Pioneer set-top (354) can't play DVD-R burned with Nero?

[Thorn]

Well, I took a chance with a player that wasn't listed (since Pioneer seems to have a great record with DVD-R playability, and a lot of my equipment is already pioneer). I got the DV-354, which says it will play DVD-R.

Problem is, I can't play any of my DVD-R that I could previously play just fine with my Apex AD-703. I've tried princo, TDK branded, and TDK unbranded (both tdkg002 or whatever the id code is). For all of them the player says "can't play disc". These are all authored home movies, btw, and I probably only have about 5 dvd-r's right now. All were burned on my Pioneer 104, at 1.31 and 1.32. [the tdk's were burned at 2x except for the last one, since the branded TDK seemed to fail at 2x but that could be the firmware... let's leave that alone for now].

I've seen some posts on similar players saying that it was a Nero issue. Can anyone confirm or explain this? I burned all of my discs with Nero 5.5.9.x (at .14 and before). Since they all worked with the apex I figured they were alright. Is Nero really a problem? Are there settings to set or is it really best to burn with the authoring program? Or is this just the problem of the Pioneer?

Thanks for any information. I'd like to keep the Pioneer player if I can find a better way to burn DVD-R.

[Thorn]

Woohoo, problem solved (hopefully for all media). Apparently the buzz about Nero being the problem is right. All discs I burned with nero (.14, but I think .17 hasn't solved any related problems) did not work on the Pioneer DV-354. The same title set burned with DVDit worked just fine. To test this further, I burned a set with DVDit, tested it, then copied the files to my computer and reburned with nero. They didn't work with Nero.

Granted, there could be some obscure settings with nero that would make it work but I haven't heard of anything. I've only tested this with RW media, so hopefully R media will also start working when I don't use Nero.

I think this has something to do with how Pioneer reads the discs, since Pioneers seem to have this problem but my Apex didn't. I guess Pioneer is stricter to the standard.

[scissors]

I believe NEROs DVD probs are widely known. I understand it's the ISO/UDF bridge that's at fault.

IME Prassi Primo is the most compatible burning tool.

[Feuerwehr]

Nero is most likely the problem. I have experimented using both Nero and Prassi on a variety of desktop players and find that many desktop players that play Prassi burned DVD-R's without a hitch have problems playing the IDENTICALLY AUTHORED DVD files burned with Nero. Not all desktops have problems with Nero, but a significant number do.
Media in this case is not the issue because the same media was used in all cases.

[chaseru]

I tried two DVD-R's burned with nero at electronics stors this past week in order to buy a cheap player for my parents. One DVD-R was authored with DVDComplete with standard resolution on name brand media. The other DVD-R was authored with MovieFactory at 352x480 resolution on no name media. I tried the DVD-Rs in over two dozen cheap players and VCR/DVD combo players.

All players played the name brand media and only one had trouble with the no name. This may not have been a problem with nero, but rather with the media, authoring, or less common resolution.

I keep hearing people say Nero is not good at DVD burning but their reasons for their opionons are usually not all that clear, lacking, or second hand information.

[Thorn]

I've only seen this mentioned significantly in reference to Pioneer set-tops. After seeing this for myself, I can see that it is an 'incompatibility' between Nero and Pioneer players, and possibly only very recent Pioneer players at that. All DVD-R/RW burned with nero refused to work with my player, but the non-nero RW worked.

My theory is that nero does just one tiny thing wrong and that Pioneer is the only brand that is too exacting to the standard. Apex is (maybe was, seing their current state) known for their ability to play everything except sliced bread (it's not balanced right). It would make sense that the Apex simply ignored any small inconsistencies (as scissors said, the UDF/ISO bridge).

Chaseru: did that lineup include new pioneer models, or just other cheap models? It would make sense if they mostly worked if they didn't include Pioneers.

The moral of the story is that I'm not going to use nero to burn my video DVDs until they fix the problem, because I'd rather have my discs as compatible as possible.

[rubberman]

Well i have a toshiba sd1200 that people say it plays dvd-r but none of mine do. But i have been using Nero too so i am gonna try Primo to burn to see if that helps.

[chaseru]

Chaseru: did that lineup include new pioneer models, or just other cheap models? It would make sense if they mostly worked if they didn't include Pioneers.

My tests didn't include any Pioneer models since I was testing cheap players. If there is a problem with Pioneer and Nero it must be the new models. My three year old Pioneer 525 has no problems with Nero. In fact, based on my experience, the 525 is the most forgiving of any DVD player I've used.