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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: Linda_J on Tuesday 12 September 06 20:25 BST (UK)
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Hi
A friend suggested we burn a DVD to show all our unknown photo's in a slide show to send to members of the family to identify.
We used NERU to burn several of them and tested all on our DVD player but have now found roughly half the rellies had DVD players that refused to play them.
The same DVD worked when they tried it on a neighbours DVD.
Any ideas please.
Linda
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Hi Linda, You mean NERO.
Thats what happens im afraid, did you burn it using DVD+R discs or DVD-R discs?
Also some players will only play certain manufacturers discs.
one thing you could try is find out the makes and models of dvd player they have and then look here
http://www.dvdhelp.com/
to see what discs they will play.
Kev. ;D
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Hi Kev
Thank you for the reply.
The DVD's which we used are DVD-R.
Checking back with the rellies and in 2 cases we got "haven't a clue but its combined with the TV".
We will check further and see what we can find out.
Thanks again Linda
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Hi Linda
If your relatives are trying to view images on a DVD attached to a TV then there could be a problem. Typically those kind of DVD players are designed to playback DVD films and CD's.
Unless they can access a PC DVD drive they may not be able to view them.
You could always send the photographs as email attachments, a few at a time.
downside
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Hi downside
Many thanks for your comments.
The reason we decided to try this was because many of our older rellies don't have computers but they all have DVD players!
It runs on our DVD/TV as any other DVD film.
Linda
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Hi Linda_J
Many of the older DVD players do not have a way of looking at .jpg files. Having said that, I do not know what format your files are in.
They'll probably have to get a new TV with internet access or a PC.
You could always send them the printed photos I guess.
downside
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As stated above some DVD players only accept DVD-R or DVD+R media rather than both formats.
But you will often find that some DVD players will not accept ANY kind of recordable DVD media. In these cases you are usually better of using a CDR rto make a videoCD (VCD) with the main downside being the smaller capacity.
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hi, encountered this problem with my holiday snaps. ( lucky for my rellies ;D ;D ) i have a divx player so can play anything on it. i agree with chris, best thing to do is burn it as a vcd (or svcd), which their players should play. nero will do this for you.
steve
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Hi downside, xrchris and steve
Thank you for your replies.
As I know very little about DVD's I think I may have misled everyone a little by not using the correct terms.
The DVD's are burnt as a movie and not as jpg files.
Looking at purchased movies on DVD using explorer on the computer and comparing with the ones we burnt show they appear to be the same format.
Linda
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If you're sure the DVD has burnt as a movie and not as a series of pictures (which not all DVD players support) then its probably due to the DVD-R being incompatible with the player. This shows in various ways...
1. Plays without problems (compatible)
2. Plays mostly but pauses now and then at random places (slightly incompatible)
3. Plays but pauses at a lot of random places (very incompatible)
4. Doesn't even get recognised as a DVD (incompatible)
Many think that a DVD is a DVD just like a video tape is a video tape but they're not. The best DVD players are actually the really cheap and cheerful ones. I've found they play the largest range of formats where the more expensive ones are often limited. I bought mine (ALBA) for £60 from Argos about 5 years ago and its multi-region, plays PAL and NTSC (those from America) including MP3, VCD and SVCD. Just doesn't like picture discs or DivX movies.
When buying blank media or even thinking of buying a new DVD player/burner check out www.videohelp.com and check out all the reviews there. You can cross reference players/burners with different types of media and using feedback from others can see what will and won't play.
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Hi Zeb
Thanks for your comments.
We just found out the make and model of one of the DVD players that wont work.
The spec claims this-
DVD features: DVD-video, DVD-R, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, SVCD, VCD, MP3 and JPEG playback compatible.
Looks like that should give us a few things we can try till we find some thing that does work.
Our own £16 dirt cheap DVD player from Netto's claims to do only DVD-video, CD and MP3.
Linda
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If it claims JPEG playback and it still doesn't work then there is another thing it could be (just to over complicate things :-X)
Quite often the way data is written to a DVD can make a whole lot of difference as well. For example, a standard DVD movie can have I think about 4 different formats which would ultimately effect the way it plays back. These "configurations" would be in the preferences/settings of the burning software and, usually the default settings of the software are set correctly so that the burning of discs is more widespread compatible. If this is the case then its a case of trial and error with the settings and burning discs to see what works and doesn't work but this is not something I'd like to do.
Personally I blame all these variations in DVD media, DVD burners and DVD players to the fact that when DVDs were released into the public that no standard had been set. Its a bit like when Betamax, VHS and Video 2000 were fighting for a place all those years ago, except with DVDs its more complex than "yes it works" or "no it doesn't"
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Hi Zeb
Thanks for the reply.
Well we can try a few things and your mention of VHS just clicked. If all else fails we can use our VHS recorder and record from our DVD player and just send them the tape.
Linda
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What an excellent idea!
That way you know its always going to work :)
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Hi Zeb
We should have thought of it before!
Linda