Hardware DVD Player Emulator?

[Lorek]

Does anyone know if theres a program out there that emulates specific hardware standalone players to test dvd-r compliancy with?

I've prolly gone through about 40 coasters so far trying
to get a workable homemade DVD and the only way i can think
to test if the DVD works is taking it out of the drive and putting it in a standalone. If possible what I'd like to do is to just run compatibility tests on a dvd prior to burning so I don't waste
so many coasters.

[smiller667]

Hi,

the easiest way to prevent coasters would probably be the use or rewritables ... as for your question: there are no emulators for standalones I would know of - even for standalones, a _lot_ depends on the software revision used by the player (a.k.a. "firmware"). An emulator would have to use original firmwares etc. etc ...

40 tries is an awful lot ... how do you go about producing your DVDs? Do you encounter problems with the audio/video material or is it the menus which give you problems? Using a straightforward, well-established authoring solution such as TMPG DVD Author and sticking to the standards (in terms of video resolution, framerates and audio encoding) should increase your chances of getting a properly playable DVD a lot.

Software players can be quite forgiving when playing slightly off-standard material.

Steve

[Lorek]

Well I just figured out what the problem was. Apparently the DVD Authoring Software I've tried so far is creating bad menus.

I've been using Ulead DVD Workshop 2, and DVD Lab. I tried on both
and the menu's on both seem to be broken, and or corrupted.

I've got another thread in the DVD Authoring Forum that pretty much sums everything up.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94678

[int 21h]

Have you tried playing the disc/movie with the bad menus in IfoEdit? I've found that it will find common errors many times, and sometimes it even gives a decent error message to accompany it.

[buzzqw]

one utility handy for error checking dvd is

dvdtrayplayerpro

http://www.mmbforums.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=8250

BHH

[Amir]

this is one thing that annoys me too.

I wish there was a STRICT dvd player that worked like standlones. I've found I've made errors in editing PGCs in the past that work fine on powerdvd/windvd but a real dvd player rejects the disc.

This is esp. important when i stip subs and things...

A real unforgiving DVD player for Win32 would be cool.

[buzzqw]

try dvdtrayplayerpro

has error checking facility

BHH