Sending DVDs overseas

I'll assume that you're aware that what you're doing is a breach of copyright, but are unconcerned.

It's not going to be a region coding issue. If it were, then none of the DVDs would play in the US.

Have you tried getting a 'failed' DVD back from the US and playing it on another DVD player here in Australia?

What sequence of operations are you using to copy to DVD?

Sylvia.

consistent.

Is

won't.

readable

I doubt it is a region problem, more likely the Panasonics notorious inability to write disks readable by many players other than Panasonic. Try the disk on a dozen players here in Australia, I bet you find it wont play on quite a few of those either.

MrT.

It won't be a region coding issue, just the usual compatibility problems across burners and readers. Some burners produce disc that aren't very compatible. Dual layer or single?, single is more reliable. Are you "closing" or "finalising" the disc? Can you simply send as an MP4 file on a data disc instead?

Dave.

I've done this before. make sure you close/finalize the DVD on the recorder. then take the disk to your PC and run DVD Shrink v3.2 and set it to region free.

Thank you for your responses. Yes, I finalise the DVDs and test them on the only other player I have access to. No, I have no qualms of guilt about sending DVDs of footy matches to America. I will look at DVD Shrink later today.

I think it would be worth while obtained a failed one from the USA. I've seen DVDs deteriorate after burning - you might find that although it worked when you tried it, it no longer works.

In that regard, with burnable DVDs, to some extent you get what you pay for. They're not all the same.

Sylvia.

In the OPs situation, I can't see that DVD Shrink is going to be a solution. Why would only some of the DVDs he burns end up with an unsuitable region?

Sylvia.

I think you are better off saving it as an AVI, MPEG (or whatever) file and sending like that those formats are universal through the world, and will play on any computer, and a lot of modern DVD players too.

Something like VLC media player will play just about any video format you can find, maybe suggest this also.

DVD shrink can "rebuild" the DVD into a smaller file, this process might also fix errors along the way ?

I have found that too. I wouldn't rely on these things for archival purpose, or general use for anything important.

I had about 100 archived, and found after a few months, about 10% had at least one error. Believe it or not, trying different DVD readers (even of same brand and model) did manage to recover nearly everything (with a lot of trouble and time).

Come to think it it, this might be the problem here.

very true.

In message , kreed writes

MPEG2 for preference, every DVD player in the world should support that.

AVI is just a container, the content can use a wide range of codecs so it's not universal, you rely on the media player having the correct codec or being able to obtain it.

Again, if you have the correct codecs installed.

an AVI, MPEG (or whatever)

formats are universal through the world, and will play on any

VLC seems to have a lot of them "built in", in my experience there is not much it wont play. - and it is free.

Things like windows media player are a PITA, unless you are able to download and install the codecs. This might be too difficult for the recipients (for all I know), hence the suggestion to use VLC that is easy to download, install and use.

As far as I can see from the owner's manual, the OPs recorder doesn't have that ability. It will only write in "DVD" format.

Sylvia.

Record to a rewritable DVD and then convert it to the required format on a PC. AVS video converter is one way to do it.

Re-use the DVD RW as required.

I should add that the same applies to CD-ROMs, even though I've found them to be more reliable. One that I burnt 9 years ago has become unreadable by virtue of the fact that the recording medium is peeling off the disk. Fortunately, the data is long past its use-by date.

For the record, the brand was EMTEC.

Sylvia.

If they're anything like the CD-RWs, they're a pain because of the time taken to erase them prior to reuse.

Sylvia.

consistent.

Is

won't.

readable

IIRC you can do a "fast erase" that just does the first track/TOC ? rather than the entire disc.

snip

True

Surprisingly enough mine won't finalise a DVD-RW, only a DVD-R, and that is deliberate for some reason. (probably more copyright bullshit) Not sure whether that applies to the OP's recorder.

MrT.

Had the same problem with a Lite-On burner. Switched to a Pioneer and no more problems. What many people blame on DVD's in general, is often down to lousy burners IME. Always test your combination of burner and media for *actual* error rate (not just the unrecoverable ones) before relying on them to last 5 minutes.

MrT.