How do you guys check your DVD's out of curiosity (after burning that is)? Do you let the computer verify it? Watch the entire DVD in the DVD player? Skip through chapters?

I'm just looking for a better method... The way I do it now is pretty time consuming.

Steve

I complete 3 DVDs for my clients so I sit down and watch through one of the DVDs all the way through. Then I'll FF through each DVD at a speed which "should" allow me to catch black frames, wierd happenings, etc.

The first DVD lets me know that the render process happened successfully. The quick views on the other discs lets me know they will play through.

Time consuming yes. But I shoot weddings so it's worth the time to check the discs. I made the mistake of not doing it once and the films had a 15 second black screen during the father-daughter dance. The bride was very nice about it and I fixed it very quickly and got new discs in the mail the very next day. It actually turned into a good thing because she told everyone how good my c/s was and I got two more gigs out of it.

I double, and triple check with my authouring software for proper playback...
Then create an .IMG or .ISO file from the authouring software..
Playback the .IMG or .ISO with DVD software (WinDVD, PowereDVD, etc...). This verifies and emulates settop playback..

Burn the image file to disk...

Any problems from this point on, is hardware related..(ie burner, CD, settop player)...
But those days should be far behind us by now...

Hey Mike and Peter...

I pretty much do the same thing the both of you guys pointed out. I just hate doing it... Nothings better then sitting down to watch an edit 5 times that you just spent weeks putting together...
I usually check the disk image on the computer,burn, then watch it 2x fast fwd. I then go back to the chapter markers and make sure the audio is synched up.
It's a time killer... But I guess it has to be done.

Steve

Honestly, this is one reason we farm out our disc production. Once you know the master disc works, it's a major time-saver to hand it off to another company for duplication, but we don't have to check each of those discs at that point. If a duplicated disc ends up not working properly, we just return it to the duplication company and they are responsible for creating another that works. Time AND hassle saver.

Any problems from this point on, is hardware related..(ie burner, CD, settop player)...
But those days should be far behind us by now...

or should be Peter :) From years of experience with commercial burners, x4 is the best burning speed, the laser burns the pits with square edges .. better quality.

And after you settle on a good reliable DVD stock .. you get to know your burners and can rack 'em through. But always play the first one and the last one right through and have good reliable companies you can call up for the big runs.
Cheers.

My biggest concern is disc compatibility. I check for rendering error/black frames on the PC, and then run the DVD through the four set-top DVD players I have.

1. 1999 JVC hooked up to Sony television.
2. 2005 RCA chaepie on same Sony television.
3. 2007 Panasonic hooked to Panny plasma.
4. 2009 PS3 attached to same Panny plasma.

Using the CRT has allowed me to catch field order errors that wouldn't show up on the plasma or the computer LCD.

I figure if the oldest, newest, cheapest, and most expensive players I have will play the disc, it should be good on just about anything. Of course, I don't watch the whole disc four times. I just skip to the beginning of chapters and check menu operations.

I watch the finished master beginning to end, then check all chapter links. Once satisfied everything functions properly, I spot check the dvd on a dvd player connected to a CRT monitor.

If there are no surprises, the master goes to my stand alone duplicator, which verifies each and ever disc. Bad discs are rejected.

so far, no complaints.

I always compile the DVD to the archive drive with it's own folder so it's simple to run the Video_TS folder in Power DVD and check that the menu works and then run thru all the menu items in FF. If that passes the test I will then burn one disk and use my domestic player in the living room to also check that it looks OK on the big screen TV.

If that is all OK, then I will make copies and print!!

I learnt my lesson a while back with a tiny 8 sec intro music clip that was corrupt and it also stopped all the audio from working...I had already packaged the disks but something told me to just check them... the ceremony was fine as was the photoshoot but at the reception the audio just died as all the clips after that also had no audio. All from one little corrupt file!!

It's easier to rectify a problem early rather than go out to a furious bride who has assembled the entire family to watch her wedding and nothing works!!!

Chris

The direct answer is to have the burning software check the master disk against the original file, then watch the entire programme back on our Yelo player (which will play anything) - the most important investment of 90 minutes in the entire process.

It is "double-verified" by spot checking on two bog-standard commercial DVD players and a Samsung Blu-ray (which notoriously fails dual-layer DVDs but we know that and expect it).

This is the disk we show the client. When approved it is signed off (literally) by the client. All copies are made from this disk which is stored carefully.

We have our own 7-up duplicator and the software checks each disk byte-for-byte against the master and any which fails is rejected and binned. Travis' experience proves that commercial duplicators don't check this way and I hate putting things right which shouldn't be wrong - plus there's no profit in it. Backup "mistress" disks are also made in this way.

This is much more reliable than fast forwarding or even playing because some machines have error correction. Data comparison finds more faults than we can so any manual check at any speed is a waste of time.

