Why cant my pc read this dvd?

[Polgara2]

I am doing my good deed for the day (or not as the case would seem to be ).

MIL has copied stuff from her camcorder onto a dvd in her dvd writer. She can read it on there but it doesn't work on a pc. Autoplay doesn't pop up but if I check on the drive letter it knows there is something in there but doesn't give any files to view.

It is a RW DVD and she has finalized it.

I would really like to sort this for her as she is about to go demented that she will not be able to view any of her precious home vids other than on her dvd player (and she does have A LOT!)

Thank you

Have you tried Windows Media Player?

Sounds as though the finalising process didn't work correctly, such that the disc is readable by other systems. Could try repeating finalising process.

If you can get it to a point wjere you can see files on the disc, then you can use VLC Media Player, which will play pretty much anything.

If it can't view the files then there's a "problem" with the disc, Windows Media Player won't help.

What is the format of the disc and can your PC handle it? There are a number of writable DVD formats (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R & DVD+RW).

I think that modern computers can handle pretty much all of them. However older machines can often only handle some of them.

Ooh replies, thank you!

It is DVD-RW. It did say it had finalized according to MIL. Hmm, PC is relatively new so don't think it's that. Apparently the man in the photo shop couldn't read it on his pc either .

I was searching through the instructions yesterday and it was saying something about VR Mode and Video Mode - would I be right in thinking it should have been recorded in video mode to make it playable on things other than the recording unit? Of course it will be in VR mode if that's the case won't it!

It is driving me mad now as well.

bumpetty bump

Video mode is an older standard and will play on more gadgets.

VR Mode is a newer standard that allows for editing and re-writing on the disc. Some older drives won't support it.

another vote for VLC (free to download) - it plays dvds that other apps won't.

Ok so she should try finalising it again first. If still nothing is it knackered (technically speaking!) then? Or can I still try the VLC thingy even it refinalising makes no difference to what I can currently see?

And if the finalising works properly should it be ok in VR mode or should she go for the video mode for future discs?

Sorry to be a pain but it's SIL graduation and she hasn't got it on the camcorder any more and is well fretting.

Thanking you all

Does the disk work in her computer?

If it does I'd copy the files off somewhere to try and get a backup of them.

Yes try VLC first.

If it works on her computer she may be able to copy it back from there and try rerecording it on a new disc in video mode.

I'd go for video mode unless you definitely know someone has VR mode on their computer/DVD recorder.

(If you have a DVD player/recorder for your TV it might be worth trying that too, can't do any harm)

Oh she doesn't have a computer - oh goodness me no - now that would be fun . This is why she is nagging asking me.

No, disc doesn't work in any of the computers it has been tried in.

It plays on my dvd recorder but she wants to take copies of it and that's what we can't do without it playing on a pc somewhere.

Oh, I see.

Can you not copy it to the hard drive of your DVD recorder?

Ah no don't have one of those am afraid!

Oh, ok, I thought all DVD recorders had them. Haven't got one and have only used one where I used to work.

I guess you need some sort of DVD copying software (then see if it works on a DVD player/recorder after that)