h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I won't type the full name in, Just In case. BUT... I had both of my DVD drives replaced this afternoon, and now NONE of my flicking applications can detect a drive to play from.

And tech support apparently can't help.

This was $2K well spent.

Oh my god, is there nothing you can do? Can't you return the darn thing for a refund?

I know zip about computers, so not in a position to advise. Maybe someone with more tech savvy could help. Have you talked to Ed?

Dell?

Why can't technical support help?

It must still be on warranty - can you not take it back to the shop to be fixed?


az

PC, at the back of the drives, where you plug the leads in, there is a little switch, usualy in the centre. This is a "master" and "slave", your computer has to see one drive as the master and one drive as the slave, if both are set to master, this will confuse the system, because it can't tell which one to "read" when a disc is in

If i'm thinking of the right company,over here you can't buy them from a store.only on the internet,and by phone!!
If that's the case with yours' PC.where could you return it to??
There's sure to be a waranty of some sort,surely,but i have wondered about this before.Someone must be able to help you if Profs advice dosn't work.

No, it wasn't bought at a store, I got it over the internet.

We've solved two of my problems, which required uninstalling and reinstalling software applications which came installed on the system when I bought it. Thats' got me a little annoyed, but I'll live. I've got one media player able to read both drives now, but the second audio player is still having problems: not a major tragedy.

The second problem seems to be that our blank DVDs are DVD-R and the DVD writer uses dual layering, so we need to purchase blank DVD-RW DL. I think. The only irritating bit is that we won't be able to watch any DVDs I create on the player hooked up to the TV, because it can't read that format. At least the new Beast has a 19" screen, so we'll make do with watching whatever DVDs I've made in here until we upgrade the other player (not a high priority).

They can send tech support out to my home for the duration of the one-year warranty. But they'll only deal with hardware issues- they don't offer support for the applications other than replacement discs. In spite of my heated outburst last evening, in retrospect, I understand that.

Doesn't make me less temperamental, though!

Profs advice was excellent indeed, and we've verified that the connections wee correct when the technician was here replacing the drives yesterday afternoon. I will double check this afternoon and male 100% sure that is the case.

So now I don't *hate* them, I'm just frustrated.

Sorry about all of the typos... got an "ergo friendly" keyboard and it really does require that I adjust the way I hold my hands when I type. It's slowed me down quite a bit, but once I get used to that, hopefully I'll pick up speed again.

Hopefully it will also make things easier on my left wrist- I've got tendonitis on the side from the thumb down, and it hurts so badly lately I can't even pick things up with this hand. My doctor says it's partly because my keyboard at work tilts too much, and partly because I use my mouse with my left hand.

I will see about purchasing some different recordable DVDs this afternoon and will update you all as to how much I hate buying anything new, ever, especially electronic stuff.

Oh, and since actually being able to use the DVD burner for its intended purpose means I'll need to purchase an additional piece of equipment and software, do any of you more technically-inclined people have any recommendations and suggestions to aid me in selecting a video capture card?

The primary reason I'd wanted a DVD burner was to transfer my enormous video collection to DVD for viewing in case the VCR ever breaks again- the one I have was hard to find, and it's getting increasingly more difficult to purchase VCRs. Our video collection consists of well over 1000 titles and there's no way I can afford to have them all professionally transferred. So, I'm hoping to do it myself.

Can anyone confirm for me before we go out and drop another $20 or so for blank DVDs that if my burner uses dual layering, DVDs that aren't designed for DL will not work? (And why can't they just be consistent with the formats when they make these things??)

Please disregard the question about formatting... a bit more poking around with options and settings (in spite of not knowing what I'm doing) has led me to the conclusion that the drive will read any format, but the software needs me to tell it (1)what format to record in, and (2)what speed to record at, manually.

Software upgrade on the horizon, meanwhile I was just able to copy some DVD footage of my sister's wedding. So, that issue has been averted.

