Here is the update on my burner. I got the burner installed after a bit of trouble, the computer kept re-booting after a 1/4 second 'Blue Screen of Death'. I called Sony and they said the burner had to be 'Master' on the chain. After installing the boot sequence that 'worked last' and switching it to master, it worked. I burned my first disk, the movie Chicago. It plays on my home player but not my computer dvd. (?????) Media Player says there was some thing missing. Some decoder or something. But it will play a commercial dvd if I put one in and select the movie file. Is there a stand-alone player I can install that will work with copied disks? One thing confused me, Shrink wanted to burn the disk as well as shrink it. I thought it was supposed to stop and let you choose the burner program. I stopped it and used Nero. I installed the Nero trial and really like it, I think I'll have to spring for it. The Guides here have been invaluable, I couldn't have done it without help from this forum. Thanks a lot. Now, can some generious person answer my latest questions and/or offer some comments?
do you have a dvd burner and a dvd rom drive installed on your pc???? reason i ask is i wonder if your dvd rom drive doesn't support the type of media you have burnt to(ie dvd+r or dvd-r) will the copy playback if you put it in your burner and try and play it?
If you have Nero installed, as you do, DVD Shrink will automatically use it to burn so you don't have to do it manually. Pretty neat innit? Usually it's the other way around. So you're saying WMP with play a factory disc and not a copy? WMP doesn't come with it's own codec for reading DVDs so you'll need something like PowerDVD or WinDVD which are both much better than WMP anyway. You may have recieved a basic version of either one with your burner. Hope this helps
With all due resect Nephilim, my Windows Media Player ver. 9.0 (comes with win xp) plays both factory and copied DVD's, although I agree there are better players. Not sure if they are free or not, I'll look into it. Soja, It may just be a media issue. You didn't say...what brand and format disk did you use?
OK... The media player says 'A compatible decoder is not installed'. I have Nero installed, the trial one, I have since looked at the settings in "Shrink" and kind-a figured it out. I have burned a -RW and a +RW. TDK brand. Different movies, different compression rates. Both play fine on my DVD-F61 model Panasonic player. The quality is superb on my big screen. I will look on the software disk that came with the burner but I'd appreciate a suggestion as to what to use for a player. All your other suggestions have been totally helpful. Thanks loads.... See Ya L8R... Soja
you will need something like power dvd if you wish to play a dvd on your pc. not an area i'm realy familiar with as i tend not to watch dvd on my pc......but i have just unistalled power dvd and tried windows media (xp pro) and it wont play either a shop bought or back up dvd. you may find power dvd easy to find and free as i got a copy of it with my pc and also got another copy when i got my burner. just out of curiosity doohickey........are you sure you have nothing else installed on your pc that supplies the codec needed by xp to play dvds?
I just found a basic version of "Power DVD" on the software disk that came with the burner. I Installed it and both -RW and +RW movied play fine now on my computer. YIPEE! Thanks. Soja
good for you!!!!!!! now that you're an expert i hope you'll keep coming back and seeing if you can help out others who may be having problems!!!!! well done viper
Feelin pretty dumb here(red faced), lol...sorry Nephilim..you the man! Yes viper, I have WinDVD and 2 other DVD players installed. No wonder WMP works, huh? But now I'm curious...what player might Soja already have had if WMP was working for her? Oh well, no matter..you guys got Soja all fixed up. Congrats Soja!
