A copy of a video DVD, one works and the next copy was done a different way. It does not work, but still works on the computer DVD drive Greg
I don't know of any sector-by-sector comparison programs. Perhaps you can make an ISO of each disc and run them through DOS' FC with the /b switch. There are a couple of reasons why discs will play in a computer but not on a standalone player. First is the media quality. See my sig on that. Second is booktyping if you're using DVD+Rs. A third problem is that simply recording a VIDEO_TS folder with all the appropriate files in it to a DVD is not enough; your burning software must be capable of burning a DVD-Video compilation. Nero does, probably Roxio too. But burning a DVD-ROM compilation type will NOT work because certain files have to be located on specific spots on the disc, or most players won't recognize them as valid Video-DVDs. Hope this helps.
The InfoTool in Nero has given me what I wanted. I have a couple of disks that I downloaded that are PAL and not NTSC. My drive on the compute and the player in the vehicle will play these, but my other players will not. Now I need to see if I can convert them to NTSC. Thanks for the help. Greg
If you're ever in the market for another DVD player, many of the Philips' line e.g. the 5960, 5140 or 642 will play PAL as easily as NTSC, as well as Divx and other stuff too. Just something to think about if you'll be dealing with PAL a lot. Conversion's a real bear.
I currently have the 3 of the Sony DVPCX995Vs. I have been collecting DVDs for a looonnng time. I just started pulling down some of the titles that I have not found in stores. If the conversion turns out to be a nightmare, I will just stop downloading the PAL videos. I did see that Nero has a tool to re-author and convert the files. I will try it out over the holiday. Thanks for everything and happy holidays... Greg
