Burned DVD’s not playing consitantly

[acj16141]

HEELLLPPPPP!!!! I have been videotaping weddings for years, and with the past two years went digital. I’m using Ulead Videostudio 10 to edit and burn the videos. They look great. I always test every DVD before delivering to clients. I do use a duplicator to make copies. Why is it that after a few weeks I’m getting phone calls that the DVD’s are freezing up and skipping and sometimes won’t play at all. It’s not consistant! I know there are several different factors that come into play. Please give me some ideas of what to do! Am I burning to fast, is it just player compatibilty, the disc, the label, ??????? I would appreciate any advice!

I use DVD-R Discs at 16X 4.7 GB

Thanks

[Ryan3078]

Many different factors can make this sort of problem. It could be that you are burning at a very high rate of speed, but if it plays back fine on your standalone DVD player, then the problem can likely be isolated to compatibility.

Are you using an off-brand DVD for burning? These can often cause problems, as some players will read them, and others will not.

To ensure quality playback, I would

A) Burn at a slow rate, maybe 8X at the fastest, to ensure a proper burn.

B) Use name brand disks (such as HP, Sony, etc. These will be more expensive than your cheap generic 50 pack for $8, but there will be far less problems.)

C) Not use paper labels that you glue on. These can cause the disk to rotate unevenly in the player, causing big problems. If I needed a label, I would either get a Lightscribe burner, which will use a laser to etch a label onto a special DVD – or I would get a special printer that prints the label directly on.

[Anonymous]

I have found that lowering your transcoding bitrate to 7MBps MAX resolves most of these issues. Burned DVDs are NOT as reflective as stamped ones. Even though the DVD spec allows up to 8MBps max for video, some stand alone players simple can’t read that much data from burned (less reflective) discs. Its like trying to swallow a big bite of food. Maybe it’ll go down, maybe it’ll get stuck. Best bet is to take smaller bites. Thats exactly what is happening, the players are "choking" on the data. The difference in bitrate is not really noticeable to most consumers.

I ALWAYS burn at 4X. Give your laser time to burn the data properly. Think of it like a suntan. The longer your exposed, the deeper the burn.

Taiyo Yuden is said to be amoung the best brand of DVD media. I use them and have never had a problem (or a defect for that matter). http://www.cdrdvdrmedia.com Verbatim is also supposed to be good. (I haven’t tried these yet)!

Sticky labels can cause the disc to spin unbalanced. Plus, when the disc warms up from playback, the label can peel up.

Stick with the -R format. +R is not as compatible (but some may argue that it is), unless your making dual layer DVDs. My personal experience with the dual layer -R format did no go well. I bought a 25pk and I think maybe 3 worked. My understanding is +R is better for dual layer (but I avoid dual layer completely).

[Anonymous]

Do not burn at 16x. 4x may be good but I prefer 8x and never had a problem.

Transcode at 7mb 1pass CBR This is still high quality and I’ve never had a problem.

Update your firmware, the software built into the drive’s flash memory which acts as the control center for a drive’s operation. It determines the best parameters for the speed of media you are using, and then continually monitors the burn process to ensure the quality of the burn. This will also help with compatibility.

The only time I ever had a problem was when burning a 6mb 1pass CBR file at 16x on old firmware.

I hope this helps….I feel your pain.

Best Regards,

Corey

[BrianFisher]

Hi acj16141,

I can reiterate some of the things said here and add a little extra.

Fundamentally, you should start with Excellent Media. The trick is, how do you find that media, many blank media manufactures make discs for many name brands, so brand name is not always the way to go.

In my experience, Taiyo Yuden is a great Japanese DVD-R manufacturer. Their discs will probably get rid of your problems. That is all we have used over the past 4 years and we do tens of thousands of duplications on these blanks. But even Taiyo Yudens blanks have been reported to have the best results when burned on Plextor drives.

If you spend a little more money up front on your media, it will pay off and you should stop recieving those complaints and you will just start receiving more referral business for a job well done.

There are a handful of other factors which can affect compatibility and reliability, but I would start with this so at least you are eliminating the most likely cause.

Also, be sure to burn them on a machine that is not working on other things. If you run multiple tasks on a machine while burning, the IR requests can "hiccup" the burn.

[Author]

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