DVDR-105 coasters due to artifacts = bad drive?

[taronger]

Powermac G4 -500MHZ- OSX10.2.3 -Imovie3.03 - IDVD3 - DVDR-105
IMAC 1000MHZ OSX10.2.3 -IMovie 3.0.3 - IDVD3

Problem started when I edited home movies, burned a DVD, then made an extra copy for safekeeping. Process worked fine the first few times. Then first burn was fine and second burn started to have little rectangles of bright light, as well as fuzzy lines at random places. Same problem both machines. Should there be a waiting period between burns to let drive cool off?

Now my G4 has the same problem with first burns too. I Have tried 3 different brands of blanks. One of the brands being the Pioneer disks which have always given me good burns before. In addition to rectangles of light and fuzziness , pictures played back on DVD player show some horizontal lines, and picture freezes sometimes during playback.

I have transfered two edited home movies form G4 to Imac via Sony camcorder, and was able to obtain succesfull burns.

Does anyone have any idea of what is going on? are there problems with burning two disks in a row? are there problems with Imovie 3.0.3 or IDVD3? any insight will be appreciated.

[galactica]

interesting. I have burned as much as 5 dvd in order with no breaks on my drive with not a single problem like you are talking about. Yes, drives can get hot, but usually there is a fan of some sort cooliing that drive so it doesnt over heat..

However, your proplem still persists. It could be something as simple as you have dust/fingerprints on the dvdr's that are interrupting burning.

Generally speaking, i take a swifter cloth (electrostatic cloth that removes dust lint etc.) and gently wipe the burning surface of a dvdr before i put it into my drive.

i have only ever seen this when a disk is dirty or has some foreign substance on it that prevents the area underneath from burning (wipe it away when its done burning and you will see differnce in color under where debris was, then play and it will most likely pause/stop/error when it hits that point)

[taronger]

Well - i will follow your advice. However, the disks i am using are brand new, out of the manufacturer's container for the first time. I am going to order some "imation DVd-R" and see if I get better results with those. I get excellent results with their CDs.

Is your drive a DVDR-105? if it is and you burned 5 consecutive disks, then I can discount "heat" as being my problem after 1 burn.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[galactica]

Nope, i have a toshiba drive, 2x max (that could be part of it, if your doing 4x for all of them.....)

Id recommend TDK General Use 2x. Well thats what i use anyway. They come individually wrapped rather than in a cakebox or in a spindle. the probelm with those is that though its on a spindle, usually they are just in HUGE HUGE BULK piles in a factory somewhere in china and they have children stack them on spindles in increments of 25/50/100 etc, so they are not really packaged as well as one would be individually in a jewel case and shrinkwrapped.

You pay more, but when you think about it its worth it!
This is still the best price I have seen for 10

These are also ones I have tried that worked well

Hope this helps you some

[taronger]

OK - I tried the swifter trick . But, That left a chemical residue on the disk. So, I think i will pass on that.

My problems did start after I went from single disks to spindles. Looking at the spindle disks in bright shunshine, I did see some minute scratches or imperfections otherwise invisible.

I have followed your advice and ordered single 4X disks by Verbatim (brand recommended by Apple tech desk for DVDR-105).

Thanks for the info

[galactica]

OK - I tried the swifter trick . But, That left a chemical residue on the disk. So, I think i will pass on that.

You must be using the swifter-WET! not the dry swifter cloths (1st swifter that ever came out) not all these fancy ones with lemon scented cleaning solution or clorox built in!!!

[ZeroSix]

DVD-Rs on a spindle and DVD-Rs that come in a cakebox generally suck... Unless of course you are spending $2 a disc ,like for Verbatims or Memorex.

I have seen this problem before, although never experienced it, and we solved the problem by buying more reliable media.

Hope this helps... And dont use anything with wet chemicals on your media.

[taronger]

Ok guys - the new jewel case Verbatims should arrive late next week. Got them from Rima.com for $2.80 a piece. That will be cheaper than making 3 or 4 coasters for each burn.

I did use the dry swifters and when looking in bright light, I can see some streaks where I brushed the cloth very very lightly. I cannot tell whether the streaks are due to a residue on the disk or from the cloth.

Thank you for your support.

[galactica]

Most likely they were there before, and that would have been a coaster disk.
I have never seen DRY SWIFTER cloths scratch a disk. heck, i use them on my LCD to get the dust that is attracted to the screen off.

Either case, hope these new disks have better success.


Its funny how we complain about a dvdr botching, but could care less if a cdr botches. maybe its because when you caluclate it out, cdr-s are what $.05 - .25 each.

[ZeroSix]

True about the CD-Rs... they generally have the same problems. I bought 300 CD-Rs from Best Buy, there were "Precision" brand, and they were fairly cheap.

