Freezing Video on Standalone

[grunteled]

Ok,

This is getting infuriating. I have now run into several video that after days capturing, filtering and converting; I can play the DVD fine on my ancient panasonic 5 disc (it plays damn near nothing else... CDR DVD-RW or otherwise). However pop it into my bedroom system and I get perfect sound but a picture that just stops every once and a while for 5 or 10 seconds. Sound goes on, but picture is locked for several seconds.

Now I thought maybe media, but DVD that I RIP and convert with DVD Shrink and burn to the same media all work fine. VCD and SVCDs work fine. Burn the same damn MPEG to DVD and skip city. At this point I am wondering why anyone does this. It's a lot of money for what seems to be completely hit or miss.

Details:

MPEG: 352x480 @ 5100 CBR 4.2GB (TMPGenc) Nothing Fancy
Audio: AC3 224Kbps (Besweet)

DV captured with scLive
IVTC with VirtualDub
Compiled with DVD Lab

I have tried ULead MF with the same results.
Is there a way to solve this? It's not going to work out to have a disk that plays on one or two standalones. I can't see anything out of spec. My moms crappy Apex will play them. So I'm lost. Is this what other people get for results as well or am I just getting hosed?

G

[txpharoah]

Bad media? What is it?

[grunteled]

I'm not sure what you mean there. I've tried the same media with movies that were ripped from existing DVDs. In those cases the movie plays fine. It's only when I encode a movie from a capture that the standalone chokes on it. Sometimes they work... sometimes they don't. I can burn this same movie on three different media types and they will all do the same thing. Stuttering video playback (on one of my players).

Is there anything in my settings that are obvoiusly wrong? This plays on one but not on the other thing is killing me.

[rob1]

It's frustrating, isn't it! Two things you might try to help identify the problem. A few players have been reported to 'burp' on beesweet encoded .ac3. Now, when you rip, you aren't re-encoding the audio, correct? So if your rips are playing fine but your encodes aren't, maybe try doing a test clip with uncompressed audio and everything else the same. If it works, then you've probably identified the problem.

The other possible problem I can think of might be DVDLab- which I use and love, but think they are still ironing the kinks out of a bit. If the .ac3 isn't an issue, maybe try authoring with something else just to see if that solves the problem. Tmpgnec has a trial download of their authoring software and it will handle ac3. I prefer DVDLab myself and I suspect the problem might be besweet related, but it's something you might try as a last resort.

Good luck with it.

[grunteled]

Yeah I looked at those things but none seem to be the culprit.

I have:
Player 1 - Three year old panasonic 5 disc changer.
Player 2 - Junky little Samsung used in the basement.
Player 3 - Memorex 2028 used in the bedroom.

Ok movies so far...

Red October - 720x480 (laserdisc) MPEG2 5000Kbps CBR TMPGenc
AC3 from Besweet
DVD-Lab for authoring

RESULT: Plays everywhere. Crappy quality due to first attempt and resoluton too high for source


Robinhood - 352x480 (laserdisc) MPEG2 4100Kbps CBR TMPGenc
AC3 from BeSweet
DVD-Lab for authoring

RESULT: Plays on Player1, Player3 Player2 skips and stutters audio and video. Movie without audio produces skipping video playback as well.


Flatliners - 352x480 (VHS) MPEG2 5100Kbps CBR TMPGenc
AC3 from BeSweet
DVD-Lab for authoring

RESULT: Plays on Player1, Player2. Player3 freezes video for random durations while audio plays fine.

All players throw random fits with DVD+RW media. Player1 refuses to play anything. Player 2 plays some while others it stutters over. Same with Player 3. In all cases writing the movie later to DVD+R may or may not make the same movie playable.

Ulead MF has produced the same results with the same movies. Seems to be in the stream, however PowerDVD on the PC plays every damn one of them without problems.

Makes me want to scream! I have tried many different programs as well as with or without sound. In each case it rarely makes a difference. If the stream will not play on one of the players. No fiddeling seems to fix it. I just don't get what is wrong.

