Why do some copied DVD work?

A question about : Why do some copied DVD work?

Hi all,

Recently bought a DVD player off ebay which stated it played DVD R and DVD RW. Not sure what the difference is to be honest!!

Anyhow, when I try and play a copied DVD it does not work. But the seller says they have tried there DVD player and it does work. Is it the way it is being copied.

Any comments greatly appreciated!

Best answers:

• Not wanting to teach granny to suck eggs, but have you tried the disk in a different player? It could be a duff disk..... And in a similar fashion, try other disks in the player....
  My last thought is if your dvds are + or -. Different formats, and it may be that your player cannot read one or the other, but I'm no expert, so it's just a possibility...
  HTH
  Zed
• Many reasons!
  Could be as Zed suggested the Disc is DVD-R format and the DVD reader expects DVD+R (or visa versa).
  Could be the DVD media itself. Even if the format is right there are different Dyes used in different types of DVDs. Some readers (and writers) work much better with some dye formats than others. In my experience DVDs based on the Ritek Go4 dye works best in most DVD players / writers.
  You could try searching for your DVD player on the following site to see what people's experience with different media has been:
  https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers
  Or if you are ordering new media, the following company I have always found to be very useful, cheap and can offer excellent advise on what will work best for you:
  https://www.svp.co.uk
  Finally there could be issues with the data on the disc. For example if the DVD contains a downloaded DIVX rather than the original MPEG2 files.
  I do hope these copied DVD is a copy of a home movie or uncopyrighted, or a copy of a DVD you already have an original of ;-)
  YMMV - Rufus.
• speaking as someone who creates a lot of DVDs - I would say that its more likely that you have been conned by the seller. I had a similar problem with a previous DVD player - which I had to sell on in order to get a new player that would accept DVD-Rs.
  My advice would be the same as the other people on this thread. Test the DVD-R in other DVD players and try other DVDs and DVD-Rs in your DVD player. Shouldn't be difficult to work out if it works or not.
• FYI,
  It is a nextbase Tablet style DVD player. I know it is meant to work, so it looks as though I am copying the DVD's incorrectly. But I am not sure how to correct this problem. Do I need to buy a new copier??
  Thanks for all your help.
  P.S. It is the best DVD player I have ever seen, well recommend it. Just need to sort out this prob!
• I assume it's the SDV17-A.
  Looking at Videohelp, looks like it will take most -R format DVDs but is very fussy over the +R format. Check you are burning on to -R format.
  Doesn't play DivX movies, so if it's download content you are trying to play, you may need to convert it!
  You probably don't need to buy a new burner, just need to make sure the format is correct. The Videohelp site has some useful articles on making "backups" which might help.
  https://www.videohelp.com/dvdbackup
  HTH - Rufus.