Failure playing back a DVD created on my PC
Can anyone see what is going wrong with a DVD I need to create from a camcorder recording? 
My Niece and Nephew were in a kiddies show in their village and as I was making a copy of the video my sister took of the show, I told the 20 sets of parents that weren’t going to have any copies that i would make them all one!!! Presuming it would be as simple to do as in the past when I had done the same but using my old laptop running Windows Xp, i am now having a nightmare and can’t see what I am doing wrong!
I now have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31M laptop, running Vista and after 3 days trying to find out what is wrong with the Disks, wasting 10 DVD’s and it driving me totally crazy :Di was hoping a clever person on the forum could hopefully help me! I really don’t want to let all the parents down, especially my Family, or end up getting it done professionally which I know will cost me a small fortune- and being me I offered to do them free!!!
The camcorder used takes the 8cm DVD disks and as I have before I simply copied the contents to my hard drive. I then inserted a DVD-R (to match the DVD players) , selected the format as ‘Mastered’, and then used the ‘send to’ command to the copy of the VIDEO_TS to the DVD drive, then Burn to disk. I left the speed at the 8x and the DVD proceeded as normal until it popped out and the message appeared to say it had been successful! I then took that DVD-R and inserted it into our DVD Player and aaaahhhh!!
The Dvd starts to play and then from referring to the copy on my hard drive the play jumps along with the chapter points, where the original recording is stopped and started again. With the DVD Players it plays maybe no more than a second or so of each chapter( i hope that makes sense) before it jumps to the nextand it never shows the whole recording I tried the DVD in another DVD Player and the same thing happens. I have tried another DVD, a different make of DVD, I’ve even tried a DVD+R and the same thing happens with it jumping to each chapter! All the DVDs i have made are all readable and playback the whole recording fine on the laptop. I have been trying to find out if I can remove these chapter points with the file type as it is, but am not finding anything other than telling me to convert the file!
I then tried using Adobe Premiere Elements 4 I have preinstalled on the laptop, something I have never had any experience of. I managed to create a DVD and again, it writes fine, and it converted the file to a MPEG2, , wrote the disk successfully, and then when I put it in the DVD Player it does show the whole recording but has an awful flickering, making it unwatchable! I don’t really understand how the adobe premiere works but the settings match those that the manual says I need to play on UK systems.
I do have other software installed that seems it can also create movie DVDs but when I try and import the video they are saying they are not compatible, I guess I need to convert the file into another format like the adobe does but am really unsure how that works, and how to do it properly?
I don’t understand why just copying the contents of the VIDEO_TS folder to the DVD is not working, its how I have done similar things in the past, but on XP, and a straight forward DVD Drive. I am now using Vista and it has a DVD drive that also reads Blu-Ray.
I hate to be so demanding but I don’t know where else to turn for anyone to see if they can help me figure this out! I am panicking I might let these families down, as well as my family and so am including everything that could hopefully provide a solution! I have attached, a copy of what is in the original VIDEO_TS folder, that i copied to the DVD’s. Also there is a lost of all the software/programs that my laptop has, in case there is a program that I could use (the laptop is really new to me and I’m stll working my way through all the Sony bits!!). I have also included details of my DVD Drive.
If anyone can help me please,
you will be my hero and I will be so very grateful 
:-*! I promise I have tried to figure this out myself before leaving this essay, I’m just not getting anywhere. All I can think to do is recopy the original disk again in case something happened to my copy – or throw the laptop and Dvd player out the window and see which flies better!!! 
Forever grateful -
Sally
My Niece and Nephew were in a kiddies show in their village and as I was making a copy of the video my sister took of the show, I told the 20 sets of parents that weren’t going to have any copies that i would make them all one!!! Presuming it would be as simple to do as in the past when I had done the same but using my old laptop running Windows Xp, i am now having a nightmare and can’t see what I am doing wrong!
I now have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31M laptop, running Vista and after 3 days trying to find out what is wrong with the Disks, wasting 10 DVD’s and it driving me totally crazy :Di was hoping a clever person on the forum could hopefully help me! I really don’t want to let all the parents down, especially my Family, or end up getting it done professionally which I know will cost me a small fortune- and being me I offered to do them free!!!
The camcorder used takes the 8cm DVD disks and as I have before I simply copied the contents to my hard drive. I then inserted a DVD-R (to match the DVD players) , selected the format as ‘Mastered’, and then used the ‘send to’ command to the copy of the VIDEO_TS to the DVD drive, then Burn to disk. I left the speed at the 8x and the DVD proceeded as normal until it popped out and the message appeared to say it had been successful! I then took that DVD-R and inserted it into our DVD Player and aaaahhhh!!
The Dvd starts to play and then from referring to the copy on my hard drive the play jumps along with the chapter points, where the original recording is stopped and started again. With the DVD Players it plays maybe no more than a second or so of each chapter( i hope that makes sense) before it jumps to the nextand it never shows the whole recording I tried the DVD in another DVD Player and the same thing happens. I have tried another DVD, a different make of DVD, I’ve even tried a DVD+R and the same thing happens with it jumping to each chapter! All the DVDs i have made are all readable and playback the whole recording fine on the laptop. I have been trying to find out if I can remove these chapter points with the file type as it is, but am not finding anything other than telling me to convert the file!I then tried using Adobe Premiere Elements 4 I have preinstalled on the laptop, something I have never had any experience of. I managed to create a DVD and again, it writes fine, and it converted the file to a MPEG2, , wrote the disk successfully, and then when I put it in the DVD Player it does show the whole recording but has an awful flickering, making it unwatchable! I don’t really understand how the adobe premiere works but the settings match those that the manual says I need to play on UK systems.
