CALLING ALL EXPERTS! Standalone no longer reads my DVDs!

[mmilligan]

Hi all -

I feel like I'm chasing my tail here. I can't get my DVDs to play on my standalone player! (My PC and standalone information are waaay below.)

I have made DVDs before both with Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 (DVD builder 1.0.1.5) and Sonic MyDVD 4, and they've all played just fine - now they're not.

When I put a DVD I created into my standalone, you can hear it searching for something - half the time it sounds like an airplane getting ready for takeoff! Then it tells me there's a disc error and it's unable to read the disc.

Who knows - maybe my standalone DVD player is broken - however, it plays movies like Lord of the Rings The Two Towers and Chicago just fine! I haven't had a chance to run to Best Buy and try my authored DVDs on their standalones to double check. I'm guessing however, that since movies play fine, that there's no hardware problem.

All I've been trying to do is to make a DVD with 2 submenus that had 2 or 3 videos in each. Altho I've done that successfully in the past, this time it didn't work. I thought it was because one of the videos was about 20 minutes long.

To test that theory, I chopped my DVD menu to only one menu with just one small video file (about 1 minute long), and that initially did work. Now it does not. I changed nothing, installed nothing between when my DVD player could read that small-menu/small-file DVD was read and when it stopped reading it. It just stopped reading them on my standalone.

I have tried everything I can think of to fix this:

* again, tried using smaller files with one menu layer (which again initially did work - now does not)
* tried using two different DVD authoring apps - both of which had worked before (Roxio & Sonic),
* tried using different filetypes (DV, MPEG1, MPEG2 for the videos in the DVD - at different times of course)
* tried recording to different media (DVD+RW, DVD-RW, and DVD+R)
* tried making SVCDs with Roxio DVD Builder on CD media. It eventually plays on my standalone, but I lose the menu completely - it just goes right to the video.
* and even tried just copying the file to a DVD (each type above) to play directly on the standlone, with no menu.

Nothing worked.

Strange new thing - when I tried to make a VCD (with a CD) with Sonic 4, it only gives me the option of using my CD burner-doesn't even recognize my DVD burner is there for burning CDs (and that's where I had put the blank media! It should have known I could burn CDs on that drive.) I don't know if that's important, but felt I should include in, just in case.

I should note that everything I've tried has run successfully on my PC - both on my older DVD-ROM and on my DVD Burner. Also note that my standalone is quite capable of playing all these file formats and DVD media. I've fully researched what it can play - and we're ok there. It should be playing these - and in fact, has played all these media and formats before. To repeat, it had been playing them fine - now all of sudden, nothing.

Another thing to note - a couple of weeks ago, I had to reinstall Videowave 4, so I thought perhaps it over-wrote a critical file in Roxio 6 or Sonic. So I uninstalled and reinstalled the newer apps in the order I had installed them before (all after VW4.) You'd think that'd fix it. Nope. All problems remain as before.

I read on CNET, a review of Videowave, where someone said the first thing it did was over-write their ASPI layer. I haven't a clue what that means, but do you think this would be part of the problem?

On that note, I've noticed a new Device in Device manager, a VSO device called Patin Couffin, v1.10. Could that be part of the problem?

I've contacted my DVD Hardware Manufacturer, hoping to get a clue about this, and perhaps the ASPI files (if they thought that was the problem,) and it turns out they've gone OUT OF BUSINESS. Just my luck. Cendyne, if you're wondering.

Please do not respond with messages telling me to get rid of my hardware and/or software. I may end up doing that...and am currently exploring options with Canopus ADVC100. However, the problem won't go away since it looks to me like it's linked to my DVD burner somehow - and that's not going anywhere.

But I do ask of everyone that if you're going to respond, please do everyone the courtesy of reading the entire post above, to avoid suggesting something that's already been tried. (I've been burned by Tech Support in the past - Dell most notably - they never read anything past the first 2 lines and then get you to try everything you've already tried. You spend the first 20 emails just trying to get them to understand the problem. Grr! )

Thanks everyone - in advance - for your help and time reading all this.

