Solved! why does my dvd-r only play on some dvd players

[abbarich]

I have burned several family videos (Sister's wedding etc) onto dvd-r using my laptop (Lenovo). They play perfectly on my Panasonic dvd player which is only a cheap player, but when I took them to my parents house they wouldn't play on their dvd player which is Toshiba and more expensive, being a dvd recorder. My sister took one of the dvd-r's home and it played fine on her dvd player,not sure of the make but she said it's one of those small screen portable players. Does anyone know why my parents were unable to watch my discs on their player. The player just said disc is unable to be played or recorded. They can play some dvd-r's on their player though, but not mine. Does anyone know why this might be? Thanks.

 

[jsmithepa]

This is a well known issue with user-burnt discs. I don't have the technical details. AFIK there is no magic wand for full interoperability, other than maybe these days post you stuff online (Facebook?) and have family members access it that way.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, sometimes they are not compatible between drives.

ex.
If the track location tolerance is 0, plus/minus 5. Most drives would write and read at around the 0 level.
But if your DVD drive writes at the high end of the allowable tolerance, and their player reads at the low end of the tolerance...two ships passing in the night.

 

[abbarich]

Many thanks for the replies. I thought it might be an incompatibility issue. I was hoping to make my parents a copy of my Sister's wedding (from over 20 years ago) which they only have on VHS, but I'll have to find another way. They have a good player, Toshiba, not a cheap one,so not sure if it's picky about what it will play. I've heard that cheaper players are better with dvd-'s though I don't know how how true this is. My dvd player is cheap and it does play the dvd-r perfectly. I'm not sure what level my dvd drive writes at. Where could I find this info on my laptop,and is it possible to set it nearer to 0 if mine writes at high end.Thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

Many thanks for the replies. I thought it might be an incompatibility issue. I was hoping to make my parents a copy of my Sister's wedding (from over 20 years ago) which they only have on VHS, but I'll have to find another way. They have a good player, Toshiba, not a cheap one,so not sure if it's picky about what it will play. I've heard that cheaper players are better with dvd-'s though I don't know how how true this is. My dvd player is cheap and it does play the dvd-r perfectly. I'm not sure what level my dvd drive writes at. Where could I find this info on my laptop,and is it possible to set it nearer to 0 if mine writes at high end.Thanks.

It's not something you can set or change.
Just the tolerances of the drive and DVD.