DVD writers & player formats

I have an HP PC, XP home with a DVD writer 100j, I edited a digital video tape in Windows movie maker apps and loaded it onto a DVD. When I tried to play it on my Apex Dvd player it would not work. The Apex player works with any rented or purchased DVD & it also plays my picture jpeg CDs. The HP recorder only writes +RWs & of course the DVD movie plays on the PC. I would like to know what format I should have to play my recorded DVDs on any DVD player like the rented DVDs do? I know I will need to purchase a new DVD writer & I have purchased & installed Roxio Easy Media Creator # 7 on my PC. I noticed that more new DVD writers are supported with Nero #6 than Roxio #7, does that mean that my Roxio editing program won't work on writers using the Nero #6 program?

 

Shortly :

About the movie format :
- retail DVDs format is mpeg2 (poor quality dvds would be mpeg1)
- computer movie files would be .wmv or .avi or .divx which are mpeg4
-> Your standard home dvd player thus can't play them, just like ur cd player can't play a 45. It's just not the same language.

About the blank DVD itself :
- Some home DVD players can't read DVD-R
- Some home DVD players can't read DVD+R
- Some home DVD players can't read DVD-/+RW
Check ur player manual

Solutions (using a DVD R ur home player can read):
your easiest option : burn ur movie as a VCD or SVCD but quality is poor, (according ur DVD player can read vcd or svcd, most of them will - check ur player manual)
or
convert ur .wmv or .avi in mpeg2 with a specialised software...(save a few hours...)
or
buy a home DVD player that can play .avi files ( "Divx players "), according they can read the codec u've used to encode it....

The only current compatibility matter between a DVD burning software and a dvd writer is about dual layer technology (double size DVDs), nothing to do with makes.

 

When you finish editing your movie, save it as DV-AVI. This is one of the options in movie maker.
It is the ONLY format that other applications can work with, that movie maker puts out.
Try one of the programs on this list, to get the avi to dvd.
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/168754