DVD playback

[Guest]

Hi. I frequently burn high quality photos onto DVD for people either in Nero
Burning Rom or Roxio burning softwares. Both very common burning softwares.
I test each disc as well as finalize each disc. All playback on both of the
computers we have. Problem is, quite often, people tell me that they can't
open the dvds I give them or that nothing is there when they open it. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Jim]

Hi. I frequently burn high quality photos onto DVD for people either in
Nero
Burning Rom or Roxio burning softwares. Both very common burning
softwares.
I test each disc as well as finalize each disc. All playback on both of
the
computers we have. Problem is, quite often, people tell me that they
can't
open the dvds I give them or that nothing is there when they open it. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Do you test them on a computer that does not have either of these packages?
You could try reading the disks on a TV playback unit.

Also, are they trying to read the disks on their TV player? Older players
cannot handle all of the types of disks that we widely use.

Jim

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your insight. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the
problem. People are using the dvds in their computers. The discs are just
pictures. most people have newer computers which have dvd player/burners and
the means to view pictures. Any other suggestions?

 

[Sharon F]

Problem is, quite often, people tell me that they can't
open the dvds I give them or that nothing is there when they open it. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

You may need to get more info about what happens when they try to open the
images. Do they have an image program capable of reading the image types on
the CDs?

Also, not all DVD drives can read all types of DVD media. Choosing from
+/-R and +/-RW may be an important factor here.
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.3.1

 

[Guest]

anyone with windows has "my pictures" to open and view the pictures.
I use dvd -r. should I be using something more universal to burn on or with
(software)? thanks.

 

[Sharon F]

anyone with windows has "my pictures" to open and view the pictures.
I use dvd -r. should I be using something more universal to burn on or with
(software)? thanks.

Okay then - so the file types are something understood by the Picture
Viewer. Including details like this when posting a problem is very useful
to those trying to help. So that leaves media compatibility problems.

According to the chart in the link I posted, DVD -R works well for *most*
drives that are capable of reading DVDs. However, there are also finicky
drives to consider - those that don't work well with some brands of media.
You could try a different brand or two in an attempt to find ones that are
more universally accepted.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your time. Do you have any suggestions for high quality, most
compatible DVD's (I use printable DVD's from Verbatim x/-R) Also, do you
know if it may be the burning software at fault? I appreciate any insights
you may offer.

 

[Sharon F]

Thank you for your time. Do you have any suggestions for high quality, most
compatible DVD's (I use printable DVD's from Verbatim x/-R) Also, do you
know if it may be the burning software at fault? I appreciate any insights
you may offer.

Verbatim are pretty good if you're not buying their cheapest ones (they
have several price levels). I've had the best luck with Memorex on my
drives.

Also, you might try burning at slower speeds. Slower burns usually mean
more accuracy. If the other person's drive is finicky, any gained accuracy
might help with getting the disk read on first try. (This is a long shot
but worth trying).

Bottom line: You really don't have a lot of control over what other
people's systems will do or won't do. Give it your best shot and if they
have troubles, burn them another CD using a different brand of media.

I don't think your burning software is at fault since (you said) you are
taking extra steps when burning to make the disc readable on all computers
and to "finalize" the disc. At least I think you that said that earlier. If
not, then make sure you take those steps too.

I use Nero and it has configuration settings for each burn. One of the
options asks if I want the disk to work on other computers. Even if not
using the same software, most burning programs will have similar settings.

Details on how to finalize a CD will be in the program's help file.

 

[Guest]

I really appreciate your time. Thanks for everything.

 

[Sharon F]

I really appreciate your time. Thanks for everything.

You're welcome, FJ and good luck!