I totally agree, expect for us it is a cheapo Philips DVP-5960 DVD player with HDMI, a USB socket on the front and full DivX/XVid compatibility including subtitles. They sell them at Good Guys and various other places dirt cheap.

Also any XBox 360 or PS3 will also now playback downloaded DivX/XVid files from BitTorrent.

Yeah gone are the days of disc's ...

Sorry Wol. I'm going into the D Drive, but as there's nothing on the disc, I can't see how I can erase anything.

Finally managed to find software that burned the .avi onto my DVD RW.

But now, when I try to play the damn thing in my DVD player, it says - 'Disc not Formatted correctly.' :curse:

Starting to lose the will to live. :curse:

I do feel for you: I have been / am going through the same DVD hell.

I think you are going down the route of .avi files about which I know nothing.

I was referring above to burning DVDs so that they behave just like commercial ones, with menus and chapter headings etc.

http://www.geekstogo.com is a forum (Geeks to Go) which will probably help in any particular field - they have sections on DVDs, O/Ss etc.

It was through this that I learnt that a -RW disc which is burned as say a playable DVD will take the burn but is then useless for further recordings. So I now open a brand new _RW and burn a few data files to it (doesn't matter what) and erase them. This seems to "format" the disc, and it will then take multiple temporary recordings of TV programs I want to watch later, burned in "proper" DVD formats.

Don't get me started on the audio synch problems..... :curse:

before you burn the disc, play the file on your pc...e.g. in windows media player or vlc....or the Apple equivalent if you have a Mac.

if you have audio issues, then stop right there. Its a problem within the file itself. This can be corrected for playback within VLC. search on google for more info.

If there are no audio issues, the problem lies with your disc media or with your CD writer. Audio sync issues usually arise because you are burning on cheap discs at a high speed... So, try getting good quality discs (50 x LG DVDs are available from your nearest MSY for $15!!) and then burn at the lowest speed possible.

cheers.

Nothing to do with those things: it was all to do with my not knowing the ins and outs of DVD authoring!

I had naively thought that you could just transfer the fils onto the disc and play them: I knew nothing about .vob files etc - and it was compounded by the -RW formatting misunderstanding.

I *think* it's all working fine now - I have a couple of -RW discs which I have used over several evenings re-recording the Video TS folders and they all play well. Don't you just *love* technology....

Of course! Its sooo straight forward.

I spent hours, or probably days, messing about converting from format to format.

You've sussed the DVD formatting. I spent days figuring out how to format avi's and mp4 to mobile phone format (3gp format).

You'd think they could unify all this nonsesne.

Ohhh, that would be too easy for us users

JTL

Total Video Converter! ...

Sorry to bump this guys.

So I can now view downloaded Torrent video on PC, and burn to RW disc ok. The disc plays fine from the D drive of the computer.

Why, when I put the disc in my DVD player, do I get the message - Disc not Formatted?

Once again: what format are you burning to?

If it's a "proper" DVD format you will have two folders on the disc - Video TS and Audio TS folders. The DVD should play OK.

If you burn a pure data file like .avi perhaps your player doesn't recognise this type?

I'm sorry mate, but I'm not sure you are reading the replies to your posts.

If you are burning the AVI file to the DVD disc as a file then no it won't work unless your DVD can play back AVI files. You need to convert the AVI to a DVD format first and then burn THAT to the DVD disc.

Note that there are two things called DVD here

• DVD Disc - The silver round flat disc you put in the machine
• DVD Video - The video data in DVD "Blue Book" format, including VOB and INF files, in a VIDEO_TS folder

To convert the AVI file to DVD Video you need to use a piece of software as mentioned above (ConvertXtoDVD is a good one) and then burn it to DVD Disc using whatever you have. THEN your DVD Player will read it.

However, as mentioned, if you plan to do this a lot it's better to get a DVD Player with a USB socket which reads DivX and XVid files from a memory stick. MUCH cheaper, faster and less hassle than burning them to DVD all the time.

Cheers Ape man. But it's all tosh.

Just ran the Converter - no dramas. Burnt the disc, using the same ConvertX to DVD software - no dramas........

.........but - Error Writing to Disc.

So tried the USB option with a memory stick I bought today. Dragged the file over - no dramas. Stuck it in the side of the TV (there's no port on my DVD player). Went to the multi media USB screen.........

.........but - **** all in the Video folder.

So to summarise:

There's an .avi downloaded Torrent which can be watched on my PC.
Some software burns it to my DVD-RW, some doesn't, the ones that don't state 'error writing to disc'
The successful burning to the disc, does not play in my DVD player - Disc not formatted

I'll get me coat.

From what you have said I can deduce two things.

1. The ConvertXtoDVD software is not installed correctly or the DVD writer is being dodgy. You should not be getting that email.
2. The TV you have plugged the USB directly into does not read DivX/Xvid files. I have not heard of one that does yet, but I am sure there are some. The USB on most of the TV's that have them is designed to playback JPEG photos only.

So you have several choices:

1. Give up
2. Watch the files on your PC
3. Reinstall the ConvertXtoDVD and try again
4. Update the Driver to your DVD Writer and try ConvertXtoDVD again
5. Try another application to convert Divx to DVD
6. Buy a dirt cheap DVD Player with a USB socket and use the USB stick as you have done now, but on the DVD Player. As I mentioned the Philips DVP-59xx family with USB and HDMI are excellent and VERY cheap.
7. Buy an PS3 and use that to playback the file from the USB stick
8. Buy an XBox 360 and use that to playback the file from the USB stick
9. Buy one of the many other Media devices on the Internet that will playback DivX files from an internal HD or USB stick

Hope this helps

Al

Again, very grateful for your help Al. Gonna look for one of those DVD players you posted a link on.

Thanks mate.

Big Baz (more of a computer turd, than computer nerd ).