Problems on standalone burning AVIs to DVD-RW or DVD+R

[Gaferion]

Hello all. First time poster. I tried to refrain from posting and figuring out on my own, but after 2 months of trying different things I thought I would give asking a shot.

First, let it be known that I can make COPIES of DVDs fine and they work great.

The problem I am having is that I have an AVI file of an anime episode. When I convert it and burn it, parts of it work fine and parts of it seems to stutter (get choppy) in my standalone. However, in my computer when I play it runs FINE (actually with my new computer I get no sound [way my computer is setup?], but my old one played them fine). I have tried DVD-RW media (Sony DMW47 Version 1.1) and I have tried a couple DVD+R (TDK DVD+R 4X). A question to me if why would it work OK on my computer, but not OK on a standalone.

Tools I use:
Virtual Dub 1.5.4
TMPGEnc Plus 2.5
TMPGEnc DVD Author

Here is the current process I am following.

1) I used virutal dub to extract the auido from the AVI file to a PCM format wav file.

2) I use TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 (2.521.58.169 CoreVersion:1.98.152). I have it convert the AVI to an MPEG2 file and use the audio file I created from virtual dub as the source. (I changed my VFAPI plug-in to have DirectShow Multimedia File Reader to be highest priority, but I have tried usuing defaults also.) I choose NTSC format CBR Linear PCM audio. I have also tried not using the VDub audio file, but instead letting TMPGEnc do the audio.

3) I then open TMPGEnc DVD Author and insert the video/audio into a project and create the DVD files to burn. I have then burned using the DVD writer the comes with the program and have also tried used Copy2DVD.

I have also let VDub can the AVI for errors, and on my old computer it found 18, so I masked them saved new AVI and tried again and it didnt help. With my new computer, when I scanned it did not find any errors with the same file.

So anyone with hints, better methods, just anything pitch in. I would really like to figure out how to get this to work out correctly.

If you have any other questions about something that I missed, just ask. And to end, I will list my computer specs (old and new, they are both having same problems)

Old:
P3 800 with 512 MB PC100 RAM
Seagate 120 GB ATA100 HD (running at ATA66)
SONY DVD RW DRU-510A
Generic DVD-ROM drive
Geforce 4 Ti4400 PNY
Hercules Game Theater XP Sound Card

New: (Same guts mostly, just new Mobo/Proc/RAM)
P4 3.0 GHz FSB 800 Mhz HyperThreading
1024 MB (1 GB) Corsair PC3200 (Dual Channeled in matched 512s)
Seagate 120 GB ATA100 HD (running at ATA100)
SONY DVD RW DRU-510A
Generic DVD-ROM drive
Geforce 4 Ti4400 PNY
Hercules Game Theater XP Sound Card

Thnx a ton in advanced,
Jake

[movie freak]

you said you were using CBR... use VBR...
in tmpg (using the wizard) choose your standard.. for you its (NTSC format) ok... then where you choose which audio CBR or VBR choose VBR Linear PCM audio... next choose your video file... then your .wav which you said you got from extracting it in virtual dub... click next.... then click the 'other settings' tab go into the 'video' tab then where it says 'Rate control mode' choose 2 pass VBR mode... then do what you would normally do and encode.... this should clear up your problem... or even just make it alot better... choosing 2 pass mode makes your encoding time twice as long i think... it analyses it first then encodes... it's worth it

[Gaferion]

Thnx a ton for responding movie freak. I tried your idea, and it still stuttered/chopped in the same spots.

This really leads me to believe that there is something wierd with the avi file. I suppose I should try another AVI file, but I dont know where to get one that is 'good' and that I know should work fine.

Also, is there something else I can try to make sure an AVI file it OK? Like I said, I used VDub to check for errors and it didnt find any. Is there something else I can do as well?

Any other ideas/comments are more then welcome. ^^

Jake

[movie freak]

have you tried using different media?

[Gaferion]

I have tried DVD-RW media (Sony DMW47 Version 1.1) and I have tried a couple DVD+R (TDK DVD+R 4X).

Should I find something else to try? If so, what would you recomend?

I use mainly DVD-RW for testing, cause obviously I can reuse that over and over. If there is a better DVDRW media (which I am sure there is) that you know of, let me know of that as well.

I do not have any other standalone players to test in, but I will bring it to work today (I work at Best Buy) and test it on a slew of players there

Jake

[FOO]

TMPGenc is probably having trouble reading your file in places.
See if it will play OK in Vdub.
If so, Vdub is reading it OK so you can Frameserve the file
to TMPGenc. This feeds raw video to TMPGenc , so it doesn't have to
decode it. Vdub will not spit out corrupt frames.
Look up frameserving.

[Gaferion]

Well, thnx for all the help guys. It WAS the standalone, the only thing I hadnt tried. I tried a new Samsung DVD-P421 here (that some guy says is not working) and have not seen any problems.

FOO: Do you think your comment would help make it work on my older standalone, or do you think since its working on a newer one that the other player is just crap

Thnx again FOO and movie freak.

Jake