Windows Live Movie Maker - DVD won't play in DVD player on TV

NikiR

Posts: 6   +0
My first 12min movie made, photos, short video clips, music, captions all went fine, saved played back smooth sweet little movie....
Then dvd burn ... Horrendous , I looked up some information, talked speed ... File names + - DVD CD.
I burn -CD R this plays fine on laptop file name says WMV, guy in shop said you can use a CD if it was a short clip. did another on -DVD same thing plays on laptop NOT DVD player.
Now I'm absolutely lost.. All I want to do is make photos into movie clips to play on DVD on my or anyone's TV AND I CANT ITS DRIVING ME NUTS because I don't understand the techy language. I am a fairly competent computer user but this seems to be over my head.
PLEASE- can someone tell me how to do it.

If anyone needs more info to help answer this please tell me where to find what you need. Thank you so much.
 
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Hi, There are plenty of ways this can have gone wrong, and I've made all of them over the last year or so.
If you want to burn a DVD to play on any 'stand alone' DVD player, you need to use DVD-R discs as they are more compatible with the various brands of DVD players. What is confusing is that some brands of DVD player only playback DVD+R discs, it was a choice they made years ago, some makers went with + and others went -. A DVD player bought in the last 5 years or so should play all types of DVD and CD.
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You can burn video to CD-R if the total playback time is less than about 20 minutes, but you have to burn the CD in 'SuperVCD' mode.
The only software I have that will do that is by Nero. The quality of picture is slightly worse than a DVD but then the discs are far cheaper.
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Assuming you are using DVD-R, you will need a program to load your files into, arrange the order on disc, edit the title and start screen and set the burning speed and format (4:3 or 16:9), and if PAL or NTSC.
I have used 3 Windows programs that worked well, Nero, Leawo DVD creator and WinX DVD author. But there are others that will do the same.
You need to import your files into one of these programs in the type they support, so I normally convert all video to .avi HD 360p.
For this conversion I use 'Videotovideo' by Media Converters.
Once you have imported all your files, the program will do a conversion on them, to make them .VOB (that is TS or Transport stream format.)
The program will then burn those files to DVD.
Lastly the programs will finalise the DVD so that it will playback on any DVD player. I have worked totally in 360p to playback on UK PAL TV in 16:9, results were good enough for me, but I would think there are simpler ways to do this.
Hope that makes sense.
 
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Ok, Reading this over, I forgot to say that .wmv files won't play on a stand-alone DVD player, they can only read .vob and sometimes DivX on some players.
Some brands of player will only play + discs and others only - but some will play both, it will be in the manual or 'specs'.
MS 'movie maker' is a reasonable video editor, but I don't think it will burn discs to be playable in a separate DVD player.
I have found this one; http://www.winxdvd.com/dvd-author/
to be fine, but it seems not to work with .wmv, so you will still have to convert your video to .mp4 or .avi first.
I have burned about 15 DVD's recently that play perfectly on a 2001 Samsung DVD player onto Sony 32" PAL tv, it does work !
 
Ok just read your answer again and just to make sure I get this right..
My movie file from Windows live movie maker I put the file name into the converter
Then save that file and use that to burn onto a disc using a DVD maker program.?.???
 
Hi Mike, What I did.... Used video to video to convert the files, when I added the .WMV file it automatically gave me a suggestion of converting to .avi and didn't seem to want to do superVCD, I'm think in this May be due to file size? Now it is converting to avi it is telling me that the total time is 11:34, which is the length of the movie and the file size is 958.99 mb too big I think for CD!
Then it's going to take about 2 hrs .... So will update you again later it's now 75%....
 
I use a 3 stage way to get DVD's to work correctly, but just checking Movie maker it could be possible to miss out the conversion (2nd stage) that I do.
Once you have done all the editing in Movie maker, you need to;
Choose 'File', then 'Save movie' > 'For high definition display'
( A new box appears;)
'Save as type; MPEG4/H.264 Video file' (It should be on that by default.)
Give your file a name in the filename area. Save it to a new folder somewhere.
Then your movie will be saved and converted to mpg4, which is what you need to then import into a program such as 'WinX DVD author' (Free software.)
You need to download that software, and ADD (+) your file into the program.
Then it will convert your mpg4 file to .vob and then burn it to DVD.
(You will need to go into the settings of WinX DVD, and set the options to what you want, so that's 4:3 or 16:9 format, and if in UK you need PAL, or if USA or most of EU choose NTSC format, you may know that anyway.)
I know this looks fussy, but it's all because DVD players don't use .wmv files, DVD players only 'read' .vob files on DVD's
( and possibly DivX /Xvid from flash drives in a USB port on the DVD player.)
** Just read your update, SuperVCD mode does work well, but of course you have a limit on CD's of 700MB, I have tried it with Nero, it worked.
 
