Huh. Well, the question to start with is, what kind of DVR? And what software did you use to TRY burning it onto DVD? Or do you have an external DVD burner? If you have an external DVD burner, does the DVD work in other DVD players, because that could be easy to fix...

Oh I burned it onto DVD through my dvr. I have one of those Philips HDRW/DVD/DVD-R combo thingys. It's a built in function.

I have discovered that, whatever the playback issue is on my powerbook, it's not an issue with PCs. I can view the DVD on my office PC. (Which means, ita, that I totally need to get you that DVD of Jonny Zero since I am much more confident now you can actually watch it.)

Is there some mac-centric issue with DVD+Rs? Or maybe I should just try a different brand?

The easiest might be finding a friend with a DV video camera that you can borrow. You can dub the commerical to the camera (using a cable that comes with the camera, usually) and then connect the camera to the Mac and upload it to iMovie.

If that doesn't work, there are dedicated video capture devices that use Firewire to connect, but they are usually $200 or more.

Yeah, I was trying to avoid spending anymore money on this damn site. But the camera is an idea I hadn't thought of. Let me ask around.

Huh. I've never had a problem viewing a DVD+R disc with my Mac, though i've only tried it a couple of times. My Star Wars Laserdisc rips are on cheap cheap DVD+R discs, and I can watch them fine.

What exactly happens when you put it in your mac? Is it just that DVD Player can't play it, or does it actually give you some sort of "cannot read" error? Because if you have an external DVD burner, ripping from the DVD is going to be the easiest way to get the file, with less quality loss and dealing with Quicktime pain than going through iMovie. You could try seeing if the disc appears in MacTheRipper.

It whirs for a moment or twelve and then spits it back out.

Since you've been able to use DVD+Rs, I'm going to try another brand. Maybe the powerbook is just being tempermental.

Quite likely, Kristen. Good luck. If another brand still doesn't work, you could send it to me via some sort of snailmail pathway, and I could extract the video either using my mac if possible, or a Computer Lab Windows machine if necessary.

ION, Just installed Tiger (yay for getting it a day early!). So far it's great. Spotlight is really cool, because it's all integrated and whatnot, but I'm not sure that I'll be using it to fully replace Quicksilver, as the latter is more customizable for things like iTunes control. Dashboard is pretty. Speed seems nice and quick, but I'm on a dual G5 so it's always been pretty fast. Mail 2.0 is interesting looking, I think I prefer it to Mail 1. Haven't looked at Safari RSS (I like Camino, so I might not look at all) or Automator yet.

Tiger Direct sues Apple.

Up next, Tiger Direct plans to also sue Siegfried & Roy, professional athlete Tiger Woods, Kellogg's and various wildlife preserves across the globe.

If another brand still doesn't work, you could send it to me via some sort of snailmail pathway, and I could extract the video either using my mac if possible, or a Computer Lab Windows machine if necessary.

Thank you so much for the offer! I keep checking my inbox and hoping that it will just appear. But if it doesn't and I can't figure it out, I will let you know.

No problem. Playing with video is pretty much my favorite computer hobby, so I'd consider it fun. Plus, I still want to see it, assuming it's what I think it is, so my offer is somewhat selfish.

If you want to email me (me at him dot net) your mailing address, I can send you a DVD. I may get it up on the web before it arrives but then again I might not. This way, you'd definitely get to see it.

And, yes, it is the thing you expressed an interest in.

I'm at the point of splurging on a couple of luxuries:

1) A desktop publish package (for XP). It should be professional quality, but will only be used occasionally - which means user friendliness takes priority over batch capabilities and saving keystrokes. (By professional don't neccesarily mean truly professional - but powerful enough so I can make things look the way I want rather than the way package wants without fighting and working around a whole bunch of hard to change defaults.) When I last did DP, that would have meant Pagemaker. Is that still the case?

2) I'm thinking of getting a digital camera just because the last camera of any type in my house stopped working. This is just for snapshots; I am probably the least talented photographer in America. So I want cheap, very user friendly, super-power not neededl , good defaults so I don't have to guess wrong as to how to set thing. The digital camera equivalent of the old cheap kodaks that would develop the picture five minutes later. Basically, I just want to be able to put my kodaks on my hard drive. Not having much that can go wrong, having it hold up would be a plus. Any thoughts here?

Thanks.