Odd problem with 16:9 PAL DVD on some players

farss wrote on 12/12/2004, 3:59 AM
Made a 2 DVD set of a ballet performance. First DVD has chapters as there's multiple pieces, 2nd DVD NO chapters or scene selection menu.
2nd DVD plays fine in every DVD player, first DVD plays intro and menus, select play or any scene from scene selection menu and player reports "Disk or Media Error" and refuses to play further. We've tried re-authoring, different media etc, nothing solves the problem. The same thing is happening on around 50% of the players yet this DVD plays fine on my two players.

So far we've done 1000s of DVDs from 100s of titles and had only one no play. Suddenly we're having this major issue, the only thing that seems to have changed is this is only our second 16:9 DVD. I cannot see how it being 16:9 PAL should make a difference but....

The main no play culprit is a LG VHS-DVD recorder combo unit and most of the other no play units are similar machines, is there a common thread there? Yet they all play the second DVD which doesn't have chapters.

Bob.

This is a cross post from the DVDA forum, I don't normally do this but this one sounds like it could be nasty.

Comments

nickle wrote on 12/12/2004, 4:27 PM
Could be any of the things we already know that causes glitches, (media, heat, labels etc.)

But did you try authoring in another software program?

Maybe too much data on the dvd or bitrate too high?

I don't do pal or 16:9 so I'm not much help.
farss wrote on 12/13/2004, 12:53 AM
We seem to have resolved this problem but I really don't quite understand why.
The original masters were burnt with RecordNowDX. Only reason I'd switched to using that instead of burning directly in DVDA was to get a Verify pass.
We made a new set of masters, one without the copyright warning and one minus that and the Scene Selection menus. Both these were burnt direct out of DVDA.
Both these new masters play just fine in the problem LG player.

This is truly odd, bear in mind that the second DVD master was also burnt using RecordNow DX and plays just fine in everything, the only difference is no play on load copyright video and no scene selection menus.

All I can summise is this and some other players are sensitive to the location of the files on the DVD.

Now OK, my problem is solved but it raises a really nasty issue, I wonder how many of the compatibility problems I've heard about are due to this kind of issue, I know a few here use RecordNowDX or Nero to burn rather than DVDA, is there some kind of magic going on in DVDA that makes DVDs more compatible.

Bob.
ScottW wrote on 12/13/2004, 5:04 AM
You still haven't eliminated DVDA as the culprit - you changed too many variables. Now, if you'd simply burned the existing project with DVDA rather than RecordNowDX and didn't encounter issues, then I'd agree that there was a problem with the burn.

The magic going on in DVDA is most likely the fact that you removed your intro and your scene selection menu.

--Scott
farss wrote on 12/13/2004, 12:36 PM
Well, not quite, the DVD that had only the intro removed works fine as well. Also we've authored 100s of DVD from which 1000s of duplicates have been made with the same structure (except 4:3) and had only one no play.
We've suddenly started to get around 40% no plays on the duplicates and thinking this thru further the only common factor is I changed the process to burning the masters with RecordNowDX.
Bob.
farss wrote on 12/15/2004, 3:13 AM
Just got a report back that another 16:9 PAL title that's been replicated (read 1000s of copies) will NOT play at all in these LG players.
This is now a pretty serious issue, think we need some serious answers from the Sony team on this one. I'm mostly concerned that the same chipset that's being used in these LG units is also in other players, so there's the potential for a lot of grief.

The replicator is very reliable with serious QA and they passed the masters as being compliant. This could well be a problem / bug in the design of the player but obviously there's a way to author so that these units will play a DVD.

If the Sony team need assistance I can supply copies of the replicated disks and I'll buy one of the suspect units to see if I can nut out a process to get an authored DVD that will play.

Bob.
nickle wrote on 12/15/2004, 10:56 AM
What is the model number of the LG player?

Possibly IT needs a firmware upgrade to work properly.
farss wrote on 12/15/2004, 1:16 PM
I don't have the model number of player, damn.
What's scary is it's not just that particular model, we're getting the same reports from people with other players. All these DVDs play fine in 4 DVD players we have access to but they were all made over a year ago.
Most DVD player manufacturers just assemble PCBs into boxes, so all it takes is one badly designed PCB or even chipset and major problem start to rear their ugly heads.
Bob.