Compatibility
 

Hello all. I recently traded old tv westerns on dvd with someone and after he recieved them he wrote and told me they would not play on a Sony dvd player or a yamaha "world" player. I checked them on a sony and a panasonic before I sent them and they played fine. They were made on Verbatim 4.7 discs bought at Office max burned on a pioneer 111 burner. I have not had any other people have any trouble.How likely is this? Thanks Wineslurper

There are a number of variables.

First and foremost, is the content of the disc PAL or NTSC? This can be an issue.

Assuming these are homemade DVDs, then the region coding would show as any number of options, usually Region 0 or no region info at all (the so-called "Region Free").

A final issue to consider is DVD-R and DVD+R formats. Some players play one better than the other. Assuming it can play either.

Sony makes picky players. There is no way around it.

Even so-called "world" players are not necessarily any more or less friendly to regions, DVD-R/DVD+R, or PAL/NTSC. There are so many variables.

In general, a Verbatim disc (Mitsubishi coded), a DVD-R especially, is going to be the most compatible of all available media on the market. It has a high reflectivity and is one of the best made discs around.

I would say the players, not the discs, are the problem.

I recently purchased a Sony DVD/VHS recorder. It would not play DVD-Videos I made on my PC (a slide show conveted to Video with Nero 7). The same discs played well on my old Pnasonic player and several others - including some Sony. I spent a lot of time with Sony tech support, eventually got to a product specialist and he was able to duplicate my problem. The Sony wouldn't play the Nero encoded disc. I was able to return the Sony for a refund.

I'd be curious what the model number was on the Sony DVD/VHS combo. Was that a DVD recorder with a VCR, or just a DVD player with a VCR? Nero 7 is known to have compliancy issues, so I'd had to wonder if the disc was 100% compliant do the DVD specification. There is also the possibility that the blank was simply disliked by the Sony combo. I'd be curious to know the brand and media ID of the blank disc(s) being tested.

And then there is always the possibility that the Sony really did have a big flaw.