DVD player locks up when I try to play disk with menu authored by DVD Flick

[aprete]

I hadn't authored a DVD in a long time, but I had a couple of mpegs on my computer that I wanted to make into a DVD. I'm not a big fan of a lot of the authoring tools out there. I saw some good chatter about DVD Flick so I gave it a try. The tool made a disc with nice video and I was especially impressed with the way it put audio and video in perfect sync (a problem that I have had whenever making DVDs throughout the years).

But, the resulting disc, with a menu, causes my DVD player (Samsung DVR-R120) to freeze whenever I try to play it! I have to cut power to the player to get it back. When I create a disc without a menu, it plays fine. I can play the disc with the menu in my computer and my XBOX 360 without a problem.

Has anybody seen this? Is it a problem with DVD Flick or with certain DVD players? DVDs take a long time to transcode so it's difficult to diagnose this. I did make a DVD with two short videos on it and I had the same menu problem. DVD Flick has limited (but just enough) options to make a menu, so there's not really much to try here.

Thanks.

[orsetto]

Your Samsung DVR-R120 is not a typical DVD player but a DVD recorder dating back to 2005 (a dinosaur in recorder years). Those older Samsung recorders were not noted for having the most compatible optical drives even when new, eight years later it is almost certain your problem is with this recorder. Bring the DVDs over to a friend or relative, and try them on their DVD players or BluRay players: if they load and play, your Samsung needs to be replaced or supplemented with a newer unit.

I have had DVDflick author the occasional wacky DVD that doesn't load or play normally, but it happens very rarely: perhaps 1 in 50 projects. When it happens, I usually just make a minor change to the layout options (pick a different thumbnail, change the target DVD size, etc) and let DVDflick re-author the project.

[aprete]

Orsetto, I took your advice and made one minor change. I authored the DVD with a different menu style. This one plays in the Samsung. Very odd indeed. Of course, I made a DVD+RW to test it out before I made a DVD+R.

I know the player is old, but over the years it has been very tolerant of whatever brand disc I put in it. The only thing it can't do is record on "plus" media. To use it as a recorder, you need to use "dash" media. It will play "plus" media recorded on other devices.

Hey, I got it for nothing, as a throw-in when I bought a HDTV.