Help With DVD-R/Players ARGH!!!

[NashvilleRock.net]

Alright guys, I know that don't post here much but I've gotten good tips on things here in the past and I'm hoping some of you computer guys can help me. Here's the gist of it.

1. I decided that I wanted to start burning DVD's from my computer that I can play on my tv at home.

2. I purchase a brand new Samsung dvd writer/burner from TigerDirect and have it installed.

3. I install and use Magic Video Converter to convert my video files into whatever I need.

4. Here's the dilemma. I've burned dvd-r's that will play fine in my brand new Phillips portable dvd player that I got for X-mas but the discs will not play in my 2 year old Magnavox home dvd player OR the brand new Samsung dvd player that I just bought. The Samsung player supposedly supports MPEG files but one of the discs that I tried out was converted to MPEG and it still won't read.

I also thought that maybe I was using the wrong type of disc so I bought some high-quality Sony dvd-r's and they aren't read either by the new machine.

Why would my brand new portable player play these things fine but my brand new home player not be able to read the discs? This is SO freaking frustrating I'm starting to wonder why I bothered trying to burn dvd's in the first place. Can anyone help me?:mad:

[jjjayb]

When you burned the Dvd's did you finalize them or leave them open to add more files later? Make sure you finalize them.

[patteeu]

Have you tried any DVD+R media instead of DVD-R? I don't know if it's still the case, but with older DVD players, there was sometimes incompatibility with one or the other.

[NashvilleRock.net]

jjay, as far as I can tell, they've been finalized. I hit "burn dvd" in Magic Video Converter, it converts, burns, and then ejects the dvd from the burner. As I said, it plays fine in the portable player but not in the home player. That's what's so confusing.

I haven't tried DVD+R but I know that both of my players accept DVD-R (according to their specs). Plus, the Samsung player is brand new.

[Lzen]

I don't know if this will help at all, but you might check if there is a software update for your burning software.

[Fish]

It all depends on how you're burning them in Magic Video Converter.

I would look through the burning options very carefully and see how you're burning them.

And when you say it converted it to mpeg, what exactly do you mean by that? You want them in DVD format. Not just mpegs on the disk, but DVD format with an AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folder on the disk. Be sure you're not just creating a data disc with a bunch of mpegs on it. It could be that the portable can play data disks full of mpegs and the others can't if that's the case.

[jjjayb]

jjay, as far as I can tell, they've been finalized. I hit "burn dvd" in Magic Video Converter, it converts, burns, and then ejects the dvd from the burner. As I said, it plays fine in the portable player but not in the home player. That's what's so confusing.

I haven't tried DVD+R but I know that both of my players accept DVD-R (according to their specs). Plus, the Samsung player is brand new.

I just looked through the manual for Magic Video Converter and there is no option to finalize a disc, so that is probably not the problem.