Is it audio or the DVD causing problems in final product?

[briandugas]

I use TDA to author my DVD's. I'm not concerned with fancy menus...I have a patience problem, so all my DVD's start by playing the first track anyway.
My question is, every now and then, I get a DVD that will play in one of my DVD players, and not the other. The DVD player will just say "No Disc" on my TV screen. It's always the same DVD player. Now, sometimes it's with AC3 audio, and sometimes with MP2 audio. The only consistancy is the brand of DVD's I've been using. I use Memorex DVD+R. I know the -R works better, but the +R's were on sale for $1.00 a piece. Should I conclude that it's the DVD causing this problem? Or too many variables to actually nail it down? I've never had this problem with a DVD-R, so I guess I need to always use the DVD-R's. Oh, I use ffmpeggui02c to convert my audio to AC3.....but I haven't found the benefit lately, since both of my DVD players like MP2 just fine.
-Brian

[MrMungus]

I'm confused. Can you consistiently not play +R's in your DVD player or is it that only some audio formats don't play in that player?

[briandugas]

Sometimes a +R will work in the DVD player that is in question. Sometimes it won't work. The same +R will play in my other DVD Player. I'm thinking it's just a picky DVD Player that I have. It only plays about 50% of my +R material. My other (older) DVD Player (GE brand) will play pretty much anything I stick in it, +/-R. My picky DVD player is a Mintek that I got free when I bought a TV. I just picked up some more DVD-R's today, so I'll burn a DVD that previously failed on a +R. If it works with the -R, then I know it was a DVD format issue, and not an audio issue.

[briandugas]

OK, I'm at a lost. My problem DVD Player in my Living Room is a Mintek. Here are my test results from a captured cartoon from VHS:

DVD+R with AC3 audio doesn't work
DVD-R with AC3 audio doesn't work
DVD-R with MPEG2 audio doesn't work
DVD+RW with MPEG2 audio does work

I have the best luck with +RW's. Now, all 4 of these movies work on my older GE DVD Player. So now I am ready to conclude that it is the DVD Player, and not something I am doing.

[joecav]

I would say with 99% certainty it's your DVD player being picky about the media.
If I use certain brands of DVD-R burned the same exact way, my Norcent won't play it, but with others it will. Best bet is to buy a sampler pack from Rima.com and see what brands your player "likes", then go with that.
Ritek is usually my choice for -R, don't know if there's a +R flavor though...just a thought.

[briandugas]

I did some readings on this site about my DVD player. I see it is an all around good player, but after a while, many people stated that it crapped out on them. Seems the Mintek 1600 will play some DVD+R's, but not all. I'm noticing that my Mintek 1600 will not play any home made VHS-->DVD conversions. Kinda weird.