DVD player issues... help?

Jeff Waters wrote on 5/20/2007, 7:41 AM
Hi All,
I produced 3 exercise DVDs and we've been selling them with no incidents for 3 years now. Could be a total coincidence, but last week, I got 2 messages from people who had problems playing the DVDs.

The DVDs were prepared in DVDA 2.0 and duplicated by Diskmakers (not just a DVDR burn).

1 lady said she could not see the "underlines" hiliting the active choice when navigating through the menu structure. Other than that, the DVD plays fine throughout. She is on a very new Sony DVD player.

1 guy said all 3 videos started up, played for about 10 seconds, and then died. He is on a GoVideo DVD+VHS player that is less than 12 months old.

Any ideas or should I just chalk this up to coincidence?

Best,
Jeff

Comments

MPM wrote on 5/20/2007, 8:39 AM
Totally FWIW Jeff...

My response would be to have the two customers send in the discs along with specific model numbers for their DVD players. I'd tell them I'm mastering replacements personally, want to check QC on the problem discs, & send them some free-bee along with the replacements. Make sure to sell them on how far you're going in your efforts to keep them happy, and the value of what they're getting for free.

With the model numbers of the players in hand you could research any problems on-line, maybe try out your DVD on them at someplace like BestBuy, basically see if this is the beginning of a problem you want to get in front of, & of course it'll give you a chance to check QC on diskmasters. Otherwise it's just CR & marketing with the goal of not only satisfying customers, but turning them into a sort of sales staff.

If you had a bunch of these or were on the level of one of the big studios that'd be another story, & after all one problem could be a mis-adjusted TV or poor eyesight.
Rick K wrote on 5/20/2007, 1:29 PM
I've been using Sony Vegas +DVD Architect for 3 years now.
Customer complained a ballet ran hit and miss. Told him it ran great on my DVD player. So he invites me to a 'friendly' viewing to see it stop on his player. Confident, I play it on mine for the viewing. Mines better ! Technology has changed. He needs a new unit - I say. But it simply stops on one performance just like it did on his. Stops and won't respond just like it did on his machine. Jerky in other spots. He says it runs just great on his laptop. Since he has a firm in Portland reproduce 100 or so of these, he's reluctant to have copies made with this flaw and I'm afraid I won't get paid.

This was a lot of work to this point. I need understand what to do next. Is it the DVD? I've decided its not the player. My playback unit is a Sony RDR VX530. It was written using a Sony DRU-830A VBR 2-pass encoding on Architect version 4.0. Memorex -R.

Suggestions please!
GeorgeW wrote on 5/20/2007, 3:19 PM
This was a lot of work to this point. I need understand what to do next. Is it the DVD? I've decided its not the player. My playback unit is a Sony RDR VX530. It was written using a Sony DRU-830A VBR 2-pass encoding on Architect version 4.0. Memorex -R.

How long is the entire video, and how much space did it take up on the disc?

What video bitrates did you use for encoding (there might be a bitrate SPIKE causing the freeze). Did you have multiple angles?

What audio format/bitrate did you use?

Rick K wrote on 5/20/2007, 6:21 PM
Thanks for the quick response

4.69 GB out of 4.7 according to Architect. (I was prepared to make this two DVDs and so was the customer. But Architect took it and it played initially just fine on my Sony DVD player)

VBR with max at 8. mbps
audio:stereo, psychoacoustic model 2,
224 kbps
Sample rate 48K

It has a printed stick-on label. Is this an issue? The DVD is translucent in places. I thought the laser focused at a specific point so the label couldn't be an issue. But I'm seeing some comments on the web contrary to this.

B&H sells DVD authoring disks for about $20 each. Do I need this?

Just to confuse, my Sony DVD player won't recognize this disk at all anymore.... since I took it to the customer site. Yet it plays with ease on my home Panasonic unit. Kind of nuts isn't it?


groan...
Chienworks wrote on 5/20/2007, 7:03 PM
Labels can cause all kinds of problems with DVDs. Between the much faster rotation speed than CDs, and the increased heat, they can come loose or shift, causing the disc to spin irregularly. And if they come off they can jam up the drive very badly.

