When I try to copy a DVD that I made in Windows Movie Maker with Roxio Creator Basic v9, it lets me copy the source DVD onto my hard drive just fine, but when I try to then copy the DVD onto a blank DVD-R (a Maxell 4.7 GB), I get a message that says, "There was a problem writing to the disc. You can try again by clicking the Retry button. You will need another blank disc ready."

The Windows Movie Maker project is a slideshow of personal photos with copyrighted music that I imported into WMM, laid over the pics.

Any ideas why this is happening? Is it because the audio files are encrypted?

Since you have Vista and Vista has DVD Burning capability built in, can't you just use Vista's Explorer to copy the disc?

Jim, thanks for the reply. But, as my screen name here implies, I have no idea how to even "use Vista's Explorer to copy the disc." How can a Web browser burn copies of a DVD?

He's not referring to the internet explorer. He's referring to the "My Computer" type of thing that Vista has. I'm not in front of my Vista computer, so I can't give you the steps to burning a DVD in Vista.

Are you using Roxio 9 Disk Copier to copy your DVD? If yes, then all you should have to do is insert the source DVD and then select copy. Roxio will copy/buffer the DVD to disk then it will ask you to insert a blank (unformated) DVD. Is this the process that you are trying to perform?

I'm using something called "Roxio Creator Basic v9." I do insert the source DVD and select copy, and it seems to copy it just fine on to my hard drive. But then when I insert the blank DVD, it writes for a while but then stops and gives me a message saying "There was a problem writing to the disk..."

You might want to check the firmware level on your DVD drive to ensure that it is up to snuff. I don't use the particular program that you using but you may want to see if Roxio has any updates available. I don't know if the program you are using has "logging" capability but you might what to look under the tools menu if that is available for options and see if you can generate a log. That may help solve this problem. I am assuming that you haved burned other DVDs on this drive so that may rule out faulty hardware.

What OS are you using and what type of DVD is on your computer. Your specs would be helpful.

I'm using Vista Home Premium. My computer has 1024 MB of memory, 250 GB hard drive with an AMD 64 chip.

I have no idea what firmware is or how I check the level of it on my DVD drive.

Here's what I've done and tried so far: I made a slideshow with still pictures, overlaid with music ripped from copyrighted commercial CDs, and published that to a DVD from Windows Movie Maker. Then I started burning them to DVDs with Windows DVD Maker (I need to make 130 DVDs). I got about 10 burned with no problem, but then I started getting this error message when a disc was about 99 percent done, and it would just spit the DVD out. So then I learned that I had a DVD burning software called Roxio Creator Basic v9 that came loaded onto my HP Pavillion a1700n when I bought it. I was able to copy my source DVD onto my hard drive in Roxio, but then was unable to copy the DVD. It would write for a while and then stop and say "There was a problem writing to the disc." So, thinking maybe something was wrong with my burner (a LightScribe DVD SuperMulti Drive/CD-Writer), today I went to Best Buy and bought an LG external SuperMulti DVD Rewriter. Its install disc included a software called Nero, which is another DVD burning program, so I tried copying the source DVD into Nero and then burning a copy with the new external burner. It seemed to work because it gave me a message that said it had burned successfully. But then when I tried to pop it into my DVD player hooked up to my TV, my DVD player tried and tried to read it but couldn't and spit it out.

???

Have you tried the MS Movie Maker with your new hardware? With a 250gb drive, I would assume that you have plenty of temp storage space for DVD images.

No I haven't tried the new external burner with the MS Movie Maker. I will do that now.

If your PC is still under warranty, you may want to call HP and ask them for support. 1GB with VISTA is very minimal. Still, if you have already burned 10 DVDs and they play OK, something else is going on.

You have a problem with your burner, then. Using Windows DVD Maker is what James was trying to get you to try. Since you have already done that, and you can't burn with any software, then either your burner is bad, or the discs that you have tried, out of the same spindle, are bad. I would try a different brand or type of media first.

One other thing you can do is go into Device Manager, and uninstall your burner, reboot, and see if the problem is cleared up.

Bruce,

The OP has two burners and they both can't be bad but it is possible but unlikely. He has already burned 10 DVDs so that might indicate that his media is OK but he may now have run into bad media in the rest of the pack. I don't have Roxio 9 Basic do you?

No, I have EMC 7.5, 9 and 10 Deluxe. The media may be the problem, and that is why I suggested trying a change. I would also uninstall the internal burner via Device Manager as it may have gone into PIO mode, with the failed burns.

You might be right about VISTA switching from DMA mode to PIO mode upon encountering excessive errors during a write process (probably caused by bad media but not always).

Clicking on IDE controller listed under device manager and then doing a properties (right mouse click) on the IDE channel should show the advanced settings tab. Under that tab will indicate if DMA is enabled. If not enabled, check the box then reboot and verify to see if it stayed checked.


Deleting out the correct IDE channel (usually 2) and then rebooting should then reinstall the channel and put it back into DMA mode might also do it but I would try the above first before deleting out the channel.

Or click #3 in my signature below and scroll down to (Enabling/ Checking DMA In Windows Vista)..
A step by step guide with pictures.

cd

Good examples CD!

Maybe it's something as simple as bad blank disc's. With the amount of copies you are trying to make I'll bet you bought a 100 pack, I suppose it's possible the first few off the top to good. then some bad ones. I've had problems in the past with Roxio and cheap disc's. Take a look at this web site for info on good/bad disc's http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htmu . Roxio used to have a "check media" as part of it's burn software, but I haven't seen it in emc-9

DVDInfo Pro is included in EMC 9 De Luxe

Check in the start menu under 'tools'