My PC information:
OS: WinXP Home SP1
CPU: Pentium 3, 1.7GHz
STORAGE: 80GB 7200RMP Internal Maxtor HDD; Four external Iomega 120GB 7200RPM (converted to NTFS) HDDs
RAM: 1GB
VIDEO CARD: NVidia GEForce2 MX
CD BURNER: NEC NR-7900A
DVD ROM: LITEON LTD163
DVD BURNER: Cendyne CDICD000224 (External USB2.0)
CAPTURE CARD: Dazzle Mojave Bridge (came in infamous Dell Movie Package)
STANDALONE DVD PLAYER: GoVideo DVD/VCR Combo DVR4300
OTHER: Texas Instruments OHCI-compatible IEEE 1394 card
OTHER: Soundblaster Live.

[mmilligan]

Can someone please help me with this problem?

I've seen that about 119 people have read it, but no one has either the answer or time to reply.

If anyone has any ideas, please pass them along.

Thanks

Mel

[Gees]

Perhaps the lack of responses was because of your warning to people about what not to tell you. Just a guess.

Have you done any research in the meantime? I'd first try checking your player. Look it up in DVD Player section and see which type/ brand works for other owners.

Yours was a long post, but I do not think it included media info (maybe I missed it concentrating too much on your warnings and what not to say?) But that is one vital element in the process.

Next look up your disc type & brand and see what other users have reported. See if others had same instances where what used to work no longer works.

Have you changed media from when it worked to now? If no, you still could have hit bad discs, even within the same batch of media.

If that's what you meant by researched, forgive me for doing what you asked us not to do. :c)

Good luck

[lordsmurf]

I'm not reading that novel.

My quick advice is to CLEAN THE LASER.

[mmilligan]

Hi Gees. Thanks for the idea. I was actually trying to be thoughtful of potential readers and writers by telling them everything I'd done, rather than letting them waste their time writing to suggest things I'd already tried. I suppose the real reason people didn't write is because they would have suggested everything I already did.

And because people have a limited attention span. (Believe me I am one of them, and I wouldn't read my 'novel' either.) However, I was hoping there'd be one or two 'power users' - the real hardcore techies who love a challenge like I'm dealing with - who revel in the kind of detail I provided. I thought this would be the right forum - but I guess not.

As for the 'clean the head' suggestion in the next email - thanks, I will try that, altho the writer is brand new, so I don't know how dirty it could be. But ya never know...stranger things have happened.

[mmilligan]

BTW - yes, I've done copious amounts of research on the drive, etc.

As far as media is concerned, it doesn't seem to matter what brand or whether it's DVD+R, +RW, -R, or -RW.

I was hoping it'd be that easy, but nope.

[Gees]

Oh. Best of luck with it. Someone may still come along with a similar experience. But I do think the length may be a bit daunting. :c)

By research I had specifically meant owner info on this site on the left. Not sure if you meant elsewhere. I've found loads of tips & tricks hidden there for situations I've had. :c)

Don't give up. Keep checking back and maybe bring it back to life every so often. You don't need to wait a month. :c) That is, if you haven't found a remedy in the meantime. :c)

[mmilligan]

Yeah, It's a really weird problem. Everything had been working...then nothing.

And I found out about a week after this happened (when I contacted the mfg for help) that Cendyne went out of business.

Yeah, I know the length doesn't help, but it was the only way to describe the problem and solutions tried. Maybe folks have time to burn here, making suggestions already tried, but I didn't want to selfishly assume they did. I sure as heck don't have that kind of time.

There are plenty of tech support folks I've dealt with over the years that require the kind of detail I've given - so I've been 'conditioned' by them. I was thinking there'd be some techies lurking around here that'd see the message and think "finally, someone who gives the whole picture". They're used to getting "I have a problem with my player", and then have to spend the next 20 emails just trying to nail the problem and any solutions tried.

Anyway, looks like I'll comb other places for help. I know there there's got to be someone out there who can sit and read a one page support problem. 8)

[Gees]

I understand all your points. :c) I guess there's no perfect way to do it. Maybe a happy medium, but ... any way, it's out there now and still hope for someone to see it, although you've ruled out a lot of responses off the bat.

If you hadn't asked not to, the first reply probably would have been - get a $50.00 so-and-so player that handles everything. :c)

[mmilligan]

>>If you hadn't asked not to, the first reply probably would have been - >>get a $50.00 so-and-so player that handles everything. :c)

Heh. If I could've gotten one for that amount, boy I surely would have. As it is, I got the least expensive one out there that handled the everything (with the exception of DVD-RAM.) It had great reviews here and on other sites, too. I'll keep digging to see if anyone else is having this problem with this model, but so far, nada. And doesn't seem like anyone else is having this problem with any other makes, either. I'm so alone!

