So I just got a DVD+RW drive, and toasted my first disc. I used K3B to copy and burn (bit for bit copy to hard drive, burn back to the recorder) and everything seemed to be succesful. However, the DVD won't play in my DVD player (which does accept DVD+RW discs, according to its specs). More specifically, the initial title (the red copyright notice) comes up for about ten seconds, after which nothing happens. On the original disc, this is the same place that the main DVD menu loads.

So what do you think? Is this the media? The software? The burner? Or the player? How should my experiments proceed from here?

As a followup, it (the backup) plays in mplayer on my PC (although haltingly, and the sound is patchy. But my system isn't a hotrod anyway.) Xine won't touch it. It mounts correctly, and I can browse the file tree no problem.

if mplayer plays it as a dvd, and not just as the files, then it's probably your
standalone player.

Hm - have you heard of standalone players which claim to play DVD+RWs and actually don't? Could it be that it doesn't like the disks I'm using?

well, it sort of started to play it, then stopped. that looks to me like your
standalone is having trouble reading the disk. at least you do have a backup,
and you could create a dvd-r from it if you had to, and most drives can read
those.

mplayer plays dvd's a lot like a standalone does. it's just as picky.
i have some dvd-r's from before i knew what i was doing, where i
just copied the files, that actually work on the cheap standalone's
like apex and such, but will not play in mplayer normally. i have to
mount the disk, and play the files individually.

OK, I took my standalone back and got another. It does exactly the same thing as the previous did. So, we can x the player as the culprit.

Which makes it either a) the media or b) the burner or c) the software.
a) is Imation media
b) is an NEC DVD+RW 2003 model
c) is K3B

As I said, the media mounts properly, and the file systems appear to be (to the eye, at least -- is there a program which will compare for you?) identical between the original and the copy.

I do have libdecss installed; could that be messing things up?

The symptoms are: the FBI warning plays, but then when the player tries to load the menu, it can't.

Well no you can't x the player as the culprit.

I have three cheap "APEX" DVD players that play all of my DVD's fine, I have an expensive Sony that plays none at all. I have a panasonic that will play some but not others.

The APEX players play my mp3 disks, picture disks, VCD's, SVCD's, DVD's.....

The sony will play the mp3 disks, and thats it.

The panasonic os buggy, and does what it pleases when it pleases.

Try some different media, if you can burn to another format, try that, or get another brand player.

I suggest bringing you burned disks to the store, and try them, test until you find a player that will play them.

Some play DVD+R flawlessly, some won't, some play DVD-R flawlessly some don't.

I find very few that actually like RW disks.

Anyway, my point is if it plays on your coputer with DVD software the disk is fine, the stand alone player is indeed the culprit.

OK, interesting to note. Thanks. The first player was a magnavox; the second was an expensive sony. I have exhausted that particular store for players supporting DVD+R so I guess next week I'll have to find another and post feedback on here.

I have found this site to be useful http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ .

I also have burned dvd-r and dvd-rw disks and then gone to the electronics store to see which standalone players will work. Heck, I even did that for a while with the vcd formatted cds.

I have no experience with the +r or +rw format and all of my video has been produced on a MS box with a dedicated card. It shouldn't matter which burning program you use as long as you get all of the dvd spec files on the disk.

i have a friend that works in an electronics section of a department store, and i
was trying to make an svcd last year. i would give him a disk, and he would bring
it back and tell me what models it played in. like, this one plays in the yamaha, so
and so, and the apex. this one doesn't play in anything, and so in. they're all
different.

As for me I'm having trouble creating vcd that can play at my vcd player. I have only one thing to comment. DON'T use MPLAYER as your TESTING tools because it can play anything you feed to it!!!!