OK, DVD and computer experts ...

if you have it on one disk and your computer reads it then do you have a burner and a dvd rom on your system? is so then just burn it to another format, to say dvd +R or -R, and try playing it in you set top player after that. I make hundreds of DVD's a year and when friends ask me to make them a disk of a game or what ever the first thing I do is find out there modal name and number of ther set top player, then google that info and find the specs so I know what format to copy my master disc to. Answers are almost always out there in cyberspace, you just gotta know where to look.

 

Thanks for the help, everybody. After searching pretty much all night, I'm pretty sure my DVD player won't play anything (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW or DVD+R). So, that leads to my next question ...

Holy crap, DVD players are cheap now. I've got a pretty sweet HDTV. Will I be happy with a $60 or $70 player? From everything I'm reading, they'll do everything I could want. As of now, the DVD-HD players look too expensive.

 

To find out which formats (+R, -R, +RW, -RW, etc.) your DVD player supports, go here:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

enter just the model number (not the brand) and it will come back with which formats your player supports listed in bold.

 

Thanks. Had tried that and the one person whose response was useful basically said to go trial and error on DVD-Rs, but that most didn't work.

 

just a thought, since I also use and love nero....when you burned the disc, did you make sure to select DVD-video instead of DVD-ROM, which i believe is the default? because if not, that would certainly explain why your computer played it and DVD player did not (it would think it was a data disc).

 

Now we could be getting somewhere. To be honest, I don't have any idea what I selected when I burned it. I saved the file, so I should be able to reburn it, I'm guessing. I'll try it on the same DVD-RW and probably buy a DVD-R to try it on.

Thanks.

 

Just wanted to follow up with a thanks for everyone who helped. Tried a Sony DVD-R today and it worked like a charm. I'm off to illegally download everything I can get my hands on go do some stuff. Yeah, that's it.

 

mustard, you're still gonna have to be careful about the formats of the files you download and burn. These things come in a variety of formats and many simply won't play on a DVD player that's a few years old. Trust me here. I found this out the hard way. I was like you a year or so ago, just trying to burn shit with no real clue as to what I was doing. About half of it wouldn't work, some of what did work didn't match the audio with the video and I was spending hours downloading programs in order to change the formats of files. Nothing sucks worse than spending hours downloading something you want, more hours burning it and then have the damn thing not work.

Then I made the best move I've ever made. Went to Wal Mart and bought this Sony DVD player. The damn thing plays EVERYTHING. Literally. I've downloaded file formats I've never even heard of, popped the DVDs into this player and this thing searches for the right setup, finds it and plays it. The best part: This player was the cheapest on the shelves. I bought it for like $50. Noticed the other day that's down to around $40.