Dvd's burning properly but while playing freezes

[Pambou]

Recently been having problems with burning DVD's. At first was using Power Producer 3.7 on a recently re-formatted computer with Window's XP. Burned off two or three different movies and suddenly any time we tried to burn it froze around 45%-50% through the burn process, ruining the disk. Upgraded to Power Producer 4.0 and burn process compleated seemingly without a hitch... until we tried to actually watch the movie. At about 1/2 hour into the movie the DVD freezes and there is no way to get past that point. Tried running DVD in computer and useing the slidebar to scan ahead in the movie.... this froze windows media player and restarted the computer. Called a local computer repair place and they were pretty clueless. Does anyone have any idea what might be causeing this? I know we had been adding different things as the computer was just reformatted... I just can't pinpoint what might have caused it. Burning CD's with Nero works perfectly. Could it be a driver issue? I am getting so frustrated... I've gone through about 10 blank DVD's trying different things to fix this. I don't want to have to re-format the computer all over again to try and fix this problem, so anyone who knows the cause the info would be MUCH appreciated.

 

[captaincranky]

Break out the Fiddle.......

Just because Nero will burn a CD, doesn't necessarily indicate that the drive is in good health. I have no experience with "Power Producer", so I don't know what the need for it would be. On older machines, (3 years or so), Nero 6 (full retail version only) has DVD-Video burning capability. I have found (personal experience only here) that burning DVD-Video onto DVD+R blanks usually generates the highest number of DVDs compatible with most stand-alone players. Granted, Nero 6 is the worst movie EDITING program I have ever seen, so if you're trying to edit footage, we can look for another solution. Lock-ups are sometimes caused by read and write lasers being out of alignment with each other, so could be the drive also. You must consider the possibility that simply because the drive finishes the task, doesn't necessarily indicate that it's done correctly. I don't think reformatting the HDD should be your first thought about how to solve this problem.

 

[raybay]

Your DVD drive probably has three lasers. if one of them burns out, or if the drive is out of alignment by even a micromilimeter, it will give problems.
Likely your drive is worn out. But a new one. Cheap $22.97 to $26.97 at various online sites... for a Samsung, Sony, LG, or LiteOn.

 

[Pambou]

Thanks guys so much. I'm not the brightest bulb when it comes to computers especially handware. you were very helpfull.