why won't my dvd play discs just burnt from computer?

[LADYBUG76]

i have downloaded a movie and have been able to watch on my computer, just burnt it and then tried to play on my dvd plaer but comes up with 'unknown disc', i'm new to all this and have not got a clue what to do.
please help.

[squarebear]

Many DVD players will not play "home made" discs. It's an anti-piracy measure. Strangely though, it's the more expensive players that won't work.

We have two players. One is an all singing, all dancing expensive one and won't play any of our home made DVDs. The other is a cheap one from Tesco and that works fine.

[leggysback]

its probably a divx or avi film

you can buy a compatable dvd player from asdas for around 27 quid
plas mpeg4 and divx


did this help ?

[CSIambleside]

Have you finalised the disc ?

[stonekicker]

squarebear is right - my ps3 and spangly dvd player just will not do some discs, although my ancient asda �20 special would play a jam sandwich! i think the more spec an electrical item has, the fussier it will be...

[leggysback]

nah nah nah


its a divx in my opinion


and not all uk players play them

your pc will



simple really


btw after a few years or even sooner a players laser can get knocked out of alignment

theer are actually onl a few manufacturers in the world of dvd players

the biggest as far as im aware is shinco in china
they make dvd players for panasonic and hundreds of other companies too.

[LADYBUG76]

i really don't know what divx or avi mean, and i have not got a clue on how to finalise a disc. i thought it would be really easy to do but i've wasted loads of disc !!
think it would be easier to go out and buy the films !!
thanks for your replys - appreciated

[vehelpfulguy]

if you have downloaded a movie it will have a filename, and an extension to the file name, such as:

mymovie.avi

(you may need to change your computer settings to view the file extension. By default windows usually does not show it).

The extension at the end (avi for example) denotes what type of format the file is. So if it ends in "avi" people say it is an avi file.

There are many types of extensions (such as mov or mpg) and most of these can only be read by a computer.

If you put a DVD with an avi file on it in most DVD players it will have no idea what to do with it.

*SOME* DVD players will play avi files, but you need to buy one that specifically says it plays avi files.

To get a "normal" DVD player to play a movie you need to convert it into the same format used by "proper" DVD disks.

[trish432]

leggysback is right, you can`t just burn an avi file to disc to play in a dvd player. You need to download an avi to dvd converter. Sothink is a free one which you can download.
The conversion takes ages and slows your computer almost to a standstill, I usually leave mine converting and burning when I go to bed.