Unreadable DVD in Home DVD Players

My daughter is in Showchoir (its a choir where they sing and dance, its big in the Mid-West schools). Anyway we purchased a DVD of her Choirs performance. When we returned home we were unable to view the DVD in any of our DVD players. We have a Sony Home Theater, GE and an Apex, none of them worked. The DVD was Burned by a Company Hired by the School and it was on a Verbatim DVD. They did give us a paper notifying us that they may not work on all DVD players, and that they seem to work on cheaper DVD players better. I no the Sony wasn't cheap, but the GE and Apex were. They did give us the option of calling them and trading the unusable DVD for a VHS Tape with a cash compensation for the difference.

We finally put it in the DVD player on my computer, it worked on both the LG DVD player and the Memorex DVD burner. I tried cleaning the DVD Players (Sony, GE & Apex) it still didn't work. Finally I figured I might try to copy the DVD on my computer. The DVD I burned worked on all three players, its a Maxell! I just wonder if the Verbatim brand is cheaper or if it may have been a bad DVD? Or possibly if this company had a problem while burning it? Sorry, guess I'm just venting, its $25 and something I really wanted on a DVD and not a tape. Glad I was able to work it out!

It may have to do with what speed they burned it at as well.I know my 712a will burn some 4x media at 8x and the DVDs won't read properly ,but burning them at 4x they work perfectly in all players i have.If they were burning alot of DVDs and needed to do it quickly ,this may be the reason ,but Verbatim aren't the best either.

wonderinguy34,
Thanks for the response! I can't tell you what speed they burned at and I can't tell what the speed of the DVD was unless I would tear off the label on the DVD. I know my DVD burner will not burn anything over the speed of the media. I'm not sure if this happens in the software (Nero Express version 6.6.0.1), or the burner (Memorex DVD+/-RW True 8x). But anyway, I've never seen it working over the limits of the media.

It's just a fact of life that some players are very fussy about what media they will play, when it comes to CDRs or DVDRs. The dye used by different manufacturers has slightly different reflectivity, and that can be all it needs to make the difference between reading and not reading. A good trick to remember that sometimes helps is to wash a pernickity disc in luke warm water with a few drops of detergent, which slightly alters the reflectivity and sometimes helps. And keeping the lens clean with a cleaning CD that you can buy at any electronics or music store is a good idea too.

Thanks SS,
I do have a CD Laser Lens Cleaner and run it at least 0nce a month. I did try cleaning the Lenes & the DVD but to no avail. Never heard about the soap & water before. I'll have to give it a try.

A good site to check home DVD players is:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

There you can input your model and see others' success rate with different types media....DVD-R, DVD+R, etc.

I have a $900 Sony DVD player ( purchased Oct 1997 ) and it don't playback any burnt DVD's at all..
But the new $57 player I bought three months ago, plays back Everything under the sun.. sheesh Progress !!
LOL
:)

You're just as well off having burned a copy (that works), as discs with adhesive labels are a real no-no anymore. It sounds like the company that was hired isn't keeping up with industry news and may have other poor practices when it comes to DVD creation.