The Burned Slidshow DVDs Won't Play. Why and How to Fix It?

You’ve created slideshows with pictures and music and burned it onto a DVD. But when you insert the disk in DVD player, it won’t play. This checklist can help you figure out why your burned DVDs won’t play, so that you can fix the disks and prevent the problem in the future.

Burn Speed Was Too Fast

Higher speeds can result in unreliable burns, such as bad quality, missing files, audio does not sync with video, etc. In the worst case, you will get totally blank DVD after burning (which seems to be completed but nothing was written to the disc).

So, slow things down and set your DVDs to burn at 4x or even 2x. This may eliminate errors.

Bad Burn Happens

Sometimes you just get a bad burn. Could be the disk, could be your computer, could be the burning software, or simply could be the burn speed was too fast. Learn how to avoid slideshow DVD burning errors.

Disk Type Not Accepted by DVD Player

There are multiple types of DVDs, and certain DVD players and burners will only accept certain types of disks. Use the DVD Buyer's Guide to check that you are using the correct type of DVD.

There are five main types of recordable DVD media: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM.

Early PC burners tended to handle only one format or the other, but most newer models are multiformat burners that can record to the +R/RW and -R/RW formats, if not to DVD-RAM as well.

Except for the comparatively obscure DVD-RAM format, most newer set-top DVD players will play -R and +R discs equally well. Older players have much spottier -R/+R compatibility.

DVD Format Not Compatible with TV System

DVDs aren’t universal; what plays in the US won’t play everywhere else in the world. Before burning the slideshow as DVD/VCD movies, you should choose a TV system, NTSC or PAL, so that the encoding of the slideshow video complies with the TV system standards used in your country.

NTSC (National Television System Committee) is the analog television system used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and some other countries.

PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is a color encoding system used in Europe, Austria, New Zealand, China, India, south-east Asia, west Asia, North Africa, Brazil and large parts of the world.

Bad DVD Labeling

Avoid those stick-on DVD labels! They are marketed for labeling DVDs, but in many cases they will prevent an otherwise fine DVD from playing. Instead, use a permanent marker, inkjet printer or a Lightscribe DVD writer to put titles and labels on the disk.

Outdated DVD Player

If you bought your DVD player within the past couple years, you should be able to use it to play DVDs burned on your home computer. However, older DVD players won’t necessarily recognize and play home-burned DVDs.