I am YET to get one to play without artifacting on my Panasonic Q.

However, on other players they seem to play just fine. I also think that it has a lot to do with the drive loader and/or the MPEG decoder used in the player... Kind of along the lines that a CD that is scratched all to hell wont play correctly in an audio cd player, but you can still play it or rip it on your Mac...

[lordsmurf]

DVD-Rs on a spindle and DVD-Rs that come in a cakebox generally suck

Why? I don't see how the packaging determines the quality of the disc.

or Memorex.

Those are CMC media. Most people consider CMC the worst discs ever made.

[ZeroSix]

extra emphasis on the the word "generally"

Sure you can spend $200 on a 100 disc spindle of Verbatims and you won't have (m)any problems -- I was speaking in terms of "no name" brands...

Memorex media, verbatim, and Apple are the only three i personally recommend... In our experience, we have wasted substantially less of these brands, and the compatibility is about as good as you can get: ranging from DVD+R discs that play in a player rated to NOT play DVD+R, movies that play in an X-Box or PS2, to artifacting that doesnt exist when compared to the same data burned onto a cheaper disc.

[taronger]

Ok I just got the Verbatims 4X single jewel case and tried them. I am getting exactly the same problem.

Horizontal lines, pixelation, noise, small rectangles all over the screen etc.
some of the bad disks also show an outer circle about 1/2 wide which is of a darker color than the inner circle.

So it must be either the video board, the program, or the drive.

Does anyone know if there is a way to test the video board without having to take the machine in for repair ( it is still under the 3 year warranty) ? If testing the board is not possible, I may just have to get a new drive (since this is the most likely culprit- I added it myself last december) and eliminate the possible causes one by one.

[galactica]

well if you have a 2nd comptuer to put the drive in, you can burn a dvd there with the drive and a media type and see if the same thing happens.
If so you sort of found out the drive is the guy.

Id burn a different movie, ie different data on different comptuer with same drive to find out if its the drive.

not sure what you mean about the video board (you talking video card?)
I doubt thats the problem, again you are playing the dvd in a dvd player and a tv right?!?

most likely its the drive, if its continual across all types of media and all sets of data

[Vintageman]

It's probably the burner. Some of them get really hot and zonk out. You have to shut them down and let them cool for awhile. I usually let the computer cool also ( I took mine out and put it in a firewire case ). The Verbatiums should help. But yeah some of them have been known to get really hot just let cool!

[schwinn]

My Pioneer A05/105 drive in a firewire case. Sometimes gives me the mentioned "Horizontal lines, pixelation, noise, small rectangles all over the screen etc." The small rectangles and lines are very regular almost like a pattern.Scared me to hell I thought my burner was really done for. It took me a while to figure out these disks play fine on my stand alone DVD player. I've traced the issue to very high bit rate DVD's played on my Mac using Apples DVD player in Jaguar. I burned several copies using different media before I figured this out. So far it's only happened with 3 DVD's all were high bit rate HDTV Digital caps made by experts.
All other DVD and CDR's are normal.
I'm guessing DVD player can't handle these high bit rate encodes.
For the record my favorite DVD media sofar is TDK just like for CD R! It's available in 5 jewel case packs for $12.99 everyday at Target coast to coast. Which is apox $2.59 each. Sale prices can be less.

[taronger]

Ok gang !

I have ordered a new burner DVR-105. It should arrive in a few days. I will let you know the results. i would have loved to buy the 106. But, i understand from the postings that it cannot yet be used with the older machines.

In the meantime, i have burned on my Imac two 8mm tapes converted with the canopus ADVC-100. No problems, so the canopus unit is not at fault.

It does look the G4 burner is the culprit. I did not try to swap the Imac and G4 burners because I am a little concerned about taking with Imac apart.

[galactica]

It does look the G4 burner is the culprit. I did not try to swap the Imac and G4 burners because I am a little concerned about taking with Imac apart.

Yea, that would have been a chore.

[taronger]

Ok Gentlemen - Problem solved.

Got my new drive yesterday, installed it, and reinitialized The IDVD portion of one of he IMovies which had suddenly given me artifacts when burning
on a G4 - 500Mhz - OSX10.2.3 - Imovie 3.0.3 - Idvd 3.

result was a perfect one hour DVD. So, the artifacts, horizontal lines, noise, and little rectangles were caused by a deffective drive which is going back to the vendor for repair under the warranty.

Thank you all for your feedback

[galactica]

result was a perfect one hour DVD. So, the artifacts, horizontal lines, noise, and little rectangles were caused by a deffective drive which is going back to the vendor for repair under the warranty.

Thank you all for your feedback

I guess that could do it.... but glad you got it straightened out and I bet you are even more glad you got the warranty