I've been backing up our DVD's for awhile now, and all of a sudden have run into a problem! About 2 weeks ago, I went to back up a movie, and my player said it can't read the disc. I thought that was strange. I tried another brand. Same thing. I've tried 3 different brands, and keep getting the same error message...but the dvd is playing on the low end junky dvd player in the bedroom, but not the pioneer DVR we have in the living room. I thought my burner was bad, replaced it with a new Plextor burner. Same problems. Then I thought maybe it was a software problem. Uninstalled everything, restarted computer, re-installed...restarted computer....tried again. Same problem. I thought maybe the dvd(dvr)player was bad... it plays all the orginals, and all the back ups prior to 2 weeks ago. Won't play anything I've tried to back up since then.....older or newer. Any idea's as to what is going on?
Your problem is not unique! Some of the low end players accept DVDs more readily than the high price big toy players! What you have to look at is the disks that you are recording on. Here is a media guide: http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm what you are looking at in this guide is the manufacturers ID codes of recordable disks. Many disks, such as Verbatim, have different manufacturer IDs. So to know that a good brand like Verbatim can have manufacturer ID codes like MCC, CMC, RICOHJPN, and RITEK, going from great quality to bad!!!! What you have to know about recordable disks is that the good ones come from [bold]Made In Japan[/bold] (MIJ) and all the others are just average to mediocre! Of course there is an exception and that's Verbatim! Their Made in Taiwan's are top not quality and the flag ship of their brand! ok..... what does all this mean for you? Then you can go on from there, if a problem starts. Lets see what happened to your situation. You tried many things including buying a new burner! Well..... it's your player that is picky and you failed to mention what brands of disks are you using to back up your DVDs? Ok..... now that you know that manufacturers ID can be the cause of this problem...... the 3 different brands of disks that you used could very well have the same manufacturers ID and therefore your player doesn't like that manufacturer's ID! Sooooooo if you bought Memorex (CMC MAG) and then you bought TDK (also CMC MAG)and then tried Imation (CMC MAG) all these brands could very well have the same manufacturers ID! Go out and look for the ones that have the MIJ on the label and you can't go wrong! The next step is to booktype you new plextor burner to make the disk read as DVD-ROMs instead of the +Rs! This will make your disk more acceptable to your player and will read them easily! http://k-probe.com/bitsetting-booktype-faq.php If you don't have DVDDecrypter find it here... it's free: http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/DVD_Decrypter/1011845169/1 now you're equipted to do the compatibility thing to your disks! hope this solves your problem! 1 use better media 2 booktype your disk to DVD-ROMs good luck!
Thanks for the imput. Still not sure how to find the manufacter's id codes. I don't have the paper sleeves the put around the spindle any longer, and can't find the info on the disc's them selves. There is something written on the inner ring, but not sure if those numbers contain the information I need. I only use DVD-R's, I never burn onto the +R's. I had some JVC -R's that I had been using without any problems. Then those ran out. I then used HP's -R's, and that is when I got the "can't read disc" error on my player, but like I said the disc played on our Daewoo player in the bedroom. I thought perhaps it was the media, I then purchased Verbatim -R's, of which I have used in the past always successfully. I got the same error message. I then tried Sony -R's, again I have used it in the past and always successful, but this time I got the same error message. The only media I used that I hadn't previously used was the HP, and that is when my problems began. I do have DVDdecrypter, but have run into problems with it being unable to decrypt newer movies since it is no longer supported. I use DVDfab most of the time now. I sometimes well end up using both on movies that give me a lot of difficulty. After that, I shrink with DVDShrink (usually reauthoring, especially on the kids movies, nothing like putting the disc in and letting it go!). I finish by burning with Nero. I've had a 97% success rate for the most part. Few problems in the past which were hard encryptions (i.e. The Great Raid); and hardware problems. This is the first time I've had any kind of problem like this. Since I only buy -R's do I still need to booktype the Plextor? My Pioneer DVR player reads both the +/- R's; but discovered early that the other players didn't read the +, so we just don't go there. Thanks for your time and advice. I appreciate it.
the +Rs are better than the -Rs because you can booktype your drive to fooling your player that it is reading a DVD-ROM (which is a store bought DVD!). Thought you read the thread I gave you. You have Nero so Nero's InfoTool gives you the disk manufacturer's ID! just put the disk in the drive and let Nero get you the information on your disk! then compare the disk to the media guide I provided in the above reply. JVC and HP disks are second rate at best! the Sony disks can be from worst to best depending on what manufacturer made the disk. Remember..... MIJ is best. Did your manual for your players say that it won't read a +R disk? It should ..... especially if you booktype to DVD-ROM! If your player can't play them then use the -R disks, although you can't booktype the -Rs! If your player is less than 2 yrs old it should read the +R disks! I would buy one or two +R disk from a good manufacturer ..... Verbatim Made in Taiwan ...... you can find these disk at Best Buy, Circut City, CompUSA, and even WalMart and K-Mart! once you have a +R disk then use Nero to automatically booktype to DVD-ROM or just set DVDDecrypter to Booktype to DVD-ROM and then try burning a movie on it! THENNNNNNNNN try that player out! hope this helps!
