Help for a confused senior ccitizen

It's a simple issue. You created the CDR with the DRAG TO DISK feature of Roxio. This is not compatible with your DVD.

Try a New Data Disk (the name may change with version of Roxio so I leave it to you to sort that out) and then add these pictures to the "project" and then record the CDR and make the CDR "closed" or "final".

That usually will work.

Bob

What format did you use to burn......... a CD will not play in a DVD player unless you chose SVCD or VCD format....!! Try one of those and see what happens.

First, are you sure the DVD player works, try it with a commercial DVD. Try to play a CD.
Second, sounds like you have other problems as well with the PC.

Nevertheless, try putting the jpeg's in a folder first and burning that.

Try burning with another program, there's a free trial available on the Nero website www.nero.com. You can even make a slideshow with Nero, it's the Geek's choice. Some other ideas:

Try a different brand of disc, maybe try a CD-R and a CD+R (there is a difference), one might be more compatible with your player. CD-RW is the least compatible format, since you used a "formatted" disc I assume that's what the problem is.

To cleanup your PC, do a Google search for Adaware SE. Download, update, and run it. Remove everything it finds.
Update your virus definitions, run a virus scan.

Go to Windows Update (Start>Windows Update) Download and install any Critical Updates.

Defrag your hard drive: (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter) Do this before you go to bed, it takes a while! Good luck!