DVD skips on old player – solutions?

mtnmiller wrote on 8/9/2007, 10:27 AM

I'm hoping someone can offer some suggestions for a little issue I'm facing...

A wedding DVD I provided for a client is skipping/freezing on their older DVD/VCR combo player. The DVD runs perfectly everywhere else I've tried it - including my own DVD player, which is about five years old.

The video is about 4.5 GB, so fills up about 90% of the DVD. I burned it at 4X speed, which seemed to help some, but didnt' completely solve the problem.

Any suggestions on settings for rendering or in DVDA that might help?

Thanks.

Comments

Former user wrote on 8/9/2007, 10:38 AM

Sometimes a lower bitrate will help. Sometimes a new DVD player is the only fix. You could also try a +R if you used a -R. Older DVD players are hit and miss on compatibility.

Dave T2

ken c wrote on 8/9/2007, 10:50 AM

Right re new dvd player, go tell them to buy one for $39 at best buy. Or re-encode at lower bit rate and to get it to the 4.2-4.2 gig region vs 4.5 which is pushing it, for older players. I'd tell em to go to best buy. Trying to help a client with a junky old combo player by endlessly re-encoding etc is a total waste of time. Heck go buy them the $39 player at best buy and give it to 'em, not worth any more time/energy than that.

-k

TGS wrote on 8/9/2007, 1:03 PM

Many combo players, especially older ones, are extremely finicky on the discs they can play. They usually only like Hollywood pressed discs

farss wrote on 8/9/2007, 2:20 PM

Try using different media, like TY Master.
As DVD player start to fail the laser looses power, first to get iffy are burnt DVDs, then pressed. Using more reflective media offers some palliative relief.

Bob.

riredale wrote on 8/9/2007, 11:27 PM

I'd be curious to run your disk through Nero's CD/DVD Speed utility to see the error rate. I'd also try different media--and I'd start with burning to a Taiyo Yuden disk.