I'm not sure how to read the contents of the prepared file, but I'm wondering if my problem lies elsewhere.

Burned a copy of one of the DVDs I was working on over the weekend, again using Architect, and it came out fine. I rebuilt the Architect project moments ago for the disc I was having problems with, saving it as a new project to avoid using any of the same resources besides the MPG files for the project itself, and the same thing happened: the burn completes, the disc ejects, I put it back in, Windows reports it as blank.

This is driving me crazy, and I need to get this disc out today, Monday at the latest.

I would recommend trying to create your DVD files to your hard drive instead of directly to a disc. That way you can check them first without wasting a DVD in the process.

To burn your files to a folder on your hard drive instead of a disc, select the Prepare option after clicking Make DVD and set the location for your files to be saved.

When completed, you should have a VIDEO_TS and and AUDIO_TS folder (with files inside each of these folders).

Just burn these two folders and their files as a playable disc to a DVD using any software (ImgBurn, Nero, RecordNow) and you should have working DVD!

Or at least you'll find out if the problem is with DVD Architect or your DVD burner.

So here's what happens:

If I burn it to a DVD+R disc, it is reported as blank, no video there.

If I burn it to a DVD-R disc, the disc completes, but with no sound.

Thanks, Steve...I'll give that a shot.

I have checked the end result of the prepared folders....in no case do I have any data in the AUDIO_TS folder, but I have VOB, IFO, and BUP files in the VIDEO_TS folder.

Ugh....what a mess.

AUDIO_TS *SHOULD* be empty. It's only used if you create an "audio DVD" - it's not used for standard video DVDs.

You should be able to play the content of the VIDEO_TS folder using any DVD player on your PC, e.g. PowerDVD, WinDVD or the free VLC player. This would tell you for certain if the preparation or burning are causing the problems.

Mike

So ultimately, it is something with Architect. I was able to take the prepared files from the folders Architect creates and burn functioning DVD+R and DVD-R discs using Nero.

Looks like a reinstall is in my near future....

I don't know. A reinstall can't hurt -- but it sounds to me like DVD Architect is doing its job. There's just some breakdown in communications with your DVD burner.

Have you gone to your hard drive manufacturer's site and looked for a new driver?

It could also be that Nero is interfering with the connection between DVD Architect and your burner. It's been known to do that with other programs.

The easiest solution is just to burn prepared folders to your drive, as you've done, and just burn your discs with Nero.

I do this by choice. It doesn't take any more time -- and it makes producing multiple copies of a DVD a cinch since every "copy" is actually an original burned from the same files!

Hmmmmm.
Notice that there are now several threads in this Forum with a similar problem and they all seem to eventually work with the workaround described here. That is, Prepare only in DA5 and Burn the Prepared image only with a different program (Nero,ImgBurn,Power2Go, Roxio, etc.).

There is something peculiar about the direct burn in DA5 which produces coasters and DVD's which are not recognized even in Sony players.

Like you, I will be looking for a fix beyond the workaround.

I have reported this to Sony Support (hope they read these entries also so that they do not think I am imagining something) and at least they are working on it.

I've burned hundreds of DVD's using DVDA for years. I can count coasters on one hand, and the thumb doesn't count..

Never, ever, burn at the max speed. I always pick something in the middle of the range that DVDA offers. For example, if offered 8X burn speed, I use 4X.

Also, if DVDA only offers 2X or 4X for a disk you know to be 8X or better, then this is an indication that DVDA is not recognizing the media and only offering the default burn speeds.

I doubt very much that the problem is DVDA. I've burned thousands of DVDs, both with Nero and with DVDA. I have helped others who have had problems, and I have periodically had problems myself. In every single case (other than when DVDA was brand new) the problem tracked down to either bad media or a failing burner. If your media is the same, and you are burning from the same batch of media you've been using for awhile, then I would suspect the burner. I have gone through over eight burners in the past eight years. I never get more than a few hundred discs through a burner before it fails. I have used HP, Pioneer, Plextor, and now Liteon.

Failure of a DVD is a very quirky and strange thing. I actually have taken a few of my failed DVD burners and installed them in secondary computers. I can still burn certain types of discs, but only a few at a time. One of them no longer can burn DVD+RW but will burn DVD-R, but only one at a time (i.e., if I try to burn a dozen, it usually fails on the third or fourth disc). My point is that you may get a failing drive to do a good burn once in awhile, and if you don't suspect the burner, your natural instincts that try to find a correlation will find something: maybe the curtain was open, or the stereo was running, or you were on the telephone. Obviously those wouldn't make a difference, whereas the burning software could. I am only making the absurd statements to point out that your problem is far more consistent with burner failure than with a software problem.

