best dvd player for burned dvd's

[balboa2151]

hi all.....i assume this question must've been asked a thousnd times but i can't find anything on it. ive been searching the internet for days and i have also searched this forum to find what dvd player plays burned dvd's the best? i use verbatim dvd+ R and dvd+ R DL and the panasonic i have is 3-4 yrs old and will not play any burned dvd's. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

[DB83]

Have you tried a dvd -R since it is quite possible that your Panasonic will NOT play +R disks. Check your manual.

Many players have issues with +R disks (or so I have read) and for best compatability one should use -R disks.

[manono]

i use verbatim dvd+ R and dvd+ R DL and the panasonic i have is 3-4 yrs old and will not play any burned dvd's.

How are you getting these DVDs? Home-made or downloaded? And what are you using to burn them to disc? Anything else other than ImgBurn and you're wasting your time (and discs). The DVDs contain properly authored DVD video and audio (IFOs, BUPs, and VOBs) and not AVIs or some such? Do they play on other DVD players? Can you test on your friends' and neighbors' players?

I haven't seen the evidence yet that your player is at fault. The fact that it doesn't play them is pretty much meaningless without a whole lot more information. Does it give a message when you try to play your DVD+Rs? All players these days (even those 3-4 years old) should play burned DVDs.

[balboa2151]

Thank you everyone for giving me your input......I'm burning the Dvd's on my CPU and I'm using clone and anydvd.....so when DVD didn't play in my Panasonic I tried it in my Phillips region free and it worked perfect. So I'd have to assume its the player.....correct? When I put the DVD in Panasonic it makes all kinds of weird noises but never plays DVD . Hope this helps.....thanks

[jman98]

Well, 3-4 years ago is short enough time that all DVD players SHOULD recognize consumer burnable DVDs whether +R or -R. The odds are that your Panasnoic doesn't care as manono says. I've seen older players that did care and I've seen some that just had major problems with DL media, even Verbatim, but 3-4 years ago basically any player you got should be OK. The weird noises mean that it can't read the disc. Since it should be OK to read the disc (I mean it really shouldn't have been manufactured to deliberately not do so) I'd guess that the laser is showing its age and the reflectivity of consumer burned discs is now beyond its ability to read. Players 3-4 years old aren't worth repairing although if you REALLY want to, you can look online on how to adjust your laser and give it a shot if you have the right tools AND (critical part) you can identify the part of the drive that you have to adjust. I'd just toss it. DVD/BD players are now considered consumables, so you throw them out when you have problems. You could also look into buying a cleaning disc for the player, but it will cost you about $20 if I remember correctly and there's no guarantee it will fix your problem.

I've used Philips DVD players for years and I like that many of them are easily hackable to be region free and they convert between PAL and NTSC. Also, support for old formats like VCD is useful to me at times and Philips still supports those.

[balboa2151]

Thank you jman98.......my region free Phillips in the basement plays everything I put in it........I think you helped me make up my mind....I'm just gonna buy another Phillips ......the problem is......that if you go to amazon.....best buy....ect ....one player isn't rated better than another. Thank you everyone for all your help

[DB83]

It helps but it would help all the more if you told us the model of your Panasonic. Or just try burning a -R disk - Verbatim.

Disks are still cheaper than new players. I have players much older than 3 -4 years and they still play burned disks.

[balboa2151]

hey db83......my model of pansonis is DVD-S31.....does this help? thanks

[DB83]

Well I just found the manual for this unit.

As I suspected, it only plays dvd-r and dvd-RAM. The manual is dated 2002 so this (as new) is slightly more than 3-4 years old.

Now, as I suggested, try a dvd -R disk. If that does not work then the player is fooked. Otherwise.......

[manono]

As I suspected, it only plays dvd-r and dvd-RAM.

But quite a few reports in the VideoHelp database say it plays DVD+R:

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers/panasonic-s31/2591

Other reviews and reports say the same.

