Video has me baffled

A DVD is 720x480 standard definition so you would need a blu-ray player to watch HD videos. When I want to watch my 4K videos I shoot with my 4K cameras I just watch them off the SDXC card plugged into my Mac or PC connected to my 4K TV or monitor. I upload many of my 4K videos to youtube then anyone with a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone , iPod , smart TV etc could watch it . I use PotPlayer on my PC that is a free download to watch my 4K videos.

Transfer the video to disc at the slowest speed possible. Try the transfer at say 2X and see if that will play on your DVD player.

fj12ryder wrote:
It sounds like all you did was transfer the film in the CD/DVD format, but didn't actually create a DVD.

Easy to find out. Open the DVD on a computer, and check if you have a folder VIDEO_TS. You don't need the AUDIO_TS.

Check within the VIDEO_TS folder that you have files such as: VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO, and VTS_01.VOB, etc? Otherwise, not DVD-Video format.

Which default Windows program?

I haven't authored any DVD-Video since moving from XP to Windows 7, but on XP there was no software that came with Windows to do that job. MovieMaker would not even encode any of the formats needed for DVD-Video. Everything came out in Microsoft-proprietary video formats, rather than the video industry standards Microsoft would have had to license.

I used Pinnacle Studio for those recoding and DVD-Video authoring tasks, but there are several other packages for that.

Older DVD players had software to play only DVD-Video or some maybe also VCD, which preceded DVD-Video globally. This is not just a matter of audio and video encoding (done separately for DVD-Video) but also packaging.

Some newer DVD players, but more likely BluRay players, have software to look at data files on USB drives, DVD-ROMs or rewritable DVD data storage media, work through file systems, and find image, music, and/or video files in other formats, but even these might not know every format you might write. My BluRay, for example, can't play the videos I make for iOS devices.

If your player is capable of reading DVD-ROM, you'll have to make sure these are "finalized" (putting directory information in a specific place). The DVD writing software coming with most PCs usually leaves the media open on write, so that you can fill it up with with data before finalizing it. Some software tries to open every writable disc for write, which can destroy an unfinalized disk written on another machine, as the directory information is still sequestered on the machine that started writing the disk.

Lots of potential pitfalls, maybe because they are trying to make DVD and CD writing easier for people who don't know the disk technology.

Even the terminology is confusing. DVD means Digital Versatile Disk, meaning it is capable of different uses. DVD-ROM is a disk structured for data storage and delivery. DVD-Video is a disk structured for rights-controlled play in a DVD player. It is a matter of contract that computers do not ship with the capability to build DVD-Video unless somebody pays an license fee for that capability. Microsoft in the past has chosen not to do so, thus you buy a 3rd party package with that capability, the price including the license fee.

It sounds like all you did was transfer the film in the CD/DVD format, but didn't actually create a DVD.

Just a guess, what you did was copy the file to disc
Not create a disc in DVD format
The video has to be a specified frame size (not HD) , and file format
I would suggest one of the free DVD "authoring" programs such as AvsToDvd
You load the video file into the program and it recodes the file and creates the correct file structure, and can create the disc image ISO file which will be ready to burn to DVD disc
After that you burn the ISO file to the dvd using ImgBurn which is also free
I recommend visiting videohelp.com
They have all the info, tutorials, explanations/definitions, and the download links for this software and much more

It may be a hardware issue with the recorder itself. In any case, you may want to try a different DVD/Bluray burning software. Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE is available as freeware, and very easy to use.

If your DVD players are older models 10 years or older they may have to have a specific DVD. DVD-R/-RW or DVD+R/+RW... newer players will play any type but the older ones were specific. DVD-R is the most common.

Or

It sounds like the DVD was not "finalized". This is the last step in making a DVD playable on most DVD players.

Most programs do this step automatically but once in a while it gets missed or isn't done properly. I would try again but make sure all other programs on your laptop are closed so nothing interferes with the DVD recording process.

Other possibility- if you used a stick on label on the DVD it can throw off the balance on some players. It's ok to use a Sharpie type pen to write on the DVD but stick on labels don't always work.