Panasonic DMR-E100H HD / DVD Recorders

Getting To Play Home-Authored Dual-Layer Disks

The two most important problems burning Dual-Layer DVDs are:

1. The fact that older players/recorders, including the DMR-E100H, may not recognise Dual Layer DVD±R(W)s, and therefore have to be tricked into thinking they are playing a conventional, commercial, non-recordable, Dual Layer DVD.  This can only be done by changing the book type.  Some burning programs allow this, others not, for example ImgBurn v2.3.1.0 allows it, Nero v6 not.  If your player/recorder is recent enough to recognise a (re)recordable Dual Layer DVD±R(W) in its own right, you may not need to do this.
2. The absence or position of the layer-break instruction in the DVD files as authored.  PGCEdit allows you to insert this or adjust it to a point where disruption to the action can be minimised  -  for example, in between programmes, or at a quiet moment when the picture is blank.  If the player/recorder encounters the layer-break at any other time, there may well be a stutter in video playback.

For preference, newer software that is aware of Dual Layer DVD±R(W)s, even more preferably that also lets you adjust the position of the layer-break, should be used.

However, in its absence older authoring software can often be used, ignoring, if it is possible to do so, warnings thrown up by the software about the disk being over-size.  If, despite these warnings, the software allows authoring to complete, the result should be as good as that from more recent software apart from the absence of a layer-break instruction, which can then be inserted using PGCEdit.

If the result is then burnt using software such as ImgBurn that allows changing the book type, the result should have a good chance of playing in an older player/recorder such as the DMR-E100H.

Note that any failed attempts that don't run in a player can probably still be read by the PC's burner, so are still useful as backups.

The exact procedure I followed is reasonably well explained in the following link, and as there doesn't seem to be any point in simply regurgitating it, I'll hand you over from here with thanks to 'Blutach'

Mine play fine but stutter in jumping to chapters and fast 'winding', and I think the reason may be the difference between their media characteristics, as Dual Layer DVD±R(W)s, and of the commercial DVDs they're pretending to be.  Perhaps this causes a higher than usual error rate which the player can cope with at normal speeds but not under adverse conditions.