Hey guys.

I've got a 2hr, 4min piece in FCP 4.5 and I'm having major issues producing a DVD that will play consistently.

I'm exporting a reference movie and encoding to mpeg2 in Compressor for the video. It's a 2pass VBR at 4mbps average, and 7.2 max. My understanding is that those data rates should not cause problems for DVD players. I'm exporting a stereo 48k .aif directly from FCP, and using A-Pack to get the size down.

I've got a simple, text-based menu built in DVDSP, and I'm burning in an aftermarket Pioneer drive (DR-A09XL). The video quality is fantastic on the discs, as my source material is DV. I've noticed literally no drop off from my original footage.

My problems vary. The only consistency I've found is that there ARE problems, and that they're inconsistent. Essentially, different players react differently to the same disc. Video drops to black without explanation or regularity, and audio drops out completely on occasion. The final cut sequence has no errors of that sort.

I'm looking for suggestions of two kinds: Anyone spot anything technically wrong with my workflow, and/or, should I be using different software or hardware to be able to consistently produce a master disc?

Thanks in advance as usual. Back to the lab.


Chris

what brand of dvd are you burning to? cheap junk will cause problems like that.

are you using dolby digital audio?

dan--

Thanks for getting back to me.

I'm using Maxell DVD-Rs, not generics, but they are the "100 for 50 bucks" type deal. I wouldn't think there'd be a quality issue there, but perhaps discs that go on sale are generally of lower quality? Let me know if you've got any insight on that.

I'm exporting the audio using Compressor, but sending it out uncompressed. I'm then using A-Pack to convert to AC3, which is a Dolby Digital (though admittedly lossy) codec.

I discovered today that my audio drop-outs are occurring during my Compressor export from FCP, completely without regularity or explanation.

I'm desperate to discover the cause of this, and I'm going to try posting in another area as well.

Take care,

Chris.

you have the 100-lot maxell cakebox? i've used a whole bunch of those discs, those are some of the best dvd blanks on the market today, so that shouldn't be your problem.

i did have a couple of sony burners that both had laser failures, with symptoms similar to what you describe... after awhile i could see "semi-burned" areas on the bottom of the discs because of it.

it looks like that compressor export issue needs to be addressed first.

I'm exporting the audio using Compressor, but sending it out uncompressed. I'm then using A-Pack to convert to AC3, which is a Dolby Digital (though admittedly lossy) codec.

I discovered today that my audio drop-outs are occurring during my Compressor export from FCP, completely without regularity or explanation.


Chris,

Just wondering, have you tried exporting from FCP to an .aiff file and then using a-pack, completely bypassing Compressor? That might help you discover if Compressor is the problem ... just a thought.

Hey all.

Can't thank you enough for the continued attention and response. I'm in the middle of composing the soundtrack/score, as well as adding foley and reconnecting ambient sound. I'm a bit bogged down.

As soon as all of this is squared away, I'm going to take another crack at this.

I'm replacing all of the audio in FCP with stereo .aif's containing final scene mixes, so that will eliminate the nesting variable.

I'm going to go through your suggestions, starting, however, with my original workflow and I'll post to let you know the results, for posterity's sake. God forbid someone run into this in the future, this thread may as well end with a bona-fide solution.


-chris
(lacking sleep and a social life.)

I have had a lot of problems with Maxell. In the end I won't use them anymore. When I studied the detail of the disk I see on the edge there were inconsistencies in the disc.

I switched to Taiyo Yuden DVDs and haven't one disc problem since. There is no inconsistencies in the disc.

The Maxells worked well for short videos of an hour or less. When I pushed the limits of the disc to 2 and 3 hrs I started having the problems so I switched.

the length of the program is not the single determining factor on how much of the disc gets burned... it can only be a combination of program length and bitrate... you could easily put a 3 hour program on only half the disc, if you wanted to.

i have personally burned and sold hundreds of maxell dvd-r's, most of which were burned right out to the edge of the disc... never a problem, not one single return... but that was a couple of years ago.

make sure that whatever maxell blanks you are using always say "made in japan" somewhere on the packaging.

can't go wrong with taiyo-yuden, tho! it's the only thing i use now.

"the length of the program is not the single determining factor on how much of the disc gets burned... it can only be a combination of program length and bitrate... you could easily put a 3 hour program on only half the disc, if you wanted to."

I was not implying that it was merely that when I started burning the entire disc the problem developed.

Maxell is no good in my book especially if they are bought from walmart and the like. I've had half of the store bought maxell discs be bad in one package. The 1st 20 would be good then the next 30 would be bad. It got to the point that be visually inspecting the disc I could tell if it work or not. The problems areas were always on the edge of the disc.

Suggestion stop using maxell so the disc can be ruled out as a source of the problem.

if you had cut the bitrate back enuf, it would not have written to the edge of the disc.

were those store-bought maxell discs made in taiwan?

I seem to be in the coaster business...I can't get a good DVD created with my SONY DVD RW DW-Q28A burner.

I am getting pixelation after about 20 minutes...before that all seems to be working fine and video is perfect. I tried it on two separate players with the same results.

I am using quality Ridata discs and burning on slow 4X.

Is it the drive or something else? Any ideas...anyone?

I have been having problems with disc that work on my machines but fail on other peoples DVD players. Some will freeze at some point in the program and other times there is pixelation that comes and goes.
I am using a Sony DRU-720A and was buying "brand name" disk at Frys and Best buy. What finally helped was when I noticed on the Sony web site they had a list of recommended media for the DRU-720A.
The other thing that helped was going to http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/ and downloading "DVD Identifier". The program looks at your disc and tells you who the actual manufacturer of that disc was. I found that names like Maxell and TDK do not always use the same disc manufacturers.
After downloading the latest firmware update from sony for my drive I ordered blank disc through Neato (http://www.neato.com) made by the manufacturer "Taiyo Yuden". These disk were recommended in alot of the places I checked on the web and 100 of the inkjet printable 8X DVD-R disc is $46.00. So far they have worked great. The trick I think was making sure that I was using disc recommeded by my drive manufacturer.