PC Help: Can't make DVDs

I purchased an external DVD/CD rewriter to transfer recorded TV programmes to DVD so I could play them on my television. I can transfer certain recorded programmes but not others.

When transferring certain programmes the status bar will reach something like four per cent and then eject the disc with the message that an error has occurred. In each case nothing has been written to the disc.

If I choose to transfer the programme as a data DVD rather than a video DVD it will work normally. However the recorded disc will then only play on the computer, not on the DVD player connected to the TV.
Stuart Griffiths

As you have discovered, there are two ways to copy a film or other video file to DVD: as a data disc or as a video disc.

Video discs act like standard movie DVDs you buy from a shop – they will play on most set-top DVD players (although some older players won’t play them) and on all computers with DVD readers. Data discs, on the other hand, can be played only on computers and some DVD players that are specially equipped.

Making a data disc is easy – the computer simply copies the video files from your hard disk to the DVD. For a video disc, however, it needs to physically convert the video file into a format that’s readable by DVD players.

The sheer amount of data involved in this process makes it long, and it requires a lot of hard disk space. A full standard DVD stores 4.7GB, and you might need to have double this amount free on your hard disk to make DVDs.

It’s an intensive process, and it’s probably failing because the computer is trying to do something else at the same time.

Make sure that your hard disk has enough free space, as described above (if you have two hard disks or two partitions, make sure the free space is on the right one). Then close all running programs before trying to create a DVD.

In addition to making sure there are no programs listed in the Taskbar, you should also right-click on the icons in the Notification Area, one by one, and if there is a Close, Quit or Exit option, click on it. You should never close your anti-virus or firewall program, unless you first disconnect the cable connecting your computer to the internet.