Playing DVDs on any Player

[Al Ioimo]

How can I burn DVDs so any DVD player can read them? Is it in the software, or do I need to purchase a special burner? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Al..

[Richard Alvarez]

"ANY Dvd play?"

Short answer.

You can't.


DVD Compatability has come a very long way however. Any decent burner with high quality media will give you a better than ninety to ninety-five percent success rate. Beyond that, you need to go to a glass master and have them pressed, the way the studios do it.

[Rusty Cromwell]

The most compatible discs are the -R and the +R.

What matters is not the software you use and not the burner. The problem lies in the media. Most DVD players will be able to read them however. The older the DVD player the higher the chance of a failed read. Also sometimes though certain burners have problems with certain brands of DVD's and may not burn them right. However just make sure the firmware in your burner is up to date.

[Bogdan Vaglarov]

And certain players (like my Samsung) just don't like some media (although burnt corectly and checked against errors).
So it is really not a matter of how old or what speed or burner - it'S just what is the combination and what's your luck.

[Alessandro Machi]

I've read that the lower the bit rate the more likely it will play in most machines.

Making a glass master and then pressing the DVD's is considered the highest quality method.

Bit rates come into play also. I have chosen 7.8 in my standalone DVD for the recording quality and so far of the 50 plus DVD's I have made only two have had a problem, they only recorded 40 minutes of a 60 minute master.

[Rob Lohman]

The only way to make (near) 100% compatible discs is to get them
pressed at a replication facility.

[Lars Barlow]

I just thought that I might lend a hand in the compatability area. I do event video and I ran into the same issues discussed here. What I do is ask the make and model of the machine that is most likely going to play the disc. I take this info to:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php

This website will give you the manufacter's claim on what kind of discs it will play and then you can read reviews of actual people that will let you have some kind of idea of what the reality is. There is still some guesswork in the process but this website helps me a lot.

[Alessandro Machi]

It may be important to separate DVD creation into several categories.

Replication and Duplication are probably the two most commonly known categories. However, Burning DVD's from a timeline is probably another category, and burning DVD's from a videotape master is still another.

I can play back all of my DVD's recorded on my pioneer DVD recorder on my very inexpensive and suspect quality Koss DVD player only player.

Just yesterday I actually got the Koss to "lock up" while I was fastforwarding a DVD. The DVD played fine when I started from the beginning and didn't lock up on future attempts. bit rates can vary from 10 down to 2 and is probably a big key to how well your DVD's play, and so is whether they are being burned from a timeline or being imported from a videotape master.

I am of the opinion that importing from an already completed videotape master and then setting the bit rate just under 8 is ideal.

[Moe Belli]

Just my 2 cents on this.

I think it's very, very easy to blame DVD-R/+R for playback problems and not the authour/DVD producer.

The reality is that DVD burning is tricky and there's a lot of stuff you have to know to create a DVD disk with a high compatibility rate. You're editing, encoding, authoring and burning tools/software also has to all work together and your PC should be bullet proof.

Consider that as more time passes, and newer and newer DVD players hit the market, there should be no problems whatsoever playing back DVD-R discs. What manufacturer today is going to realease a DVD player that has problems with DVD-R/+R??

I think we're all suffering from the 5-year old dilema that old DVD players would choke quite often on DVD-R's.

Here's a nice list to print out, stick to your wall and refer to whenever you produce a DVD-R disk:

- use a high quality DVD recorder such as Plextor or Pioneer

- use high quality DVD-R media (Maxell, Fuji, Verbatim)

- use high quality MPEG encoder (Procoder, CCE)

- encode at 5,500-6,000 kbps (lower bitrates mean lower error tracking problems on home DVD players)

- always encode audio AC3 (dolby digital)

- use a top notch burning program to burn to DVD, Nero is a good example

- always include AUDIO_TS with VIDEO_TS folders

- never apply labels to DVD discs

- use proper DVD cases, not CD-ROM cases

- when burning turn "validation" on, to check for errors, extra precaution, copy the burned DVD to your hard drive to check for data integrity errors, if there's a problem with the disc Windows will report it during the transfer from DVD to hard drive,

- additional extra checks, use Nero DVD/CD speed to test for file/disc surface errors after burning

- Another thing you can do to improve playback compatibility is to avoid filling the disc. The outer edge of a recordable DVD disc is more susceptible to data errors, so if you only use about 90% or less of the total disc capacity you will get better overall results.

- Some independent tests have reported better compatibility results with discs that were burned at 1X speeds, with todays burners I use 2X most of the time.

- record dummy data if your DVD-R discs are under 1G, some home DVD players read DVD-R discs under that as being blankk and so mightl not play them



If you follow the above and turn on validation on burn, then check the disc with a program like Nero CD/DVD speed after -- you'll have very, very few problems.

Hope this helps.


MB

[Pete Wilie]

<<-- Some independent tests have reported better compatibility results with discs that were burned at 1X speeds, with todays burners I use 2X most of the time. -->>

How sure are you about this?

I have read posts to the contrary -- that's it better to burn at the rated speed. Apparently the dye has to react to the laser and it is "optimized" for the rated speed.

[Alessandro Machi]

LOTS of interesting information. I'm fascinated with the point about the outside edge burning versus the inside edge burning on the DVD. Is it possible that because the outside edge burning can hold more info that it "appears" to be more susceptible to damage when it's basically just a mathematical probability issue?

Also the point about not "squeezing" data so it just barely fits on the DVD is interesting, as is trying to figure out how much "extra" one should leave on the disc. I generally leave at least a five minute pad. If I have an 90 minute recording, I'll make sure I set the burn rate to equal at least 95 minutes.

As for the bit rate being around 5-6, I have found on my DVD standalone recorder anything in the "7's" seems to work fine, and I then can burn at 8X. However, the standard I use can be totally different from the standard used when burning on an actual computer, so both standards may apply depending on what method one has chosen to burn the DVD with.

I'm also intrigued by the point made that if the DVD has less than a gigabyte of data on it there could be problems playing back the DVD. Yeeesh!

[Dan Euritt]

<<-- Some independent tests have reported better compatibility results with discs that were burned at 1X speeds, with todays burners I use 2X most of the time. -->>

that is, at best, ancient history.

if you look at the way a disc is laid out, the rotational speed is a major factor that determines how fast it can be burned.

with current technology, the spindle area typically won't burn any faster than 4x regardless of what the media is rated at, while testing has shown that the outside diameter can burn at up to 16x on a 12x-rated disc... but only with the very best media, such as taiyo yuden... for the reasons that pete indicated.