Burned dual-layer DVD won't play anywhere

[jywv8]

I am trying to make a backup of a DVD that I own. I've backed up many DVDs before, but I always used DVD2oneX to compress the disc image down to < 4.7GB before burning (to fit it onto a single-layer DVD-R). However, I recently purchased some DVD-R DL discs, so this time I want to burn a dual-layer disc to avoid compression. I'm having problems.

I used MacTheRipper (full disc extraction) to rip the DVD to my hard drive. I end up with the usual VIDEO_TS folder. Then I used DVD Imager to make a disc image out of the VIDEO_TS folder. Apple's DVD Player can read the VIDEO_TS folder produced by MTR and the one on the disc image just fine. Everything looks great.

So then I used Disk Utility to burn the disc image to my DVD-R DL at 2x (media is rated 4x) using my Pioneer DVR-109 burner. When I put the disc into my stand-alone DVD player (which has never had a problem reading my single-layer DVD-Rs), it wouldn't read it. When I put the disc back into my Mac, it said "You inserted a blank DVD. Choose an action from the pop-up menu or click Ignore."

Can anyone tell me what I might be doing wrong?

 

[jywv8]

More...

I've also tried make a disc image with Toast (version 8.1) and burning that with Toast. And I've tried burning a "DVD DL" with Toast directly from the VIDEO_TS folder. Nothing works. Help...

 

[Counterfit]

1. Make sure the disc gets finalized
2. Make sure you're burning in UDF format.

Also, Toast (and Disk utility) won't correctly copy a CSS protected disc.

 

[jywv8]

Almost...but no

So I updated the Firmware to 1.58 and tried to burn another disc with Toast. This one played fine on my Mac. When I do a Get Info on the disc, it says "Format: Universal Disk Format". Toast's disc info also tells me it's UDF.

I thought I was home-free, but my stand-alone DVD player choked on the FBI warning screen (got an error message saying "check disc").

I don't think I've ever burned a bad CD or (single-layer) DVD before. So, either my DVD drive is going wonky or my media is crappy (RiDATA DVD-R DL) or my DVD player is not compatible (only 3 years old, though). Oh well. I now have $8.00 worth of coasters.

If anyone has successfully burned a DVD-R DL with a Pioneer DVR-109 drive, let me know how you did it and what media you used.

 

[jywv8]

Success!

After reading up on "book types", I decided to try burning to a DVD+R DL. I bought the cheapest brand (RiDATA DVD+R DL) from my local computer store. And it worked! Both my computer and DVD player can play the disc. When I look at the disc info in Toast, it says the book type is DVD-ROM. I think that is the difference (as to why this one works in my DVD player).

What's weird is everything I've read about the Pioneer DVR-109 says you need to use the Buffalo firmware to automatically set the book type on DVD+R media to DVD-ROM. But I am using the "standard" firmware.

Mystery solved. Hopefully all this information help someone else at some point.