I do have other software installed that seems it can also create movie DVDs but when I try and import the video they are saying they are not compatible, I guess I need to convert the file into another format like the adobe does but am really unsure how that works, and how to do it properly?
I don’t understand why just copying the contents of the VIDEO_TS folder to the DVD is not working, its how I have done similar things in the past, but on XP, and a straight forward DVD Drive. I am now using Vista and it has a DVD drive that also reads Blu-Ray.
I hate to be so demanding but I don’t know where else to turn for anyone to see if they can help me figure this out! I am panicking I might let these families down, as well as my family and so am including everything that could hopefully provide a solution! I have attached, a copy of what is in the original VIDEO_TS folder, that i copied to the DVD’s. Also there is a lost of all the software/programs that my laptop has, in case there is a program that I could use (the laptop is really new to me and I’m stll working my way through all the Sony bits!!). I have also included details of my DVD Drive.
If anyone can help me please,
you will be my hero and I will be so very grateful :-*! I promise I have tried to figure this out myself before leaving this essay, I’m just not getting anywhere. All I can think to do is recopy the original disk again in case something happened to my copy – or throw the laptop and Dvd player out the window and see which flies better!!! Forever grateful -
Sally
I would suggest that:-
a) You get a few rewritable DVD's for experimenting with.
b) Download the Windows version of DeVeDe from http://www.majorsilence.com/devede/
This is free software.
It doesn't allow you to do much fancy titling etc - it just takes a variety of input formats and allows you to create a .iso file which can be burned to the DVD.
The Linux version which I'm familiar with produces a watchable film when it is viewed on TV via a standard DVD player.
Conversion from the input format to DVD format is very time consuming though.
I've taken DivX inputs (700MB) to produce 4.7GB DVD's - and these are also watchable - but with quite noticeable image degradation (but no flicker) - rather good for such high compression.
a) You get a few rewritable DVD's for experimenting with.
b) Download the Windows version of DeVeDe from http://www.majorsilence.com/devede/
This is free software.
It doesn't allow you to do much fancy titling etc - it just takes a variety of input formats and allows you to create a .iso file which can be burned to the DVD.
The Linux version which I'm familiar with produces a watchable film when it is viewed on TV via a standard DVD player.
Conversion from the input format to DVD format is very time consuming though.
I've taken DivX inputs (700MB) to produce 4.7GB DVD's - and these are also watchable - but with quite noticeable image degradation (but no flicker) - rather good for such high compression.
:DHOORAY - PROBLEM SOLVED - even though I don't know why!! Thanks I tried the devede but everytime I tried to get the program to run, even though it had installed it wouldn't work!
I have though somehow made 20 DVD's and hoorah they all work! I don't know how, all I know is what I did after some experimenting with rewritable DVDs I bought as you suggested!
This is what I did.
I used the Adobe Premiere Elements to import the VTS_01_1 file and then used the Share Option to save it to MPEG. The I used Windows Movie Maker to import that MPEG and then chose the create DVD which opened Wndows DVD maker and the finished DVD plays in the DVD players!!! Hooray, and I even got a bit brave and made a Title that comes up at the start. I put one of the DVDs back in the laptop to see what was written on it and it is a VIDEO_TS folder again, and it contains all the file types the original did, when I play the DVD it still has all the stop/start points which a menu pops up and lets me play the whole recording or individual chapters instead of what was happening before! I am wondering if this is what I am going to need to do everytime I have a DVD to make, its a bit of a nuisance and the DVD maker seems to take a lot longer making DVDs than my normal way but if it works I can't moan!
Thanks for your advice, I am going to keep on and try to get the Devede to work, it seems it will be a much easier process than what i have had to do this time!
Glad you got the DVD's done.
I've only ever tried DeVeDe on Linux - where it does work.
Check the Windows requirements - I think it may need a few other standard components such as as Python(?).
Other than that, I wouldn't waste too much time on it.
If you ever need to make bulk runs of DVD's it will save a lot of time if you create a .iso file (or similar) which you can burn to each DVD in turn - I guess you already thought of that though?
I've only ever tried DeVeDe on Linux - where it does work.
Check the Windows requirements - I think it may need a few other standard components such as as Python(?).
Other than that, I wouldn't waste too much time on it.
If you ever need to make bulk runs of DVD's it will save a lot of time if you create a .iso file (or similar) which you can burn to each DVD in turn - I guess you already thought of that though?
Sounds to me like something in the encoding was going a bit wrong. Never used DVD camcorders, I have a miniDV one. I use cyberlink powerdirector, to capture, edit and save to MPEG2, then use NeroVision Express to encode and burn to DVD ( dont like powerdirectors DVD editing )
)
An .iso file is basically a DVD (or CD) disk image - it includes all the directory information and data etc. With the right software you can even read them as if they are actually a CD/DVD. Perhaps Winzip / Winrar supports this? It's even possible - although not likely - that Vista has native support.
Some CD/DVD software *may* prefer to use some non-standard disc image file extension/format.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.iso for a description of .iso files.
Some CD/DVD software *may* prefer to use some non-standard disc image file extension/format.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.iso for a description of .iso files.