I'm going mad..... Gone back to the beginning....Just made a quick test movie it's only 1min 46 secs, title, JPEG , mp3 music, video taken on windows phone file shows as IMG_1234.mov, added credits.
Used windows live movie maker .....
This took 15 mins to save..... ...... save movie, then hd (the original one was the same)
No option to change "save as type" only gave "windows media video file"
Fed up with this now taking hours to do such a short thing, I had great plans to put my 1000's of photos into little movies.
.........
Can you recommend something that I can......... Make a movie and burn a disc to watch on a standalone DVD PLAYER LINKED TO TV. I am in the UK.

Now going to eat...

Just thought I would add .... Eventually when I've mastered this task, I have iPad mini with photos and videos that I want to make DVDs with and loads od photos saved on onedrive, google+ and separate hardrive... Actually all over the shop!
 
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What OS are you using? Windows 7 comes w/ Windows DVD Maker. Can't comment on usability since I haven't used it before. Looks like you just drop you pictures and videos (MOV not supported) into it and it burns a DVD. You can set 4:3 / 16:9 & NTSC / PAL. It's a very basic program.
 
Hi, Most jpg-to-movie slideshow programs are of the trial then buy type.
I found this one which has a free version, scroll right down to the bottom part of this page for the link just below the red text.
http://www.nchsoftware.com/slideshow/index.html
I have not tested it so can't comment, but it could be worth trying..
During installation, watch out for the options about exactly what you are agreeing to install.
 
Thanks Mike, I don't mind paying for a programme if I can trial it first and it's what I want.
Had a break from it as really p****d off with not being able to understand it... And get the result. I want.
 
If you have created a movie that plays back on PC fine, then I would suggest ConvertXtoDVD. It isn't free, but I *think* there is a free trial (maybe watermarked). I've had really good success with it in the past.
 
My expertise on this is very basic so it may help. I use DVD-R discs as DVD+R don't seem to work in my player. Also, after having failures I bought a few DVD-RW discs to check that I'm not going to get a "coaster". You can buy some pretty expensive and sophisticated software but I suggest that you download Freemake Video Converter. It's about as easy to use as you could wish for.
 
My first 12min movie made, photos, short video clips, music, captions all went fine, saved played back smooth sweet little movie....
Then dvd burn ... Horrendous , I looked up some information, talked speed ... File names + - DVD CD.
I burn -CD R this plays fine on laptop file name says WMV, guy in shop said you can use a CD if it was a short clip. did another on -DVD same thing plays on laptop NOT DVD player.
Now I'm absolutely lost.. All I want to do is make photos into movie clips to play on DVD on my or anyone's TV AND I CANT ITS DRIVING ME NUTS because I don't understand the techy language. I am a fairly competent computer user but this seems to be over my head.
PLEASE- can someone tell me how to do it.

If anyone needs more info to help answer this please tell me where to find what you need. Thank you so much.
Try burning "like a flash drive" option. worked for me. Only now the playback on my computer stalls but not on the dvd player which I would watch them anyway.
 
These jobs can be surprisingly frustrating. You need to experiment to find what works and keep some notes. Use a RW disc so you are not throwing away coasters. I thought Freemake was about as simple as you are likely to find and better than Windows tools. If you want flexibility there are plenty of paid for programs but as a beginner I struggled to understand and choose from the various options.

In a couple of years this will be obsolete technology and we'll all be streaming such content to our TVs via boxes, sticks, phones and tablets.
 
