DVD Media and Home Player compatibility question

[uart]

Hi guys. This may seem to be more a burning software related question but there seems to be something very related to the DVD media also going on, so bare with me.

When I first started burning movie DVD's from ISO files (with nero6 on my Pioneer 108) I noticed by default nero didn't tick the "finalize DVD" checkbox so I had to do it manually. I soon found that my DVD's played fine on my home player regardless of whether or not this setting was selected and eventually stopped bothering to finalize the discs. At the time I was using Princo's, yuk media yes but for some reason movies burnt on this media played on my home player regardless of whether or not the disk was finalized.

After I discovered that Princos were crap I started trying various other media (all DVD-R at that stage) and I would frequently find brands that worked well in the computer (and scanned better than the Princos) but for some reason they would often fail to "load" in my home DVD player. Not all the time though, it was very erratic, some discs from the same spindle would play every time, others never and others might only play approx one time in 3 that the disk was inserted etc. The strange thing about this was that it didn't appear to be simply due to poor media, because even discs that had to be inserted six or more times before they'ed finally play would however play perfectly (all the way through) once they were eventually recognized by the player. On the other hand my Princos would always load up and start to play ok, every time, even if it was a realy bad princo that would freeze or stuff up near the end of the movie. Weird huh.

I always attributed this to just a fussy home player and never considered that it might be related to the "unfinalized" discs I was feeding it. I thought that it would be either a case of they all work or none work (in a particular player), I didn't think it would be dependant on the brand of media. But lately since I've taken to checking the "finalize DVD" option in nero I never seem to get that failure to load problem in my home player. Even brands that sometimes gave the problem dont seem to be giving me those load failures anymore. So can this be true, could the effect of finalizing the disc on the compatabilty/incompatabilty of a burnt DVD-R be dependant on the brand of media used. The other weird thing about this of course is that Princo, which is one the the worst media available, was the one that NEVER gave me problems as to whether or not the DVD was finalized?

[uart]

~ BUMP ~

Ok no responses, it was a tricky question and a slightly long winded description. And I know it might be something very specific to my particular home DVD player so I understand if nobody has any clues about this.

But let me summarize it one more time in case anyone still has some clues to offer :

[b]- Use Princo and it doesn't matter if I select "finalize DVD" when burning with Nero, resultant disc will always be recognized when inserted into home player.

• Use better quality media and if I don't select "finalize DVD" when burning in Nero then the resultant disc may not be recognized when placed in home player. (sometimes will sometimes wont, seemingly at random).[/b]

Does that strike anyone else as being a bit weird? Can anyone think of any possible explanation. (all media are single layer DVD-R btw, only difference is princo versus other brands).

[Wizzu]

I've been reading your post with interest yesterday, but as you mention yourself it's quite a confusing question so I didn't reply.

Actually I can't think of any sensible explanation. Sounds like a mystery...

The only thing that comes to my mind is that your player could like the Princo dye reflectivity more than that of other media. But to link this to the finalizing/not finalizing thing is kinda tricky.

What's your home player BTW? you don't seem to mention it.

[rdgrimes]

In general, DVD players aren't supposed to load any disc that's not finalized. But since they don't comply with any particular specs, anything is possible.

The underlying issue is that the player just doesn't like recordable media. I'd try DVD+R with and without booktype set to ROM. But whatever works, stick with it. I certainly wouldn't trust my movie collection to Princo. :disagree:

You don't have to waste very many discs to make a new player look like a good deal.

[uart]

Thanks for the replies guy, yes it's certainly a weird one.

I certainly wouldn't trust my movie collection to Princo.

Yep I agree totally. That's the thing that was so frustrating about this problem. It made it seem like Princo was somehow the only media that was fully compatible with my player, so even though I didn't like it I kept on using it. It wasn't until I eventually started finalizing all my discs that I realized other -R media also worked good, just as long as it was finalized. I know I should have been finalizing my discs all along but since it didn't seem to matter with Princo I naturally assumed it wouldn't matter with other -R media either, that's where I go misled.

I'd try DVD+R with and without booktype set to ROM.

Yes that also plays ok. For a long time however I didn't know about booktype setting and this particular player wont play +R media unless the booktype is altered. It's only very recently (after flashing my Pioneer 108 to PIOdata firmware) that I can actually use DVD+R media with this player.

You don't have to waste very many discs to make a new player look like a good deal.

Yeah they're certainly cheap enough now. Still this player is ok now I've worked out this quirk. Like you said the discs should rightly be closed in any case, and it's no hardship to do so. I think you can see how I was led astray by this strange player behavior - when I first started out I was using Princos (as many newbies do until they learn better) and there I found that finalizing seemed un-important on my player and so got into the bad habit of not bothering to do it.

Of course the other embarrassing side effect of this quirky behavior is to think of all the times that it led me to tell people that "Princo are the best media" as they appeared to have the best compatibility on my home player. Ouch!

[sarahjh69]

Try to copy a Princo disk, burned 3 months ago. Then tell us they are a great disk!

[uart]

Try to copy a Princo disk, burned 3 months ago. Then tell us they are a great disk!

Haha you're preaching to the converted there Sarah. I know all about Princos dying with CRC failure, especially near the end of the disk.