My DVD's don't play smoothly in a lot of players

Laurence wrote on 9/24/2002, 3:02 AM
I have been working on my first professional video to DVD-R production, a 15 minute intro video for a local museum. The project is done except for the final DVD-R. I can burn DVDs that play back fine in my computer or my Daewoo DVD-R compatible player, but they aren't reliable in the vast majority of consumer decks I've tried.

The playback stuttering ranges from mild to horrible, depending on the playback deck. My Daewoo will play back all but the cheapest generic DVDs smoothly. An Apple DVD will play back smoothly on my friends Yamaha, but lessor discs won't. A "Go Video" deck I tried will stutter two or three times on an Apple disk, and barely work at all with other discs. Another friend's Samsung will stutter 10 or 11 times on an Apple disc. My Apex 600A doesn't play any burned DVDs at all. Verbatim discs seem to work a little better than the Apple discs. I just bought some Maxells, but I haven't had a chance to try them out yet. I've seen some discs advertised as being super-compatible at http://dvd-r.safewebshop.com. Has anyone tried these. Are there any other recommendations for compatibility?

I've tried lowering the maximum bitrate to 7 or 6 mbps and that seems to helps a little, but just a little. Is anyone else having better luck making DVDs that are generally compatible? What deck should I recommend to the museum? I've looked on the Apple site, but the list isn't really up to date with what is currently being sold at Best Buy and Circuit City. Neither are other lists that Google.com turned up. If I recommended that they buy a particular new deck and they had playback problems anyway, I'd look like a fool and have a pretty unhappy customer.

Laurence Kingston

Comments

BobMoyer wrote on 9/24/2002, 5:40 AM
What DVD authoring program did you use?

Bob
Laurence wrote on 9/24/2002, 7:55 AM
I'm using Dazzle DVD Complete, but the MPEG video and audio encoding was done using the codecs that come with Vegas Video.
Paul_Holmes wrote on 9/24/2002, 7:57 AM
In my experience the bit rate has nothing to do with it. Cheap media has EVERYTHING to do with it. Most of my DVDs until now have been at 8000K Fixed rate and PCM Audio, so that the average bit-rate is 9.5 to 9.8 or so. As long as I use Sony, TDK, Maxell, or Pioneer media they play flawlessly in all the DVD players I have tried so far (unless the DVD player just doesn't support DVD-R at all, which is rare). I've tried cheaper but I just end up having to throw them away! I get the same stuttering you were talking about.

I'm going to try "Silver 2X Pro-Grade DVD-R" that you find on www.americal.com. I've ordered Pioneers from them and have found Americal reliable and quick-shipping. If anyone out there has tried these and find the Silver brand reliable I would love to know about it. Also look at
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/CDA/Common/ArticleDetails/0,1484,36000,00.html. It will give you Pioneer's list of 2X compatible DVD-R Media.

P.S. Guaranteed compatible decks. Sony and Pioneer!

Laurence wrote on 9/24/2002, 8:11 AM
Tell me more about the "P.S. Guaranteed compatible decks. Sony and Pioneer!". If I tell them to get any current production Sony or Pioneer deck and use say Apple or Maxell discs, will that be sure to work? That wouldn't be so bad.
Paul_Holmes wrote on 9/24/2002, 8:19 AM
Don't take me to court over this if I'm wrong, but I have never had a problem with a disc that was done on Pioneer, Maxell, Sony or TDK and then put into a newer (within the last year) Pioneer and Sony. There are dozens of other fully compatible players out there, but these two I know about. For one thing, Pioneer is THE main protagonist behind DVD-R. If it didn't work in theirs they'd have egg on their face. As far as Sony, I know that it plays in Play-Station 2s, my roommates new Sony, and other Sonys I have inserted it into.
Laurence wrote on 9/24/2002, 8:31 AM
The Pioneer thing makes sense. The Sony Play-Station is more of a computer than a DVD player. It seems to me that the Play-Station might be more compatible than other Sonys. I can insert the discs into any player and they look fine initially. It's when you really watch it that you notice the glitches. That's what makes this such a pain. To really be sure of a deck, I have to sit and watch the movie at least most of the way through! Most of the display units at the local electronics stores aren't plugged in or even set near the TVs. Auditioning them "en masse" is pretty impractical.
Paul_Holmes wrote on 9/24/2002, 8:51 AM
Yes, I know about it taking a while to discover bad media, but I think that's your main problem. I had to throw a whole bunch of discs away that I thought were good. I'd play one movie on it, it would be fine, go to another movie and WHAT! Breakup, halt, pause, jerky, audio problems! Stay with Sony, TDK, Apple, Maxell, Pioneer, and any other media listed on the pioneer web site and you won't have that problem in any compatible player.