I tried both field orders. It made no difference. I just don't get it. The clips also look good on puter. But jittery and flickering on the set-top.

What brand dvd-r are you using? Verbatim, Memorex, TDK, and Pioneer work for me, others give errors that might be showing up as jitter on older stand-a-lone players.

I use Verbatim and have always used it. I just recently encountered this problem.

I don't know the answer, but the key would seem to be that it plays o.k. on the computer but not the standalone. So since its not the dvd-r media being hard to read, I would look at the max bit rate and other things that might give a slower, older drive problems that would not trouble a newer drive [you might try capturing at 3mb/sec and burn with no recompress to narrow the problem]. The computer screen will probably combine the two fields into one frame and go progressive rather than interlaced; do you have a way to examine the even and odd fields to see if they are intensity different or in some way different. It just seems like it would have to be sync or bit errors, but then things aren't always what they seem [I assume you have the C software versions installed].

I just had this same problem. I prepared a DVD using Vegas and DVD Architect and sent it to my dad. He said they didn't look so good. I had played them on both my computer using WinDVD and on my set-top Pioneer DV-525 player. His set-top player is a Sony DP-500 (I think that's the model). It is a very finnicky player and will not play some disks (Ritek) at all. The disks it does play look fine if prepared using MovieFactory, but not the ones created in DV Architect.

Having said all this, because he lives 3,000 miles away, I can't easily create a series of tests to see what is really going on. I have too many variables: the authoring program (DVD-A and MovieFactory); the encoding bitrate (some were 4 Mbs and some were 6, and a few were close to 8); AC3 vs. MPEG vs. PCM audio; the media (Ritek R02 and Maxell 2x DVD-R); and the player (Pioneer or Sony). The Sony is an old model player (about four years old) so I suspect that. I brought the "bad" disks back with me and played them again on my Pioneer set-top player and confirmed that they play just fine.

John,
I found dvd-r blank brand was absolutely the most important component of good playback on older machines. I gave away a 25 spindel of Hitech because they wouldn't play. Generics don't play. I have better luck with Pioneer, Verbatim, TDK, and Memorex [note: all are Type 2 media--don't know what the difference is but type 2 seems more compatible than type 1]. 2x or 1x media doesn't matter, but I usually get 2x hoping its type 2. I am "lucky" enough to own an older standalone that has extreme problems playing dvd-r's so if they play on it they play elsewhere. The symptons from the generics is that the disks freeze on the second half of the video [my guess is that dvd's go outside in so that the bits are closer together near the end {more dense} and cause more read errors]. But all that said using the brands mentioned and holding the bit rate down to variable 3-5 mb/sec has created flawless plays. But some of the really old dvd players [older than 3 years, I'm not sure when they started adding the second laser diode to dvd readers to handle -r media-I think if the drive is a 2x reader it would be the generation with the second diode] probably can't play any dvd-r's [the original batch of computer dvd readers couldn't read cd-r's]. A lot has to do with the different laser frequency needed for dvd's vs. dvd-r's. Before total freeze the screen breaks up into square segments {form of artifact} showing read errors are occuring. Flicker I have not seen so I don't think this is the same problem; but reencoding at 3 mb/sec constant rate and burning would be a good localization tool for toomey 96 to try on his flicker problem [I would think]. Does anyone want to share their knowledge on type 1 vs. type 2 and what order the dvd is written, outer to inner or inner to outer?
thanks,
Gold

Gold,

Thanks for the insight. If I had easy access to this old Sony player, I would try two different media, a "generic" and the Maxell 2x (which was rated by several magazines as the most compatible DVD-R currently available). I would then encode media at several data rates, both at variable and constant bit rate. I suspect that bitrate and media are the two most likely causes of my problem, and possibly for the original poster as well.