it in the standalone player it said "loading" then "stop" I thought, oh no, here we go again... I turned the standalone off and then on again and it worked fine... (whodathunkit?) Have opened and closed the "drink holder" tray several times and it wants to play for me...

The audio pauses from time to time... But I am further along than I was before... The guides may help solve this issue...

Maxx

[erikl]

Hi!
I have exactly the sam problem. I have tried authoring in WinDVD Creator and Easy CD & DVD Creator but the discs won't play in my player. They do work in my girlfriends newer player, and in the computer.
I-ve also tried editing the ifo-files in IFOedit, but I really don't know what I'm doing.

[npaulie2000]

Try dvdshrink to backup. I have the same problem with windvd also. One thing I have noticed with the roxio software that I also use. You think it has finished burning but you can still here the dvd burner whirring away for awhile. I have found that if I wait a few minutes for it to stop I seem to have fewer coasters. Good luck

[maxxcorp]

That extra few minutes you are waiting, is probably giving the program time to finalize the disc... It happened to me the first time I used it, thought it was locked up... Tried ejecting the disk then went to task manager to try and end the program... most of the time the progress bar seems to hang anywhere from 22 to 28 percent... The next time around, I thought it locked up again then noticed where it said finalizing disc...

Maxx

[maxxcorp]

Update - Brought the DVD-RW version to my brothers house today... It worked on his stand-alone machine even tho it took awhile for it to recognize the disk... He gave me a few blank DVD+R's to try it for the heck of it... Brought the blanks home, burned one, played the whole disk, no skipping, no artifacts or anything... Works great!!!

Lesson learned - never give up... ok, ok, I already knew it but in this case, it sure helped to re-enforce it!!

Maxx

[DVD_Ripper]

just think ... you increased your post count by 5 for this small tome.

Congrats on resolving your own problem.

[tekkieman]

Well done resolving your issue! While RWs often save a lot of money in coasters, I too have found they do not play as reliably in my RCA player. As you found, sometimes powering off with the disc in the tray, and powering up again, sometimes will get them to play, although not always. Sometimes, the extra $1.00 or $2.00 in coasters is cheaper in the long run than the time messing with the RW.

Of course, that's if you're already using a well established method. Trying something new? Better use the RW!