DRU500a - WinDVD & DVD Player Won't Play Back Burned Mov

[rkr1958]

Home Movies, authored with MyDVD & Ulead DVDMovie Factory, DVD backups (w/DVD Decryptor & IfoEdit), burned with my Sony DRU-500a using RecordNow all play beautifully in my NEC DVD-ROM computer drive (using WinDVD) and in my standalone Toshiba SD-2800 DVD player. But these will no play back in my Sony DRU-500a drive using WinDVD or (Gateway's) DVD Player. I can read the discs in the DRU-500a and copy the files back to my hard-drive I just can't get WinDVD or DVD Player to play the authored and burned DVD movies. Has anyone else experience this and if so, is there anything I can do to fix it.

[dun4cheap]

You need to set the region for you Sony Drive. I put the link below that tells you how to fix this.

http://sony.storagesupport.com/cgi-bin/sonysupport.cgi/5Q3qEl6QUyS3HoBEjBYkqP5IfLIfGtSM/faq/view/523

[rkr1958]

dun4cheap,

Thanks for your reply ... great info to know. It appears that this is not my problem. As a check out of proper installation of my DRU-500a drive, the first thing I did (luckily) was to played a commerical DVD, which apparently set my region code. The problem I'm encountering when I try to play an authored DVD is that WinDVD, DVD Player, and (the DVD Player that came bundled with the drive -- I can't remember it's name now) locks-up. These players look like they are trying to play but lock up. However, they play commerical DVD on the DRU-500a just fine. The home DVDs play in my DVD-ROM computer drive and in my standalone player just not in my DRU-500a. Again, I can read and write data from an authored DVD (or a data DVD) in the DRU-500a just not play it on my computer.

[mikeeve]

We are not alone.

I have a similar problem that I mentioned in a couple of other posts last week. Still haven't resolved it. I've used both Studio 8 and MyDVD to author (edit, compile) and burn the disc to DVD-RW on my Pioneer DVR-105. I can copy the VIDEO_TS directory back from the DVD-RW to the hard drive and play the movie there using Sonic CinePlayer. I can not play the movie from the DVD-RW in my Pioneer drive. Both CinePlayer and Windows Media Player (8 and 9) hang while trying to play the disk. WMP just gives the message "Loading Media" and has to be killed. I do not have another DVD drive that I can try to play the movie. Commercial disks play just fine (I use the Matrix for testing). Even IfoEdit hangs if asked to play the disk!

One time I inadvertently doubleclicked both Nero and WMP almost simultaneously. I could swear the movie started to play from disk. I saw the first part of the first scene. I could be mistaken and maybe it was playing from the hard drive, but I don't think so. I haven't been able to duplicate this.

I think this is some subtle interaction of hardware. We should compare notes about our system. I reinstalled Win XP Pro this weekend, brought in all the updates from Microsoft (including WMP 9). My system is an Athlon XP 1400 on an Asus A7V266-C motherboard with onboard CMedia sound.Winfast TV2000 capture card. I have hard drives at C (Fat32) and D (NTFS). The Pioneer is drive E. C is on the primary IDE channel, D and E are on the secondary channel. 512M DDR. Don't have much software loaded after the reinstall: Sonic MyDVD, CinePlayer, Studio 8 (beta 8.5) Video card is ATI Radeon (old model, originally called Velocity 100 but I think it's now called 7200). We can also compare interrupts, drivers, etc. Would help if we could compare to a system with a DVD burner that actually plays burned DVDs.

[rkr1958]

Here's my Computer Profile:
Operating System: W98 SE
CPU Speed: 733 MHz PIII
Harddrive space: 45 GB IBM (Master on Primary IDE Channel to Motherboard) & 120 GB WD (Master on Primary IDE Channel to PCI Controller Card); Both HD's are 7200 RPM UATA100
RAM Memory: 512 MB PC 133
Video Card: 32MB 3D Prophet II MX AGP 4x
Capture Card: Studio DV
Motherboard: Intel i815e Chipset
CD-ROM: None Installed
DVD-ROM: NEC 12x / 40x DVD-ROM (Master on Secondary IDE Channel to PCI Controller Card)
CD Writer: None Installed
DVD Writer: Sony DRU-500A Firmware 1.0f (Master on Secondary IDE Channel to Motherboard)
Standalone DVD Player: Toshiba SD 2800
Other: Ethernet & 2nd IDE Controller PCI Cards

[dun4cheap]

Just wondering if you guys have set the region manually for your DVD drives. I have played many of commercial dvds, but it did not set the region on my the burner. So I had to goto the device manager and set it manually. Ever since it has played my burnt DVDs.


ed woods

[mikeeve]

No. I have not set it manually. I just assumed that playing the first commercial DVD set it. But I'll give it a whirl. Thanks.

Edit: OK. The region code was 1 and I "changed" it to 1. Reburned the DVD-RW. Still won't play.

I may start swapping out hardware. I could even do a motherboard swap, but I've already activated this copy of Win Pro 4 times for basically the same machine.

[I'm just afraid MS will say, "Stop, Pirate!" even though I only use it on 1 machine at a time and only have it installed on one drive at a time. Heck, I have 3 legal copies of XP, one for each user in the house!]

[mikeeve]

Just used the same hardware setup, but tried a DVD-R. Works great! At least, I can playback this on the burner. Strange, that the burner that writes DVD-RW can't do playback of same! I wonder if there is a format problem with the DVD-RW (I once did a full-erase then just quick erases) or maybe the DVD-RW needs to be "closed" or similar.


Edit: The mystery deepens. My dvd player, an old Panasonic, was listed as "maybe" for playing DVD-R. Played it with no problem. My player was lister as "no way" for DVD-RW, but played it with no problem! So the only thing that won't play the DVD-RW is the burner it was created on (Pioneer A05, firmware 1.21)