Can't make playable DVD?

[borate]

Right-clicking on the ISO file I don't get "Burn to disc" as an option, but I do get "burn disc image". Is that quite different? Or equivalent? Should it create a playable DVD (ie playable on a standalone DVD player?) - (trying to burn a dvd tends to take hours & tends not to work, which is why I'm asking again before trying again ...)

 

Yes, BURN DISC IMAGE is correct, per the graphic that Sam posted to this thread. My typing mistake.

 

As mentioned earlier, if you've made an ISO in Videopad, then using this Windows 10 feature should make a disc that's playable in a standalone player. That worked here.

But then again, so should Videopad's BURN MOVIE option. If they don't succeed, I suggest that you test the disc in another standalone player to confirm that your machine is not the problem.

[Toadstool]

Thanks for tips & patience. As I mentioned, my DVD still plays my old Win7 DVDs, so I didn't think the problem was the machine.

[borate]

Using File (Windows) Explorer, examine the file structure of your old (playable) and new (unplayable) DVD discs. Are they the same?

[Toadstool]

Checked a couple of my unplayable discs. One has a list very much like that one, inside a folder. The other one has an ISO file, under "files ready to be written to the disc", & when I click on the ISO file it shows 2 folders, AUDIO_TS & VIDEO_TS. Inside the VIDEO_TS folder there's a list that looks like that, too.

 

I'll try these discs on a different DVD player when I get the chance.

 

My older discs still play fine. But for a while now, my Win7 machine has been making unreliable discs: they play, but they stick after a while. My Win10 laptop (with Videopad) doesn't seem to make playable discs at all. I suspect that Win 10, as well as some recent automatic update to Win7, just doesn't get on with an old VCR/DVD player like mine. I'm thinking of investing in a new / modern DVD player that will play from USB sticks as well as DVDs & maybe bypassing DVDs altogether: just store vid files on memory sticks.

[Toadstool]

Update: that DVD I burned from an ISO file made with Videopad: tried it in a friend's DVD player / TV, and it plays fine. Just not on mine, though mine still plays my older DVDs.

 

My friend's player is much newer / more modern than mine (hers also plays Blu-ray while mine also plays VHS cassettes ...) - I guess I need a new DVD player.

[Toadstool]

An outcome (though everybody seems to have stopped commenting on this thread): I bought a new DVD player for £29 & it does play the DVDs I made with Videopad. Looks like old VCR/DVD machines can't handle Videopad discs but modern ones can. So the problem wasn't Videopad, it was my ancient hardware.

 

But now a new problem: this new DVD player also has a USB port, & I'd like to store vids on a memory stick & play them through the DVD player / TV. But it ain't having it. I'll start a new thread about that soon ...

[borate]

Check the new player's instructions for the file types that it handles, then export (produce) a Videopad file of that type and copy it to a USB stick. It should play.

[Toadstool]

The (Panasonic) dvd player says files (on usb stick) have to be .avi or .xvid. Videopad can make avi files, but the player says "format unsupported". Xvid doesn't come up as an option in Videopad. I've installed the xvid codec but it makes no difference.

[c_major]

Have you tried switch to the other codec (H264/MPEG)?

[Toadstool]

How do you do that? mp4 or mpg come up as options under file settings for making a vid file, is it one of those?

[borate]

When exporting to a VIDEO FILE, using the latest VP for Windows, clicking the Encoder Options button and then on the arrow to the right of "H264/MPEG" a menu drops down with many video compressor choices...

 

Try MPEG4 or the DV encoder NTSC (or Pal, if that's your standard).

[Toadstool]

Thanks. Under "encoder options" then "compression settings" I've found "Xvid MPEG-4 codec" & went for that. But my DVD player STILL says "unsupported format".

 

However I see under "Xvid configuration" there are 17 options - 4 different kinds of Xvid & 13 different kinds of MPEG4. Plus, 2 different "encoding types" - single pass or twopass. Should I just wade through the lot & see if any of them work, or could you give me any shortcut tips?

 

The DVD manual says for playing vids from USB stick "the file extension has to be .XVID, .xvid, .AVI or .avi." .xvid doesn't seem to be an option in VP so I've been going for .avi with "Xvid MPEG-4 codec".

[borate]

Using VP 4.48 an H.264 encoded AVI was copied to a USB stick. It rendered fine in my three-year old Samsung Blu-Ray player.

 

Here is a link to that file. Click the DOWNLOAD arrow to transfer it to your PC, then copy it to the stick and give it a try.

