Not having Superdrive, I burn DVDs on a LaCie external drive using the included captyTV software. In a 30 minute movie, the first 5 minutes or so show skips (jumps) about every 2 seconds. After that, the movie smooths out. These skips are not seen in the camcorder or the QT movie derived from the tape. They are seen on different DVD players. Any suggestions? Can an automatic virus detection process cause these skips? If so, why only in the beginning?

Does the DVD play the same (skip) when viewed on computer and stand alone DVD player?

I have many questions as to your content???

What was your compressor for the MPEG2?

What was the source prior to the compression?

Have you tried iDVD? Or DVD Studio Pro as this will allow for better control of output.

What type of media are you using meaning the DVDs are they good for the LaCie are they –DVD or +DVD?

What model of LaCie to you have?

What OS are you on?

Really all these help when I try to output.

Macs can't play DVDs from an external drive - you need their internal Superdrive. This is one way Apple tries to sell new Macs. The skipping occurs on two different external DVD players so it's not that.

The compressor is the one included in the software, CapyTV. The source is an uncompressed QT movie exported from iMovie.

I can't try iDVD - it works only with Apple internal DVD drives.

The problem occurs with both DVD-R or DVD-RW.

I have the latest updates - OS 10.2.8 and QT 6.4.

Found something...

MacFixit.com has report a bug with 6.4 and there is actually a fix from Apple to back track to 6.3.....

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120255

I am rereading the post and you are exporting from iMovie, is it possible for you to export it as a QuickTime movie then view it to see if it breaks up then this eliminate iMovie. From there if you are using iMovie to export your project as this is how you connect to the DVD burner then this might be your problem.

Yes, I am exporting it as a no compression QT movie because it's the only way to get the included software (CapyTV) to work. When I view the iMovie or the QT video, there is no skipping so the problem is either in the CapyTV software or the LaCie burner.

LaCie is a good burner I would look at the codec of the software.

See if there is an update, or see if there is another software to do the trick.

I will be looking for an application for you as well.

I looked at the MacFixit summary and it seems there is a problem with QT 6.4 and Final Cut Pro but I don't see anything related to iMovie or MPEG2 compression. The Apple site for downloading QT 6.3 is of no help in explaining why one would want to do this.

Macs can't play DVDs from an external drive - you need their internal Superdrive. This is one way Apple tries to sell new Macs. The skipping occurs on two different external DVD players so it's not that.

Macs do so play from an external drive. iMovie can not burn to an external drive. That is the only limitation. It has nothing to do with how Apple sells or markets it computers. It is a license limitation placed upon Apple by the MPEG 2 licensing group. What brand of external players and how old are they?

You could try downgrading to QT 6.3 if it solves your problems fine, if not it is easy to go back to QT 6.4 It could also be a limitation of the included software. I don't know the quality of encoder etc. How high do you have the encoding bit rate set? What form is the audio in? Both of these will effect the data rate and cause the DVD to stutter etc.

When I try to play a DVD using Apple's DVD Player and the external drive, it says not allowed. The external drive is brand new - it's made by LaCie and includes Mac software for burning DVDs (Capty DVD).

I have 3 choices for encoding - High quality, Normal quality and Low quality. I generally choose Normal. The Sound bit rate default is 128 kb/s.

The audio format choices are interesting. I can choose MPEG Audio but Capty says NTSC does not officially support this. They suggest I choose PCM instead which I do.

I guess the unanswered question is the quality of the compresor. I don't know and I hesitate to spends hundreds on other software but it may come to that. I'm going to try QT6.3 and also turn off Norton anti-virus when I compile.

It sounds like you don't have the DVD Player software installed. Try lowering your bit rates etc. and see if it will at least burn a disc. My son's 400MHz G3 iMac plays DVD's from an external burner, I can't imagine yours can't.

I can't play either a commercial DVD or one made on the external player. It just says not permitted. I can't even use DVD PLayer to eject a DVD disk. I don't know how you do it. From the May 2003 MacWorld review of external DVD drives - "external DVD-R drives can't play commercial DVDs unless your Mac already has a DVD drive built in"...

I'm still working on the jumping problem. It appears to be more jumping than skipping and is most obvious when the camera has panned. The QT movie exported from iMovie does seem to a bit jumpy when compared to the tape direct to TV picture but the DVD is worse. Is it too much to ask that a DVD be as smooth as the tape to TV video?

Here's what I've tried so far and nothing works -

QT6.4 to QT6.3
Anti-virus turned off
iMovie and working disk on external hard drive (7200 rpm)
Normal, Low or High Quality encoding
Audio - MPEG instead of PCM
Audio rate - 160 kb/s instead of default 128 kb/s
"Give priority to CPU" off
Either Hi-8 to Mac through digicam or Hi-8 to DV tape and then to Mac
Reinstalled CaptyDVD, the DVD authoring program that comes with the LaCie DVD drive

Help.

Are you importing through FireWire to the external Hard Drive?

I think there is the bottle neck to the problem

When I use the external HD, yes, it goes through firewire. however, the exact same problem exists when I use the internal drive.

Really now I am confused.

What type of Apple do you have meaning the CPU this is yet another area to look at.

You and LaCie and me are all confused. I'm trying to arrange for me to send the unit to them for repair or replacement (it's under warranty) but previous experience with LaCie service was not so good (although to be fair this was years ago). I think the unit is just not working right. Simple, no?

I'm using a relatively new eMac, a G4 at 700MHz.