Burned DVD will play on Mac, not in DVD player

[Nigell]

Hi there,

 

I've searched the forum for help on this, as I'm sure it comes up regularly, but haven't been able to find an answer.

 

I am copying a DVD, and the first time I did it, the whole process proceeded successfully, but the final DVD would only play on my MacBook Pro, and not on my commercial DVD player. The second time, and exactly the same process was followed, it played perfectly on my DVD player. Is this purely down to the media? In both cases I used the same company's blank DVD's - Verbatim - which I was recommended for reliability. If it is down to the media, then can anyone let me know what they find the usual failure rate for copying.

 

thanks - Nigel

[lakewoodlawnman]

What speed are those Verbatim's? You know you can burn too slow.

[tsantee]

Thank you for the help.

 

It does seem that burning DVDs just isn't as foolproof as I would have hoped. I might well buy an external burner at some point. If you could recommend one, I would be grateful. By the way, I didn't notice a choice of speeds when I popped the blank DVD-R in, but I'll keep a look out next time. I usually burn at 2X now, just to give myself the best chance of success.

 

Nigel

I don't think you need to go slower than 4X with a modern drive and good media. Toast defaults to "Best" speed (which is the fastest that the drive determines is supported with that media and the drive's firmware) unless you previously had changed the speed in the Recorder Settings window. I'm happy with my LaCie Firewire drive. They often have clearance models on their Web site that are inexpensive. Some brands of drives require connecting to PCs for firmware updates. That isn't the case with LaCie drives and some other brands. You can check a manufacturer's support site to see if firmware updates are available for flashing on Macs.

[Nigell]

What speed are those Verbatim's? You know you can burn too slow.

 

They are 16X. I actually asked this question on the iDVD site a while back, and I didn't get a definitive answer to the burning speed. I was using different media then, which might have been the problem, as I couldn't get the DVD to burn at all from iDVD, which always uses best speed. I then used Toast. The first time it didn't work, and then I slowed it right down to 2X which seemed to work.

 

I then changed to these new Verbatims. The DVD projects are now fine. In the case I described above, it worked the second time but not the first. Is 4X the minimum best speed? I've now set that as the default in Toast.

 

Just seems that you can't expect it to work every time, which is dissapointing. By the way, one of my burns worked in my Mac and not in my stand alone DVD player. What does this mean re the quality of the burn I created. Clearly the info is there.

 

Nigel

[tsantee]

There are a lot of possibilities. It could be just a disc problem and you won't encounter another one for awhile. Verbatim media is pretty good with Apple drives. You might try burning at a speed slower than Best. After inserting the disc you can press the speed button to choose a different speed that's in bold face. Apple's slot-loading Superdrives are not known for their quality or longevity. I recommend using a Firewire drive rather than the MacBook's Superdrive except when you need the portability.

 

Another thing to try is using DVD-R media if you were using DVD+R or vice versa. DVD-R is supposed to be the most compatible with standalone players, but it may be the opposite with your player. Or it may not matter at all.

[Nigell]

Thank you for the help.

 

It does seem that burning DVDs just isn't as foolproof as I would have hoped. I might well buy an external burner at some point. If you could recommend one, I would be grateful. By the way, I didn't notice a choice of speeds when I popped the blank DVD-R in, but I'll keep a look out next time. I usually burn at 2X now, just to give myself the best chance of success.

 

Nigel