DVD Backups play in PC, not dvd players.

[chewbeeb]

I backed up my DVDs using Ripit4me, DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, and NERO to burn.

Everything seems to go fine and the dvds playback perfectly on my PC. Unfortunately, dvd players seem to get an error whenever I try to play them. They don't even start up on the dvd players. I've tried 3 different ones too. I've also tryed burning them with DVDFab, DVD Shrink, and NERO. I get the same problem. Anyone have any idea what's going on? Thanks in advance.

[CobraPilot]

Have you tried your backed-up DVDs in a different PC? If they still won't play, it might be that your burner is slightly out of spec. Your backups would then play only in the burner on which they were made and nowhere else.

It could also be the discs: What brand/mfr are you using? (As you probably already know, Nero's CD/DVD Speed will ID the mfr, regardless of the brand name.) Brand names tend to mean less nowadays.

[chewbeeb]

They work on different computers. As for brand, they're HP. I've used these before and they've worked fine so I don't think it's the discs.

I was afraid it might be the burner. I've used another computer to make them with just dvd shrink about a month ago and those worked fine. I was thinking since this was a new computer it might have been a software issue but I guess it could be the burner... Is there any way to find out for certain? Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[budz]

I backed up my DVDs using Ripit4me, DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, and NERO to burn.

Everything seems to go fine and the dvds playback perfectly on my PC. Unfortunately, dvd players seem to get an error whenever I try to play them. They don't even start up on the dvd players. I've tried 3 different ones too. I've also tryed burning them with DVDFab, DVD Shrink, and NERO. I get the same problem. Anyone have any idea what's going on? Thanks in advance.

DVD SHRINK is not a burning application, it's only to shrink down the video files. I would suggest you use IMGBURN to burn your dvd media. Also HP dvd media is low quality. Even though you've used HP discs before doesn't mean anything. It's the media id of the dvd disc that is important. HP probably has the CMC media id which is purely crap. Use good quality dvd media like VERBATIM or TAIYO YUDEN. What brand is your dvd burner? You can find out the exact media id of those HP discs by using DVDINFO PRO, DVD IDENTIFIER or CD/DVD SPEED.

[chewbeeb]

I backed up my DVDs using Ripit4me, DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, and NERO to burn.

Everything seems to go fine and the dvds playback perfectly on my PC. Unfortunately, dvd players seem to get an error whenever I try to play them. They don't even start up on the dvd players. I've tried 3 different ones too. I've also tryed burning them with DVDFab, DVD Shrink, and NERO. I get the same problem. Anyone have any idea what's going on? Thanks in advance.

DVD SHRINK is not a burning application, it's only to shrink down the video files. I would suggest you use IMGBURN to burn your dvd media. Also HP dvd media is low quality. Even though you've used HP discs before doesn't mean anything. It's the media id of the dvd disc that is important. HP probably has the CMC media id which is purely crap. Use good quality dvd media like VERBATIM or TAIYO YUDEN. What brand is your dvd burner? You can find out the exact media id of those HP discs by using DVDINFO PRO, DVD IDENTIFIER or CD/DVD SPEED.

I know DVD Shrink is not a burning tool. I meant that I used it to compress the files, then I burned it with NERO. I burn it with NERO, simply because 1) I have it and 2) DVD Shrink kinda integrates it. I'll definitely give IMGBURN a try as I also have that. As for the HP discs. The reason I said it's not the discs is because these are from the same exact spindle that I've used that work. I know HP is crappy quality but I don't need the best and these were cheap. I'm merely backing up dvds that the little ones in the family watch because they'll end up scratching them up. I don't need these to last to the end of time.

As for my burner and dvd info. I'll give you exactly what DVD Identifier said.

Burner: LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1P - [FW KLOG] - [ATAPI]
Discs: [DVD-R:CMC MAG, AM3]

The burner also burns dual layer discs and that's all I've burned up until now. But like I said, everything this thing burns works fine, with the exception of dvds not working on dvd players.

I appreciate you taking the time to reply budz.

[budz]

Unfortunately CMC is crappy media. Use VERBATIM dvd media when it goes on sale at BEST BUY, $12.99 for a 50 pack spindle. Your LITEON 20x dvd burner seems fine but LITEON dvd burners tend to like DVD+R media better than DVD-R. Check the LITEON FORUM at Cdfreaks.com to see if you have the latest firmware. You may have to upgrade the firmware on your drive to be able to burn with newer media id's.

[Werder]

Another possibility is that the menue structure is missing or damaged. Most DVD player do not play without the top level menue, on a PC a missing menu is no problem.
I always extract with DVDFab the main movie only and then build with authering software (I'm using TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6) a simple new menue around it - never had a problem on even the most sensitive players.
I think there is also software (like FIXVTS) in the tools section that can help you fix the menue structure, but I haven't tried it myself.

[chewbeeb]

I'll check up on the firmware of my drive first thing tomorrow morning. I just don't understand it though. On my old computer I was able to back up my discs with dvd shrink without ever having this problem. This is what led me to believe it was the burner on my new computer. I'll post an update here tomorrow after I check my burner's firmware and try some other stuff out. Thanks for the replies again...