Burned DVD from ULEAD Movie Factory, FFWD doesn't work??

[Dom S]

Hi

Any idea why a DVD produced from ULEAD DVD Movie Factory when played on my standalone DVD player, plays fine but fast forward will not work at all.

Thanks.

[G-man]

Does FF work when played thru your PC's software player?

[Dom S]

Yes - does this imply it's a problem with my stand alone player?

I tried it again (On the stand alone player) and I did get it to work briefly towards the start of the movie but then it stopped working again. I get the invalid command type logo coming up on screen when I press FFWD. ANy ideas?

[BKL]

Think your media might be slightly off-balance?

[Dom S]

Sorry I'm not with you - can you explain what you mean - thanks.

[BKL]

I'm thinking out loud on this, so I hope it doesn't seem too wacky. If the media isn't the highest quality and is slightly off-center in terms of balance, it seems to me that the disk might vibrate enough that, although it reads properly during normal play, when trying to fast forward the drive may not be able to accurately keep track of where it is supposed to be reading. I have made a few VCDs that wouldn't allow me to FF, yet played fine. I have also made a few DVDs that play fine on the PC or stand-alone DVD player, but when FFing on the standalone player will randomly drop out of FF. Don't know why, just guessing that cheap media may be part of the problem. What brand media have you been using?

[Dom S]

I'm open to any and all suggestions as I am keen to crack this problem.

OK details below. I am also wondering now whether the problem is do with the initial encoding as I have now found that the audio goes out of sync in the 2nd hour of the movie (Return of the Jedi). I have backtracked and found that this first occurs in the MPEG2 whereas the initial AVI is fine (using Windows Media Player and Real Player to test). The sync problem also occurs on the stand alone player. Could the two be related? I did separate out the audio onto WAV as all the guides say but the problem seems to be created when I encode using TMPEGenc??

Full details on media - a bargain at 99p each and I got them as I did want to print from my new printer - works well by the way!

Would welcome views on whether it is a false economy to buy the lower priced disks.

Thanks for your help

"Inkjet Printable 4.7gb (Princo Generation 3 Dye) DVD-R
This disc makes use of the very latest dye developed by the Princo factory. (Same dye as the White Label discs)
Feedback on this product has been superb. It appears to be compatible for playback with most hardware and DVD players.

The top of the disc has a white Inkjet printable surface with no logo.

This DVD-R disc is for use in drives that take the "general" format of DVD-R discs (such as the Pioneer 103/104).

This disc writes at 1x on a Pioneer 103/104, which means that a full 4.7gb of data, video or audio will take approx 1 hour transfer to the disc.

Shipping cost will be calculated and displayed by the website before you finalise your order."

[BKL]

I use the DVR-104 myself and also generic DVD-Rs I bought on eBay and do most of my encoding with TMPGenc. Some disks FF all the way through and some don't, so I face the same problem you do. I have had a few files with out of sync problems. Ha ve you tried a simple demultiplex/remultiplex using TMPenc's MPEG tools? Seemed to help me. I am quite comfortable making VCDs but am still learning DVD production.

[Dom S]

It's comforting to know that I am not alone with this.

No I haven't but I'll certainly give it a try - so that's taking the file that TMPEGenc creates and then demultiplex and then remultiplex - have I understood correctly?

From what I have read Windows Media Player is not a reliable MPEG2 player - what would you recommend so that I can check the MPEG2 output afterwards before going through the DVD production and burning bit.

I have only really started recently and went straight to DVD so I don't even have any VCD or SVCD knowledge to fall back on. Definitely flying by the seat of my pants! I'm buying a new high spec PC with XP Pro so I am hoping some of the issues (like 22 hours to encode a 2 hour film) will improve!

[BKL]

Yeah, just do a simpole demultiplex to create a video and an audio file from your MPEG and then remultiplex them into a new file. Savre the original just in case and delete it if you are happy with the remux'd file.
I use Windows media player to check out my files before I go on to make the DVD-compatible files. If you haven't tried, WinMedia player is also supposed to play the VOB files from a DVD.
I haven't tried it, but there is also a capablity in the TMPGenc Wizard that is supposed to let you set a delay for the audio file to correct sync. I haven't tried it, though.