Comments on: Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Vista

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:50:01 +0000

Can burn pictures to master copies of CD’s and will play on DVD player. when attempting to burn pictures to master DVD’s it appears to work ok but will not play on dvd player,the player shows not formatted.

By: Blahguy

Blahguy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:36:37 +0000

Using Vista 64 ultimate SP1, DVD-R.
When I try to create a mastered DVD after copying the files to the “Files to be written” window, then clicking “Burn to disk” I get a message telling me “No files to burn”.

Am able to create live DVDs, and have used some freeware, (DeepBurner), to burn DVDs, (same brand/type). No “help” from the help section, just the same instructions – There is obviously some problem.

The instructions you give are just regurgitated from the help files anyway.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:57:32 +0000

I think I have the same problem jackie reported on February 14, 2009 at 1:24 am. If I try to create a “mastered” CD, when I click the “burn to disk” button, a (totally useless) search window pops up (Titled “Search Active Captions”). There appears to be no way to get it to burn a mastered CD.

If I say “live file system”, it copies the files on as I drag them, and then closes the disk on eject. But I really want a mastered CD, so it can be used in other machines.

By: Miss Mouse

Miss Mouse — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:17:16 +0000

I am using the correct DVD’s. THey won’t play on my PC either. I have been doing this for years and I haven’t had any problems until recently. I am not the only one either, I ordered this computer through work since my boss was updating his computer as so was a couple of co-workers and they are having similar problems.

By: Iain Macbriar

Iain Macbriar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:40:21 +0000

I’m having the same problems as Todd was talking about on 2009 June 2. I was trying to get Vista to write to a DVD. I was doing this by copying some files and pasting them to the DVD drive in Windows Explorere. Each time I get an error message saying

Windows was unable to complete the format

(and in the best Vista traditions, there’s no ‘click here for more information’ button!).

I’ve tried this with brand-new DVD-RW disks, brand-new DVD+RW disks, but neither work. But it does work with CDs.

My system is a Dell XPS-M1330 running (alas) Vista Business SP2. Processor is Intel T5700 running at 2.2 GHz with 2GB of memory.
DVD drive is a Matshita DVD+-RW UJ-857G ATA device. It’s “working properly” according to the device manager. Driver is Microsoft version 6.0.6002.18005 of 2006 Jun 21. If I click on [Update driver], then I’m told that I’m using the most up-to-date driver.

So I’ve googled the error message and ended up here. I’ve tried working through the instructions at the top. But when I click on the [Burn] button, nothing happens. With a DVD inserted, without a DVD inserted, nothing happens.

I’m obviously doing something fundamentally very stupid – but can anybody tell me what?

By: Brent Trahan

Brent Trahan — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:14:23 +0000

You’re right. I removed the arrogant reply. Sorry about that guys.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:18:36 +0000

“You’re doing something wrong. You’re the first of over 100,000 people viewing this guide to tell me it doesn’t work.”

What an entirely arrogant reply! There are many reasons the disc might not be read in different DVD players from disc manufacturer to disc type used (+/- R) to session closing on some players to the media format saved upon the disc (likely the cause of many of the comment issues above) to the type of media (some players can view images and not only movie filetypes. These are to name but a few reasons which could account for hundreds of different errors or causes of “won’t play” scenarios.

Your initial reply indicative of “my article is perfect and lists all the information you need idiot, read it again as you’re obviously doing something stupid and out of the ordinary” is completely arrogant, ignorant, unhelpful, condescending and uncalled for.

By: cris

cris — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:30:26 +0000

yep, I got a lot of problems with this burning issues. Anyway, can anybody answer this ?. If a movie you download has about 700mb and a dvd has about 4.7g. does that mean that you can fit at least about 5 700mb movies on a dvd-r? how does this work? thanks.

By: Todd

Todd — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:23:46 +0000

Got me a new laptop, which helped me get 3 A’s last quarter, sweet. Downside: still have not burned a single successful DVD. Tried lots of things. On my old computer, all I needed was XP and nero, ’twas easy, and because XP has been so damn good to me for many years, I almost paid the extra 100 bucks for the laptop with XP installed. Sadly I was a cheapskate and went with the Vista that they were pimping. For the past few months now, I copy .VOB files from this computer to my flash drive, then walk over to the living room, copy them to my wife’s computer (hers has XP of course) and then burn the files to a DVD-R. It plays every time. Except, of course, on days like today when I say “why can’t I get the burner on my brand new Vista laptop to work?” and then I google for solutions, and this time landed on this page, followed the instructions to the letter, only to be again disappointed. Seems like a massive waste of a DVD drive, considering I don’t have any other use for it. A few years ago I bought a DVD/VCR recorder which can dub either direction, and it was also handy for recording TV shows directly onto DVD-RW, however, the DVD-R discs are cheaper so I dub a full DVD-RW disc over to a DVD-R and then format the DVD-RW for the next round of TV shows. A great system, and because the recording is homemade, there is no encryption, thus no decoding necessary. Just a straight-across data burn. The DVD-RW discs come out of the DVD recorder completely playable on other DVD players, and therefore a direct copy onto DVD-R always yields the exact same menus and everything… EXCEPT when I try to do it with Vista. So here I am today, a few more wasted discs and a few more wasted hours, reminded why it is that I’m STILL copying discs on my wife’s old (and very slow) XP computer instead of my brand new Vista laptop. And I have a pathogen presentation due in lab tomorrow, and now hours less to get it done, only because VISTA CANNOT BURN A PLAYABLE DVD-R. Thanks Vista! I only hope my memory of the frustration lasts longer this time, so the Pollyanna in me doesn’t pop up again next month and say “maybe THIS time it’ll work”. The only good thing about finding this website is learning that I wasn’t the only one. I feel better knowing that Vista is the problem, not me, and now I’m much less likely to waste any more effort on this fruitless endeavor. Enquiring minds want to know: If Vista CAN burn to DVD-R, then why is it such a secret? Definitely not user-friendly.

By: hanna

hanna — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:25:17 +0000

i want to use this on a tv so i need it in dvd form ive tried hundreds of times but it still wont work!