DVD works on computer, but not on player?
 

I seek your wisdom...

I have a DVD duplicator from discmakers. This thing rocks. I have copied more than FOUR HUNDRED dvds... with a better than 99% success rate.

7 in and 7 out!

Trust... but verify. Right?

So I test each and every DVD before I package them up and send them off. About 55-60% of the DVDs work. Yeah, just a little more than half!

But here's the twist: The one's that DON'T work in my DVD player DO WORK on my Mac.

Can someone explain this to me? I've scrapped more than a hundred DVDs that 'didn't work' but actually did. Just not a DVD player!

Are you using DVD-R discs... or DVD+R discs?
 

I remember experiencing seemingly random "bad" discs that played fine from the computer's drive, but nowhere else. For me and the people I work with, the problem turned out to be that we were using DVD+R discs. They would play just fine in the computers because the DVD burners/drives supported DVD+R discs. They didn't play in any commercial DVD player in the building though. As soon as I switched back to DVD-R discs, I haven't seen the problem since...

Another issue I've run in to is that burning the disc at too high of a speed can ruin the disc. For instance, one of the workstations here at my place of employment has a 4X DVD burner. If I burn a DVD at 4x in that burner, the disc comes out unusable 100% of the time. However, it comes out just fine if I burn at 2X. Personally, I think something might be wrong with the drive- or it could just be false advertising... Maybe try burning your discs at a lower speed while making sure they're DVD-R discs.

Good luck!

Thanks Shawn! I am using -R discs and burning at 8x. I was burning at 16x... so maybe going even lower will do the trick!

Are all other things "equal"? In other words:
-does each bay have the same burner make/model
-does each bay have the same disc brand/type/batch
-does each bay burn at the same speed

When you say 55-60%, do you mean in a recent run, or is that the normal success rate? (I was a little confused about the earlier 99% in your post)?

How large is the finished Master DVD (how much space is taken up on the disc)?

Is it a DVD5 or DVD9 Disc?

What do you use to "verify" or test the DVD? software verification, a DVD Player, a PC DVD-ROM, a MAC machine, etc...?

Can you determine if the "bad" DVD's are all coming from the same Burner(s)?

How did you create your Master DVD (or is it a DVD Folder copied to a Hard Drive on the Duplicator Machine)? If the Master is on DVD Disc, what software to Author, what software to Burn?

Regards,
George

'does each bay have the same burner make/model?'
YES!

'does each bay have the same disc brand/type/batch?'
YES!

'does each bay burn at the same speed?'
YES!

'When you say 55-60%, do you mean in a recent run, or is that the normal success rate? (I was a little confused about the earlier 99% in your post)?'

When the duplicator is done duplicating, I'm batting 0.999. None of the discs fail. However, when I test each disc in my DVD player, almost half won't play.


How large is the finished Master DVD (how much space is taken up on the disc)?

One hour, 13 minutes.

Is it a DVD5 or DVD9 Disc?

DVD-5

What do you use to "verify" or test the DVD? software verification, a DVD Player, a PC DVD-ROM, a MAC machine, etc...?

Personal DVD player.

Can you determine if the "bad" DVD's are all coming from the same Burner(s)?

All bays are good, as I have tested each one.

How did you create your Master DVD (or is it a DVD Folder copied to a Hard Drive on the Duplicator Machine)? If the Master is on DVD Disc, what software to Author, what software to Burn?

It's on a disc, used DVDSP to author.

Great questions! Sorry I left out so many important details!

You mentioned DVDSP to Author -- what about burning to disc? If outside of DVDSP, did that burning software offer a DVD-VIDEO option (versus a DVD-DATA option)? When possible, you should use the DVD-VIDEO option to ensure the files get written to disc in the proper placement/sequence.

Do you have access to a PC machine (only because I don't know what tools are available on a MAC to see the file placements on the disc). If you do have something on the MAC to show actual file placement on the discs, check to make sure the files are written in the following order:
"IFO, VOB(s), BUP" (there could be multiple "sets" of these based on a number system which you should be able to identify when exploring the VIDEO_TS folder).

Did you take one of each (a "good" and a "bad" and try them in a different DVD Player)?

And you mentioned "All" DVD Burners are ok (does that mean that you have determined that "Good" and "Bad" discs have come out of each individual burner -- in other words, Burner-1 has produced "Good" and "Bad" discs, Burner-2 has burned "Good" and "Bad" discs, etc...?

Regards,
George

Since you're saying it seems random as to the behavior of the duplicator in its production of 'bad' discs and most of those that test defective on your DVD player do test okay for playback on the computer, I'd suspect the "Personal DVD Player" you're using for testing might be out of tolerance. Is it one of those portable players with its own screen that might have gotten banged around a bit? Have you tested the supposedly bad discs on a regular home theatre DVD playback deck?

i got same kind of problem.
some of my disc where burned good by the duplicator, but testing on my LG stand-alone DVD burner was bad. disc were totally rejected. they played fine on another cheap standalone DVD player and also on my PC.
never understood why.
The only clue i got is that it always happens at the end of a batch, so i suspect either a power save feature on PC or some overheat somewhere.
it does not come from the burner, since i changed them.

There is/was an issue with DVDA Authored DVD's and certain dvd player/recorder units (LG seemed to be mentioned a majority of the time). Sony implemented a fix in the 4b patch -- but others still report an issue even with that patch).

The resolution is to open the Authored DVD Folders in PGCedit, and answering YES to fix the STREAM errors. Of course, make a backup before doing this, and try it on a project you know had an issue to see if it resolves the problem...

Regards,
George