I burned a CD-R copy of my VCD which can be played by my DVD player. I used CD copier option of the CD Recording software. I assumed that would make exactly copy of the source VCD. Unfortunately,the copy can only be played by my computer but not by the DVD player. Why the source VCD can be played by DVD player while the burned copy can not? Does the CD burner make any change while it copies? I would like to know the problem is of the CD Burner, software or DVD player?

-- Cynthia Zheng (jzheng01@hotmail.com), January 25, 2002

Answers

The problem is that many DVD players do not support CD-R media at all. To play CD-R media, the DVD player needs a 2nd laser beam specifically to play CD-R and CD-RW. CD-R and CD-RW reflect back at a different wavelength from commercial VCD. All DVD players can play commercial VCDs because their DVD lasers can read these discs. In a few unusual cases, such as with some Sony machines, there are DVD players with a single laser that has a wide reflectivity and will actually play some brands of CD-RW and CD-R discs. Most likely your DVD player will not play any brand of CD-R. Try copying to CD-RW and see if that works as CD-RW reflects at a wavelength close to commercial VCDs and you have the best chance of that working. This is a laser beam problem and no burning software on the planet can help you if your DVD player only has one laser beam and can't read CD-R media. To answer your question, it's the DVD player. www.vcdhelp.com has a list of DVD players and what they support. You might want to see what it says about your DVD player.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), January 25, 2002.