Odd problem with 16:9 PAL on some players

farss wrote on 12/12/2004, 3:56 AM
Made a 2 DVD set of a ballet perfomrance. 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 a 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 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.

Comments

ScottW wrote on 12/12/2004, 6:16 AM
I have noticed that DVDA doesn't always create the most playable structures when it comes to menus and intro. While I've not encountered the specific issue you are describing, you might want to try a different authoring program.

Download a trial copy of DVD Lab (or Lab Pro) - each has a fully functional 30 day free trial. Re-author a simple example that's representative fo what you are doing in both DVDA and Lab and compare results.

--Scott
farss wrote on 12/12/2004, 1:56 PM
Good bit of info, thanks.
Rather than jump ship though I'd like to nail this one in DVDA or at least make certain that's where the issue is. What's really odd is after literally 1000s of DVDs and only one player problem suddenly all hell breaks loose and the only thing that seems to have changed is going to 16:9.

We're gong to make a really vanilla DVD, no intro and no scene selection menu and see what happens, if changing that makes a difference then for sure it's a DVDA problem and tech support are going to get a bit of stick.

Bob.
farss wrote on 12/13/2004, 1:06 AM
The problem seems to be resolved but it may reveal an interesting issue, I've posted my findings on the Vegas Video forum if you're interested.
Bob.