New Blank DVDs Help!!!!

MonstersMummy

I've got a pack of DVD+RW and am trying to put some music vids and films on them using DVDflick but it keeps telling me there is no disc in the drive when there is. It's the first time I've tried to burn anything to disc so I'm a bit lost really!!!
Anyone know what I'm doing wrong??

mostly

does the drive write to dvd+ ? whats the model, most drives should now days tho.

MonstersMummy

Errr...pass!!!!
How do I find out what the drive is and if it does??
Didn't even occur to me that I might not be able to do it!!!!
I've got 2 disc drives and on the front one says dvd rom and the other says compact disc recordable rewriteable (they also have "d" and "e" written in black marker cos I can never remember which is which!!!!)
Have only tried on the recordable rewritable one so far.
I'm useless at all this...to think I used to do the IT at my old firm :eek:

Cricri

If you have Nero Burning ROM installed, run "Nero InfoTool". Select a drive and it will display checks next to each supported format.

It seems that you could have a DVD reader and a CD burner, but not a DVD burner.

L400ras

just goto start> my computer
without a disc in the drive, what does it say-
mine says dvd-rw: which means it will write to dvd (and to cd)
if yours says dvd rom, then it can only play dvds.
if it says cd-rw it means it will write to cds, but not dvds.

MonstersMummy

In my computer they say:
CD drive (D:
CD Drive (E:

I cant play DVDs through the PC on either drive.

I guess that means I'm fighting a losing battle!!!!!

Cricri

It seems that you don't have any drive that can read DVDs then, nevermind a drive that can write them.
If your files take less than 700MB, you'll have to burn them on CDs instead.

Go here and download optinfo.zip:
http://www.alexnolan.net/software/opticalinfo.htm

Unzip it and run the .EXE inside. It will tell you what formats your drives support (pretty much like the "Nero Infotool" I suggested above, but I assume you don't have Nero).

MonstersMummy

I did start to download nero trial software but left it running overnight and went to bed. When I came down in the morning it was asking something about nero ask toolbar and I didn't want it so cancelled...then realised after that I'd just cancelled the download completely!! Doh!!
I have blank cds which I've not try to burn on yet either, will they work as dvds? I'm tryin to get a film on disc for the kids to take to their grandparents this weekend, will it play on a dvd player?
Sorry so many Q's, I'm hopeless really!! Thanks for your patience!!

Cricri

Well, DVD players can read videos in formats known as VCD (Video CD) or S-VCD (Super Video CD), both of which are CDs and not DVDs.
VCD compression is MPEG1, and the quality is somewhat poor.
S-VCD is MPEG2, like DVD, so the quality is quite reasonable, except that the video is squeezed within 650-700MB instead of 4700MB ish.
So if you ran the tool and came up to the conclusion that you definitely can't burn DVDs, than I'd say that S-VCD is your best option.

BillScarab

You can split S-VCD over two disks which improves the quality. It definately sounds like you have A DVD reader and a CD Writer so you are stuck with the CD formats.

I don't think DVDFlick will create VCD or S-VCD.

There is a guide here to using DIKO to create a S-VCD from an AVI file.

http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=239675