Over time I've compiled a list of common problems that may prevent your homemade DVD's from playing in your DVD player. If you want to know how to burn a DVD that will work with most DVD players, read on.

Various DVD Formats

Statistically, DVD-R/DVD R (write-once) disks work better than rewritable disks. The less popular type, DVD-RAM is almost never used to create disks playable on home DVD players.

Keep the bitrate low

Make sure the video bitrate is below 7 Mbps. There is a maximum combined audio/video bitrate that DVD players can handle, so using combining large video streams with uncompressed audio can produce a DVD that cant be played by home DVD systems.

Use proper audio encoding

The bitrate issue is one of the reasons why you should always use compressed audio. While your DVD authoring software may offer various audio formats, the most compatible encoding is probably Dolby Digital. On the other hand, PCM encoding should be avoided unless you know what youre doing. PCM format is actually uncompressed audio data and takes up the most space when compared to other encoding types.

The Bitsetting Trick

You can use a process known as bitsetting to improve the chances that your DVD R disks will play correctly. The detailed explanation of this technique is lengthy, so heres just the basic idea among the data stored on DVDs there is a field called booktype that indicates the type of the DVD. This field is pre-set on blank DVD-R(W) disks and cant be changed. It is however possible to set this field on a DVD R(W) disk so you can make DVD players believe the DVD R disk is really a DVD-ROM disk. This often results in much better compatibility with home DVD players.

Many DVD burning applications allow the modification of the booktype field (one well-known example being Nero). Many DVD drive manufacturers also offer tools that can change the booktype of a DVD. A detailed explanation of this method is beyond the scope of this article, but you can just go to your favorite search engine and type in bitsetting youll probably find a good tutorial on the first page of results.

Miscellaneous tips

You get what you pay for. If you want youre DVD to work on you home video system, its probably a good idea to spend a few more dollars and get quality media. And even then, note that many experts will tell you to burn the DVD at 2x or even 1x speed to get the best quality and compatibility. Personally Ive never had the patience to test this advice myself; feel free to try though it certainly wont hurt the quality.

There is also the possibility that any compatibility issues youre having are caused by the DVD burning/authoring software itself. Various applications have different quality video encoders and have a different level of support for DVD-Video features. If you cant seem to get your video working with one software, try another application. Luckily theres no shortage of DVD authoring applications and most of them offer a free trial, so you can try them and see if they produce better compatibility.

In conclusion

Dont worry if youre having a problem that wasnt addressed here the solution is probably somewhere out there on the Web. DVD compatibility is simply too large a topic to discuss exhaustively in a single article (and I bet someone, somewhere, has written a book about it).