Have you ever experienced the frustration of popping a freshly recorded DVD into a friend’s player, only to have nothing appear on the screen? This common issue can be attributed to one vital step that many overlook: finalizing the DVD. Finalization is the process that ensures your DVD can be reliably played on various devices, making it essential for recording TV programs and other content. In this comprehensive discussion, we will delve into the significance of finalizing DVDs and explore other practical applications of this crucial process.
Understanding the Need for DVD Finalization
Imagine the disappointment of taking a home-recorded DVD to a friend’s house, only to discover that their DVD player can’t read it, rendering your video unwatchable. Or perhaps you burned or dubbed a DVD on your home PC for work purposes, only to find that it’s unreadable when inserted into your workplace’s PC. Many of us have encountered such vexing situations. In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to play back recorded or dubbed DVDs on various players, ensuring that your discs can be read by any device, regardless of where they’re played.
What is DVD Finalization, and How Does It Work?
For those who find the term ‘DVD finalization’ a bit perplexing, let’s start by explaining what finalization entails. DVD finalization is essentially the process of making DVDs that have been dubbed or recorded on a recorder compatible with devices other than the one used for recording or dubbing.
To delve further, when you record or dub content on a DVD recorder, the video is stored in a rewritable format called DVD-VR. This format allows additional data to be added to the DVD as long as there is available space. In this state, even if you’ve recorded a program, the DVD’s content remains changeable.
The information remains non-fixed because adding more data can alter the content, and other devices can read it by having the missing information filled in by the recording device. However, devices other than the one used for recording cannot read these non-finalized discs because they cannot complete the missing information.
To make the disc readable on any device, you need to make it so that additional data cannot be added to the disc and lock in the information. The process to lock in this information is called finalization.
Finalization is not only essential to make the disc playable on various devices but also to prevent potential issues when changing to a new recorder or player, such as ‘I can’t read the programs recorded on the previous recorder with the new recorder.’
Now, what about Blu-ray discs? Do they require similar finalization? Fortunately, you don’t need to finalize Blu-ray discs. Even without finalization, you can play Blu-ray discs on devices other than the one used for recording or dubbing. Blu-ray discs can be read by other devices in their state where additional data can be added or edited, making them much more convenient than DVDs in this regard.
How to Finalize a DVD in Windows 10
If you’re wondering how to finalize a DVD in Windows 10, here are the steps:
- Insert an empty DVD into your DVD drive.
- You’ll see a pop-up in the lower-right corner that says, “Choose what to do with an empty DVD.” Click on this pop-up.
- The pop-up will change to “Choose what to do with an empty DVD.” Click on “Burn files to disc.”
- The “Burn a Disc” window will appear. Choose “CD/DVD player” and click the “Next” button at the bottom. This will format the disc in master format.
- A window for the formatted drive will appear. Drag and drop the files you want to write to the disc.
- The files you dragged will be listed as “Files Ready to Be Written to the Disc.” Once you’ve added all the files you want to write, click “Burn to disc” in the Manage tab.
- A window for disc writing will appear. Enter your preferred disc title and select the writing speed you want.
- You’ll see a progress bar showing the disc writing process. Wait for the progress bar to reach 100%.
- When the process is complete, it will show “Files have been successfully written to the disc.” Click “Finish” at the bottom. Your finalization process is now complete.
How to Confirm Finalization
There are two methods to confirm finalization:
- Prepare a device other than the PC where the finalization was done, which can play DVDs. Insert the finalized DVD into that device and try playing it. If the video plays without issues, it has been finalized.
- You can also use the same device that was used for finalization, such as your PC. Insert the DVD you finalized on your PC. Once inserted, check the following: a. Ensure that the disc name set during finalization is not garbled. b. Verify that the available space on the DVD shows as 0. c. Confirm that the disc contains only the folders “AUDIO-TS” and “VIDEO-TS.”
If all three of these points are confirmed, then the DVD has undoubtedly been finalized.
Initialization and Dubbing Process
Before performing dubbing, you need to initialize the disc. There are two formats for initialization: “VR Format” and “Video Format.” Use the “VR Format” for recording digital broadcasts and video camera footage.
Video camera footage can be recorded in both VR and Video formats. However, when recording digital broadcasts, you can only use the “VR Format,” so keep that in mind. These instructions apply when using a new disc.
When using a new disc, “DVD-RW” is automatically initialized to the VR format. But for “DVD-R,” manual initialization is required because it’s not automatically initialized. When you insert the disc into the recorder, a prompt on the TV screen will ask if you want to initialize it. When you see this prompt, simply press the “Initialize” button to complete the initialization process.
During the dubbing operation, press the button labeled “Dubbing” or a similar term in the list of dubbing options. Then, choose the source from which you want to dub (usually the hard drive), and if you’re recording digital broadcasts, select the program you want to record. If you have the option to select multiple programs, choose them and then press the “OK” or “Confirm” button.
The exact steps might vary slightly depending on the manufacturer, but the basic process for recording is generally the same. Finally, after completing your dubbing, you can finalize the disc. Once finalized, you can use it with other devices for playback.
Creating a DVD without Finalization Process
While finalization can sometimes be a cumbersome task during the DVD creation process, there’s an alternative solution if you prefer to skip this step. You can use the “DVDFab DVD Creator” software to create a DVD without the need for finalization dvd ブルーレイ 違い.
Here are the steps to create a DVD without finalization using “DVDFab DVD Creator”:
Step 1: Download and Launch DVDFab DVD Creator
- Download “DVDFab DVD Creator” from the following URL.
- Double-click the “DVDFab” icon on your desktop to launch the software.
Step 2: Switch DVDFab DVD Creator to DVD Creator Mode
- Ensure that the purple mode icon in the upper-left corner is set to “DVD Creator.” If it’s already in this mode, you can proceed.
- If it’s not set to “DVD Creator,” click on the purple icon and select “DVD Creator” from the menu.
Step 3: Load the Video Files for Your DVD
- In the center of the “DVDFab” interface, you can drag and drop the video files or folders you want to include on your DVD.
Step 4: Customize Your DVD (Optional)
- If you want to adjust settings like video quality, aspect ratio (the ratio of width to height), etc., click “Advanced Settings” for more options.
- If you want to set up a menu screen for your DVD, click “Menu Settings” and customize it to your liking.
- In the “Advanced Settings” window, you can configure options like volume label, output, video quality, and choose between NTSC and PAL, among others.
- The “Menu Settings” window allows you to customize aspects like adding custom text, background, and more. If you don’t have specific preferences or don’t fully understand these settings, you can skip this step.
Step 5: Start DVD Creation
- Set the output location for the DVD.
- Click the “Start” button to begin the DVD creation process.
- Progress will be displayed with a progress bar or percentage, so wait until it reaches 100%.
- Once it reaches 100%, the DVD creation is complete.
With these steps, you can create a DVD without going through the finalization process, making the whole process more convenient.
Conclusion
In conclusion, finalizing DVDs is a crucial step to ensure that they can be smoothly played on various DVD players. In this article, we covered everything from explaining what finalization is to how to perform it in Windows 10, how to check if a DVD has been finalized, and even provided a method to create DVDs without the hassle of finalization.
When finalization feels cumbersome, consider using the recommended “DVDFab DVD 作成” mentioned in this article. It allows you to easily and conveniently create DVDs without the need for finalization. By following the steps provided, you can enhance your DVD creation and copying process, making it more straightforward and convenient.
