DVD playback

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Time Traveler

How many formats are there with dvd playback?I have some dvds that will
play on a laptop but will get a disc error in a standard standalone dvd
player hooked up to a standard tv.You would think it would default to
play on a standard dvd player.What gives?
 
Time Traveler said:
How many formats are there with dvd playback?I have some dvds that will
play on a laptop but will get a disc error in a standard standalone dvd
player hooked up to a standard tv.You would think it would default to
play on a standard dvd player.What gives?
Click to expand...

OK, if these DVDs were not factory pressed, then playing them in a
standalone dvd player will be hit and miss. There are so many factors that
go into it, such as brand of BURNER, brand of MEDIA and even brand of
PLAYER. Change one, and it simply won't work, they all have to be
compatible with each other. For example, I can burn Sony brand media in my
AOpen brand DVD burner and it won't play in my Panasonic DVD player but it
WILL play in a couple of different Philips brand DVD players. With the same
hardware, if I change to Maxell brand media, I have no problems.
BUT, DVD drives on computers (such as a laptop) are generally more
compatible with playing a wide variety of media, regardless of factory
pressed or burned or brand of burner.

Another couple of things to look for. If a DVD was burned on a DVD burner,
it has to be finalized before you can pop it into a DVD player. SOME DVD
players will play a DVD that is not finalized, but most won't, they'll give
you a disk error or "NO DISK" error.

Also, there is region coding. Many computer DVD drives will ignore region
coding, but standalone DVD players are usually hard-coded to play just one
or two "regions" of disks. So those cheap movies you picked up in Asia
won't play on your DVD player that you bought in the U.S. :) -Dave

On a side note, if you are talking about factory pressed DVD movies that you
bought retail, you probably have a defective DVD player.
 
Thanks for the help.These dvds were bought mail order from the company
who held the rights to them.I bought a series of dvds from them with no
problem with the regular dvd player.Then I got one that wouldn't play
and they sent another with the same result.I put it in a friend's laptop
and it played.I called them back and asked why would they put out a dvd
that would't play in any dvd player.The dvds weren't cheap, they varied
from 40-60 bucks and up.Their answer was dunno.
 
Time Traveler said:
Thanks for the help.These dvds were bought mail order from the company
who held the rights to them.I bought a series of dvds from them with no
problem with the regular dvd player.Then I got one that wouldn't play
and they sent another with the same result.I put it in a friend's laptop
and it played.I called them back and asked why would they put out a dvd
that would't play in any dvd player.The dvds weren't cheap, they varied
from 40-60 bucks and up.Their answer was dunno.
Click to expand...

Oh! Are these mass-produced, or one-offs? If you bought them straight from
a company that had the rights to them, then they were probably BURNED as
opposed to PRESSED. In other words, you are going to have the same problems
with them in a standalone DVD player as if you burned them yourself.
So what probably happened was, the company you bought the DVDs from was
using a GOOD quality burner with GOOD quality media, so most of their DVDs
would play OK in your player. Then they might have changed media brands, or
the media brand itself might have changed media brands (short explanation is
that "TDK" for example doesn't mean it was made by "TDK"). So suddenly you
get a DVD that won't play in a standard DVD player. And the company that
burned it might not even be aware that there was a change. Thus their
answer was dunno.

I'd suggest that you re-author the DVD yourself. This could be as simple as
using your home computer to copy the DVD to a different brand of media. At
worst, you might need to use a program like DVDshrink (I think that's what
it's called) to make their DVD fit on a ~4GB disk, if you don't have a
dual-layer DVD burner.
Some might argue this is illegal, but it's a grey area... and as the disk is
useless to you in it's current state and the company you bought it from is
less than helpful, you would never be prosecuted for making a copy that you
CAN use. Simply stated, the feds won't give a damn, even if they somehow
find out, which is highly unlikely.

If you re-author the DVD, try to figure out what brand of media the original
is and use something OTHER than that, if possible. Not that it's
necessarily a bad brand, but your PLAYER doesn't like it. Whether or not
you can determine the brand of media of the original... for the copy, try
maxell or ritek / ridata. (unless the original is one of those brands)
If your original is Sony for example, and you copy the DVD to Maxell for
example, I would be surprised if the COPY doesn't play OK in your DVD
player. -Dave
 
Thanks Noway for your explanation.I wanted a technical reason instead of
an idiopathic one.The easiest way out is just to play the quirky ones on
a computer and the others on the standalone.The dvds are gunsmithing
courses on specific weapons.They have a problem with bootleg copies and
when I called them I told them for what they charge versus the cost of
making the dvds I can see why.
 
How many formats are there with dvd playback?I have some dvds that will
play on a laptop but will get a disc error in a standard standalone dvd
player hooked up to a standard tv.You would think it would default to
play on a standard dvd player.What gives?
Click to expand...

Sound like a bathtub operation - cutting costs by sending out or
replicating with questionable media. I've gotten them before and it
can be real cryptic finding the right DVD unit to pick one up. Start
seeing or suspect that, best to back it up. I've one I got from EBAY
-- FORD's blueprint on my truck come to think of it I need back up.
Industry discs - "Hollywood movie discs" pre-BluRay, I guess, are to
the hardiest and best of all. They're burnt onto a metal plate.
Everything else is chemical reactions, plastic melting under the laser
and resolidifying into 0-1's. Not all plastics being equal.
 
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