DVD R-, DVD R+, wedding video ?

M

Mr-Joe

Well-known member
Hi,

Some times when I burn my work onto a DVD, if it is a DVD R+ it wont work on certain players, and if it is a DVD R- , it also wont work on certain players,

All my dvd players run the R-'s but some people have told me that they cant get them to work on their players.


So my question is, I am going to be starting to film wedding videos, and when I put the finnished products onto DVD's what if the DVD i use doesnt work on their player?:

Is there a way to avoid this trouble at all by using a specific type of DVD besides these, like the RW's but i dont think RW's even work at all. Or is there a specific way to burn it to make it work at all times, I normaly make a mpeg-2 , I used DVD architect and i use the setting to burn for DVD or something like that.

Any ways, any help is appreciated.
 
i would put in a flyer with your contract and be up front about this. That certain dvd players will not play the dvd-r format.You can give them the link to the website, which I cant think of at the moment, to check compatibility issues.If all else fails, eat the cost of a dvd player that will play these discs,and just buy your client one if you cant get your disc to work on their player. you can probably get one for less than 50 bucks now, and they can probably play all formats unlike the 500 dollar version your client bought, so you can really confuse the hell out of them.But the bottom line is you dont want your customers pissed at you.Knock on wood, I have only had issues with one player so far, but it was my wife's aunt and she is known to be cheap, and she had the most piece of crap dvd player I have ever seen.I think it was a gold-star or something.Of course this example contradicts everything I have just told you, but hers was pretty old.Most newer players will play anything.
 
i still have to see a player unable to read DVD-R (while there are several unable to read DVD+R). Unless it's a REALLY old one, but then it's not your fault. most likely their inability to read your DVD-R was because of other problems (like too high writing speed, or authoring compatibility problems).

to ensure max compatibility, i would always burn on DVD-R at max 2x speed.

>I am going to be starting to film wedding videos, and when I put the finnished products >onto DVD's what if the DVD i use doesnt work on their player?:

My experience is that with DVD there will *always* be a very slight chance for this to happen, just because there's no authoring software which ensures 100% compatibility with ALL players (also software players). Obviously the chance of having malfunctioning increase with the structural complexity of the authored dvd (menus etc...).

If it doesn't work (as i said it's most likely because of an authoring problem), they either buy a new dvd player (possibly another brand) or you re-author the whole thing with another software.

Andrea
 
this is just an idea i'm putting together at 3:12 a.m. so please bare with me.

what about making a dvd reel they your customers can take home, before you start the job to see a sample of your work. On the sleeve/case note that custom dvd's may not work with some dvd players. When they check out your sample you will know it works. If they come back and tell you it doesn't than you know ahead of time and can try to troubleshoot.

I've only had this problem once (off a mac and idvd).

For the most part dvd-r's work great and are often more compatable that dvd+r's. But both are susceptible to not working on all dvd players. This should be the case with older dvd players.

So, I like yellowdog's idea. Most customers will have no idea that there are compatability issues and may report a problem when they try their dvd on a friend or family members dvd player and it doesn't work. So being up front and educating them on the issue might prove to be very helpful.
 
I read a little whiel back the actual statistics on this. (Though unfortunatly I don't recall the source, sorry)

93% of players will play DVD-R
89% of players will play DVD+R

So most players play both formats, and almost every player will play at least one.

My solution is simple. I produce DVD-R. If I get a return, I check it. If the returned -R checks out, then I send them a +R which generally solves the problem. at well under 50c a blank DVD now, i just keep a stack of each on hand.

- Mikko
 
Personally I use bitsetting for DVD+R discs. Shortly: computer's DVD recorder writes certain bits to DVD-s header and player will recognize this as DVD-ROM.
This is common problem with older players, when they "see" DVD+R as disc type, they refuse to play such media. Bitsetting works only with DVD+R disc's, because "DVD-R bits" are already written to blank disc.
Of course there's no 100% guarantee for very old players, because selfmade DVD-s might simply be unreadable in some players.
So, use good media and write speed <4x. This "big name" on blank's box says nothing...more important is media ID and several burn programs (Nero...) can read this.
For example: Verbatim 16x DVD+R ID MCC004 is good one, but Verbatim DVD+R 4x DVD+R ID MCC01RG20 is worse and SKY DVD+R 2,4x ID PLASMON001 is total crap.
 
