Burned DVD issues
 

Hi.

I was recently in contact with a dude to whom I sent a DVD with some of my shorts for screening at a festival type event. He said there were some errors with skipping, stuttery sound, that kind of thing.

It occurs to me that I've had issues before, I don't really know the cause. I was hoping someone could help with figuring out the weak link(s) in the chain.

This dude's recommendations were:

Close all other programs while burning
Use brand name DVDs
Burn at slower speed (2-4x)

I'll admit I've been dumb about some of this, doing all sorts of other things while the burn goes on, or at least leaving stuff running in the background. I DO use fujifilm DVDs, but I understand that there may be several manufacturers who make DVDs with fujifilm written on them? And I usually burn at 6 or 8x, I guess.

Other things that may be problematic - I use Roxio, 'cause my Nero won't author (gives me a "cannot create disk structure" message), and I can't justify the cost of DVD architect. I bought a burner for cheap, that I don't recall the exact brand name of. Someone on here mentioned that it existed, so I got it.

I use Vegas to edit, render my timeline/DV AVIs to MPEG-2, and use those MPEG2s to create the DVDs.

Some DVDs are fine (usually shorter movies), but some do weird things in certain spots, and those certain spots are problematic in several different DVD players. I can't specifically recall an instance where I've made a new DVD and it had the same problems in the same spots, but I can't say it's never happened. Sometimes they like to act weird near the end of a file/movie, where the credits'll freeze in the last few seconds, or it'll make a horrible screeching/growling sound after the movie's done, before it kicks back to the main menu.

I'm kind of afraid to offer anyone editing services now (not that I've really done much anyway), for fear that I'll output crap DVDs.

Anyway, that's my tale. Make of it what you will. Thanks.

Also important for burned DVDs is to keep the combined data rate below 7.3 mbs. Although the standard allows something like 9.2, it just won't work reliably on burned DVDs.

hey
can you get a dvd and turn it upside down and tell me what colour it is. is it blue, purple, gold, silver etc

Josh,

Roxio and Nero do not play well together, you can have one or the other on your system but not both.

I was using Roxio then bought a D/L DVD drive that came with Nero.
I knew I had to remove Roxio before installing Nero so I did not have a problem.

Interesting note that Sonics DVDit does work with Nero installed even though it is a Roxio product. My guess is they are written differently.

How ever I am having a problem getting the DVDs to work on all players,
They work in all computers, my DVD player (it plays all types) they will not work in my parents DVD player in which the documentation says I am using the correct media for the player. I’ll try what Doug suggested and see what happens.

Good luck,
Bill

hey Bill Hamell tell me what the colour of the dye is on the dvds

Well, I can do more with Roxio in terms of menu layout than Nero, and Roxio will actual author the disk, so I guess Nero goes bye bye. Didn't know that about those two programs, by the way.


My discs I have right now are purple on the bottom.

My player's an NEC, I believe.

A lot depends on the players,I had the same DVD play differantly in three machines.In one it played perfect the other it skipped and the third it wouldent let me in the menue.One I had burned by an experiance company played in most machines I tried, but when I sent it to a Festival they returned it saying it would not play in thier machine.Its seems like hit and miss burning your own DVD's, and getting them to work on all brands of players.

Can some please tell me the colour of the dye on the dvd. I got a good point when asking this.

Nathaniel,

Mine looks more purple than blue.
Bill

grade c. theres your problem if they have a purple back they are grade c(the cheapest/worse grade around) dont worry semi-pro people use these disks. even me. if you want to garentee playable on dvd players make sure they either have a blue, gold or silver backing. also make sure the bitrate is low. these disks are a little more expensive but they are almost garrenteed to play on dvd players. even 1st generation.

where can you buy dvd's that aren't purple? Is there a brand name?

best thing is find a DVD or video reseller which sell alot of stock e.g www.svp.co.uk. the brand to look for is taiya yuden. These i can garentee will be the best disks will ever have.

I am using Taiyo Yuden but the discs look purple. I buy them from Neato.

Do they sell the grade A at retailers, or do I have to order 'em somewhere? I don't need 'em that often. A stack of 50'll last me a long long time.

Verbatim 16x (no logo) discs are purple and they are not "C-Grade". I have found Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim to be excellent. I do not think you can go by color of the dye alone.