Hello all,
with the iminent arrival of my first baby, I thought I'd better get into the digital camcorder world.
Bought a Sony HC-39E a couple of months ago (no problems there, nice bit of kit) and a friend recommended Pinnacle Studio.
We want to make a DVD which we can send to family as a birth announcment so I bought some 8cm DVDs but thought I'd better get used to the software first.
I created a mock up with intro picture and DVD menu with sections such as arrival, pictures etc and it all works fine.
I also wanted to include the .avi and .jpg files on the DVD so said family can copy them to a computer for printing/viewing.

When it came to creating the DVD in studio I selected the option to "Create disc content but dont burn them".
I then located the files and copied them into the video_ts directory in nero.
The DVD burned OK and I could view it using Windvd on my PC but the DVD will not play on any DVD players. I tried ours and my sister in law's.

I have had no problem playing recorded media in these dvd players before.

They are both Sony DAV systems and they gave the C:013 error for dirty discs.

Is there something I am missing.

Any help would be gratfully received.

The baby is 10 days late and I've just been told she is being induced on Friday

You seem to have a unique combination of factors, any one may be part of the problem. I can only give a generalized set of recommendations for this.

First, DVD players are rather dim devices. Not much in the way of 'brains' in them (keeping the cost low) so they are easily confused. The newer models are getting smarter, but still nothing like a what a PC thinks with.

Things that will confuse some players - 8 cm disks. Stick with the standard 13 cm size.

Use DVD-R since that was the first recordable DVD media and most players understand them. Only the very oldest DVD players will get confused.

Put the JPG and any other PC oriented data in it's own folder, don't put it in the VIDEO_TS folder. That's reserved for only very speciific files and anything else may confuse even the newest players.

Include an AUDIO_TS folder, even though there's nothing to put in it. Some older players are rather stupid about it and won't recognize the DVD as valid unless it's there.


Reserve a folder on your PC for just the exact files and folders you'll be burning with Nero. This will let Nero burn everything at once. Tell Nero that you're making a DVD-Video. Then cross your fingers.

I like to burn at a slower rate than the maximum my drive can handle, that helps compensate for media quality variances and burner aging (lasers don't last forever).

Good luck!

__________________
Fav quote - "Experience is whatcha don't get 'till ya don't need it no more."

System - Athlon 1.4GHz, Win98, Hauppauge PVR250 receiver and compressor.
Software -Magix Movie Edit Pro 10, Nero 6 + NeroVision Express, Moho 4.61, PSP 8.1, Bryce, Quicktime 6.52 pro, Goldwave 5, DVD-Lab.
Cameras - Panasonic GS9, Canon ES8400V, Canon EOS D20 and Canon A70

Thanks for replying.
There has been a development!

I had originally burned the contents to a standard 13cm DVD-R

This morning I took an 8cm DVD-R into work and burned the same project this time from Studio and it worked OK on my older Sony DAV system.

When I originally copied the files from Studio to Nero I copied all the files and directories created. There must be have been temporary files used by studio because the disc created with Studio today only had the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directorys and the usual .BUP .IFO and .VOB files.

Simply a case of beginners ignorance.

The next test is to copy the project to 8cm DVD with the additional directories for jpegs.