Help! Just sold 20 DVDs and the buyer can't play them!

I took video at a martial arts event, and sold the DVDs for $15/each. One promoter bought 20 of them, but he just called and none of them play on his DVD players at his home!

I am using RiDATA DVD+R 16x disks, burned at 16x using a brand new Lite-On EZDUB burner, and NERO software. I set the 'booking type' to DVD-ROM when burning this.

ANY IDEAS? What can I do to help the situation!? Help!

 

1)Too fast a burn. Slow down to 4-8x
2) Use better discs as Taiyo Yudens

 

I see different types. Should I go with an 8x media or a 16x media? Or, is 16x just as good when I use 8x?

Also, there's different ones like silver thermal lacquer, etc...what does that mean?

Sorry, I'm new at this. Thanks for the quick help thus far.

 

OK to use 16x at 8x burn speed
Silver thermal lacquer ok. Injet white means can inkjet the white side with a design, otherwise the data side is the same for rated speed. Burn no more than 1/2 rated speed of disc.
For burn engine best is Imgburn free from
www.imgburn.com

 

ok... how about DVD+R or DVD-R? I've heard this debate quite often, and it sounds like DVD+R is the one of choice...is this so? DVD-Rs look cheaper though.

 

DVD+R booktyped to DVD-ROM for better compatibility.
With poor quality media, usually the burners have problems.During playback, the discs might pixelate, freeze...Not to be able to read at least one of 20 burned discs, I wonder if something else is missing...Did you actually make a DVD video and burned it to disc, or just copied the video from your camcoder and burned a data disc? Do they play in your DVD player?
What software did you use to edit the video and make the DVD?

 

Thanks for the info.

Here's a clarification.

After burning the 20 DVDs, ALL of them played on my standalone SONY home theater DVD player (only 2 years old). The guy who bought the DVDs has two standalone DVD players and neither of those players reads any of the DVDs. More than likely, his DVD players just don't read DVD+R DVDs I assume...


QUESTION.

Does everyone who sells DVDs have to deal with this? It seems like a problem a lot of people would run into.

 

Are you sure you booktyped those to DVD-ROM?

 

hahaha

I was sure until you said that! I KNOW i set it at one time, but may have started another project when i actually burned the disc. However, I am pretty sure I did set booktype to DVD-ROM. I just ordered some of the mentioned 16x DVD+R's from Taiyo Yuden, which seem to have good reviews. It cost me a pretty penny more than my cheap RiDATA ones.

 

LOL!
Well, Verbatim X16, DVD+R are on sale at OfficeMax, 100pk for $19.99. You might want to grab a couple of those if you burn a lot. They are very good discs also.

 

Did you also use labels on the DVD?

Along with burning too fast, and lesser quality blanks, paper labels can often cause playback problems.

 

Get one of those disk back and check to see if it is booktyped my guess is that it is not.

 

No. -R is what you should use. It is still the most compatible. Booktyping is an attempt to get +R's inferior compatability to be almost as compatible as -R. Using +R was what got you in this fix in the first place.

 

This would be the first time I heard of a player to not play booktyped DVD+R to DVD-ROM. I've come accross a few players that would not play DVD-R or DVD+R, and have no problems playing the booktyped DVD+R.

DVD-R is more compatible than the "normal" DVD+R, but once booktyped to DVD-ROM, the DVD+R gets ahead. I have never seen somewhere mentioning about a player that plays okay DVD-R but not DVD+R booktyped to DVD-ROM.

@keith204

If that one customer is the only one that complains of compatibility issues, we have to consider that it could be his/her player. Some old players might not play any kind of burned media.

 

woohoo, man this is weird.

OK so i bought the 16x Taiyo Yuden +Rs last night when they were recommended. Then I bought a couple packs of the Verbatims on sale. they do seem to have a good reputation, reading some reviews. Now i'm hearing about DVD-R. Hmmm I'll get them if enough people can vouch that this is the best...but so far everyone's been recommending DVD-R's except for this response. I'll gladly get dvd-r's if that'll do the trick.

 

Well, do as you wish!
Like I said in my previous post above, never heard of a player that can play DVD-R and not play DVD+R booktyped to DVD-ROM. Not that it would be out of the oextraordinary, but would be totally new for me.

Maybe the customer complaining should service his player...if the DVD was properly authored and booktyped to DVD-ROM, he might have issues with his hardware...

 

Cool. Yeah I had hit 'reply' for my last response before I had read what you said, and being a newbie I can't post twice in less than 3 minutes...

Yeah I won't buy DVD-R's, and will be SURE that I am setting booktype to DVD-ROM.

Here's what I did initially:

I set the booktype to DVD-ROM, but burned it to an ISO file, so I could have it around for later. THEN, I burned that ISO file. I assume the DVD-ROM booktype applied, but maybe this is where I messed up. During this next batch, I will use the Taiyo Yudens, burning at 8x, will NOT put a label on them, and will set the booktype to DVD-ROM, and burn the DVD directly.

Thanks for all the help! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Watch out.. NONE of my dvd players will see the 16x disks, regardless of brand or +/- If the player is more than 3 years old it's taking a big chance.

There doesn't seem to be any way to totally guarantee a player will read burns.

We do professional home movies to dvd conversions and always use 8x-r (samsung too) disks and get very very few comebacks.

I can only go on observation.. I know people say + disk is a technically better format (and I agree it is) but that comes to nothing if the customers player refuses to see the + disk, regardless of how it's burned.
I would burn him 1 on 8x-r and see if that does the trick before paying out a large amount for 16x high quality media.

cyprus.. you want an example of players that will not play +r disks booktyped -rom..
dansai dvd1010
xbox
philips 200 series
matsui black bricks (mine is an mts-dvd2130)
and any fitted with the samsung 602-5 series drives.

All these have one thing in common.. they are getting on in years.

 

Well, I don't do any XBOX-ing and this is the first time I hear about a regular player!
Thanks for the info Varnull!
I have a 5 y.o Sanyo DVD/VCR combo. When it comes to burned DVDs,it only plays booktyped DVD+R, no go with DVD-R.
Same with an older Sony(about 5-6 y.o). I only keep those players because I have no playback problems with the discs I use booktyped.
I guess you can't ask a customer to get a new player, no matter how technologically ancient they are, and even though a new player is less than $30 nowadays. You gotta accomodate them.

Myself, I don't think I'll ever be buying DVD-R.

Give the DVD-R a try and good luck!

 

ok...... here is some good reading about +R media:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Why-DVDRW-is-superior-to-DVD-RW/
why the +R media is better than the -R media

about booktyping:
http://k-probe.com/bitsetting-booktype-faq.php
if your drive is booktyped to DVD-ROMs for all your +R(W)media then you won't have to keep setting the booktype!

I use +R media (8x) only (strictly Taiyo Yuden)! My drive is booktyped to DVD-ROM! I have never come across any player/drive having a problem playing my burned media! My son has XBox and has no problem with any of my disks. And my brother has a 4 yr old player and still no probs with my burned media being compatible/playable! I would love to see if my disk play in those other players that varnull mentioned. Plus, if those players are old it may not like ANY 8X media at all, whether it's -Rs or not!