Later!

[handyguy]

I don't know, but maybe I didn't find the manf of the playe ryou have, anyway it won't play vcds if they don't pay for vcd licensing.

Your player might not use -r disks or +r disks.

[SLK001]

My guess (and I didn't even read your post) is that you used cheap media that has now degraded to garbage.

If this is so, then you got what you paid for.

[mmilligan]

SLK001 Posted: Oct 29, 2003 09:38
>>My guess (and I didn't even read your post) is that you used cheap >>media that has now degraded to garbage.
>>If this is so, then you got what you paid for.


I'd agree with you if you consider Maxell, Memorex, Verbatim, and Sony cheap. 8)


handyguy Posted: Oct 29, 2003 09:35
>>I don't know, but maybe I didn't find the manf of the playe ryou have, >>anyway it won't play vcds if they don't pay for vcd licensing.
>>Your player might not use -r disks or +r disks.


Not sure if you're writing to the correct person. Yes, it does play VCDs. And it also uses -r and +r disks. If it didn't, it wouldn't be a DVD+/-RW, would it?

[SLK001]

I'd agree with you if you consider Maxell, Memorex, Verbatim, and Sony cheap.

MAXELL - Brand name plagued by pirate discs.

MEMOREX - Not a great DVD (irregardless of the name).

VERBATIM - Plagued by quality problems at some of its contracted manufacturers (CMC).

SONY - I don't have data on these.

If it played once, and now it doesn't, then either the disc or your player has gone bad.

[lordsmurf]

SONY has a lot of fakes too. Names mean nothing, without descriptions of the dyes, branding and media code info (and write strategies). That's how it goes these days.

[Gazorgan]

You have the symptoms of 'Slow Laser Death'.

That's what I call it anyway. The laser uses different strengths to read DVDR/W verses a commercially pressed DVD. As the strength of the laser fades, it loses its ability to read the organic dyes in the DVDR/W's. this is why some DVDROM drives cycle a few times before they read a R/W disk...they try the settings for a commercial DVD first.

You could replace your laser assembly and I bet it would work fine.

Laserdisks have something similiar.

[mmilligan]

Gazorgan Posted: Oct 29, 2003 15:23

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have the symptoms of 'Slow Laser Death'.

That's what I call it anyway. The laser uses different strengths to read DVDR/W verses a commercially pressed DVD. As the strength of the laser fades, it loses its ability to read the organic dyes in the DVDR/W's. this is why some DVDROM drives cycle a few times before they read a R/W disk...they try the settings for a commercial DVD first.

You could replace your laser assembly and I bet it would work fine.

Laserdisks have something similiar.

Now THAT sounds like what's happening. Ah well. So it's the reader and not the writer (thank GOD!) I went to BestBuy and got them to play a couple I'd written and they SEEMED to play. I say 'seemed' because they don't actually have any DVD players hooked up to TVs (can you believe that!? Duh!) Anyway, I played the discs on a few different brands and none seemed to reject it - in fact the counter just plugged along nicely.

So, maybe I should just go out and buy a $50 player that'll handle reading my authored discs!? ROFL!! S'kinda where I thought I'd end up.

RE: media - I had no idea the 'name' brands were plagued with so many problems! Can you make a suggestion which media to use that is least likely to crap out?

Thanks everyone - I think we've probably hit the nail on the head with the 'slow death' syndrome. It's a GoVideo, anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised.

[mmilligan]

PROBLEM FOUND - SOLUTION DISCOVERED!!

THANK YOU Gazorgan!

You were right! I contacted the folks at GoVideo, and their reply was:

"After speaking with my lead tech, he advised the unit's laser pick-up will need to be replaced. The unit will need to be shipped to us for repair. The warranty on the unit is 90 days on labor and 1 year on parts. The labor charge is $69.95 and this price also includes shipping the unit back to you. If you have any further questions please let me know."

Isn't it always the LAST place you check? All along I'd blamed Roxio for the error. (Well, it wasn't a difficult conclusion to make, after all.)

So anyway - anyone reading this - if you have this problem - contact your standalone manufacturer!!

Thanks again everyone - especially Gazorgan!!!

Best -

Mel

[Gazorgan]

Glad to be of service.

I had a CDRW burner go out that way, stopped burning but could still read. Not the same situation, but similiar.