Burning DVD+R compatible to (most) stand-alone players

[taurinella]

I've been reading since two days and I don't find an answer, or maybe there's no answer!

I have WinXP, and a QSI SDW 042

1) Is it worth trying to burn a "universal DVD +R" or should I give up and simply try and burn DVD-R for the family members that cannot read my DVD +Rs? (I'll soon get the exact model of their standalone player). My DVD writer should support it but I never tried.

2) I would like to try some other freewares better than Nero, so after reading the tool guide I decided to try burnatonce, but it's not clear if it's OK for DVD+R and I'm waiting for the licence for Pro DVD. I don't know if I get it, because I'm a window user. Which software would you advice?

3) Another trial is to use DVDInfoPro. According to the brief summary it should change DVD+R/W bitsetting/booktype in order to "trick" the DVD players and convince them to read the DVD-Video. I cannot find anywhere what I have to change in what. Any idea how it works?

4) I really feel stupid. Anything I try doesn't work or I haven't got all the information. This tecnology is wonderful because it allows us more, but at the same time you always need to be up-to-date and it's not so user friendly, especially if you are a poor mechanical engineer. Has anybody a tip for me? Should I concentrate more on the solution 1, 2 or 3?

Thanks in advance!

Taurinella

[HARRYSPADGE]

1) You need to check whether your DVD writer is capable of bitsetting - ie can finalise a DVD+R to the DVD-ROM specs.
I would suggest checking the DVD writer section on the left of this page and search for your drive, it should tell you whether your drive is capable or not.

2) Try DVDdecrypter for burning, its free and most people swear by it, myself included. There is also an option in the settings menu somewhere which will allow you to bitset certain drives.

3) I believe DVDinfoPro is capable of bitsetting certain drives, but I'm not familiar with this feature - I use pioneer drives which arent capable of bitsetting and my Pioneer DVD player plays everything I throw at it without bitsetting so I dont have this problem.

Just keep in mind that bitsetting to DVD-ROM may still not make your DVD's playable in every DVD player !

Hope this helps

PS, Ive just had a look at the specs for your drive and it appears it is not capable of bitsetting ?, unless anyone knows different ie new firmware !

[SCDVD]

Interesting question. I understand the problem where some players don't recognize the DVD+R media type. DVD-ROM is a more universal bit type that is recognized by all players (assuming the player doesn't have a problem with the reflectivity difference with recordable media). But my question is; what percentage of players have a problem recognizing DVD+R? Is it a few or a lot? Is it primarily older players or do some new ones still have a problem with it.

[HARRYSPADGE]

SCDVD, I guess your question will be quite a difficult one to answer positively, but I know that all the players I have tried have had no problems using + or - media, but maybe I'm just lucky ?

[ofbarea]

The format I use the most is DVD+R. My first DVD burner was an HP DVD200i

When I first got that Unit several dvd players did not recognized my burns. Upgrading the firmware, using better media and upgrading my burning applications resolved this annoying problem.

I also have a Nec 2500 (with 2510 hacked firmware), that work with any media, but I usually burn at 8x DVD+R media.

So far I have found only two problematic DVD players. My father old unit will not play DVD-R, and a old Denon player that would not play DVD+R.

[hech54]

DVDDecrypter also has bitsetting on certain makes and models....kill two birds with one stone...

[HARRYSPADGE]

As I mentioned in my first post

QUOTE:-

" 2) Try DVDdecrypter for burning, its free and most people swear by it, myself included. There is also an option in the settings menu somewhere which will allow you to bitset certain drives. "

[hech54]

OOPS.....sorry Harry...

[lordsmurf]

Use a DVD-R instead, get the MCC ones too. Lots of players react better to the metal AZO dyes than pure organics or cyanines.

[taurinella]

Dear Harry, SCDVD, ofbarea, hech 54, lordsmurf,

Thanks very much for your precious tips. I couldn’t reply before because... I was in a table tennis tournament!

I’ve installed DVD Decrypter and I need to become a little bit more confident with it, so I’m asking a question that maybe I can solve alone in a couple of days...
- Do you advise Img tools to create the iso file necessary to burn with DVD Decrypter? Otherwise I have to burn a DVD with Nero first and then transform its content with DVD Decripter in a big iso file.
- Once I have the list of the DVD players of my cousins I think I will try and burn a DVD-R for the players that don't support +R. I don't think I will try and change the bitrate, especially if it's not clear if my burner supports it.

Since I leave in the Netherlands and my family in Italy, I'm expecting that this experiments will last a couple of weeks, if not months, so I'm afraid not to be able to give you my results, for your legitimate curiosity, in useful times!

Thanks a lot!

Taurinella

[HARRYSPADGE]

Yes, I would recommend using Imgtool classic to create the ISO images, thats what I use.
You can also create ISO images with DVDdecrypter if you are copying a DVD - use the ISO read mode to create the image and then ISO write mode to burn with decrypter.