Your Customer's DVD Players...
 

How do you handle customer DVD player incompatibilty issues of their finished Wedding DVDs? They believe it's some flaw of the authoring and want you to 'fix' it.

Try burning it on a different brand of media. This sometimes helps.

-gb-

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I include an insert with all DVDs that reads something like:

This DVD-R is compatible with most DVD players. It is certified to be free from defect upon delivery. We suggest that you take one copy and store it in a safe place in the event that the other copy should become unuseable because of scratches, improper care, etc.

Not all DVD players are created equal, and some have difficulty playing the DVD-R format. THIS IS NOT A DEFECT OF DISC. It is an issue with the player. Listed below are online resources (current as of 08/27/2005) of known player compatibility issues.

Our own compatibility chart online

http://www.dvdmadeeasy.com/compatibility/

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

This way, if I get a call, the very first question I ask is: Does your player appear on any incompatible list? In, what, 5 years(?) I've only ever had one call, and that was resolved within their family by nothing more than a disc swap - I cannot recall ever having to replace a disc...

Brand as in Sony, Memorex, or Office Max? Would burning it on DVD+R make any difference?

Thanks for the advice. It looks like you don't share about the incompatibility issues up front.

When you say 'disc swap', what exactly does that mean? Did you have to burn another in a different format? Or did the customer use another machine?

I include a compatibility disclaimer on all contracts. I also include it in every DVD case. I also use Ritek -R disks, which seem to work best for me.

They seem to produce very good quality discs that have the least compatibility issues. Others have echoed your sentiments on the Ritek discs.

-gb-

I don't bother trying to educate my clients in the fine art of dvd player compatibility diagnosis. It gives the impression that there is too much technical info needed for doing business with me. For the few clients whose dvd player is a bit old or picked up for under 30 bucks, I offer a dvd-rw as a replacement for the -r and burn at 2x.

No complaints. And no clients with the glossyeyeddeerintheheadlights looks on their faces after the oral history of cd/dvd media.

That's true. You don't want to scare them off before you've had a chance to work with them. So burning on a DVD-RW will work on any older DVD player? I will try that and see what happens.

Thanks to you all for your prompt responses. I'm glad I found this site.

I found another compatibility site for DVD-Rs:

http://www.customflix.com/Customer/Compatibility.jsp

Michelle,

I agree with Jimmy... While I may mention it in consultation, I don't harp on it. You don't sell a car that requires Premium gasoline, you sell a car that has Turbocharged V8...

"disc swap" the B&G swapped discs with her father. Both discs play fine in the other player.

I also am aware of the customflix site, but I intentionally DO NOT point them to sites that compete with my services. This also includes Homemovie and yesvideo sites. I'll use these as reference sources to keep my own list up to date, but I'd never send a customer there.

Difinately not your responsibility to do this however I'll say it anyway... the utilmate customer service would be to buy them a new DVD player.

Wow... you'd be out $30.

Gee - if this happened twice a year you might have to file for bankruptcy.

This reminds me of a corporate deal I did once. The project was a 12 hour training video to be put on VHS. I convinced them to go with DVDs instead. They later came back and complained that some people did not own DVD players (this was about 4 years ago) and could not play the DVDs.

I bought them ten DVD players to check out with the training sets and the problem was solved. They were overjoyed and have come back for other projects without even bidding out to others.

Cost to me: 3% of the project price. Made it up ten fold. Point being, if your disk is good, give 'em a $30 DVD player that you know works and it will come back to you. I keep a few on hand at all times.

Mike

Mike is correct.. that money will come right back to you.

ummm... Let's speculate about how your customer would comment to friends... "yeha They were really good, we loved the video, it wouldn't play in Jeff's parents DVD player though and I told them about it and just two days later they sent us a new DVD player in the mail. We couldn't believe it. They said it was a complimentary gift. We would definately recommend them."

...something like that maybe?

Where on earth can I get a $30 DVD player? I live in NYC and have yet to see one...

To all the would be DVD player Philanthropists ...
 

What a great idea. I'm going to make this policy at the old digital production shack.