FAQ:Why can’t I burn a DVD?

You cannot burn a DVD in the trial version of Premiere Pro.
It is possible there is software interfering with Premiere Pro’s access to your DVD burner.
Have a look at “what to look for, avoid” and “Good info from Adobe Encore forum”.
Also be sure to read the following Adobe technical support documents: 328585, 330725, 330380 and 330130.
Craigory suggests inserting a blank DVD before clicking on the “Export to DVD” menu.
It has been reported that an overheating CPU can cause strange problems. You can find software on the Internet to monitor CPU temperature.
Using a 64bit version of Microsoft Windows will prevent Premiere Pro from accessing the DVD drive. You can try this solution at your own risk.
Installing the trial (demo) version of Adobe Premiere Elements v13 appears to fix the DVD burner Detection problem when running Premiere Pro version 1.5 in Windows 8.1
David Ingebretsen said:

I'd thought I'd share this as I had some trouble getting Premiere Pro, Premiere Elements, and Encore to recognize my DVD burner. I read the FAQ "Things and Software to Avoid..." but it didn't help. I found a Tech

Support person (thanks David) who provided the following tidbit.

First, before you hand edit a registry entry, BACKUP THE BRANCH. If you don't know how, then you shouldn't be editing the registry.

In order for Premiere Pro, Encore DVD, Premiere Elements to recognize a DVD burner and exist with other DVD software like Nero, the data in the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 
  SYSTEM 
    CurrentControlSet 
      Control 
        Class 
           {4D36E965-E325...} 
               LowerFilters

has to be in the correct order.

Adobe products use the data "PxHelp20" (Note the case of the letters).
This entry must be first.
Another entry "pfc" should also be present. Nero seems to add an entry "ElbyCDFL" which may preceed the "PxHelp20" depending on installation order. Other software adds other entries here. If "PxHelp20" is not first, this seems to prevent the Adobe products from recognizing any DVD burner.

You will receive an error when exporting to DVD using a frame rate of 23.976 unless you set the N frames value to 12. To export to DVD using 23.976 fps, click the Settings button in the Burn DVD dialog box. Choose any of the available export presets. On the Video tab, select 23.976 from the Frame Rate pop-up menu. In the N Frames pop-up menu, select 12 (you may need to scroll down in the Video tab to view the N Frames field).
Justin M Davis said:

After trying again, I found a way...change the playback settings (in project settings) to something different, then go back in and change back to what it was before. After that it worked...strange.

Mitch411 said about 23.976 fps DVD:

It sounds like you are attempting to burn a 23.976 fps DVD from PPro. As you've discovered, it doesn't work. The only way to do this is to create a 23.976 fps mpeg (MPEG2-DVD) from the Media Encoder and then import that file into Encore to burn it.

Mitch411 said:

This test won't take much time to try and I'll admit it's a bit of a "Hail Mary pass" attempt at fixing it but I think that it's probably worth the effort (which really isn't much). This is modified from step 19 of the Adobe tech doc Troubleshoot errors or freezes that occur when you burn DVDs (Adobe Premiere Pro 1.x). It looks like Adobe has tried to make this bulletproof by having you delete these reg keys then forcing you to uninstall and reinstall. I'll share the trick to avoiding the uninstall / reinstall steps.

Here's my modified version:
To refresh the DVD engines list in the Windows registry:
1. Choose Start > Run.
2. Enter regedit in the Run box.
3. Select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry key.
4. Choose File > Export, enter a name (e.g. DVD Original) and location for the backup registry key, and then click Save.
5. In the right panel of the Registry Editor, select the UpperFilters line, and press Delete.
6. Select the LowerFilters line, and double-click it to edit the Multi-String values.
7. Delete the entries in this box, EXCEPT for PxHelp20 and PFC. Make sure to also remove any extra lines in the Multi-String dialog box, but remember that PxHelp20 and PFC should remain on their own seperate lines.
8. Select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry key.
9. Choose File > Export, enter a new name (e.g. DVD Edited) and location for the backup registry key, and then click Save.
10. Close the Registry Editor.
11. Restart Windows.

So what you're doing here is removing the references to DVD/CD buring engines that Windows uses to determine what engines are available (info contained in the UpperFilters and LowerFilters lines). Windows parses this info on launch, so you need to restart the system to get it to recognize the changes. Once you've got the new/modified reg keys in place, try your project burn again in Premiere. If it fixes it, Yea! Have a beer. If you're still having no joy, you can double-click the first reg key you saved (DVD Original) to reinsert the original key back into the registry and then, of course, restart the system to put things back exactly as they were (so you are no worse off).

By removing the references to the other burning engines, you've disabled burning from the other DVD/CD authoring apps you've got installed. Double-clicking "DVD Original" and restarting the system enables them again. Double-clicking "DVD Edited" and restarting makes Premiere work again, and so on.

If this turns out to be a flop and it doesn't fix anything. You can always select "Burn to ISO Image" in PPro and use Sonic to make the disc (after re-enabling the reg keys again of course).