Arcsoft Showbiz help

[Lesmoore]

I have recorded movies using the recorder that comes with Window XP Media center. The DVD recording software that came with my new computer is Arcsoft Showbiz II. I have tried recording DVD+RW on this using Verbatim media. They play fine on the DVD player on the computer. I am also using a brand new Sony DVD player that gets good reviews in the compatability section on this site but they won't play. The manual for the Sony DVD player says it will only play DVD's recorded in Region 1. Also, it say it won't play DVD's recorded in VR mode. I don't really know what this means. The Arcsoft program doesn't allow you to specify either of those criteria when you make a DVD. I would appreciate any suggestions. I am wondering if my problem is the software I am using to burn the DVDs. It is very user friendly but it doesn't seem to offer much in the way of setting the criteria I may need. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Bodene]

I've played around with the showbiz I received with my DVD burner and have found it to be lacking. While I was able to encode an mpeg back into DVD-Video format and burn it successfully, on my second attempt, the sound was out of sync with the video. The whole process took over 12 hours to accomplish, which is way.....way.....too long. I shant be doing that again.

As for the other functions, the showbiz is not easy to use for beginners like me. While messing with it, I keep wishing it was more intuitively controlled and set up, but much of what it does makes no sense. For example, when compiling a DVD-Video from mpegs or VOB's on my HD, it doesn't allow you to choose VOB's. It won't even recognise them. That, to me, makes no sense.

You don't really specify what it is you are wanting to do, so I can't offer specific suggestions. If you are wanting to burn mpegs or avi's from your HD onto a DVD, there are better/faster ways of doing it. If you are wanting to backup your store-bought DVD's, you won't use showbiz for that either. In fact, I don't really see a whole lot of use for the showbiz except for converting small mpegs into DVD-Video format for burning. For longer running files, it just takes too long.

Lastly.....as for the expensive SONY dvd player. I also have one, and it won't play ANYTHING except commercial DVD's, or the backups I've made. It won't do VCD's, MP3's, or any of the multiple other formats that are printed on the front of it. I will NEVER buy another one. Instead, I recommend buying an inexpensive DVD player like a Pioneer from walmart. Cheaper DVD players tend to be way more compatible than the more expensive brands and models. I'm going to give my $300 Sony to my 10 year old, and buy myself a cheapo.