Home movies

[Kyung]

So my dh started uploading some of his videos of our daughter and he's been tryiing to burn them to DVD, so we can watch them on our DVD player. He burned them to DVD, but they won't play on our DVD player. They'll play on his computer, but not on the DVD player.

Any suggestions?

Also, is there any simple/easy to use inexpensive video editing software out there? Must be very user friendly. He'd like to add music to his DVDs.

Thanks.

[James Terrell]

well.... ... sometimes the laser wears out on old dvd player / older player may not have a "big enough brain" to play a dvd burned at a high speed (by the computer in this case?) [ over time speeds have gone from 2x i think to 4x to 16x now? try burning at a slow speed if you have the choice] / computer might have taken in the videos at "variable bit rate"- vbr- and your dvd player works better with "constant bit rate" - cbr - / computer might've burned in a format that dvd players dont recognize (sorta like different file system) etc etc . . . . . .

PC and Mac both have free simple editing programs - come with the operating system There's "Adobe Premiere Elements
' for $99,

[Lisa Moskowitz]

How old is your DVD player? Some of the older ones only play certain types of DVD media such as it will play DVD+R and not DVD-R. Check the user's manual and it will list the type of media it plays. And some of the older DVD burners will only burn one or the other. Nowadays mostly they burn to both, but you need to check it out to make sure everything is compatible.

[Kyung]

He tried it on both the old dvd player and the new blu-ray we just got this Christmas.

[Steve Godsey]

Too many variables to say why the DVDs wouldn't play. A lot depends on the software used to create (author) the DVD & the methods used to create the DVD.

Is he on a Windows machine or a Mac?

If Windows XP or above there should already be loaded a simple program called Windows Movie Maker to edit the videos. You'll need a separate program such as Nero, Roxio, Sonic and others which will allow you to import clips & burn DVDs, all under $100.

I think Macs come preloaded with iMovie. iMovie should be capable of burning a DVD directly from the program.

Contact me off-line & I'll help if I can.