Copying a few DVD's

First thing, as you see I'm a newbie. This handle totally applies to me. This is my first adventure into the fantastic world of making/copying DVD's. I've lurked here for a week or so and read many threads on this, including the wonderful guides. After reading here, I quickly found out I bought the wrong media, Memorex. I found this out when after my first few burns wouldn't do anything at all. Well, not entirely true. They would burn, or at least Nero said they did. Then when clicking on play video, my player light comes on and it just sits there doing nothing.

I try to look at the files in windows explorer and it says "Windows cannot read from this disk. The disk might be corrupted, or it could be using a format that is not compatible with Windows."

The disks are DVD+R's, which my drive is supports. My drive is a Pacific Digital boxed (Toshiba SD-R5272). I bought it from Sam's Club. Don't know if this drive is any good or not, hope so.

I've tried to burn using Shrink 3.2 and DVD Decrypter. No deal. I tried with Shrink 3.2 and Nero 6. Same thing. After finding out on this site that Memorex media is junk and seeing everyone recommends Ritek Ridata Branded G04, I ordered some online. They won't be here until Wednesday. I ordered DVD-R, not knowing which would be better, +R or -R. My burner supports either. I have a Sony DVP-NC665P stand alone player. Does anyone know which type media works best in this player or does it matter?

So, as you see. I pretty green on this subject. I have only been playing DVD's from rentals and friends, along with the few I have bought. Thought I would start backing up some of these. Bought the burner in the dark (as usual), hoping it would be simple. I knew better but it seems I always do stuff sort of backwards anyway. No reason to change now I guess.

So, after all this, I think from reading here, it's the media brand I'm using causing me all these headaches. Please tell me I'm on the right track.

Thanks for any and all suggestions, in advance.

BTW, great site and some great info to be had. Thanks for sharing with us newbies.

Mike

 

Since all the software is behaving the same way and since you are using memorex, I'd say you are on the right track.

I use branded riteks all the time either the G04 4x -R or the G05 8x -R and the Ritek ridata 4x +R.

Also you didn't say what speed you are burning at. Never burn over 4x, if having problems burn at 2.4x. If I'm burning PS2 games, I only burn at 1x.

I would make sure you are buying "branded" media. If you didn't this time, get dvdinfopro, a great little tool with a bunch of uses, including analyzing and seeing what your media manufacturer really is. It's free :>)

 

I am burning at 2.4x. The media I bought is Branded.

I'm hoping the problem is the media. All the threads on this board lead me to this assumption.

Anyone need some coasters?

 

I have plenty, thank you ;>)

 

Well, I couldn't stand the wait. My Ritek disks are supposed to be here on Wednesday. I've been biteing at the bits wanting to know if the media brand was the fault of my problems. So, today I was at Wally World (Wal-Mart) and picked up a pack of Maxell DVD-R's. Guess what, every burn was a success. No problems what so ever.

Man, it feels good to get things like this worked out.

Just thought I would reply back to let anyone else who might read this thread know not to buy Memorex media. It's junk.

Thanks for the help.

Mike

 

Congrats, I wish everyone would buy quality media, it'd cut down on half the backup problems.

Everybody has the VHS or cassette mindset, it's only a quality issue, it'll work just won't look or sound as good. It doesn't help that sales people at stores like Circuit City and Best Buys tell everyone any of them will work.

Media is as important as the software, the PC, and the operator.

That's my rant for the day LOl :>)

 

You are exactly correct. I already knew this about other things. Big names sell stuff. It's a advertising thing. Big money, big talk. They drive their junk into peoples brains. As bad as I hate to admit it, this time it worked on me. Usually, I don't fall for marketing ploys but this time I failed to see the light.

The internet and places like this. What in the world would we all do without them? Oh, I know. Waste a lot of time and money on sub par media.

Once again it's a breath of fresh air to see folks put forth so much of their time to help others. I frequent other boards on a different subject and do the same. It's too bad everyone in the world isn't this way. The world sure would be a better place to live.

Thanks for being here. It's very much appreciated.

Mike

 

Thanx for the kind words, if you have any more problems don't hesitate to ask :>)

 

First of all, since you're a newbie, use DVD+/-RWs! Especially since you're not really experienced with burning using Shrink and Decrypter, I'd suggest you do your trial and errors on rewritables first. At this point, who knows if it's the media, your burnder, or your player. Sony DVD players will play just about anything, even crappy discs. Check to see if the DVDs play on your PC. If they don't, then you know it's the media or they way you burned it and not your player.

 

Good idea, and it's true they'll play about anything including crappy discs, the problem is writing to crappy discs to get them to work to begin with, LOL :>)

 

The Memorex disks wouldn't play on anything, PC or standalone. I couldn't see anything on the disks when trying to see the files in Windows Explorer, as stated above.

I'm not sure if the Maxell disks are much better, but every single burn I've made with them has worked and played on my PC or Sony standalone. So far this consists of a few DVD movie backups and several slide show disks. I had a ton of digital camera pics and the wife wanted to be able to look at them on TV, so she could see them with family. Worked flawlessly.

I'm totally convinced it was the media.