THE AGE OLD ?UESTION

[mol3000]

It was always ask if compatibility had to do with burning sofware or media..... and the question was never fully answered (from the one big post that was here b4)..... well i come to the conclusion that its a combination of both..... when i burnt with shitty nero it would only play in one of my dvds.... when i burn wit primo or moviefactory it would play in the other 3 dvd players and my boys dvd player..... i though i solve the problem..... WWWEELLLLLLL i came across another dvd player (apex) and burn it like i usually do but it wouldnt play..... i even burn it with different media and it still wont play..... the funny thing is the apex wll play the vcd's i use to give her but wont play this..... i am dumb foundin....... can anyone tell me what might be going on ????????

[Nelson37]

The problem is usually less with burning and more with authoring. Reduce the variables by using VCDimager or VCDeasy to make a bin/cue file. This should burn the same with any burning program unless it is seriously defective. Then it's just a matter of compatible media, which does vary by the player, and even production batch of disks.

[mol3000]

so whats the media that the movie industrys use to put movies on...... i guess they got the best brand of all

[bartman]

Big movie studio's author to digital tape...that's why they can get more than 4.7G in one project...smaller independent studios use DVD-R Authoring which is compatable with everything...although the drives and the media are more expensive than DVD-R General

[adam]

No commerically released movies are on burnt media, well not legal ones anyway. Commercially produced movies are pressed in cd/dvd pressers and the resulting disks are readable in all hardware players that support them.

[mol3000]

" smaller independent studios use DVD-R Authoring which is compatable with everything "

so is sceneserist and movie factory one of those programs

[bartman]

Scenarist and Movie Factory are authoring programs. There are two types of media though, DVD-R General (what the Pioneer A-04 uses) and DVD-R Authoring. Have a look at the "What is DVD-R" link on the left.

[mol3000]

i looked at the " Authoring " dvd-r's on supermediastore.com and they said only certain burners can burn to tht particular dvd-r..... i have a cyndyne ...... so can a get a authering dvd r to burn on mine and what brand would i have to get

[solarfox]

#1 -- I'm afraid you mis-understand. The "smaller independant studios" bartman refers to are not actually releasing their movies as burned DVD-R(Authoring) discs; that's just how they create their master copies which they send to the duplication house to have pressed discs made from.

(If you have evidence to the contrary, bartman, I'd be interested in knowing which studios / titles you're talking about -- I've certainly never seen anything like this!)

#2 -- Mol, your Cendyne cannot burn DVD-R(Authoring) media... and neither can any other consumer-level DVD-R drive. (Incidentally, your Cendyne is really a re-branded Pioneer DVR-A03 or A04, so anything which applies to the Pioneer drives applies to yours as well.) In order to burn that type of disc, you will need a "professional" drive such as the Pioneer DVRS-201. Unfortunately, such drives cost about $4,000, and the DVD-R(Authoring) media itself will run you anywhere from $10 - $25 per disc, depending on where you go to get it.

And no, it is not possible to convert a consumer-level DVD-R(General) drive to burn DVD-R(Authoring) media -- they've been deliberately rigged to use two different laser wavelengths, so the optical dye of one won't react properly to the laser energy of the other.

It wouldn't solve your problem anyway; if a DVD player can't read DVD-R(General) discs, it almost certainly won't read DVD-R(Authoring) discs either.

For what it's worth, by the way, I have successfully burned and played DVD-R discs on my Apex AD-1500 using DVD MovieFactory, DVD Workshop, and Prassi PrimoDVD, on a variety of media ranging from name-brand Apple and TDK media down to Fry's el-cheapo "Great Quality" brand. You might want to consider returning the Apex, claiming that it's defective, and exchange it for another one -- it's possible that you just got a flaky unit. It happens occasionally. (In a mass-production environment, every once in a while those manufacturing tolerances all add up in just the wrong way...)

[bartman]

Sorry, I should have clarified.
The smaller independent studios mostly use DVD-R Authoring to master their work rather than tape...at $4000 a drive and $10 - $15 a disk it is relatively cheaper than using digital tape...it is also easier to check the work since DVD-R(A) should work on most payers straight after burning.

Solarfox is right, you cannot burn a DVD-R(A) disk in a common DVD-R burner (such as the Pioneer) as the wavelength is different, however your player might play DVD-R(A) where it didn't play DVD-R(G) because of the different lead in on the two disks. DVD-R General has a small non-burnable area in the lead in of the disk that tells the player what type of disk it is among other info (i.e. single or dual layer, css codes, region codes) ..some players only like pressed DVD's. DVD-R(A) doesn't have this problem. DVD-R(G) was designed like this for a purpose. (it doesn't seem to have stopped anyone though )