Newbie seeks veteran help..

[stevech]

A quickie summary:
Burned a movie (my very first DVD burn) using DVDXCOPY Express, Pioneer 105, on Princo DVD-RW, finsihed fine, zero error. Movie played perfect on the Pioneer 105 and Cyberhome 500, but does not play on Toshiba 2109, and a 4-5 year old Toshiba DVD drive (not sure about model).

Here's the deal, both Toshibas are old, but they have played DVD-Rs with no problem. Don't know what brand or how those DVD-Rs were made, as they were just loaners.

Qestions:
1. Should I try "better/more expensive" DVD-RW ?
2. Is it common that players play DVD-R but not DVD-RW?

Thanks.

[Red96TA]

Older machines have problems with dvd-r's....even MORE problems with dvd-rw's. You might have to get a new player, and drop the rw's...save those for data :P

[spectroelectro]

I think your problem has nothing to do with the machine you're using to burn your DVD-Rs. Rather, the problem is most likely that in creating a fairly long piec eof program mateiral on a single DVD-R, you have pushed outside the strict boundaries of the DVD spec.
As a rule of thumb, if you want good solid reliable playback of ANY DVD-R on a stanadlone DVD player you must adhere to the following rules of thumb:
[1] Do not record more than one hour of video on a single-layer (consumer) DVD-R;
[2] Never author a DVD whose bitrate drops below 2000 or goes above 8000;
[3] Always make sure that the DVD soundtrack adheres to the strict DVD format requirements -- namely, you CANNOT use only an mpeg-1 layer 2 stream as the soundtrack. DVD soundtracks must use either AC-3 (and either WAV or MP2) or WAV (and either AC-3 or MP2). Other combos are not striclty speaking within the DVD spec.
[4] Make sure that you author using UDF 1.02 rather than the infamous UDF 1.05. Many older players cannot handle UDF 1.05 or higher. (Many high quality DVD authoring programs like PRassi Primo DVD or DVD Maestro automatically take care of this for you. If you use Nero, however, you must specify the UDF version by hand if you want maximum compatibility.)
---
Since you used DVDXCOPY it's a pretty good bet that you pushed the bitrate down below the legal minimum for the strict DVD spec. That causes problems on some DVD players right there. Also, if you are using any kind of non-standard soundtrack (OGM or MP3) that will also bust playback in many cases.
These requirements sound stringent but bear in mind that most 2-hour movies use 2-layer DVDs. This means that the big studios chew up 4.3 gigs of disc space for only about 1 hour of video. The DVD psec is therefore designed to accomodate that limit. PUshing beyond it to squish 2 full horus of video onto a single-layer consumer DVD-R is begging for trouble.

[soundforbjt]

This means that the big studios chew up 4.3 gigs of disc space for only about 1 hour of video.

The real reason Hollywood video's are on dual layer discs are usually because of extra's not because the movie takes that much bitrate. I have some older movies that are 2 hours without extras that are on 4.7 layer discs.

[stevech]

Thanks all for helping. In summary, it sounds like:

1. It's probably worthwhile to do the exact same exercise on a DVD-R just to see.
2. It is not out of the rim of possibility that newer DVD players are more "capable" when it comes to playing recorded (versus pressed) DVDs.
3. Even with their claim, it is possible (or even likely) that software packages such as DVDXCOPY Express, which compresses DVD-9 to DVD-5, can create problems with some players.

My main application will not be copying movies, it will really be VHS to DVD type of archival operation, I think I will be OK. Thanks again for the help.

[thayne]

[1] Do not record more than one hour of video on a single-layer (consumer) DVD-R

WTF? That's complete non-sense...

[3] Always make sure that the DVD soundtrack adheres to the strict DVD format requirements

While this is true with some players, mainly older ones, I always author DVD's with only mp2 audio and never have problems.