Help With Disc Burning

Having problems burning a disc with ProShow?

If you're having a problem writing a disc in ProShow, there's a very good chance that your problem can be fixed. Almost all burning problems are related to disc media or are machine-specific.

ProShow's Burning Support

"But I Can Burn With Other Software!"

How to Troubleshoot Burning Problems

If you are serious about getting to the bottom of your burning trouble, here are some things we'd like to suggest up-front:

• Read the information provided completely. Don't skip parts, don't skim through. You'll be better prepared to tackle your burning problem if you've gotten all the information.

• Try the suggestions in order, and try each one. A suggestion may seem simple or obvious, but try it anyway. If you skip a step, or assume something isn't a problem, you may be overlooking the problem.

• Be prepared for some rebooting. Print this page. Save your work. Close other applications. Since disc burning interacts with system-level services, some steps will require that your reboot to ensure your system is running the correct services.

Important Note if You Contact Support

Please note that if you contact us about your burning problem, we'll probably have you repeat many (if not all) of these steps. It's not that we don't believe you performed these steps. We trust you. In order for us to know what the state of the software is, and ensure that what we are testing is being tested accurately, we might need to go through the steps again. We appreciate your patience.

First: Is It Really a Burning Problem?

This may sound crazy, but is the problem you're having really with burning? When you create a DVD, ProShow doesn't start burning immediately. First it has to create the show and render the video. If the problem is with encoding the video, the information on this page won't help. This page only addresses problems with burning. For help with encoding problems, contact us.

• If the problem happens while there is a preview on the screen with a status bar below it, then your problem isn't burning - it's encoding. Contact us.

• If the problem happens after the encoding preview closes, or while the 'Writing Disc' window is open, then you've got a burning problem - keep reading.

• If you never get that far because your drive isn't listed in ProShow, keep reading - the fixes for burning problems may help.

• If you can burn a disc fine, but you have playback problems, contact us.

Check Your Disc

You'd be surprised how many problems are related to disc media. Unfortunately, just because you bought a name brand and paid a lot at a reputable store doesn't mean you got good discs. Most discs you buy are produced in bulk by a 3rd party. They probably are not made (or even quality checked) by the company who put their name on the label. Two different spindles of discs could be made by different people, even if they have the same packaging. Disc media is the #1 cause of playback problems and reliability issues. If you're having burning problems, try a different disc. Try a different brand. We recommend Taiyo-Yuden media. It's available from a variety of retailers online.

You also need to be sure that your drive supports the type of disc you are putting in. One of the most common causes of burning errors we see is due to the wrong type of disc being inserted. If you are creating a DVD, be sure you've put in a DVD disc (not a CD or Blu-ray). Be sure that you've got the right kind of DVD. There are two types - 'plus' (DVD+R) and 'minus' (DVD-R). Most newer drives support both, but check your drive to be sure. If you try to burn -R in a drive that only supports +R, it's not going to work well. Generally, if your drive supports +R, we recommend using that for the best compatibility with DVD players.

Bottom line: you should actually pull the blank disc out and examine the printing on the disc. Is it really the type of disc you think it is?

Why is this important? It seems too obvious, and you're thinking "I wouldn't make that mistake!", but we find this happens a lot. By accident, the stack of CD-Rs gets mixed with the DVD+Rs, and suddenly you've got the wrong disc. We wouldn't ask you to check, but it happens to everyone on occasion, and this really is one of the biggest causes of burning problems.

Other Burning Software (Roxio, Nero, etc)

Do you have other burning software installed? These programs often install various bits of software that stay running all the time. These may provide features you use, like making your DVD drive act like a hard drive, performing backups, or other features. While this may be handy, it is often the source of the problem. These apps will often interfere with ProShow's ability to talk to you burner. This doesn't mean that they can't peacefully co-exist with ProShow. We just need to rule them out as a problem.

Determine if Burning Software is the Problem

Before you get started, you will need:

• A new copy of ProShow to install. You can get it from our Downloads section. (If you use an older version, you can get it from the archive.)
• The installation discs (or files) for the other burning software you use. You may need to download these from the manufacturer's websites.

