Not the usual problem - but pixelation all the same

[pocketsnooker]

Hello all,

Can you help with the below? I know the normal answer is "bad media" (I really don't mean this disrespectfully), but I'm getting freeze ups on my burns (and pixelation).

I use Clone / Any and had (just got a new Pioneer 110D) a phillips 1640. I used Verbatim or Datawrite grey (both the Fuji and ProDisc media codes). All is fine until the end of the film, and then they freeze up. I know it's not TY media, but it should be ok. I upgraded to the 110D because friends speak so highly of it - though maybe the 1640 was quicker and queiter!

Could it actually be a setting / hardware problem? I know it's a pretty open question, but can anyone suggest anything? Could it be (for instance) by Norton screwing it all up?

If it helps, I did a Nero scan on one of my discs (a Verbatim DVD+R) and found it was only 85% ok and had a few crap sectors.

Any ideas?

[churchie04]

I've had similar problems. Look on the bottom of the disk and try to see if there are some "blank" spots on the bottom of the burned disk. Almost as if the laser wasn't writing for a couple spins of the disk.

Let me know what you find. Try burning at a lower speed if you do see these.

Since it is erroring toward the end of the disk, i would believe it is a speed problem.

A 8x burn starts at 2 and then gradually gets up to 8 toward the end. Maybe that's the problem.

[ROF]

Are you burning your DVDs to full capacity? This has been known to cause freeze ups at the end of the disc(last 3 or so chapters of a movie).

Are you shrinking your data to make it fit on the disc? This can also cause pixelation, freeze-ups, errors, etc.

Are you copying pressed media to these burns? Do you have the software set to ignore errors (DVD Fab automatically does this)? This will cause bad burns because you are ignoring errors in the original files.

It's not always the media that causes these issues. It is sometimes caused by the above or other issues as well.

[pocketsnooker]

Thanks guys. The disc look ok when I turn them over. I am burning them to the full capacity (clone only seems to have two settings - a single and a dual layer disc).

I also burn at MAX 4 speed.

I know it's strange. The media is meant to be good, and my brother has no problem.

[bdf24]

Actually CloneDVD usually leaves a little room to spare on the disk. Mind you not much. But for me the output usually comes out at either 4.33GB or 4.34GB. Compared to say DVDShrink which will consistantly come out at 4.35GB output. So there's a little left on the disk. Wether it's enough to prevent any problems with cheaper media I'm not sure.

[iwatkins]

How can we check our original files (using software) to see if they are the cause of pausing and freezing?

[iant]

There is another possibility here.
I had similar problems with my first burner. Ran all the usual tests on the burnt disks and they came up fine. Put them in the player and they locked up at the end.
Finally tested them in another DVD-ROM drive on another machine. Problems at the end of the disc.
Turned out my burner didn't align properly when it got to the end of the disk.
Got a new burner and never had a problem since.
I've kept the old one just so I can read and convert these 'scrambled' disks when I find one of them in my collection.

If this has been a consistant problem for you, you may be in the same boat I was.

Good luck,
Ian

[FulciLives]

Get Nero CD-DVD Speed which is a freeware utility that you can use to test your DVD burns. The newest most current version is 4.10

There are two main tests you want to run. There is the ScanDisc Read Test which scans the DVD for any "bad blocks". There are 3 colors. Green is good, Yellow is damaged and Red is bad. You should have 100% Green. If not the DVD is "compromised" and should be tossed and re-burned (assuming you still have the project to re-burn which is why you should test each DVD after you burn it).

This is what the ScanDisc Read Test looks like when completed:



The other test you want to perform is called the Benchmark test. When you run this on a "good" DVD disc you should see something that looks like this:



As you can see the yellow line goes straight across and the green line arcs up at an angle. On a "bad" burn the green (and sometimes even the yellow) will have "dips" in them.

With less than steller media it is a good idea to stop at 4200MB ... DVDShrink will let you set a custom size and so does CloneDVD2 ... so restricting the output to 4200MB is helpfull to avoid end-of-disc errors. Good media should really not need this restriction although even with the best of media (such as Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim MCC) I still try to stop at 4400MB rather than push it to the very limit.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Nero CD-DVD Speed also has a "Disc Quality" test but this test can only be performed on certain make and models of DVD drives. I've never owned a DVD drive that was capable of these tests. I would suggest trying it with your DVD drive as Nero will "gray out" the START TEST option if your DVD drive can't perform this test so no harm in checking it out.