Incidentally we burn our own demos this way too (though we have a duplication house print and seal the faces first). Giving away a dud demo does nothing for our reputation.

Hi Phillip, interesting way of checking the discs, could you please mention which kind of software you use to check each disk byte-for-byte against the master? Because that would be a great time saver!

Thanks in advance

Nero 8 offers you the option of checking the burn back against the original data.

When we're burning multiples we use a 7 to 1 duplicator built around an wytron controller and the software in that offers the option to check each disk in the burn against the master disk. We've found it very accurate -it will often reject disks which play perfectly well - when presumably the error correction software in the player is allowing the play to continue.

Hi Rani

Data verification doesn't help unfortunately if the actually file has an editing error on it as the duplication software will faithfully reproduce the problem for you!!

What we really have to do to check the Master Disk physically by watching the entire DVD and then allow the verification software to make sure that the data from the master and copies are correct.

Unfortunately it IS a pain in the butt to have to watch a DVD from beginning to end but I do my DVD's without any chapters and rather compile each part of the wedding as individual files (My DVD has probably around 14 clips in it which all run seamlessly as one but can also be run individually. This makes checking a lot easier, editing a lot easier too as you are not trying to work with 100 minutes of footage!!

The REAL answer is an enthusiastic wife!! Mine loves watching weddings and will watch newly produced ones from start to finish..the perfect problem checker!!

Chris

My experience is that you need to watch a finished edit from a distance on a tv. It's like painting on a canvas from a short distance, you need to step back to see what you are doing.

Often I am certain that everything is alright after editing finishes and several times I find very small editing mistakes. It might be that the client won't notice them but I do and don't want to deliver if it's not ok. Therefore I watch the finished movie completely. Every time I see a mistake I pause the film and fix the mistake right away on my editing station which I leave running with the current project open and then I just continue watching.

I actually enjoy watching a finished edit on tv, it's like the cherry on the cake :) After all that hard work I can finally lean back and enjoy the movie.

I'm with Travis, just let a disc duplication service make them for you. They don't cost much more than doing them yourself, and they'll even print on the discs and make em look really nice.

I always watch the master DVD all the way through on a TV at a normal viewing distance. A couple of times I've noticed things that I've missed on close up screens during the editing and gone back and fixed it!

I also go through the chapters on the DVD itself (even though I did this on the simulator) to make sure it's good.

Once this is done (and I'm happy with the disc) I read the master in to my duplicator with 'compare master' turned ON. This reads the master and saves the image to the duplicator hard disk, then goes back and re-reads the master again, comparing it to the image on the duplicator HDD. At this point I know I have a good master AND a good disc image on the duplicator.

I send the print image to the duplicator and then write as many discs as I need with full compare turned ON at the same time. The duplicator will write/compare/print the discs automatically, and I know that all the discs coming out are the same as the master disc.

I always place each disc in a player to make sure it spins up and gets as far as the menu.

As an extra step I then grab the disc image from the duplicator (over the network) and this becomes an extra archive copy of the master disc. If I need more copies of this disc after the image has already been deleted then I can simply send the disc image back over the network and it saves the time re-reading the master.

Hi Rani
The REAL answer is an enthusiastic wife!! Mine loves watching weddings and will watch newly produced ones from start to finish..the perfect problem checker!!

Chris

My wife is harsh when it comes to checking my work. She just phoned me at work and told me off about my last one... She was like, "You are lucky I am not the bride..." lol

I also will watch a copy the entire way through, making changes as I go just as Noa described. The one thing that seems to get me every time is the crossfade between a clip with and without a vignette... I often forget to add the fade to the vignette as well. It's these kinds of very small editing mistakes that the Bride and Groom probably won't even notice and which can't be corrected by any data-verification software that are my biggest concern. Once I know I have the edit perfect, I will skip through all the duplicates to check for disk errors and have only ever found one; a music sync slip which somehow found it's way onto one disk even though the other disks and the original project were fine.

Happily with my current work-flow we have had 100% playback error free. After editing and rendering (Vegas Pro) and then authoring in DVDA, I first check the playback using DVDA's emulator often catching things like highlights that don't act right or button linking/order that is not cooperating. Once everything is fine, I prepare the folder and burn a disc image (ISO) file. I then burn a DVD master to test in a set-top box on the TV. I watch this disc all the way through looking for end actions, burn quality, sync issues etc. If it passes, then I either burn the short-run (3 or less) with data verification checking each disc for readability by the player, or for longer runs, I copy the ISO to the HDD on our 7-target duplicator and duplicate with data verification enabled. I test one disc in each batch on the set-top dvd player just to make sure nothing wonky has happened. The work-flow may border on paranoia but I enjoy watching the master to see the fruits of my labor and the quick test on the random samples gives me piece of mind and something to do while waiting for the next batch to burn...