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DVD – just press “play”?

DVD is the format of choice for video delivery to most of 2020’s clients, as the quality is far greater than VHS or compressed “web” videos. This is likely to remain the case for a number of years until the speed and accessibility of internet connections make that the delivery medium of choice instead.

Unfortunately sometimes a client receives a DVD, pops it into a player, presses “play”, and nothing happens. This is very frustrating for all concerned, because the problem isn’t that the disc is faulty (the obvious first assumption), but that it doesn’t happen to work on that particular device.

Even though we ensure that we are using the latest hardware and software to create them, there are many different types of DVD – and none of them are guaranteed to play on all players or computers.

Pressed vs Burnt

The first important thing to realise about DVDs is that there are two ways of creating them. The first is pressing them – the method used to replicate large quantities of commercial discs. Although the unit cost is low, there is a minimum run of 500 units and a two week turnaround – no good for approval copies or a one-off for use in an exhibition. The second way is to “burn” the discs i.e. write them one at a time on a computer with a DVD writing drive.

The playback compatibilities of these two methods are very different - whereas pressed discs will play on over 99% of devices, burnt ones may only play on as few as 85-90%.

What affects compatibility

This rather large 10-15% difference is due to two main factors:

  1. DVD Stock i.e. the type of blank discs used. Unfortunately whilst there is a common technical standard for DVDs, there are a number of competing writing formats, notably DVD-R , +R, -RW, +RW. We use high quality branded DVD-R discs that a number of independent tests have found to have the greatest chance of playback. (The re-writable discs, although great for file archiving, should be avoided for video use)
  2. The Playback Device is the singular most important factor. Frustratingly it is only by actually trying a disc in a particular machine that you can tell whether it will work. As a rule of thumb though, the older or cheaper a player or computer drive, the less likely they are to play a burnt disc. Some of the manufacturers’ players also favour either DVD-R or DVD+R, although most don't admit it.

Allow time to make sure your DVD plays

For all these reasons we urge all our clients to check playback wherever possible before any crucial meeting, event etc… And to press copies of the final programme before distributing to customers, where first impressions count most.

What to do if the disc doesn’t work:

  1. Try another player or two, if possible, particularly one from a different manufacturer.

    2. We will also offer to:

  2. Burn a DVD+R disc instead – although it is less likely to playback on any given device, it may work on the one you need it to.
  3. Burn an “Authoring DVD-R” disc, which is much more time consuming and therefore expensive, but should be up to 95% compatible.

We are always trying to improve our DVD creation methods and long for the day when we can say: “just press play”.

Ben Jacobson | 09.04.2006