I have an HP media center PC with Vista Home premium. When I record a TV program in media center, I would like to put it on a DVD so that I can play it on a DVD player. A DVD created in media center will not play on my DVD player.

Is there a way that this can be done with free or inexpensive software?

What are you using to burn the DVD? I suspect you are just copying the data file. Instead you should be using media Player or Moviemaker to make a DVD.

I created the DVD using Media Center. (The program which recorded the show.) It has an option to burn a CD/DVD. I selected Video DVD and followed the instructions to select shows to include. The burn process went smoothly, but apparently the resulting DVD is not compatible with DVD players.

I used a DVD+RW if that is relevant. Media center lists that as acceptable.

Do you finalize the DVD after the recording? Go to My Computer(with DVD in drive) and click the DVDRW drive with the right button on the mouse... if there is a option "finalize" then you need to click that before it will work on any standard dvd players. If you want to write media to a dvd permanently I would use a DVD -R.

I agree that you should use a DVD +/-R instead of an RW. And you will need to finalize the disk. It sounds like you used to right process, but may be didn't finalize or you may not be able to finalize a RW.