DVD problems

[HypersonicGamer]

Hello all, this is my first post, and I would like send out greetings.

My problem is quite unique and irritating to me. I've spent about 10 coasters thinking I'm quite a smart-ass into figuring it out. After that, I decided to come here and get some help with the Pros.

Two years ago, I visited Singapore on vacation. I went into a VCD shop, and I bought a couple of VCD movies (I assume they are CD-Rs, they are labeled and all). These VCDs work perfectly on my DVD player with no mishaps, jerkies or anything like that. I recently aquired Star Wars : Episode 2 in a BIN/CUE format. I burned this with Fireburner, plopped it into my DVD player...with no luck (this is the beggining of my problems! )

One of my buddies told me to use Nero...So I picked up the latest version, and then burned the image file. No luck... the same "No Disc" error appeared on my player. I then started to get frustrated, and I compiled a new VCD from scratch using Nero's "compile other>VCD" feature. No luck...

I then thought I could take some of the Singaporean files and kind of do an organ transplant surgery between the CDs. I noticed the Singaporean VCDs had an autorun feature so that a VCD player would start everytime you would plop in the CD into your computer (I'm assuming this doesn't relate to my standalone DVD player). Ok, so then I took the autorun file, a new folder in there called "Win" (It contained the VCD player, the autorun script had instructions to run the player) and I copied it all into a new Nero VCD compiliation.

And wouldn't you know it...No luck...

So then I tried all sorts of things...ranging from Easy CD creator 5 to CDRWIN to countless burners....No luck, No luck, No luck... I don't understand AT ALLwhy the Singaporean VCDs will work on my player. Should I transplant some more files? Any files I am not transporting that are crucial? I've tried running Daemon-Tools and transplanting some of the Star War's files and it resulted in one big jumble up of files and .mpgs and .dats and whatever else you can think of. Those crazy Singaporeans must have done some voodoo to the CDs, lol.

I am quite flustered at my performance...and I hope, I hope that someone can help me out.

Anyone? Please? Thanks for reading my long rant/post/cry/spam or whatever you would like to call it, lol j/k, I'm sure most of you guys are nice. 8)

Thanks again,



HypersonicGamer

[Craig Tucker]

Can your DVD player play CDR's. Asian VCD's are often pressed not copied, and so dont use CDR media.

Craig

[Dave B]

Check the compatible media for your player using the data on this site.

http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers.php

You may have better luck with a CD-RW (e.g. many Sony DVD players will only read rewritables) or a different brand of CD-R.

[HypersonicGamer]

Ah I see, thanks guys...seems my player can only play CDRWs.

How do you do that press thing? lol

Thanks

[HypersonicGamer]

Some bad news...

I checked the DVD compatiblity list for my Panasonic A105, and I found out that it could only play CD-RWs. I picked up a pack of 10 Memorex CD-RWs and burned a VCD using "File>New Compilation>VCD" in the Nero interface. I dragged over the .DAT file and it compressed it and all that stuff... which I'm sure is just the standard procedure.

I burned at 4x, it was the max speed it would go, and when I finally tried it in my player, it would state : "Read----" for about half a second and then display "No disc." I kept trying to eject and reinsert the disc with no luck.

Could anyone help me with this problem? I don't understand if the problem is in my burning, media (the guys said Memorex CD-RWs worked fine ), or anything else.

Thanks,



HypersonicGamer

[Dave B]

If the DAT file was from a compliant VCD, try renaming it with a .mpg extension before dragging it over to the VCD window.

Or try a straight CD to CD copy with the working VCD you bought from Singapore.

[Craig Tucker]

You can't press your own discs, this is how they are manufactured in quantity for retail sale. Same as CD's and DVD's

Craig

[JeffH]

But what's different about "pressing" the cd verses burning? is it just the media?

[Dave B]

No, pressing is done in a press and burning is done in a burner.

Pressing a CD/DVD is a complex, expensive process and is only really profitable for big runs (e.g. a film studio release)

[JeffH]

I guess I'm just wondering what makes it look different to the DVD player?

I would imagine it's programming within the player that decides if it will work or not. There must be some way to hack the player to accept cdr or something.

[Dave B]

Pressed media by its very nature is more reflective and reliable than CD-R. Problems are compounded because many DVD players have their lasers tuned to read this type of media - meaning they struggle when reading CD-Rs.

Players which can reliably read CD-Rs usually have a dual laser system.

[JeffH]

Ahhh... well that's the best answer that I have found yet.. So let me ask you... is there compatible media that is as reflective or does the burning process cause a problem with the reflectivity?

[HypersonicGamer]

Dave, when you said rename the the DAT file to a .mpg extension, it shows up in my Nero window as "AVSEQ01.mpg.DAT".

I am afraid that it won't recognize the extension...I'm scared of making coasters, lol. Is there a way to change it to an .mpg....for anyone with my Panasonic A105 DVD player, could you post about how you burned it?

Thanks,



HypersonicGamer

[JeffH]

Sounds like you need to display the actual file extensions in explorer. For instance lets say you have a file called test.mpg on your desktop. The only thing you would see is the icon of the program that you have associated with it.. for instance real player, and the file name as test .

If you double click on my computer then go to tools and folder options and uncheck the option "hide file extensions for known file types" then select apply you should now see the full file name of "test.mpg".

The above are the steps for Windows 2000, but Win9x - Win2k are similar. Not sure about XP though.

[HypersonicGamer]

Some more bad news...

The previous .DAT file can rename to .MPG with the advice you gave, but when I drag the .MPG file over into the Nero VCD compilation window, it automatically converts it back to .DAT!

I tried manually dragging it into the top MPEGAV window, but it wouldn't give me the option to burn. I then tried to create a data CD and copy the exact format in which the image CD looked like (I used Daemon-Tools to correctly make the folders and I transplanted the items from the image in other folders). Instead of .DATs, I used .MPGs for my data CD creation. It looked fine, nothing was deceiving...but when the burn was complete...

.DAT file! Yes, it was! It keeps converting the .MPG into its own evil extensions. I am using Memorex CDRWs as was said to be used in my Panasonic A105 DVD player list. So, is there a way to counter-fool Nero into burning this CD with .MPG in the MPEGAV folder instead of .DATs?

Would this technically make a difference though in the sense that my DVD player would read it? I'm willing to try anything...

Thanks, 8)



HypersonicGamer

[HypersonicGamer]

I tried using Easy CD Creator 5 to manaully create the folders and drag over the AVESQ01.MPG into the MPEGAV folder (I used data disk creation but I copied it exactly like how the image was except for the .DAT>.MPG). I then burned and tried it in my standalone player but it still wouldn't read it.