Hi folks, I use a NEC DVD burner, model 3520A and after wasting blank after blank DVD on my stand alone Symphonic DVD player, I went today and bought a Sony DVD player which is supposed to play all sorts of media... +R, -R, +-RW, and MP3's... the whole works. My DVD burner is supposed to burn all as well and does. The problem is, many times they would not play back on my other DVD playre. Now, out of 4 movies that I downloaded and burned today, 3 of them will not play in the new player either. They are giving a message that says playback prohibited by area limitations. I am using a multitude of diferent types of disks in hopes of finding one that will work well. I am using Sony -R, Verbatim +R and some brand called Platinum series for the RW's. I only tried those because I was sick of wasting DVd's. So much for that idea... I have been looking through the posts on here but haven't gleeaned much from what I have found as to what to do next. I am using DivXToDVD and Any DVD to encode the files then I rund them through Clone DVD2 to burn them to disk. I cannot use the other programs as they are so graphic that my screen reader cannot read the buttons to me. It can on Clone DVD2, which also makes Any DVD. I can burn disks that will play on my computer, (Windows XP) but will not play on my stand alone. The old cheap one or this new, rather costly one. Any help and in plain," stupid simple" language would be much appreciated. I feel so stupid when I try to follow all the threads on here as it is so technical to me. I really am just grasping the bare basics of encoding and burning at this point. Thanks, a still learning newbie GaLady/Lynn
Wish u'd come to us before buying new player, but it's ok. Welcome to AD fellow burner! From what u've described, it seems 2b as simple as a firmware update. Check your burners manufacturer site online for that. Area limitations is referring to Region Code. Region codes were set up by the entertainment industry as a way aide in anti-piracy basically. The planet earth is zoned n2 region codes: REGION 1 -- USA, Canada REGION 2 -- Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland REGION 3 -- S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia REGION 4 -- Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico) REGION 5 -- Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa REGION 6 -- China REGION 0 or REGION ALL -- Discs are uncoded and can be played Worldwide, however, PAL discs must be played in a PAL-compatible unit and NTSC discs must be played in an NTSC-compatible unit. U want yours to correspond to the country ur n or to be region free/all. DVD players r set to play in the region they r sold in and your disc has to match it. Make sure when burning that your region code is set properly. On your desktop or start menu find my computer. Click and find your dvd-rom and dvd burner. Right click on 1 of them and click properties then hardware then dvd region. It will show you what region ur set at. Repeat for the other drive. If ur not set at the correct one then do so. Your software will indicate what region it's burning for as well or if it's emulating the region u need. Hope this helps! Holla back for further assistance if needed. P.S. Older dvd players like dvd-r/rw, newer ones are either +r/rw or multi-format. U made a good choice with the Sony!
Hi and thanks, Sorry, didn't catch your name... OK, I did all you suggested and the region was properly set. I also returned the new player and got my $$ back. (Made my husband very happy!! ) Put the old player on and it did let me play one DVD-R that I had burned from a downlloaded file. Here is the update... I downloaded another moovie... it burned and encoded fine as far as I know. I was using VSO DivxToDVD and the following two things were on the screen as I was encoding and I don't know if they are normal or not: 14:35:56 Msg. Level #0 RC buffer underflow (Words underflow and buffer may be swapped but not sure) 14:35:55 Msg Level #1 Warning Min _ Rate > 0 but Min _ Rate != Max _ rate Inst. recommanded Otherwise, all seemed like it should be there. I'm not a DVD Burning guru though so not sure. Then, it burned, using Clone dVD2. No problem. Played fine on my PC. Put it in the player... disk error... nno dis At least it wasn't that region thing again. . I heard it kep trying to startt the disk but it never would play. Only that error. Now, this was a DVD-R, just like the other one that would play. I know I can't be downloading that many bad files. Is there something I can look at to see if I have a setting that can be changed either in the encoding, the burning or even something that I should recognize in the file that would tell me it's not going to play? I'm really disappointed and frustrated at this point but also really want to learn how to make disks that can play in my player; and I can get *very* stubborn when I set my mind to something. Is there like a "DVD Burning for Really Stupid dummies' book or something I can downmload? LOL Just FYI, I download tons of movies and MP3's. Have no problems with making playable CD's but only get maybe 1 or 2 out of 5 movies to work on my DVD player. A very lousy ratio. if you ask me. Oh, didn't mention it to you but I am blind and use a screen reader for the computer so if you need me to do something on these programs, give me names of buttons or links, my program will read those for the most part. Once again, using Any DVD, VSO DivxToDVD and Clone DVD to make my disks. An Nec DVD 3520A burner, a Symphonic player and Sony -R disks. Have other disks but get the same result. Most are now in a box to be hung on my christmas tree this year. ) Think I'll spray paint them gold. Thanks. GaLady/Lynn
Just wanted to add this P.S. Ran yet anohter movie through VSO DivxToDVD and got those same two messages but I miswrote one of the words. It was "isn't recommanded" not "inst. recommanded" as originally stated. But, nonetheless, it would not play either. I tried DVD+RW and DVD-R with the same ndisk error. Please!! Help!! I really love to "watch" movies with my sighted husband and I think I could have bought at least 20 for what I have spent on trying to burn 3 or 4! LOL Best Regards, GaLady