Media is the big issue IMHO. Some brands work better than others, some are consistent and some are not. I use Ritek-R 8x hub-printable white and have yet to have a single problem. But I do have some +R available just in case.
 
My old burner only did +R, & I have found some players won't accept them. Come up 'No Disk'. I went to a local retailer with one of these disks & went through his shop till we found one that worked. It was the CHEAPEST in the shop. AUS$70. It plays everything I throw at it. My opinion is that some big name sets are deliberately made selective to counter 'Pirates' ??. I could be wrong. I have had no problems with -R disks that I burn now.
 
We have both capabilities with two different DVD burners. With the -R we burn on a PowerMac G4 we have only had one failure. It failed to play on an old Sanyo player. It made us gun shy and now we normally check before a public performance. Our newer Imac G5 has both +-R write capability. It is always best to include a disclaimer in your contract about this sort of problem and have them contact you for further information or clarification.
good luck
 
I was having problems with my disks playing in other peoples DVD players also. I did firmware upgrade etc and did not help, but I ran accross this little program. It is for pc (XP) so might not work in mac but basically I put a +r disk in, run this program and select the SET button which sets the bitset to DVD-ROM. I then close the program and start up my burn program and burn my disk (leaving the disk in the drive. If I eject the disk I have to re-run dvdbitset. Have not yet taken the time to find out how to autoset the bitset).

DVDBitSet.exe

*************************
Links to some bitsetting info

k-probe
geeks

Hope it helps.:thumbsup:
 
Hey Vampiar Ent,

Just my .02

I've been using Taiyo Yuden -R DVDs (x16) and have had only three returns in over 160 discs burned at x8 on my little Dell machine.

Additionally a friend of mine who does weddings had burned 20 copies of the DVD for the bride and ALL 20!!! came back. They were +R discs and needless to say he refuses to use them anymore.

His opinion, and mine too, is that +R discs seem to cause problems more than -R so we both stick to the older -R format. Anecdotal? Yup.

One other thing as well. As Yellow Dog suggested I do a variation of his idea for the recitals I do. I have a card I place in every case stating that I have a 30 day guarantee on the disc. If it fails or doesn't work I'll replace it for free. I include our email and phone number as well and do my best to replace the faulty disc the next day, if possible.

Finally, I don't think you need to worry too much about a DVD not working. As was suggested you can always include an inexpensive DVD player as a personal gift along with the DVDs to ensure they have something to play them. Otherwise the DVD not working is only minor, IMO, and should be greeted with a smile and extra efficent service as you quickly replace any problem discs because they will certainly remember that. It's all about the marketing.

Once again.

My .02

sincerely,


ian

All the best with your new endeavour.
 
free DVD player

free DVD player

We put it in our contract that our DVD's are DVD-R. About a 95 % compatability rate. If it's a really big job and they can't play the DVD we send them a $29.95 DVD player with our compliments. Works every time.
 
AbracadabraFilms said:
We put it in our contract that our DVD's are DVD-R. About a 95 % compatability rate. If it's a really big job and they can't play the DVD we send them a $29.95 DVD player with our compliments. Works every time.
Click to expand...

That's smooth.
 
I have been doing extensive testing on this with my dulpication company this week.

What we have found:

- It is pretty near impossible to make a 100% compatible disk

- Use top grade media.

- DVD-Rs are most compatible

- Burn at the speed the disks are designed for. An 8x disk burnt at less than 8x is less reliable than burning at 8x.

- Although not tested this week, my duplicator said he had less troubles when on 4x media and burners.

- Don't use labels

- Keep average bitrates below 7Mbps

- Old, expensive players are the worst. Newer, cheaper players are the best. This may be because they use computer type DVD drives.

- Encode video and audio separately (I use Compressor striaght from FCP and A pack using a .wav)

- There is an element of luck envolved due to disk and drive tolerances.


These results came from testing over 3 days using several hundred DVD-Rs. We used Verbatim mostly, but Sonys (according to Bob) and Riteks also seem good. We used Sony, Panasonic, Phillips, Sanyo, JVC and LG DVD players of various ages.
 
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