OK. Just so I'm clear. I just burned a movie onto my DVD/CD writer which uses the DVD-RW/CD-RW format and of course my set top DVD player didn't recongize it. What format does most set top DVD players reconize AND what do I need to do to convert my existing movie format(MPEG2)so that it will play on my DVD player?
www.vcdhelp.com has a list of dvd players and their capability/compatibilities. You should be able to check your unit's capabilities there. You'll also find guides on converting video files to DVDs and (S)VCDs.
Set top compatabillity of DVD players is generally ok. However the mastering sofware for mastering DVD's generally produce a lot of garbage, incompatible .ifo's, VOB files with invalid time stamps, .ifo and .bup files on the wrong sector addresses, etc. I've had very good experiences mastering DVD's using InstantCD/DVD (www.vob.de) software. If your set top player and your dvd-rw writter is listed as compatible, do try this software and see if it helps.