How can I tell what format a DVD is in?

[lwftmb]

Hi,

I'm by no means a power user of DVDs. I'm not into burnging my own, just have a library for the kids and family.

I have a pile of disks that are labelled as dvd-9 in format. The range in size from 5.5-7.8 gig when I looked at them on my pc's drive.

They player perfectly on an RCA DRC247n player I had, though the always came up with a disk error "unable to perform playback" on both the dvd player in the family SUV and a low end dvd player I bought at Walmart.

My RCA unit died, and I came looking here figuring I'd use the info to pick a player with specs that matched the RCA.

Based on info I found against what was available nearby, I picked up a Magnavox MWD7006, which looked like it should work fine. Unfortunately the new player was unable to read the disks. I tried several dvd's I knew to be otherwise working just in case. In all cases the ones labelled as dvd-9 had a prolonged pause then eventually an error.

So, my question is, assuming that the info on the unit is correct, how can I verfiy what format a dvd is in?

My goal is just to acquire a player that will play all the dvds we have, so any help is appreciated.

Thanks for reading,
lwftmb

[solarfox]

Are these all commercial, retail-purchased discs? If so, then they're not in any kind of "format", as such -- commercial retail discs are neither "dash" nor "plus"; they're pressed in a plastic stamper (it's the same process that's been used since the days of vinyl records, just with much greater precision).

If your new Magnavox player is having trouble reading pressed dual-layer discs, then it's defective and needs to be returned for a replacement.

[lwftmb]

No, there are not retail. They were given to me by a friend, and I don't know what format they're in for sure, though he wrote "dvd-9" on them. We've had them a while.

I emailed the person I got them from, but he's since stopped using that email account and I haven't been able to get hold of him.

They do play on the RCA I had, and on my PC. Just not on other dvd players.

[redwudz]

Dual layer burned DVDs can be problematic with many players. It's not a exact science yet. The best advice seems to be to use only Verbatim DL plus DVD media and use ImgBurn to burn the discs. Even with all that, there's no guarantee that they will work on all players. If they are other than Verbatim discs and programs other than ImgBurn were used to burn them, the odds go up considerably that you will have playback problems.

If you can read them in your computer, you can try reburning them using ImgBurn to a Verbatim DL plus disc. Or run them through DVD shrink and either transcode them to a DVD-5 disc or split them to two DVD-5 discs. For DVD-5 media, I would recommend Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim discs as being among the best quality.

And welcome to our forums.

BTW, there is only one compliant 'DVD format'. You can see the format and the specifications to the upper left on this page in 'WHAT IS' DVD.

[Baldrick]

Please use the newbie/general forum if you don't know where to post. This is not any DV/HDV/ Camera problem. Moving you.