Here's a curious little item; When I use Shrink to back up a disc and test the results with Windows media player, the disc will start and run normally. Auto start is not active so I choose which program opens the disc each time. If it matters, I'm running XP SP2. Here's the Kicker; when I use Clone DVD to back up a disc and test the results with Media Player, the player does not run but instead takes me to the Video TS folder. I can open media player manually and select the VTS folder as the source to play the disc but would like to keep it simple like it used to be. What does Clone change that makes this happen? The strange thing is that whatever setting Clone changes while doings its stuff makes any (original or backup) disc I insert act the same way. It doesn't make a difference if I use auto-start or manual start to play discs. It's always the same. Anytime Clone is used, media player acts this way until I restart the PC. I've checked settings and tried different combos but nothing helps. The discs start and play normally on my home theater player so this is strictly a PC thing. Anyone seen this happen or know why? Anyone know how to correct this? I expect I'm probably overlooking something very simple. Thanks.
its probably a media compatibility problem, what brand of blanks are you using? using Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim burning at or below 8x works the best or if your using the DVD plus R format try booking them to DVD-ROM for better playback or use the DVD dash R format. have you tryed a clean reinstall of wmp
Have not tried a re-install yet. Was hoping for a simpler answer. As for media compatibility: I'm no expert but the originals that I'm backing up for archiving do the same thing as the backup media so I don't see how the backup media would affect the original and only with Clone, not shrink. Do you have info to support media incompatibility or just throwing that out there? I'm not knocking your theory but I would like to learn as much as I can from yourself or anyone else who can enlighten me. I'm using verbatim and burning at either 2.4 x or 4x to help minimize errors. Thanks for the help.
@mtrunz, Are you using the same application for burning? The reason why I asked is because generally we burn DVDs using the UDF format, which is what standalone players are programmed to recognize; If burned otherwise, the DVD player softwares on PC recognize it as a data disc and not a valid video DVD. However, the data disc (VIDEO_TS folder) will still play; But, it'll first sit there and wait for the you to open them or they'll lauch automatically in Windows Explorer.
I'm using Clone DVD2 for burning duties when the problem occurs. If I use Shrink and Nero, I have no problem. The funny thing is that once Clone gets involved it's not just the burned discs that MP fails to act normally with. The original store bought DVD (or any other DVD for that matter) acts the same way.
I am certain that Nero uses the UDF format. I have personally never used CloneDVD's built-in burning engine. Perhaps, if you select to create an ISO/UDF first, and then burn it afterwards you might get a different result.
UDF is the standard file format for all DVD's regardless of what data they have stored. It sounds like CloneDVD is booktyping your DVDs to something other than DVD-ROM so your media players are not recognizing it as a DVD film, rather as a data disc. Try using CloneDVD to reencode your DVDs but use another application, like Img Burn to burn the DVD folders to a disc. Img Burn is far more robust at burning that Nero, plus it's free, try it out.
I've never had a problem with Nero and its interface is second nature to me but I'll keep Img Burn in mind should Nero fail me. I appreciate your suggestion not to burn the image with Clone. That was one of my first thoughts as well. Looking at this from a practical standpoint, most of the work arounds are just as if not more intrusive than having to open the files manually in WMP. That being said, I've received some very good advice in this forum so I'm going to see what works best over the next few weeks. Thanks to everyone who responded. If anyone has additional thoughts, please feel free to share!
