Video help, (again!!) please!!

[Cornish Jack]

A previous request for help, in sorting out a video camera download problem, was eventually resolved such that I could produce a finished SVCD. Nothing Cecil B de Mille, you understand, but it played on my DVD player and looked reasonable. Copies were made and sent off to the elderly lady who was the birthday subject. A couple of days later I was told that the CD's wouldn't play!
I have been to try this for myself and they don't - on one machine (a combined VCR/DVD player) a "Disk error, eject disk" message came up and on a second machine - straightforward DVD player - the opening menu appeared but none of the play functions would operate. Both machines are recent models and from different makers (both different from my own machine).
Does anyone out there have ANY idea WTHIH???
Don't know if it is relevant, but the machine which works is a Panasonic HD/DVD and the two which don't work are a Daewoo and a JVC respectively.
Any help much appreciated.
TIA

[spannersatcx]

Not all DVD players will play VCD's, you would need to check the specs.

Would it not be easier to just make it as a DVD?

[Cornish Jack]

Thank you Spanners
I suppose that I was being a bit cheapskate burning it as SVCD rather than DVD but I had a lot of blank CDs available.
I did check the compatibility issue on the two machines which wouldn't read it and they are both labelled as being DVD/CD compatible.
The video only runs for about 12 minutes, so, if I was going to burn it on a DVD, that's a lot of wasted media.
Do I understand from your suggestion that ALL DVD players will DEFINITELY read DVD disks? If so, it would be worthwhile. If it's going to be another maybe/if type deal, it becomes a bit expensive making 'coasters' from DVDs rather than CDs!!
Back to the drawing board!

[spannersatcx]

ALL DVD players will DEFINITELY read DVD disks

That's a toughie, I have an all singing and dancing Toshiba DVD player (costing a couple of hundred pounds) that is supposed to play DVD+-R/RW. The kids also have £30 DVD players, that WILL play anything put in them, that the Toshiba one won't! Well it will play them but it seems more sensative to the disks, get pixellation and things. The better quality disks and a slower burn speed normally makes things better.

For compatabilty try dvdrhelp and see if you can find the players on there and what disks work with them.

Hope that helps a little.

[Cornish Jack]

Thanks again, Spanners
That site would seem to have an answer to just about any CD/DVD problem. I shall do a lot of reading there, methinks.
Just an update, relating to your point about the cheapo players, - the CDs which wouldn't play on the expensive machines have just played perfectly on a £30GBP player - funny old world.

[sinala1]

Originally Posted by Cornish Jack

I did check the compatibility issue on the two machines which wouldn't read it and they are both labelled as being DVD/CD compatible.

Not sure if its a typo, but I notice you have not mentioned the DVD players as being SVCD/VCD compatible - only DVD/CD... perhaps thats why they don't work?

Sorry if I am being pedantic, just wondering!

[Cornish Jack]

Aaaaaaaah Sinala1
You could well be right! After many years of telling my studes to RTFM & RTFQA mebbe the "biter has been bit"(ten)
I cannot honestly recall what the compatibility indicators were on the problem machines - for that matter, I hadn't realised that there was a significant difference between SVCD and VCD! Lesson learnt!
Just to update, the problem got the pragmatist's treatment - I took one of the working machines to the lady's house and plugged it into her TV and voila - happy 90 year old lady!!
Now then, why is this £*^!** ing machine taking so long to boot
Exit left, grumbling