DVD Playback issue
 

Hi Everyone

I have just completed a wedding DVD and the clients copies would freeze at a certain point on their DVD player, I have tested it on 3 different brands players and no freezes of any sort. I have selected some different options on the burning software so hopefully when I hear back from the client it works.

So my question is has anyone encountered this and if so how did they remedy the situation?

I do know that even commercial Hollywood movies released on DVD sometimes will not play properly on some DVD players.

Sounds like you've done some testing that indicates that the client's machine is the problem.

You could try using a different brand of media, or burning at a lower speed. Otherwise, go buy them a $40 DVD player and give it to them with the disk...

You might have them by a DVD disc cleaner and see if that helps. Agree with Vito that it is most likely your clients player.

I had a lot of problems with disk incompatibility until I started using Vegas (the inexpensive consumer version at first). Freezes, strange menu playback problems, odd navigation, etc...), all player dependent. Vegas seemed to have the most "accepted" implementation, so that's what I've used for a while now.

Ultimately, you may not get 100% compatibility, particularly with older DVD players. I've heard of more than one videographer including an inexpensive player in their package... avoiding the hassle that a client may or may not understand the technical issues. Even I don't understand why I had random playback issues with software that seemed pretty good otherwise - tried several brands before settling down with Vegas, and it seems like I've not had any playback issues since, though I'm sure there's that possibility!

DB>)

I typically come across problems when the encoding rate is either too low or too high. I try to keep my encoding around 7500. This seems to work out very well for me.

I burn the master copy in my Sony external burner via FireWire, and then duplicate it within a Pioneer DVD Duplicator. Since I have been using the Duplicating tower I have not had one problem. The drives for the tower aren't much more expensive than typical DVD burners but for some reason they do an excellent job. Possibly an internal software or just better lasers.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Sounds like a few things can be done about it atleast. I was going to resort to just buying them a dvd player that works but I think trying some of those suggestions first might fix the problem, I will definetly try a new encode a bit lower bitrate then I was doing it.

Although strange that I tried it in a ancient dvd player made back in 2000 and figured if that thing plays it, the new stuff shoould too. But I guess I can't assume.

Zach how much is the DVD duplicator?

The duplicator I have is an 1 in 7 out (meaning 1 Master DVD makes 7 copies). It cost approx. $800. You can get towers with any number of drives and vary in price.

ah thats not bad. quiet reasonably priced.

Encoding has a lot to do with it. Some players can't handle CBR encoding that is too high. You can get a decent image with bit rates from 5500 to 8000 using VBR encoding.
I would buy a cheap DVD player (KOBI) and test on that. I have an older DVD player that I use to test and it will find problem DVDs for me - once again usually the bitrate is too high or my media is getting bad.

Use top notch media...
I use Taiyo Yuden DVDs and have never had a player issue - had bad luck with TDKs.

Jim

Is that printable surface? Hope I can get that In Australia.

I once had an issue with field order on one of my wedding DVDs. Like always, I burned the edit to a DVD-RW first to test it out. I popped the DVD into my newer DVD player, and the picture looked good. Then, I put the disc into my old DVD player (c.1999) and watched the video. Everything had a profound strobing effect. Somehow, the field order was reversed when the clip was captured. I re-captured and re-edited the reception footage and burned it back to the RW. Perfect on both players.

The only possible explanation I can think of as to why it showed up in one player and not the other is that the newer player is progressive scan. But I'm still running them out to a plain old interlaced TV.

Pater,

yes, Taiyo Yuden makes printable DVDs. I don't know if you can get them in Australia. Just to get an idea of what choices there are and how much they cost, you may want to look for them at a place like supermediastore.com

- Martin

Cheers Martin. its pretty good prices anyways. considering how much I pay for discs in Australia.

Ken I haven't even thought of that. luckly I got an old DVD player as well which isn't Progressive so I'll keep watch for that if it happens.

Ken,

in general, DVD players differ quite a bit in how they treat erroneous material. If you look at (good) reviews of DVD players, the testers use a number of reference DVDs with known problems. These are professionally produced DVDs for major motion pictures that have certain known problems that some DVD players deal with better than others. (Kind of reassuring to know that even the high-end professionals make mistakes :-) ).

Most cheap DVD players will do fine with a completely error-free DVD. How they deal with problems makes all the difference.

- Martin