[Shannon Virginia]

I created a video and attempted to burn in on a DVD+RW disc. It "acted" like it burned everything I had created; however, when I went to view the DVD the only thing that would play was the Menu. Any thoughts as to what I might have done wrong (three times in a row) ???

[james_hardin]

No guesses without a lot more details…

Where did you try to play the discs? RW's can have compatibility issues.

[Shannon Virginia]

james_hardin, on Jan 21 2007, 04:02 AM, said:

No guesses without a lot more details…

Where did you try to play the discs? RW's can have compatibility issues.

I tried to play the disc on the same computer I created it on.

After reading your comment about RW's having capatability issues, I tried using a DVD-R and the same thing happened. I'm using Sony and Memorex discs. Please outline what other details you need to help me try to figure this out and I'll compile the list.

This is my first time using the Roxio posting board so hopefully I'm doing this correctly.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Shannon Virginia

[james_hardin]

Some of the info missing is what program you used? There are 35 in the Suite!

Most of us use VideoWave for editing a clip then use MyDVD for building the menu and burning.

Outline the steps you took with that program – extra credit is given for details.

Examine the burned disc with Explorer. There should be a VIDEO_TS folder with ifo and vob files in it. (those are your movie and menus).

Memorex does not have a good reputation for media, but the Sony's should be OK.

[Shannon Virginia]

james_hardin, on Jan 22 2007, 01:17 PM, said:

Some of the info missing is what program you used? There are 35 in the Suite!

Most of us use VideoWave for editing a clip then use MyDVD for building the menu and burning.

Outline the steps you took with that program – extra credit is given for details.

Examine the burned disc with Explorer. There should be a VIDEO_TS folder with ifo and vob files in it. (those are your movie and menus).

Memorex does not have a good reputation for media, but the Sony's should be OK.

Dear Digital Guru-

I thank you for your response, and as requested ( wishing to get the extra credit !! ) I’ll be as detailed as possible to tell you how I created my DVD:

Opened Roxio Media Creator 9
Clicked on “Video”
Clicked on “Create a DVD with MyDVD”
Under menu tasks, chose “add new movie”
Selected a previously stored video clip, pressed “add”
I was taken back to MyDVD where I created the title & menu title
Under “Edit Movie” I trimmed the video, added transitions, words, etc.
I saved the project in a “My Videos” folder
In inserted a Sony DVR-R disc in my DVR Drive
On the main MyDVD menu I clicked “Burn”
On the Burn Project menu I check marked “Burn to Disc” then clicked on “Burn”
The burning process on the screen appeared to go smoothly and the 100% burned disc ejected.
I hit “ok”
I closed out from Roxio/MyDVD. When it asked “do you want to save changes” I wasn’t sure if I should say yes or no (as the disc was already ejected) so I closed saying “no”.
I re-inserted the DVD in the same drive I had recorded it in.
The windows box asked how I wanted to watch the DVD (it appeared to default wanting to use Roxio Media Experience) so I chose that.
The Roxio Cine Player opened up, and the Menu played over, and over, and over again. No buttons could be pushed to allow me to watch the movie.
I removed then re-inserted the disc, choosing Windows Media player to view it with. Same result.
At this point (as you can imagine), I’m really sick of the menu !!

When I click on My Computer, MyDVD Drive E, and open to see what’s actually on the disc, there is a Video_TS folder on it which contains 9 different files. There is also a Roxio Plasma folder on it which contains 3 files. If I click on the “project data” file, it automatically brings up Roxio/MyDVD and yes, at this point, I can view my video production.

Based on your comments above, I tried creating the movie using VideoWave9 and sent it to MyDVD to burn, following the same steps mentioned above.

Same result – won’t play.

*** Out of curiosity, I tried to play the DVD on my regular DVD player attached to my television. Low and behold, it did indeed play !!

*** This caused me to do some on-line research and I ended up reading something in “Windows Media – Supported file types” which may provide the answer to my problem. Quoting an article “to play DVD’s you must have a DVD-ROM drive and a software or hardware DVD decoder installed on your computer. If you do not have a compatible DVD decoder installed, DVD-related commands, options and controls do not appear in the Player and you cannot play DVDs. By default, Windows does not include a DVD decoder.”

After reading this article, I inserted a “purchased” DVD, and it played fine using Windows Media Player, so off the top of my head, it would seem like I have a decoder installed.

Hope this provides you the detail you were looking for … I’ll await your thoughts. Thank you for your willingness to assist me with this – I do indeed feel lost at this point.

Shannon Virginia

[grandpabruce]

Shannon Virginia, on Jan 23 2007, 09:14 AM, said:

Dear Digital Guru-

I thank you for your response, and as requested ( wishing to get the extra credit !! ) I’ll be as detailed as possible to tell you how I created my DVD:

Opened Roxio Media Creator 9
Clicked on “Video”
Clicked on “Create a DVD with MyDVD”
Under menu tasks, chose “add new movie”
Selected a previously stored video clip, pressed “add”
I was taken back to MyDVD where I created the title & menu title
Under “Edit Movie” I trimmed the video, added transitions, words, etc.
I saved the project in a “My Videos” folder
In inserted a Sony DVR-R disc in my DVR Drive
On the main MyDVD menu I clicked “Burn”
On the Burn Project menu I check marked “Burn to Disc” then clicked on “Burn”
The burning process on the screen appeared to go smoothly and the 100% burned disc ejected.
I hit “ok”
I closed out from Roxio/MyDVD. When it asked “do you want to save changes” I wasn’t sure if I should say yes or no (as the disc was already ejected) so I closed saying “no”.
I re-inserted the DVD in the same drive I had recorded it in.
The windows box asked how I wanted to watch the DVD (it appeared to default wanting to use Roxio Media Experience) so I chose that.
The Roxio Cine Player opened up, and the Menu played over, and over, and over again. No buttons could be pushed to allow me to watch the movie.
I removed then re-inserted the disc, choosing Windows Media player to view it with. Same result.
At this point (as you can imagine), I’m really sick of the menu !!

