Burning DVDs

zenmaster

It's most disheartening.

I've recently made a film for closed distribution.

Last week I spent 2 nights burning copies, 2 nights labelling and producing covers and a further night checking that each one would play. That's a week of my life that I'll never get back.

80% (so far) of the distributed copies will not play on the recipient's domestic DVD player. All played on ours. Some have told me that the disks play on their laptops.

Where does the fault lie?

• The media? I used branded (Sony) disks
• The burning software? I produced .VOB files in a VIDEOTS folder and burned using Win7. No different to any other data files.
• The player? All claim to be compatible, some are others fail.

Something, somewhere is unfit for purpose.

Why is this? The technology is coming up for 20 years old. Apart from museum piece players all claim to be DVD-R compatible. Except they obviously are not. Surely, by now, this should be the exception rather than the rule?

Any hints'n'tips as to produce a definitive, infallible burn would be appreciated.

yangptangkipperbang

Are you "closing" the disc on completion ? If not the DVD will often only play on a similar make/model of player as that used to make the recording - but will play on a PC.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/close-or-finalize-a-cd-or-dvd