I always make backups of my kids movies, so I can save the originals from getting damaged. I use printable discs and then use the brilliant Canon MP600 to copy the disc label perfectly to the new disc. You can't tell them from the original. Note: I understand that this feature is disabled in the US models.

Recently I purchased a Samsung HT-TQ85 Home Theater System and the first time I tried to play one of these movies (DVD-R) the Samsung displayed:
I thought this was odd, because the Samsung had already played DVD-R discs burned by my Panasonic DVD recorder, so I did some checking on the Internet, and there are a lot of people with several brands of DVD players having the same/similar problem. Most sites blamed poor media quality but of course I knew that this was not the case with my media and burns. Slysoft's site just told people to use DVD+R set to DVD-ROM, hmm, time to get to the bottom of this.

Sure enough DVD+R discs set to DVD-ROM, burned by CloneDVD2, did not produce the problem, and played fine, but any DVD-R disc burned by CloneDVD2 would not play, even discs with excellent burn quality, including jitter and beta, and even using the latest version of CloneDVD2, released today.

I then used CloneDVD2's "Write Existing Data" option to burn a disc image created by DVD-Rebuilder. This disc would not play either, so I now knew that the problem must relate to how CloneDVD2 writes the disc. I would point out that all of these tests were done with the same drive and the same media.

I then used Nero Express to create a DVD-Video disc of the same disc image (same files), again same DVD-R media and drive. This disc, and two others after that, played without problems in the Samsung Home Theater system.

Conclusion, don't count on your library of recorded videos to work with your next DVD player/HTIB.

Update: The "PLAY PROHIBITED" message is also displayed when DVD+R media (not bitset to DVD-ROM), and burned using CloneDVD2 or ImgBurn, is used.

Affected Players:
Samsung players/HTIB (Message: Play Prohibited Please, Check Disc)
Sony dvd players (Message: Disc Prohibited)
Goodmans GDVD169HDMI hd-dvd players (Message: Prohibited to play by CSS)

Affected Burning apps:
CloneDVD2
ImgBurn
K3b (Linux)

For every Lock there is a key or pick.

I knew there was a reason i never liked -R discs i just never knew why. I don't like Nero either

IMGBurn FTW!

rolling56 wrote"I knew there was a reason i never liked -R discs i just never knew why. I don't like Nero either ."

I bought a DVD player for my daughter a few years ago and i made sure it would play everything i have made back ups of before i decided to keep it.

If it does not work with what i have then it goes back.

C0deKing why don't you return it and get something that works?

Is this problem unique to backups made using Slysoft products??
Can you avoid this problem by using DVDFab or Ripit4me to do backups??

I tend to agree with Rolling56. Ive returned a couple of players that were not compatible with my backups. Sometimes I think the cheaper brands work best.

My experience has been the same. My mid-range Sony was a PoS. My son's cheap player can do DivX along with every disc I've thrown at it.

Ditto ...I'm glad my LG automatically bitsets my +R discs too!

I'm in the market for a new DVD recorder soon, maybe I'll hang on to my old Philips player just a bit longer.

Good thinking, Batman. Something to remember

I seem to have read a number of reviews and user comments concerning Samsung dvd player and recorder products as being very finicky about formats and types of dvd media that is playable. For that reason, I have always avoided Samsung dvd products (although their high def tv's are excellent). I really cannot imagine a dvd player including something in the firmware to specifically look for a particular burning program having been used on dvd-r media to refuse to play it. If it was my system - I'd return the Samsung equipment involved as defective.

Rich86, most people have been fobbed off with that line (about the Samsung being finicky with media) since the middle of last year, but in fact I have not found one DVD+R or DVD-R discs yet that it will not play, except for the DVD-R ones burned by CloneDVD2, and they just display the "PLAY PROHIBITED" message. I actually felt sorry for the people I saw that had been repeatedly told that it was bad media, even after they had tried serveral different types of DVD-R media. I can assure you that it is in fact looking for something unique about the discs burned by copy programs.

I'm reluctant to return the Samsung system, because, for one, I really like it (except for this issue), and secondly, I don't have many CloneDVD2 recorded videos on DVD-R anyway.

I'm going to try a DVD-R disc burned with DVDFab later today and I'll report back.

That doesn't sound quite right. That would mean that those who make home videos or have wedding videos or the like that are on dvd-r would not be able to play them? Or you think it just pertains to movies with macrovision removed? I'd take it back.

I can play other DVD-R video discs burned by my DVD recorder with no problems and I have quite a few different brands that I have used over the years, since my first DVD recorder (which could only burn DVD-R), and they all work fine. So no problems with home videos and the likes, just the DVD-R videos burned with CloneDVD2, so far (the ones burned with Nero play fine).

Okay. Interesting. Quite possibly targeting clonedvd copies for now. I see your point.

As a DVDFab user I'd be interested to hear about your findings. Thanks CK

OK - good luck - but I'd return the Samsung system to the retailer as defective in a heartbeat!

I wanted to test this out so I made a backup of a movie on Verbatim DVD-R using CloneDVD2 and tried it on: LG RC797T (2007), RCA DRC257N (2007), Panasonic DVD S52 (2006) played fine on all.

I tried the DVDFab burned DVD-R disc in the Samsung and the disc played fine. I then tried a Nero disc copy of a DVD-R CloneDVD2 disc that would not play and it would still not play. Same media and same drive used to burn the discs.

I then tried a CloneDVD2 burned DVD+R disc that was not set to DVD-ROM and it also caused the display of the "PLAY PROHIBITED" message. The same disc bitset to DVD-ROM played fine.

Conclusion, only CloneDVD2 DVD+R (not bitset to DVD-ROM) and DVD-R discs will not play and it would appear to be something to do with the CloneDVD2 border on the disc, as a copy of a CloneDVD2 disc, would still not play.

Might be nice to draw some attention to it, so I've posted the story on the frontpage and on Digg, anyone with a Digg account, could you please Digg it?

http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Old_DV...VD_players/who

Was it with the newest version of cloneDVD2? (ver 2.9.1.0) I'm sure Slysoft will work on a solution!

See post #1.

anyone try the Slysoft Forum? at

you mind if I post the thread there?

I checked their forum, as I said in the first post, and in reply to someone with a Samsung displaying the "PLAY PROHIBITED" message they suggested upgrading to the latest version and using DVD+R set to DVD-ROM.
http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread....lay+prohibited

To avoid multiple discussions, I'd rather they came here, if they want to comment. I'd also be happy to try anything that might resolve this, if needed.

Your Samsung HT-TQ85 Home Theater System should be returned as defective. If you don't you encourage Samsung to continue the practice.