[balboa2151]

Holy shit DB83.......wow......you really went out of your way to help me......thank you so much......didn't realize it was so old....sorry.....I will try DVD-r like you suggested.....gotta go buy some first and ill report back when I try them.....thanks again

[balboa2151]

Manono ......thank you also....great chart to read

[orsetto]

I own a Panasonic DVD-RV31 player from roughly the same period. These old Panasonics were actually pretty good for the day, but that day was 10 years ago (the date label on the back panel of my RV31 reads April 2001, and I think the S31 was only a year earlier or later). These second-generation Panasonics hold up remarkably well, mine still plays thru damaged discs a new BD player won't even load, but they have their quirks. One of the most significant is they don't much like +R, and sometimes play it grudgingly if it isn't burned exactly to their preference.

Two tricks known to be helpful with playing +R discs in the RV31 might be effective with the S31 as well, so try these first.:

1. These players perform a more precise load/read/calibration cycle if you turn them on with the power button, instead of using the shortcut of pressing the Open Tray button (which quickly powers the unit on and opens the tray, but "dumbs down" the loading system). Its a long shot, but if you're in the habit of turning the player on with the Open Tray button try using the power button instead before loading DVD+R.

2. When first turning on the player, load a commercial pressed Hollywood DVD and let it play for a minute. Remove it, and the player will then be more hospitable to burned discs. Somehow. if a pressed disc is the first one loaded it gooses the laser to make it more sensitive to burned discs. Of course these tips applied to the players when they were new ten years ago: today the lasers are aged and it likely won't help as much.

You might need to investigate other factors, like the age of your PC burner and perhaps burning -R discs instead of +R if you prefer using the S31. You could also try changing from store-bought Verbatim 16x +R to the slower 8x Verbatim +R sold by online disc vendors like supermedia. The slower burning discs are sometimes more readable to older hardware.

One final suggestion would be to try using Clone DVD in a different way: it is an excellent, convenient ripper but it can make very slightly weird burns that aren't perfectly compatible with every player. Instead of using the automated CloneDVD features of rip DVD-load blank-automatic burn, when you get to the fourth rip screen Output Method, choose ISO/UDF image instead of the default DVD Writer. This tells CloneDVD to create a DVD image file on your hard drive instead of burning a DVD immediately. After the ISO image is created, use the the gold-standard burning utility IMGburn to burn that image to a DVD. IMGburn is a small, free utility you can download that makes extremely accurate DVD burns (more compatible than CloneDVD's built-in burn feature). You can delete the ISO file after burning the DVD. This is more work, but worth a try: it might make your +R clones more compatible with your Panasonic S31.

If none of this solves the problem, or you don't prize the S31 enough to bother working around it, just get a new player. Unfortunately most new players are BD, which come with their own aggravating issues with DVD playback. If you have lots of DVDs, try to find a DVD-only player. Even the cheap ones are decent now, and will play almost anything.

[[_chef_]]

I think what jman98 and orsetto have posted is pot on.
Panasonic (Matshita/Matsushita) always favoured and forced DVD-RAM and later on DVD-R (also DVD-RW) formats, they never adopted DVD+R/W from Philips officially.
But with recordable media its a bit more complicated. You have eg. DVD-R with different manufactured qualities, then you need to follow the VideoDVD format structures in a certain way to meet the format specs which some players precisely rely on.
These days almost any dvd standalone player can playback almost any CD and DVD format and size, and also avi/divx/xvid/mkv and mp3 etc pp.

[balboa2151]

Thank you everyone ....it's greatly appreciated for all you time....everything was very informative and helpful

[tonypeter]

You could also try to booktype your +R/ +R D/L discs to DVD Rom if your burner supports it. I always do it and those discs play fine on older DVD players I have, even the ones the manuals say that they will not play +R/ +R D/L discs. However none of those players were Panasonics, so your mileage may vary.

[[_chef_]]

On older players, with older burners, mostly.

Todays players dont care anymore about pressed or recorded formats... and recent burners do autobitset at least DVD+R & DVD+R DL to DVD-ROM booktype.