Unfortunate DVD problem
 

So I was put in charge of creating the dvd's used to play at our local film festival. I started by converting all of my media to mpeg 4 format with handbrake and created all of the ads and slides in fcp. Since I am a fcp guy, I decided to use dvdsp. It did not go well. So I switched to encore and found that it was a pretty straight forward process. I then purchased maxell dual layer dvd+r discs. I was able to fit the first three quarters on the first disc and the last quarter on the second. We received all of the films only two days before the premier so we did not get any time to trouble shoot.

When we played the first disc at the film festival in front of 200+ people, it froze 20 minutes into the slides/ads. This threw off the schedule made us look horribly unprofessional. The majority of the show went off without a hitch after reinserting the disc and skipping through chapter 1(slides/ads) and starting at the films. We made it all the way to disc two with no issues. Disc two had 3 films. The first film skipped once and wasnt noticeable to anyone but the filmakers. The second film skipped about three times through the credits which was horribly noticeable. The third and final film(my own film) skipped every thirty seconds and held on the same frame for like 10 seconds throughout the entire 10 minute piece. It was utterly unbearable. We were so ashamed that we did not come out of the projection room for 20 minutes. Giving the angry mob time to exit the theatre. Whew. Not fun.

My question.
I am pretty sure it was an issue with the brand of disc that we used because when inserted back into a computer, it froze in the same spots and said "damaged disc unable to read". We played the discs in a blu ray player at the theater that is practically brand new, so no issue there. What on earth happened? Anybody have any solutions other than buying "Verbatim" discs next time? We are also thinking about running the entire show from my new imac(27" i7), good idea?

Thanks in advance for any help. I hope none of you have to go through what I did.
Brandon

Instead of buying Verbatim, which are around the best to be gotten, you can also opt for Taiyo Yuden, which may be even better.

I'll go with Harm's recommendation for either Verbatim or T-Y. I've used probably 500 or more Verbatim disks over the past three years without a single problem. Not one. Nada.

Ditto...Verbatim!!

Thanks guys. Any issues with just running straight off the computer?

Running the video content from a laptop, HDMI out to a HD projector, or HDTV works well. That way you are not dependant on the integrety of whatever DVD/BD player is available.
Another really slick, inexpensive solution is the WD Media Player.
It's a tiny unit with a remote that will play full 1080p HD. You load the media content on a small USB drive (WD Passport), and attach to the Media Player. The player has output for HDMI, component, etc. It will play a huge variety of formats, SD and HD, so you are not stuck with only disk type formats.
Check it out:
WD TV Live HD Media Player ( WDBAAN0000NBK )

Thanks a ton Robert. I really like that wdtv device. Seems like it would work really well. I am gonna consider it but I want to explore the computer option first because I just dished out 600 bucks for new tires. I am also gonna purchase some verbatim discs for a troubleshoot this weekend.