Sony & Kenwood Mega-changers fail on DVD-R media...

[Roveer]

I went in search of a Mega changer (>300 disks), in hopes of building a DVD collection using DVD-R media. I purchased a few 2 sided DVD-R disks from www.cd-recordable.com and set off to create a 2 sided single movie DVD. My hope was to get DVD-9 content re-authored onto 2 sides of the DVD-R disk. After futzing with SmartRipper & Ifoedit I was successful in getting the movie properly re-authored and playing just fine with WINDVD on the computer. I then burned it to the DVD using Nero (5.5.6.4), on a Pioneer A03, and tried it in my Pioneer DV-C503 (5 disk carousel), and it played just fine. All extra's and menus and audio tracks stripped, just the movie with AC3 soundtrack.

I took this disk to my local retailer to give it a try in the two mega changers which support 'flipping' of a disk. Idea here being that the player will play side 1 then flip to side to and continue.

The two changers that support this are the Sony DVP-CX860 and the Kenwood DV-5050M, (both have better models), I actually tried my test on the Kenwood DV-5900M which has a Froujia line doulber (1,400 bucks). I was dissapointed to find that neither player would play the disk. Another dissapointment was the retailer was unable to hook either unit up to a TV, so I only had the front panel display to go by.

The Kenwood loaded the disk, indicated 'reading' for 20 seconds, then flipped the disk, indicated 'reading' then flipped again. The Sony appears to have given some sort of error code, but neither player would play the movie. I tried a regular DVD, and both players would begin playing the DVD with the usual counters on the front display. Just to be safe, I used the 'rental' slots on the Kenwood, to make sure it wasn't some kind of problem with wanting to label the disk in the player. Not being able to see what was happening on the TV, I'm still a little skeptical of what exactly happened, but the results between my DVD and the store DVD were quite different.

I'm wondering if anyone has any input or suggestions here. I'm supprised that my $250 Pioneer reads these disks just fine, while a $500 Sony, and a $1,400 Kenwood would not. Actually not surprised, more dissapointed. I bought the Pioneer because it would read anything!!! I've got single sided DVD-R's from another source, I think I'll make another prototype and head back to the store. Unfortunatly, I'll have to re-encode to get the whole movie on single side, which is what I was looking to avoid.

Questions:

Could the burning software have any affect? If not Nero, (5.5.6.4)what should I consider?

Could it be my content? Re-authored? What else to try?

Media (probably the culprit), any other sources of 2 sided DVD-R besides CD-Recordable.com? Emailed their tech support. Let's see what I get as a reply. Disks are sold as 'general purpose'

Any comments, suggestions are appreciated.

Roveer

[alhall]

I'm glad to hear you were successful in creating the DVD. I used a similar process but I can't get it to play on my Toshiba SD-3750. It just keeps loading, but nothing happens.