My experience pretty well parallels johnmeyer's. While I'm probably still on my first 1000, I've burned hundreds of discs -- most of 'em with DVD Architect, starting with DVD-A 2 on 3 different machines. I've recently had a couple of burn failures, but I'm currently using a burner that was given to me by a friend who told me that -- you guessed it -- it wouldn't burn DVDs anymore! Been using this one for about 8 months.

John is certainly correct about burners sometimes failing in weird ways. The one that I replaced wouldn't burn CDs for MONTHS before I finally gave up on it. As it deteriorated, it got to the point that it wouldn't even recognize a commercial (pressed) DVD if I wanted to watch one, but it would burn a blanks just fine. Bizarre.

I've always had the utmost confidence in burning with DVD-A, but have recently beginning to use ImgBurn for one reason, mostly owing to the shaky history of this drive: ImgBurn will do a verify after the burn. Prior to this, I'd always checked burns with DiscSpeed, but I prefer doing a bit-compare over a surface scan, and ImgBurn allows this. DVD-A just burns -- no integrity checks are performed.

I am sure somewhere is the answer to the problem at hand. But, having followed most, in not all, the recommendtions suggested in this thread, the only workaround so far that works consistently is the burning from the DA5 Prepared folder either with another program or, and this is the killer: in a separate session in DA5. By the latter I mean that in one DA5 session I Prepare the folder and in a separate DA5 session I burn from within DA5 from the Prepared folder.

If I use the direct Burn in which DA5 Prepares first and then Burns at one sitting, most SD DVD's done lately do not play even on Sony regular DVD player. BUT THEY WILL PLAY IN MY SONY BLUERAY PLAYER, as conventional DVD's of course.

On the other hand, I can Prepare and Burn BD5 in one DA5 sitting which play great in my Sony BlueRay player.

The additional complication is that SD DVD's made in DA5 at one sitting do not play or have problems in other people's DVD's as well.

I have migrated from Videowave III, Videowave6, Videowave 7, Nero, Premiere Elements 3 and Premiere Elements 4 without any hitches whatsoever. All SD DVD's prepared with those programs have played in all reported players.

I must conclude that there is an unstable configuration between my DA 5.0c and the internal DVD burner. Re-installation has not worked. Perhaps a future updated driver may fix the root cause. For now, I must use the workaround. Additionally, I will try an external burner to compare.

I received an answer from Sony Support who were able to reproduce the error condition I reported.
It appears that, even though DA5 is supposed to be able to handle many video file types, but when they fail, even the basic ones for some reason, as was my case, they recommend rendering to MPEG2 in Vegas first and then importing to DA5.

Answer Title: Vegas rendering settings for a DVD
Answer Link: http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1105&p_created=1092239421

I will test again and report.

Most of my issue and inquires to the Sony forums are at the Vegas forum. I've been a Vegas and DvdArchitect user starting with Vegas 5 on to Vegas 8 Pro currently combined with DvdArchitect 5Pro .ob.

Most of my issues and questions in the past have related in the how to areas, combined with an occasional problem to resolve, but not normally in this area of burning dvd's. In the past I've burned hundreds of dvds, with a very rare problem disc showing up.

However currently in a project where I'm burning some 1 1/2hr SD dvds, I'm getting an occasional bad disc that is good through about 99% of the video, but some pixelating at times near the last third of the video. Out of 20 dvds I'm getting 2-3 bad burns?

Until I track down the issue, have yet to replace the burner as I'm waiting to upgrade to a blu-ray shortly, I have two questions.

1. Why doesn't Sony include an option to verify the burn in DvdArchitect?

As suggested in this post, I've finally gone to burning a DVD, watching it in it's entirety, then using Nero to burn an image back to my hd then burning and verifying that image using Nero. Ok, now I see I can output directly to the hd first then just use Nero to burn and verify my dvds.

2. Why is there no burn complete notification alarm sound to let you know it's done?

If Sony included a verify option and I began using DvdArchitect again to perform my burns, it would be nice to have a. Currently when I burn multiple dvds I typically do other tasks not alway in the same room, so my alarm consists of a couple of soda pop cans (empty) stacked up in front of the drive bay. When the burn is complete and the dvd is ejected, the cans get knocked over, making a distinct sound.