I put a movie i downloaded onto a dvd and it works on the computer but not in the DVD player why?

Question

i put it on a maxwell DVD-RW 4.7gb 2hrs SP mode

and when i put it into my dvd player it says the disk cannot be read but when i put it into the computer it comes up and plays

Answer 1

Haha. That happened to me too. The reason why is that your dvd player doesn't read recordable cds, or they don't read the program that you used to record it. If you burned it using Windows Media Player, that might explains why. Most dvd players don't read that program and others.

Answer 2

Aiii Ya is correct - here's a bit more detail:

A blank DVD can be used to store data files like a thumb drive or another external hard drive. You can copy a .mov or .avi or .mp4... or a .doc, .xls or .ppt (Word Excel, PowerPoint). Just because you used a DVD disk does not mean a DVD player can read the data.

In order for a "normal" DVD player to read that movie you stuck on there, the movie needs to be in a file format the DVD player understands. In this case, you should be able to take that video file and using WinDVD (or similar DVD menu authoring/rendering application) and burn the disc. When you open that disc, you will find that the DVD-readable format carries a .VOB file type and no longer the .mov or .avi or .mp4 (or whatever video format you started with).