Burning DVD-R images smaller then 4.7 GB

[Szegedi]

Help needed! In short my Philips DVD 960 (FW 9.28) refuses to play DVD-R if it is not burnt "to the rim". So if the movie or in fact anything else is smaller than 4,7 GB I am stuck. Is there a way to burn the DVD-R in such way to overcome that? (Burner NEC-1300A, prog. CloneDVD). TIA

[garryheather]

What application do you use to burn with ?

I use Nero, and that supports my writer's function (04) of a compatibility mode where extra data is written to the disc to make it compatible - although usually the minimum limit is (just) 1Gb, so this might not help you !

Have a look and see if there is a force compatibility mode - it might be something wierd like not being finalised correctly, but it is very odd...

[tompika]

Thats very interesting

1. There are original DVD5 discs less than 4482MB.
Does the Philips refuse to play them as well?

2. You said you used CloneDVD. It often creates VIDEO_TS folders less than 4300MB. Does the Philips play'em?

3. Try different medias and burning engine (Nero, RNM, DVD Decrypter) to see if the problem still persists

[Gazorgan]

I did a backup last night of Barb Wire. It's under 3 GB. Burned with an NEC 1300a, plays great in an APEX 1201. Maybe you need a player?

You can add an additional folder to the DVD and pad it with junk files. Leave the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS alone, just the normal files in there.

[noki]

i've burnt many dvd+rs with way less than 4G; 3.2, 3.6, compilations at around 3.8G...no problems. have 1300a, using copytodvd and nero.
maybe it's the dvd-r discs (player does not like 'em).

tompika

1. There are original DVD5 discs less than 4482MB.
Does the Philips refuse to play them as well?

his player might very well play them; they are dvd-rom, not dvd-r,etc.
i'll wager it is either the media itself or type of media (+-)

[SLK001]

Sounds to me like there is a "lead-out" issue. Try creating all the required files, then re-creating the DVD-Video (in your burning program). If your burning program doesn't offer a DVD-Video, try NERO.

[Szegedi]

Sorry, forgot to mention that all disks functioned normally in cheap Toshiba 120e player (and several others mind you). I think that the problem is with my Philips DVD 960 player which is rather old by today standards and I was not able to find firmware newer than 9.28. Maybe advice with filling will do the trick. I'll let you know.

[Gurm]

No, honestly I think it's your media.

We've seen a few people lately that have had this "my player won't play anything smaller than X.XX GB" problem.

And it's almost ALWAYS either media or a problem with burning.

- Gurm

[Adder_78]

Old Philips DVD-players are very picky for DVDR and DVDRW media... maybe it could be a good time to buy a new DVD-player...

[Szegedi]

Yes I agree that my Philips is somewhat old (three years mind you!) and it is very picky about type of media but in those three years we become such good friends that I wouldn't like to part form it. What I didn't know when I have purchased my burner which is NEC ND-1300A incidentaly, is that the burner model could be decisive factor also. Some media burnt by some other burner play very nice in my player and if I burn same media type, player simply refuses to play. As for advice on buying a new player it will have to wait a while. The overall quality of playing original DVD and music CD is such that I wouldn' discard it while I couldn't afford same quality again. If I remember correctly the price, nowdays I could buy dvd recorder with a huge disk for that kind of money.

[Vanderlow]

you could buy a $135 Lite-on DVd player that would probably smoke it. Who knows maybe even a $70 panny would outperform it too.