You should look into one of the ink jet printers that can print directly on the discs.
Rick K wrote on 5/20/2007, 7:19 PM
yup..thinking about that for sure.

Anything else?

Meantime I'm trying to find a way out. on my own. So I made a +R DVD without a label that played on the unit it previously froze on. Also, dropped the 4.7 GB single disk to two at a little over 2 GB each. Will submit them to the customer without labels if no other suggestions are made.


Rick K wrote on 5/20/2007, 11:46 PM
suggestions for inkjet printer
GeorgeW wrote on 5/21/2007, 4:48 AM
I'd agree that the sticky label should be avoided (I use the Epson inkjets that print directly to printable discs).

Regarding your current disc -- you filled up that disc pretty good. I'd recommend cutting the bitrate down to ~7000kbps. Try it on a "challenging" scene (fast motion, etc...) to see if the quality is just as good as your current settings.

Another note -- using VBR at such high bitrates might not be gaining you anything (and 2-pass will just take twice as long). Not only that, you might be seeing a bitrate "Spike" that is choking your dvd player(s). CBR encoding might take care of that...

Here's a cut/paste of some guidelines I use when burning DVD's. I know everyone's setup is a little different, so they might have alternative suggestions for things that work better for them...

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

-keep video+audio bitrate <= ~7.5mbps
-keep the total size <= ~4gb (on dvd5)
-use Dolby Digital (AC3) audio for a good mix of "global" compatibility, and a lower audio bitrate to allow for higher video bitrate (mpeg audio can use the same low bitrates as DD audio, but not all NTSC DVD Players will play mpeg audio)
-use quality discs instead of no-name generics (Taiyo Yuden's get excellent reviews)
-don't use sticky labels on your dvd's
-Burn as DVD-VIDEO (not just a data dvd -- the files must be written in the proper order on the dvd)
-if you only have a prepared DVD Folder, then use software that can properly format a DVD IMAGE file (*.ISO), and then burn the image file. (I like to use IMGBURN 2.x to create the IMAGE file)
-for DVD+R discs, see if your burner supports bitsetting the booktype to DVD-ROM
-keep burner firmware up-to-date (follow instructions carefully when updating firmware)
-keep burning software up-to-date
-if space for your video allows a high bitrate (say >= 7mbps), then try CBR instead of VBR (VBR encodes can have bitrate "spikes", and depending on how high the "spike" is, it might be enough to cause a hiccup during playback)
-don't always burn at the max speed of your burner/media combo (I've had great success burning at 4x, but others have had better results burning at max speeds like 8x or 16x -- it could depend on your dvd disc quality and how well they work with your burner)
-try different media (brands and types) Not all DVD±R/RW will work with every player, or some will work better in some players than others...
-disable any non essential background programs (i.e. virus scan, anti spyware, etc... -- of course, if your machine is connected to the internet, you might not want to disable these applications)
-don't do anything else on the machine during the burn (or keep activity at a minimum - especially heavy disc-related tasks)
-uninstall any "packet writing" software (the kind that lets you drag-and-drop files to a dvd RW disc as if the disc was just another storage drive)

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MPM wrote on 5/21/2007, 6:11 PM
Rick, I'd start out by pointing to your media since you say your Sony won't recognize the disc anymore... Pretty hard to screw up a disc just by playing it elsewhere.

Sounds like you used the basic DVDA template in Vegas, which I think should be probably as compatible as you can get, but, George could be correct about too much variance -- I'm thinking along the lines of a still pose followed by VERY rapid movement... The Vegas MC codec like many others has a ridiculously low minimum bit rate as default -- pumping that up narrows the bracket between top and bottom.

I do like vbr, even in cases where any improvement might be based on principle, but cbr always works if you can live with the lower bit rate. I whole-heartily agree about 2-pass being a bit of a waste with something as relatively inefficient as mpg2 DVD. If you're trying to squeeze 1.5 hours of video on a CD, gotta have it, but the extra accuracy will in my experience not get you a noticeable boost on the average DVD.

The only thing I can think of to supplement George's list would be to disable your network adapter (or unplug the wire) so you can turn off any anti virus/spam software.