Book Type

[DarkWing]

Hello all. Very nice forum you have here. Much information!

 

So ... lemme get to it. This is a problem I've read about for the past 5 hours now in various locales across the internet. I own a Toshiba Satellite Laptop with a Matshita UJ-841S Super Multi Drive. I did a burn on a Verbatim DVD+R DL, and it went fine ... super actually. I then played the disc on my laptop and on my old desktop with no issues. When I got to my standalone player and my portable, I got nothing. Just spins. heh

 

I've since learned that the issue is most likely in the Book Type. I need to be able to change mine to DVD-ROM in order for my other machines to play the dvd. Yeah. So, my Matshita drive isn't listed in the supported Book Type drives list, and I have to assume that my drive doesn't support booktyping then. Would I be correct in this assumption? And if so, will I also be out of luck when/if I go to burn a DVD+R? Erg. What a bummer.

 

Does anyone know of any brands of standalone DVD players that will play this media? It seems rather silly to create a video disc that will only play on a computer. Should I just go buy an external DVD burner that supports booktyping if I choose to continue on this path?

 

Thanks in advance for any input you have. Much appreciated. And despite my troubles, ImgBurn and Decrypter are mighty fine pieces of software.

 

[lfcrule1972]

You should be ok with DVD+R as its been around longer as a format most standalone players don't have a problem with it.

 

DVD+R DL is a much newer format hence why we recommend changing the book type to improve compatibility with standalone players. I don't know your drive or if firmware is available to allow you to change book type - I assume you have tried Google ?

 

Lightning UK!, the programs author might be able to tell you if any of the tabs with the book type option on ImgBurn are suitable for your drive, I think you can also change book type on compatible drives with DVDinfoPro, you might want to try that.

 

Lastly, use ImgBurn to check for firmware for your drive, with ImgBurn open, right click on the box that displays your drive and then select Firmware Updates from the list, this will take you to www.rpc1.org and a list of available firmware updates, if your lucky there may be a modified firmware that allows booktype setting.

 

[DarkWing]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I googled my drive checking for firmware updates and even did the ImgBurn check over at rpc1.org. The only one I found makes my drive Region Free. Ah well.

 

I also played with all of the tabs for fun in Change Book Type with my DVD+R DL in the drive. Most often I got ...

 

Current Setting: Unknown (Failed!)

 

A few times I was able to select Current Media as DVD+RW, but when I went to make the change final, I got the error ...

 

This function is for DVD+RW media, not DVD+R DL!

 

I haven't tried DVDinfoPro. I guess that'll be my next/last stop unless another idea falls out of the sky. heh

 

 

Alrighty. Thanks again.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I don't know of any booktype setting functions for matshita drives.

 

Never seen a program that claims to support them either.

[Kenadjian]

Does anyone know of any brands of standalone DVD players that will play this media? It seems rather silly to create a video disc that will only play on a computer. Should I just go buy an external DVD burner that supports booktyping if I choose to continue on this path?

I would be more inclined to go with the external burner, this will give you much more flexibility than the stand alone player. Just my opinion.

[polopony]

Does anyone know of any brands of standalone DVD players that will play this media? It seems rather silly to create a video disc that will only play on a computer. Should I just go buy an external DVD burner that supports booktyping if I choose to continue on this path?

I would be more inclined to go with the external burner, this will give you much more flexibility than the stand alone player. Just my opinion.

 

have to agree and with the cost of good dvdrw's around $50 or so why not do the external thing I'm going to find out about the NEC 4570 I have 2 other NEC's which burn excellent but want to play with the graphs and dvdInfo pro

[DarkWing]

I was talking it over with the boss (aka my wife), and we were sorta thinking the same. For the cost of a decent DVD Player that would play these discs, we'd be a lot better off with an external DVD burner that did the job properly. It's the psychology of it all that's my hangup. I just bought this laptop about 3 months ago, and one of the selling points for me was the Super Multi DVD drive. Now that I come to find out that this drive is (in essence) moderately useless for this purpose, I've been rethinking my purchase a little. Thus, making a new purchase is just kinda ... ho hum bleh. You understand.

 

I was looking at this article over at cdfreaks and am considering an LG GSA-5163D. I also was thinking the Plextor PX-740UF might not be a bad alternative. Looking for something sort of cheap that will work out of the box without too much tweaking. Me = Lazy heh

 

Are there any specific models any of you would recommend for this? Again, cheaper being better ... but not so cheap that it doesn't burn right.

 

Right. Back to the shopping with me ...

[polopony]

lots of people here use NEC's ,Plextors ,and BenQ drives and not to forget Pioneer ,their drives I believe automatically set booktype to DVD Rom.I have an old Pio 115 Rom that reads everything I've put in it

without problems .I personally think you should pick something from this group and I don't see you going wrong ,BTW the plex is probably the most expensive

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Pioneers for me. As Polo said above, there?s no fooking around with the booktype.

[DarkWing]

Right-o ... purchased today and burned successfully! It pays to have the right tool for the job.

 

Thanks for everything! You've all been a grand help.

[Kenadjian]

What did you end up with? A Pioneer?