Topic: burning a dual-layer DVD with Imgburn

[jagraham]

im using vista to burn a DL DVD Video with Imgburn.  Im using memorex DVD+R DL discs.  is there any reason the discs will not play in a standalone DVD player or even my PC?  any experience with this is appreciated.  i read the Imgburn guide on how to burn a DL DVD and still have this problem.  thanks in advance for any help.

[RobertNC]

Not enough info so I am going to assume the most basic approach,

I have not used ImgBurn directly, but regularly use DVDFlick which uses ImgBurn to actually create the image. 

I have also have not burned any DL discs, but they should be readable unless it is an older DVD player.   Have you successfully burned single layer media on the same system?

Also it is troubling that it does not play on your machine.   Most people don't "upgrade" to Vista, although you certainly could have.  If my assumption is correct and you are running Vista because you are running a realatively new computer, and since the drive in the machine can obviously burn DL, it should be able to play it, or at least read it back.

Are you sure you prepared the file(s) correctly beforehand?   What was the original file format?

Put the disc in your computer.  Instead of trying to play it, just navigate to it using Windows Explorer.  You should see two folders: one named VIDEO_TS and one named AUDIO_TS. 

1)  If you can read the disc no problem in Explorer and do not see exactly this, your file is not formatted correctly.

2)  If you cannot read the disc in Explorer, or you seem to have trouble reading it (Explorer sticks etc) it is impossible to know for sure but you likely at minimum have a defective burn.

If you do see this, then navigate to the VIDEO_TS folder.  It should have a bunch of files.  Look for the ones with the extension .VOB. 

If they are there, find one that is of substantial size (smaller ones are often menus or screen shots).  If it is hundreds of megs or more it should be video.  If you find these files, right click and open with Windows Media Player. Vista version should be able to play it.

Assuming you find the files I described and Windows cannot play them, was your original source already in the same sort of "DVD format", i.e. the same folder layout?  If so, go back to your original source.  Do the same thing.  Windows Media player should play the files (and actually it probably should at least also display any image .VOB files, but you will not be able to "click" and actually get anything to run).  If the source files don't play the source is probably corrupt.

If your source files were not already in .VOB format and you did not do the proper conversion, just download DVDFlick.  It is freeware, although of course donations are welcome.  It is Vista compatible.  It is very nuts and bolts, but surprisingly robust.  Not affiliated in any way, but I do plan on sending the guys some money in fact.  It has worked for me with minimal digging, and I have burned a bunch of really obscure stuff - all kinds of formats, weird codecs.  Everything from Italian and Asian splatter gore with text subtitles, to a cartoon series created in 1969, "Nu, Pogodi!" I downloaded from a Russian site for some friends in the US who did not know how to bittorrent.  Even with the crazy Russian shit in PAL format, DVDFlick transcoded it into US (NTSC) format, no problems.  So far it has swallowed every kind of spew I have thrown at it and spit out playable discs (All SL but I can also try a DL, just give me more info first, and I will try to follow the same steps).

Also if you need to do the conversion, try using the option to just write an ISO image to your hard drive.  Then you can burn that straight to a disc with pretty much any program and you should not have buffering issues etc.

All I can think of for now ...