Now we can move on to the video capture project.

Ha!

You should complain. I've just upgraded to the latest version of Ubuntu Linux...and now I can't do a thing with it!

Perhaps have a chat with Taliesin U539106
, Edward - he's a and I'm quite sure he uses Linux.

az

Yrah...there's various Linux s around. (I guess I'm forced to admit - 'fellow' Linux s)

This appears to be some kind of error in the upgrade and there's all sorts of forum postings flying around.

Am I being unfaithful?...Seeing another forum?

No, Edward, we're in an open relationship here.

I shouldn't complain, you're right. I'll work around all the glitches eventually; just as I'm sure you'll get your upgrade issues sorted. Good luck with it!

btw - I don't know much about DVD-Rs, not having a writer myself, but I was of the impression that there were two kinds of disk , + and - - so you shouldn't need DVD-RWs, just the right kind of DVD=Rs.

BUT - I was also of the impression that DVD writers could handle either kind these days.

Plus - that doesn't sound like your problem, intuitively.

All I can see is that it *appears* that when the source material is a DVD DL, the system wants me to use a blank DVD DL to copy onto.

One drive is DVD-R, and I've been able to use it as a source drive for DVD but not audio CD files.

The other drive is DVD+/-RW DL, and it's my undertanding that it should be compatible with all formats... right now it cooperates with some, but not others, so I expect it's primarily Operator Error.

I'll get the hang of it, eventually- I've never had a writer before myself, and this was a huge splurge on my part. I figured since I could afford the luxury, why the hell not? Maybe these Geezers and/or Tuffy will let me record some footage and make DVDs. The CD burner is how we managed their last album.

What Operating System are you using? I sort of assume it's either XP Home or Professional on a new machine, and what burning software?

The latest version of Nero (7) will allow you to burn DVD's in any format, you can use dual layer for compact storage and then reload into Nero as a .VOB file and burn as a standard DVD on a DVD RW disc for watching (takes 12 to 20 minutes, even on my steam powered machine). That would solve your problem of not being able to watch DL DVD's, I don't know of a DVD player which plays them as yet.

Modern DVD R/RW/DL (even double sided DL) machines should be what is known as backward compatible and cope with anything you throw at them.

If the burners are "state of the art", it might be that XP embedded drivers will only supply the basic functions to them. Do you have driver discs with the burners or can you download them from the net, (manufactureres homepage), to me, that sounds like the most probable cause.

There are some right "clowns" in this game, don't always assume that they know what they're talking about.

Just another thought on the system insisting that you use DL discs, Nero will say that, IF...the file is too big to fit on a standard 4.7gig disc (which has a write surface of 4.38 for tech reasons) It might be worth looking at Cucusoft systems (on the net) they will allow you to split the file into sizes that you specify.

May I suggest that you don't rush into anything money-wise until it's had a good airing, the advice I've seen so far is pretty sound stuff.

If you don't have the right drivers...when you switch on you'll be able to see who makes the DVD drive. Google it and download.

I've got the right drivers for sure- in fact, I've uninstalled and reinstalled those already, just to be sure.

I'm pretty sure it was just the file size of the source material which prompted the burner to ask for a DL disc. And while we were out running around this afternoon, we checked target for DL discs, and at about $4 per disc, I don't need them *that* badly.

Thanks so much for the good advice. I've heard that Nero is good. Anyone familiar with DVDClone? For the time being, though, I will indeed continue to muck around with what we've got.

For viewing DVD, we have four separate programs, two of which I quite like. And I've got MusicMatch and iTunes for music. So I think we're in good shape now.

Oh, yes, regarding the OS- it is indeed XP.

Anyway, I think that for the most part, now that I'm looking at it with a clear head and not immediately after the service call, everything is actually pretty easy to work with and I just need to get used to all of the new functionality and stuff.

Sympathy n' stuff...sorry not too good on the computer stuff...hope it irons out ok...