1. Uninstall ProShow from your computer (use the Control Panel in Windows, be sure to uninstall all the copies you have on your computer).
2. Uninstall other burning applications (Roxio, Nero, etc).
3. Restart your computer.
4. Disable your anti-virus software (it may interfere with ProShow installing correctly.)
5. Install ProShow.
6. Re-enable your anti-virus software.
7. Reboot.
8. Try burning a disc again.

If you're able to burn now, then the problem is with your other applications. They are doing something that breaks ProShow. Try installing them back on your computer, one at a time. Try burning with ProShow after each install. That way, if one of the programs breaks ProShow, you'll know which one.

If you are still not able to burn a disc successfully, go ahead and reinstall your other applications.

Try to Work Around Other Applications

1. Open your Start menu, and click on 'Run'
2. Type 'msconfig', click Ok.
3. The Microsoft System Configuration Utility should open. Click on the 'Startup' tab.
4. Uncheck items for Roxio, Nero, or any other burning applications you have installed.

There's another feature called DLA, that acts as a replacement utility for dragging and dropping files onto an empty CD through windows. This could also cause issues within ProShow.

1. Double-click your "My computer" icon or open Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click on the DVD drive that you're burning to and click on "Properties"
3. Find and select the "DLA" tab across the top
4. Uncheck the box that says: "Enable DLA support".
5. Click "Apply" and close this dialog.

Troubleshooting: Some Settings to Adjust

If removing other software didn't fix your problem, we could be running into any number of machine specific problems. There are a variety of options we can change in ProShow to try and work around the problem. The best way to tackle these are to change them one at a time, and try burning after each change. To speed up the process, consider making a simple show with just one short slide. Using this short show during your testing will make the process go faster.

• Lower the Burn Speed

  Burning a disc is very dependent on ProShow being able to send data to your burner at the right speed. Some disc burners do not report their speed properly. To test this, try burning a disc at the lowest speed. From the Create DVD dialog, under burn settings, set the Speed to 1x. Try burning a disc. If this works, your drive is mis-reporting its speed. You will be able to burn, but perhaps not at full speed. You can try other speed settings to find the fastest speed that works. If this doesn't work, set it back to the original setting (probably 'Max').

• Change the ISO Creation Method

  In the burning options under DVD output, there's a checkbox called 'ISO Creation' that says 'Generate disc image on the fly.' Uncheck that box, and try burning again. This option changes how ProShow prepares the data for burning. Some computers have problems with the 'on the fly' method. If that works, just leave it unchecked. If that doesn't work turn the option back on.

• Include Original Files / Additional Content

  In the DVD burning options, be sure that the 'Include Original Files' checkbox (found in both Gold and Producer) and the 'Include Additional Content' checkbox (found only in Producer) are unchecked. If either of those were checked, try burning again after you turn them off. These options control what else gets burned to your disc along with the video.
  This shouldn't be a problem, but we want to try it just to rule it out. If this fixes the problem, let us know, and just burn with these options turned off for now.

• Turn off Video Thumbnails

  In the DVD menu options, uncheck 'Use Video Thumbnails.' Try burning again. Video thumbnails should be fine, but we've heard reports of some computers that can't quite handle creating and burning the menu when it contains video thumbnails, so we want to rule this out as a problem. If this doesn't affect your ability to burn, return the option to its original state.

• Reset the Bitsetting Option

  In the burning options, there is a section called 'DVD+R/RW Compatibility'. This section contains an option for Bitsetting. Click the 'Detect' button to reset this option. (Leave the option at whatever the detect feature decides). Try burning again.

• Set the Number of Copies to 1

  Back under burning options, set the number of copies to create to 1. Try burning again. Multiple copies should work, but we need to rule this out as an option.

• Turn off PC Autorun

  Since you can configure a DVD to also include an executable, we need to turn off the executable to rule it out as an option. Look for the tab or button called 'PC Autorun' or 'Executable.' This screen of options will have a prominent checkbox for 'Include PC Autorun on Disc.' Turn this option off, and try burning again.

If None of This Worked, Call Us

We are open 363 days a year to help with problems just like this. If you're experiencing a problem, we need to know. If we don't hear about a problem, there's almost no way we can fix it. So, if none of the steps above helped, contact us. We'll probably start by taking you through all these steps again, but that's often the best way to work towards fixing the issue.