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I can give a quick summary of what's needed to create DVD'a to play back on 'normal' stand alone players.
*Find out which type of DVDs your player will play back, it could be -R or +R or if a fairly modern player say under 5 years, it will be both types.
*Any video files to be burned to DVD need to be converted to .VOB format, this is done in the DVD creator program.
* Some DVD players will also play back .DIVX /.XVID which is a type of .AVI format. But it will be clear from the instruction manual or possibly on a sticker on the front, giivng the 'features' of your player.
* The video files need to be formed into a list to be burned to the DVD and the DVD has to be 'finalized'.
Several free programs will do this, I have used Aiseesoft DVD creator, Leawo DVD creator and Nero, all made DVD's that played back on 2 different home DVD players, one a Samsung (2001) and the other an LG (2013).
 
I have had this problem and now understand what is happening. A few months ago I installed the latest version of Windows MovieMaker. When you save your project as a film MP4s won't burn with Windows DVD maker. However, if you choose the option of saving your (HD) film as a WMV file and import it into DVD maker the preview looks fine (widescreen) but when you burn a disc it is in 4:3 format. On an older laptop I made exactly the same film with Windows Live Movie Maker and saved as a WMV file. I burned a DVD and it played perfectly in widescreen 16:9. When you go into properties both films have EXACTLY the same details but for some reason the WMV film made on the newer version of Movie Maker is 'different'. God knows how!
Here is the good news - if you put your film through the older version of Live Movie Maker and save it again as a WMV file the disc you burn plays perfectly in 16:9 HD! Perhaps someone can explain. I have wasted countless hours finding this out and was on the point of buying a stand-alone DVD burning programme. Why don't Microsoft TEST all this before they release new software???
 
As I read the original poster's question, it was asking how to make a video disc, (VCD or DVD) that would play on a stand alone DVD player. ( I thought that meant the type of DVD player that was popular before the current hard drive recorders that many people own I.e. PVR.)
In 2015 it's more likely that the popular 'disc players' in many homes would be a Blue-Ray player which would play DVD discs also.
The type of program needed to do the conversion of the video files ( to .VOB) then to burn those files to disc, then to finalise the disc, is a DVD authoring program, e.g. WinX DVD author, or Leawo DVD author. (I have used both and both worked as expected.)
A stand alone DVD player will not play any of the common 'computer' types of files.
A few modern BR/DVD players will also playback video in .DIVX / .XVID which is a type of compressed .AVI file. Those players will have this information normally on the front or top of the player's case as a 'feature', and possibly a USB port on the front.
I have played back video files from a USB flash drive using .DIVX in 16:9 format. Hope this helps.
 
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Ok. Having the same problem. I paid to have all our old home movies digitalized. I edited them using Windows Live Movie Maker. I want to give them to my kids to be able to play on their TV (dvd player). Because of other posts here, I installed winX DVD author and converted files to .vob files. BUT, when I burn a DVD on winX DVD author, it burns a DVD correctly sometimes, but most of the time I get 'burning process wrong' and have to toss my DVD-R disk which is no longer any good. HELP!!!! I tried using Windows DVD maker and Windows media player to burn the DVD using the .vob file....but dvd won't play in TV's dvd player. Don't want to spend a lot of money for this project, but I have quite a few home movies to do....then I'll never use the programs again!
 
I suggested in post 15 that you experiment with re-usable disks first until you are happy that you have a high success rate. If you read through the thread carefully you're likely to find a solution. Yes, this can be a real pain and it's not worth paying for software to produce disks.
 
Hi nanagail, One 'issue' that can be easy to miss, is the DVD-R or +R type.
The manufacturer of the DVD player (whichever you have) will have decided which of the formats they will build their players for, and the 'other' type won't be playable.
So some makers chose to build for +R DVD's and other makers for -R, so that is the type of DVD blanks you will have to buy. You can get that information from the manual or instructions/specifications, possibly online today.
But if the DVD player is fairly modern, it will play back both types of DVD's, -R & +R. (Again that info will be shown on the player's case or in the instructions.)
If a DVD is created on a PC and it plays back on that PC, but not on another player, then the problem is likely to be 'finalization', or lack of it.
If the DVD authoring program has an option to 'finalize' a DVD then choose 'yes' for that. In my experience it is done at the end of the 'burning' section anyway.
Once a DVD is finalized, no more data can be added.
I had great success making DVD's for an old Samsung player (2002 I believe) by using Nero (for Windows) and also Leawo DVD creator.
Hope that helps (!?)
 
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