Hey, guys. I recently bought a portable DVD player. The problem is, when I burn video files from my computer to a disc, more often than not, the DVD player can't read them, I assume because it doesn't have the necessary codecs. I tried a software that turns the files from .avi format to DVD type files, but that didn't work. My question to you is - is there a software that can change the encoding of the files to an encoding my DVD player can read? Thanks! Adam
Some players are more picky than others. Need to figure out what works best, most of the time. Check your manual to see which format your player likes, ie. + or - disks. If it playes + format, try bitsetting/booktype to DVD Rom during the burn process. This will help for compatibility reasons. Also, see which Brand of disk your player might recommend. Some like one brand over others. Taiyo Yuden and Verbatims are usually good choices. If you are trying to play various formats, such as avi, vcd, etc. Check your manual to see which your player is capable of handling. As far as converting from avi to dvd, check out this guide: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/avi_to_dvd_avi2dvd.cfm The guide is easy to follow. The process can take a bit of time depending on your computer specs, but it has worked just fine for me.
I did convert my AVI's to DVD'd, but that didn't help. No matter in what form I put it, or in what type of disc, I get an "Unsupported Format" error from my DVD player. As I mentioned, I think this is becuase the my DVD player simply does not have the necessary codecs needed to decoded the video files burned on the disc. While on a computer this problem can simply be solved by downloading the necessary codecs, I can't do that on my DVD player. So I was wondering if there was some way to do the reverse - change the encoding of the video file to match one that my DVD player supports. Is there a software that does this?
It's not a matter of codecs. if a DVD video is burned correctly it will play on any DVD player, if said player supports burnt DVD's. What type of files do you have that you are trying to convert? Does your portable DVD player support burnt DVD's?
Yes, it does - it says so on the box. It plays some burned discs, but not others. Sometimes, it will play some of the files on the disc, while give the 'unsupported format' msg to the other files on the disc. Sometimes it'll refuse to read the disc at all. I bought this DVD for my mom for the specific reason that she won't have to sit by the computer to watch all the video files, but could sit comfortably in the living room or lie in her bedroom, but the damn thing refuses to play the discs, even though it said on the boxs it plays CD +/- R and RW, and DVD +/- R and RW. At first I thought the thing was broken, but when I put some of the discs in the non portable Pioneer DVD in my room and saw that it couldn't read them either, I figured there must be some problem with the files themselves, and I came up with the codecs idea. What can I do to solve this and avoid the realization I spent 250$ nothing?
The box may support a certain codec like DivX but you can not install a Codec onto a DVD player. Well to start answer the question I asked. What type of files are you trying to burn? (.avi, .mpg4, etc) What brand of media are you burning with? What software are you using?
I am burning both avi and mpg4 files. With avi it sometimes reads, sometimes dosen't. With mpg4, it won't even bring up the disc menu. The box doesn't mention file types. I am burning my discs with Nero.
Are you using Nero Vision Express to convert the files for DVD playback and then too burn them? Or just using Nero too burn?
Okay, I am using version 6 of Nero so bear with my if your using version 7. Okay I am assuming that your StartSmart home looks something like this... Now do you see were my mouse pointer is? If you have that CD&DVD/CD/DVD drop down menu make sure that it is set to DVD. With that done go to the "Favorites" menu and see if you have a option like the one I have my mouse pointer over. If you do click on it if you don't then look at this next pic. If you didn't have that option under the "Favorites" menu check the other menus to see if it is there. If not check out the pic below... If you have a "Application" menu in youy Start Smart window please open the menu. Under the list of programs you will need/want to have Nero Vision Express listed.
I downloaded and instaleed Nero Vision Express from Afterdawn, but all it did was add Nero Showtime and Nero Mediahome to my application menu... On another note - In another test I did, I burned two fies with .divx file endings, mpeg4 encodings (burnt them regularly, not in DVD format). I burned them on a CD-R and on a DVD-RW. My portable DVD read the CD-R just fine, and played the files. On the DVD-RW, it showed the list of files on the disc, but when asked to play the files, said they were in 'unsupported formart'. These are the exact same files. We know the DVD player reads burned DVD's, since we saw it play other burned DVD's, so what is going on here? Why is he playing the files when they are on the CD, but when they are on the DVD, they are suddenly in a an unsupported format? And again, why when I download the Nero vision express, all it thoes is add Nero showtime to my menu? Thanks!!!
I have to leave for work and will help you in greater detail later on but for now here are two guides that may be of some assistance to you. http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/vso_convertxtodvd_guide.cfm http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/avi_to_dvd_avi2dvd.cfm
What speed are you burning them at? To much speed will make the discs unreadable in most players. I suggest 4x speed. Another issue could be the video your are burning is PAL or NTSC. The fram rate for PAL is about 25 frames per second and NTSC is about 29. The issue is PAL is a region 2 format mostly in the UK area and NTSC is reagion 1 which is mostly in USA. They are not intended to play on different regions DVD players. I dont know what your region is but if the video you are encoding is burned to disc it will not change the fact weather its PAL or NTSC. It will need to be converted using specific methods from one format to the other and then burned to disc for the player to be able to recongnized it. Note some players play both PAL and NTSC formats. Your player will say if it dose in the specs. You can check if the video is PAL or NTSC before you try converting it by right clicking on it and selecting properties and then select the summary tab. Scroll down to the bottom and check the frame rate. Hope this helps.
Thank you for your help, guys. Unfourtunatly, I don't think there is anything we can do here. The dvice is just no very good. It reads some stuff and discards otheres. It has no consistency in what is chooses to read and what it chooses not to, and I've tried everything. I just bought a really bad product...
sorry bout that man , maybe next time read through the threads and see what are the top dvd players ,before you by an off the shelf dvd player that you dont really know to much about . anyway if you changed media brand and format , changed encoding programs , changed dvd burners and settings there is not really anything else you can do. And its not worth the time when you can buy or order an philips that does everything for a fraction of that cost... >