[Toadstool]

Thanks. Same result: "unsupported format". Maybe there's a fault in my DVD player ...

[c_major]

Can you find any video file that can be played on the DVD player?

[Toadstool]

I can burn DVDs then copy the Video TS folder from DVD to a memory stick & it'll play them: though it breaks them down into smaller VOB files that have to be played one at a time. It won't play MOV, MPEG4, WMV, AVI, & I'm not going to try converting them into every other imaginable format on the off chance that one might work. It's going back to the shop. It plays DVDs fine, though.

 

The manual says the file extension (for USB) has to be either .avi or .xvid. Is there even such a thing as .xvid as a file extension? None of the format conversion apps I've looked at has it as an option. I downloaded the xvid codec & "xvid MPEG4 codec" shows up in VP. Tried using it & it makes files that won't even play on the computer (it plays the sound only) & not at all on the DVD player.

[borate]

Give that file I posted a USB test on another player. If success, then indeed you might be headed to the shop.

[Toadstool]

Wondered if you could tell me anything about vid files with extension .xvid though. Do they exist? I haven't found a converter that will make them. No clear info anywhere on internet.

[borate]

XVID is a codec (compressor/decompressor), not a file extension. More here.

[Toadstool]

Yes I've found articles like that one. Maybe Panasonic got it wrong in their manual then.

[c_major]

AVI is a container file format. Meaning that you can compress the video with any codec and put inside an AVI.

 

The DVD player can extract the video stream from an AVI file but probably can't decode it since the codec is not supported.

 

Even with the same codec, the player might not support all the settings and therefore unable to play it.

 

I think if you can find a video that plays on that DVD player. We can analyse that video file see what the DVD player supports.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi Toadstool

 

I can't see why you shouldn't be able to save a playable DVD

 

This what I find works using VP PC version 4.48.

Using a DVD+RW disc. (So not wasted in the event of failure)

 

Project on the timeline ready for exporting.

Disc in PC drive and cleaned of previously burned data using Windows menu option for DVD drive.

In VP Click down arrow on the "Export DVD Movie" button on taskbar and select "DVD Movie Disc"

VP checks for drives and then displays "Export Video" window.

 

Enter name for your disc

Select burner (if more than one). Take default otherwise.

If in the UK/Europe select PAL

Select format (e.g. Widescreen 16:9)

Click the "Advanced" button

Select "Calculate bitrate automatically" (Probably default entry) Click OK

Back into previous window click "Create"

 

Now create a menu if required. (Didn't have this on earlier versions of VP....so a nice addition )

This is pretty straightforward...Add title/text/background image etc.

Click "Save menu"

Add chapters option but just leave as-is ("Continue without Chapters") if it's just a test, otherwise return to VP main screen and add them if required.

Click "Just Burn It"

VP now encodes menu and burns disc.

 

Here I think there may be a bug ....as the"Creating your Movie" window and the "Writing to disc" prompt did not stop and the blue moving progress bar continued to scan left to right which gave the impression that the disc was still being burned. It displayed "Waiting for drive to finish operation" However the drive had stopped spinning and the processor usage had dropped back to 3% so I simply opened the drive and removed the disc. (VP continued to display the window!)

 

This DVD played perfectly (with its menu) both in VLC on the PC as well as with a Toshiba video player connected to a TV.

 

Nat

[Toadstool]

Yes I can burn a DVD - though curiously, I always get a message that it's failed, even though it's produced a perfectly OK DVD.

 

What I can't do is make a vid file that will play from USB memory stick on my new Panasonic DVD player/TV (which I want to do because my TV screen is much bigger than my PC screen, & because I want to save backups on memory stick rather than DVD).

 

Indications are that this is a Panasonic issue rather than a VP issue. Manual says USB plays .avi files & .xvid files. It won't play avi's & everyone's telling me there's no such things as .xvid files (xvid is a codec not a file extension). I've messaged Panasonic & I'm waiting for their reply.

[c_major]

Here I think there may be a bug ....as the"Creating your Movie" window and the "Writing to disc" prompt did not stop and the blue moving progress bar continued to scan left to right which gave the impression that the disc was still being burned. It displayed "Waiting for drive to finish operation" However the drive had stopped spinning and the processor usage had dropped back to 3% so I simply opened the drive and removed the disc. (VP continued to display the window!)

 

Thanks for reporting this. I'll try it out.

[borate]

Just to chime in, this behavior has been seen in past versions here, and occasionally noted in this forum.