When I click on My Computer, MyDVD Drive E, and open to see what’s actually on the disc, there is a Video_TS folder on it which contains 9 different files. There is also a Roxio Plasma folder on it which contains 3 files. If I click on the “project data” file, it automatically brings up Roxio/MyDVD and yes, at this point, I can view my video production.

Based on your comments above, I tried creating the movie using VideoWave9 and sent it to MyDVD to burn, following the same steps mentioned above.

Same result – won’t play.

*** Out of curiosity, I tried to play the DVD on my regular DVD player attached to my television. Low and behold, it did indeed play !!

*** This caused me to do some on-line research and I ended up reading something in “Windows Media – Supported file types” which may provide the answer to my problem. Quoting an article “to play DVD’s you must have a DVD-ROM drive and a software or hardware DVD decoder installed on your computer. If you do not have a compatible DVD decoder installed, DVD-related commands, options and controls do not appear in the Player and you cannot play DVDs. By default, Windows does not include a DVD decoder.”

After reading this article, I inserted a “purchased” DVD, and it played fine using Windows Media Player, so off the top of my head, it would seem like I have a decoder installed.

Hope this provides you the detail you were looking for … I’ll await your thoughts. Thank you for your willingness to assist me with this – I do indeed feel lost at this point.

Shannon Virginia

It sounds like you did everything ok by going through VideoWave first. Try playing that burned DVD in Windows Media Player.

Also, in MyDVD, most users have more luck unchecking Burn to disc and checking Save disc image file or Create Folder set. For the Save disc image, you should give it a name that you can remember and save it to a new folder on your hard drive.

Once either the disc image or folder set completes the encoding process, you do save your production in MyDVD, close it, open Disc Copier, preview the file to make sure it encoded ok, then burn it to a disc.

[Shannon Virginia]

Dear Bruce -

I'm THRILLED ... absolutely THRILLED to tell you that it finally worked !!! The reality (and I'm very embarrassed to confess this) is that I was incorrectly using Windows Media Player all along. Somehow (assuming "I" had done something incorrect in creating the DVD), I never used the Media Player properly when I was looking at the previous DVD's I had created.

I followed all of your latest instructions and was so frustrated when it didn't work at first, that I finally took the time to see if I understood how Windows Media Player worked. Reality was, I didn't !! Once I pushed the proper buttons (which brought forth a menu from which I could select "titles"), the DVD (created per your latest instructions) worked PERFECTLY !! No wonder it worked on the DVD player connected to my television.

Curiosity then got the better of me and I inserted each of the three DVD's I had created before (which I thought didn't worked), and they all worked just fine !! Didn't seem to matter at all that some were created with MyDVD, some were created with VideoWave, some were put on DVR-R some were put on DVR+RW, some were on Sony media and some were on Memorex media. They each played back the same.

After working on this for who knows how many hours, I feel stupid on one hand, and elated on the other. For anyone following this trail just know that if you want something bad enough, and work hard at it (with helpful friends like Bruce), the answer will eventually come to you.

Bruce, I can't thank you enough for working through this with me. Your input was invaluable. Although the final instructions weren't "necessary" per se, the fact that you hung in there with me, trying every option you could think of, made me believe that somehow, some way, this was going to work ... and it DID !!

Thank you ... Thank you !!!

Shannon Virginia

[grandpabruce]

Shannon Virginia, on Jan 23 2007, 07:49 PM, said:

Dear Bruce -

I'm THRILLED ... absolutely THRILLED to tell you that it finally worked !!! The reality (and I'm very embarrassed to confess this) is that I was incorrectly using Windows Media Player all along. Somehow (assuming "I" had done something incorrect in creating the DVD), I never used the Media Player properly when I was looking at the previous DVD's I had created.

I followed all of your latest instructions and was so frustrated when it didn't work at first, that I finally took the time to see if I understood how Windows Media Player worked. Reality was, I didn't !! Once I pushed the proper buttons (which brought forth a menu from which I could select "titles"), the DVD (created per your latest instructions) worked PERFECTLY !! No wonder it worked on the DVD player connected to my television.

Curiosity then got the better of me and I inserted each of the three DVD's I had created before (which I thought didn't worked), and they all worked just fine !! Didn't seem to matter at all that some were created with MyDVD, some were created with VideoWave, some were put on DVR-R some were put on DVR+RW, some were on Sony media and some were on Memorex media. They each played back the same.

After working on this for who knows how many hours, I feel stupid on one hand, and elated on the other. For anyone following this trail just know that if you want something bad enough, and work hard at it (with helpful friends like Bruce), the answer will eventually come to you.

Bruce, I can't thank you enough for working through this with me. Your input was invaluable. Although the final instructions weren't "necessary" per se, the fact that you hung in there with me, trying every option you could think of, made me believe that somehow, some way, this was going to work ... and it DID !!

Thank you ... Thank you !!!

Shannon Virginia

You're welcome! No need to feel stupid, at all. Feeling elated is what counts, and now you can have fun making your productions. I am happy for you!

[Shannon Virginia]

Thanks again. I love your new photo of your granddaughters. They look absolutely adorable ...

All the best to you,
Shannon Virginia