[DJRumpy]

By any chance, are you setting the aspect ratio to 16:9? That aspect is not supported on Half-D1. Seems to me I recall someone else had a simular problem with freezes, and it turned out to be the aspect ratio. When he set it back to 4:3, it ran without issue. Your 'bad' examples only seem to happen on Half-D1, which is why I'm suggesting it.

[grunteled]

DJ,

No I'm doing all 4:3 on these. I noticed that as well though (about half-D1) after I posted. Tough to tell though with a sample of three. I'm running Hoffa tonight and I'll see if lowering the Bit Rate to 3900 did anything. Should still be plenty for half-d1 video.

It's hard to pin it down since there are so many variables involved. I had also been using NERO to burn the DVDs but I hear that can be a no-no as well. I might try using DVD-lab's built in burning capabiltity.

[DJRumpy]

Using Nero shouldn't be the issue. I use it myself with no compatability problems. I always use the UDF/ISO template, which is what you'll find most store bought DVD's seem to use.

What I might suggest you try, is a small clip that is known to cause you problems. Use that clip, encoding a small sample (say 5 minutes), both in full D1, and Half D1. See if the problem relates to the resolution. If it does, I would next look at bitrate. Try lowering the Max, and AVG bitrate for your Half D1 and see if the problem persists.

If possible, I would also try compiling/authoring with a different authoring software package, to see if that could be the cause. It could always be something simple, like a glitch in the authoring software during the image creation process.

[Oliver]

I know you're probably doing this to save encoding time, but you might want to try encoding the video as VBR instead of CBR. I had a problem with a CBR encoded home video on my PC DVD-ROM player. The playback was very choppy in my case, but when I re-encoded as VBR, the playback was fine.

[DJRumpy]

Your PC is typically far more forgiving than your standalone. I'll be curious to see what grunteled finds during the troubleshooting.

[grunteled]

Ok, here's what I have

Downloaded Ulead Movie Factory...
Results: Everything sucks. Motion of anything not already at 29.97fps is hosed. Not worth my time. Won't even play in PowerDVD


Tried a clip with DVD-lab 1.2.0.... (No Sound)

3900 CBR - Player2 smooth video playback, Player3 slight motion problems. Just a tiny jerk every now and again.

5000 CBR - Player2 smooth motion on video playback, Player3 same as above.

6000 CBR - Full D1 and Half D1. Same as above.

200:6000:8000 VBR - Full D1. Motion issue on player3 more pronounced and quality is terrible.

Maybe I just need to get players that I know will work with store-bought as well as my DVDs. This is just way frustrating. I know it can be done and other people seem to be doing the same things I am but the results here are totally unpredictable. If my luck holds true... I'll finish the movie up in Half D1 CBR that worked on a clip before on DVD+RW and the same damn settings will produce a movie that does not work on DVD+R.

[jnk76]

try 720X480 instead of half dv1. See if that does anything.

[grunteled]

I did. The last two attempts I did Full D1 and Half D1.

[grunteled]

Well folks I think I'm done. I've burned disc after disc after disc and nothing that I encode using CCE, TMEGenc, or otherwise ever g-d damn works correctly. It always skips and studders on one of the two players. PowerDVD plays it perfectly all the time.

I'm tired of fussing with it at this point. If anyone thinks they can look at the final DVD, the original converted m2v's and AC3's and see something out of whack. I'll be happy to send them through the mail to be looked at. Whats the difference at this point in another couple of wasted (sorta) discs. Otherwise I'm out of ideas. If you feel so inclined email me at kcrane@cranehome.org

I'm ready to take my discs to the local electronics store, and find a player that will play them. I'll then purchase 2 of those and my life will be far happier. I'm a little PO'd at the amount of money that has been laid out and nobodys product seems to be able to produce an acceptable result. Thanks for all the attempts to help. They are appreciated!

G

[DJRumpy]

The only other thing I might think to suggest would be authoring software. Try a different DVD authoring package (use a demo). See if you get better results. If you plan to do this with any regularity, I would also suggest you buy a player that supports RW media, so you don't waste discs.