Problem viewing DVD-R with digital pictures

[Mykl]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this but I'll give it a shot. I recently got married and we just got our proofs back from our photographers. So here's the situation: The first photographer, Michelle, gave us a DVD-R with 550 jpg images on it. We tried putting it into our computer but it tells me it's a blank CD. I tried many times to get it to work and was about to call and complain when I decided to try it in our DVD player. Low and behold, it works! We sat for 4 hours looking at the pics but it kind of sucked because our TV doesn't really let us see what they would look like in real life. But it was better than nothing.

Now, for the real problem. Our second photographer, Jesse, gave us a DVD-R of his pics and when we tried it in the computer nothing happened. It didn't even think it was blank. When I ejected it the light on my DVD drive flashed red and wouldn't open. We eneded up manually ejecting it with a paper clip. When we try watching it in the DVD player it also won't work. So what can we do? Bill, our contact for the photographers claims they should work in the computer just fine. I've tried finding new drivers but the DVD drive shows up simply as "ATAPI DVD DD 2X16X4X16" in the device manager and I don't remember what company it was from. After reading a bit I used dvdinfo to find that the firmware revision is G7C9 which I can't find much about.

I've read some on updating the firmware to BenQ, would this work for me? We've haven't had many problems with our DVD recorder in the past. The only thing I can think of is sometimes when I buy a new CD it won't recognize it at first. Once I eject it a few times it works though.

Please help, my wife REALLY wants to see our pictures!!

Mykl

[Chewy]

welcome to the forum

let's save a little time and effort

try both dvd's in a newer computer, use my computer to open the disks

your drive, alto a fine one is quite old and may have seen a little too much use

for right now we will assume that your photographers knew what they were doing, probably not

I suspect the second dvd is a data dvd and will only show the pictures in certain standalones if any

[paglamon]

I suspect the second dvd is a data dvd

Why only the second ? I think BOTH are Data-DVDs. The computer DVD drive should read both of them. Standalones will be another matter though.

[Chewy]

the first would have read in the computer with the right player/software

I suspect it was a slideshow

hard to tell without more to go on

[Mykl]

Thanks for the quick replys. The first could very well be a slideshow since that's how it shows on the tv. It cycles through the 550 pics although you can type a number and jump right to a pic. I decided to just go buy a new DVD drive and give it a try. I think I got my current one a year and a half ago pretty cheap so it wouldn't hurt to have a newer one. If it doesn't fix the problem I could always return the drive. I'll let you know what happens.

[Chewy]

if the second doesn't open in my computer so you can see the files with a new drive and it does the same on another computer get another dvd burned for you, tell them to use verbatim and burn slower???

your old drive is already a benq 1620 oem, but your firmware is older than the hills

boot into safe mode and update to the latest G series with drive empty

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=1905

[Mykl]

OK, so I got a Samsung SH-S203N and installed it. The first DVD (from Michelle) is now recognized!! I am so happy. You guys were right about the second DVD (from Jesse), it doesn't show up under My Computer when I put it in. It says the disk is either corrupt or unrecognizable by Windows. I guess I'll call him tomorrow and try to get another one with the settings you told me. I know he uses a Mac Powerbook, could that be causing a compatability problem? It's getting late so I will try updating my old drive's firmware tomorrow afternoon. Thank you so much for the help, she's going to love seeing these pictures tomorrow!

[UncasMS]

I guess I'll call him tomorrow and try to get another one with the settings you told me. I know he uses a Mac Powerbook, could that be causing a compatability problem?

being a professional (which i hope is true) he should be more than familiar with how to burn pc compliant data disc

thus the question is: is anyone fooling around with some sort of protection scheme?

is there any kind of contract?
did he get paid for providing high resolution images on a medium like cd/dvd?

but no matter if this medium was supposed to hold the final and proper pictures or whether it was just for demonstration purposes: you should be able to view the content or otherwise make sure to get your money back or don't pay the guy

concerning firmware upgrades or alike: dont fix it if it aint broken - talk to jesse first and tell him to provide decent content

if he is a pro he should be able to take care of this problem in no time at all - let's hope he is not just an amateur with a dslr and a mac

[paglamon]

It says the disk is either corrupt or unrecognizable by Windows

@UncasMS

Is it possible that the DVD-R contains the pics in some Windows unsupported format( may be RAW ) ?

[UncasMS]

Windows can handle raw formats just as well as mac could

or put it differently: you should at least be able to SEE some content even if your machine is not able to open the files

and to be honest: provinding raw files to your customers is plain crap

most pictures are in need of some retouching and i'd never simply burn my raw files to a dvd without a final touch-up - that would be unprofessional imho

[Mykl]

Well I called Jesse and he says he checked to make sure the disc worked before he sent it to me. I will try it on my brother's mac and if it still doesn't work he said he'd send me them on CDs.

@UncasMS: Yes, there was a contract and we are supposed to get digital copies of all the pictures taken. That was a major reason we chose this company. However, I do believe Jesse is just getting into the business and perhaps he hasn't worked out all the kinks. Michelle, on the other hand, has her own photography business and was contracted out through Bill (the guy we hired).

Hopefully, the CDs will work.