DVD Burn Issue

MarkFoley wrote on 2/28/2006, 2:53 AM
Here is a new DVD burn issue that I ran across. My last client e-mailed that one of her videos won't play on her mother-in-law's player (a two disk video where one of the disks won't play). This project, due to the size, had to be burned on two disks. One of the disks (the problem disk with client) has only a small amount of data burned (about 1.2 GB). I tested the project on 4 of my home players. On three of my players, the small disk loads and plays just fine. However, one player (a very cheap player) it won't. I had thought it was a DVD prepare issue so I re-encoded all of the material again and prepared the DVD...same thing on the one player.... I even tried different brands of media...same issue...

I took some previous DVD projects where there was only a small amount of DVD material...and again the one player won't recognize the disk while all the others play fine.

Here is where it gets puzzling to me. I took an old DVD-RW disk that has been used several times and burned the troublesome project to it...it will play in the cheap player that previously won't. I can only conclude the cheap player is seeing so much unburned space on the DVD-R disks it figures it is a blank disk whereas on the DVD-RW, it has a ghost image of previously burned projects...so possibly the player is "thinking" there is data....I'm stumped on this one....

Comments

craftech wrote on 2/28/2006, 2:56 AM
What is the media ID code on the DVD?
What is the model of the burner?
Which program did you use to burn it?
At which speed did you burn it?

John
MarkFoley wrote on 2/28/2006, 3:15 AM
Tayio Yuden TGY02
Sony DRX 530UL
DVDA
4X
craftech wrote on 2/28/2006, 3:29 AM
With that burner the 2.1a firmware worked better than the 2.1g firmware.
TYG02 isn't nearly as good as TYG01 was, but TYG01 isn't avaliable any more. See here.
I use TYG02 but I always burn it at a maximum of 2X and haven't had any problems. I also use DVDA to burn.
Try it at 2X and see what happens.

John
MarkFoley wrote on 2/28/2006, 4:03 AM
I don't believe this is a simple burn issue as much as a player issue (see my original post). as the disk plays fine in all but one player. I'm going to try a test later and add some hidden encoded black media to fill the disk
MarkFoley wrote on 2/28/2006, 6:35 AM
Why is the 2.1a firmware better?
johnmeyer wrote on 2/28/2006, 8:10 AM
Usually I too would say this is a media issue, and the different burning speeds can occasionally help as well. However, since you are using DVD-R and have a small amount of data, it is possible that this is some interaction with the long lead-in and lead-out area that I think is used only on DVD-R media. If you have a dual media burner that also burns DVD+R, you might try using +R media and see if that works better.

I'll be interested in the results of putting additional "garbage" data on the disk to pad it out.

Finally, if you have Nero, I'd sure recommend burning with that instead of DVDA. I don't think you said which version of DVDA you are using, but until version 3.x, the burning capability had a lot of flaws, and even with 3.x, my "sense" is that Nero is considerably more "mature," meaning that a lot more small issues have been found and fixed.
MarkFoley wrote on 2/28/2006, 8:23 AM
I did try a DVD+R...and it to would not work in the cheapo player. I was using DVDA 3...but I do need to try a Nero burn....
johnmeyer wrote on 2/28/2006, 8:31 AM
You might consider downloading this program:

CD/DVD Speed

and testing your disk. I think your Sony recorder supports the special commands this program uses, if not you'll need to put the disk in a DVD reader (i.e., drive that reads, but does not burn, DVDs). Click on the "Disc Quality" tab and run the test. Note the results, and then repeat, this time using a disc that works on the players that won't play the "bad" disc. See if anything turns up. The software is free, so it's a cheap way to start narrowing down where the problem might be.
MarkFoley wrote on 2/28/2006, 8:44 AM
What is strange with the instance is I've tried different brands of media...both -R and +R ...but an old Imitation DVD+RW would work
craftech wrote on 2/28/2006, 9:09 AM
Why is the 2.1a firmware better?
==========
In looking through various forums and Google groups I have seen more complaints with the 2.1g firmware than the 2.1a firmware. Some people flashed the firmware back to 2.1a and solved some problems they were having.

Also,
I have always used DVDA 1 for burning and never had a problem, but I with a different burner.
I would still suggest you waste one more disc and burn it at 2x just to see if it works.
By adding Nero into the equation you are adding another variable, ie: which version of Nero will work with the other variables on your particular system?

John
MarkFoley wrote on 2/28/2006, 9:16 AM
If I remember correctly, DVDA used 2X to burn the DVD+RW which, so far, is the only succesfull disk to play...someone els on another forum also suggested a slower speed. At this point, if standing on my heard would work, I would try it....
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 2/28/2006, 11:48 AM
not that you don't know this already, but I would try the slower burn, simply because you get a better burn sometimes than if you're going faster at 2-8x. Obviously the faster it spins the shorter the amount of time it has to darken that ink - some players (particularly cheapo hunk'o'junks don't always read higher speed burns as well as lower speed ones because of this ink issue - or at least that's what my understanding on the matter is.

Dave
MarkFoley wrote on 2/28/2006, 5:24 PM
Well I tried everyone's suggestion for different media...different burn speeds...even different burn program. Nada...(althought they would play in all of my other DVD players. I went back to my original thought of being to much blank space on the disk ..added some hidden media to bring it up over 3gb...and guess what? it now works...food for thought...:-)
Rich007 wrote on 4/12/2006, 5:20 PM
Mark,

I actually am having a similar issue, but was wondering how do you add the "hidden" media to the DVDA project?

Thanks,
Rich
Dach wrote on 4/12/2006, 7:34 PM
To jump in on this one. I suppose you could add additional data by adding any media content, then deleting the text in the button. In a sense disguise it. That is just the first thought came to me though.

Over the last week I have heard conflicting comments about burn speeds. Once side says burn faster to allow for a more stable disc the other says burn slower to allow for a more effecient darker burn. Now I am confused.

Thanks,
Chad
riredale wrote on 4/12/2006, 8:45 PM
Mark:

I think the original DVD-R standard required the burn area to reach out to at least a specific radius. This is why it took so long under Nero to burn even a small bit of data to a DVD-R disk--Nero took 5 minutes burning out an enormous leadout.

In more recent versions of Nero, there is a checkbox that lets one turn on or off the "feature" of making a nonconforming (but faster burning) disk by burning only a nominal leadout. I had never heard of a nonconforming issue until now.