Movies copied only partially

[Makke]

Hi,

I have a weird problem in backing up DVDs. I have burnt 7 movies to DVD-R and every single one ends few minutes too soon. Also some of the movies are freezing and jumping in my standalone LG DVD player.

I'm using the following combination:

DVD decrypter 3.1.5.0
DVD2ONE 1.0.0
CopyToDVD 2.1.1.104

When using DVD2ONE I only select the main movie+sound+subtitles

Thanks,

Makke

[garry357]

I am having the same problem. it is hit and miss if a dvd will copy or not. using nero to copy. sometimes i get a full copy next using the same dvd and setting it will freeze at sometime during the film....

[bni124]

what kind of media do you use??? It's most likely your media.

[Makke]

I'm using That's Write! DVD-R media. I'm doing some testing with Maxell DVD-RW. That cheap media might cause the freezing but not the partial copying?

[Hardcoreruss]

And the film works fine on your pc ?.

How about burning normal audio cd's ?, do you have the same problem if not then you can single it down to your media.

[Makke]

No freezing or jumping on PC. Movies end too soon also on PC. Audio cd's work fine.

[garryheather]

Er... what's an audio CD got to do with it ? It doesn't sound like the writer is the problem, and even if it was, it is possible that CD's would record OK but not DVD-R's.

If you're going right to the edge, it is possible I suppose that the disc runs out before all the data is put onto it, although surely your burning / authoring apps would tell you if it was too big to fit on the disc.

Does the film just stop with a freeze frame at the end or how about an error code on the DVD player ? DVD-ROM drives and the like seem much more fault tolerant than the drives fitted into standalones. For example, C13 is a common error on the Sony players which usually refers to a dirty disc. In the recordable world. it's more likely to mean frumpy media. I have seen discs stop near the end with no warning, just a still frame, and then whatever the player feels like at the time. Sometimes it goes to the welcome screen, sometimes it's locked up when the freeze frame came on - but whatever the problem, all my sudden stops have been down to poor or damaged media.

[Makke]

The film goes to the welcome screen. I'm trying to track down the problem by checking the film after decrypting and then after dvd2one. Finally I will burn it to Maxell dvd-rw and if it works then to That's Write! dvd-r.

[garryheather]

Since it plays OK on your PC there are, from my experience, two options.

Crappy media.

Crappy encoding !

Your PC will probably be able to play a movie comprising only of VOB files, but your DVD player will not be able to. It is possible that something somewhere has created rogue IFO files that do not correspond correctly to the VOB files (like the VTS vectors). I have used some of the applications you refer to, and quite frankly I doubt if that is your problem.

If the DVD player is going back to the welcome screen, I think it's safe to say it's given up on the disc. Do you notice the player taking longer than usual to identify the disc when you first insert it to try to play it, for example ? It could be struggling to play the disc and then it just reaches a point where it's at the end of the focusing range of the pickup, for example.

If you can not try the disc on another player, then try different media. My Sony 535D is picky about media, but the following works like a charm burnt on my A04:

Nan-Ya 2x (writes at 1x, though)
e-Proformance (Pro-disc) - no good on the 05, though !!
Datawrite Classic
Ritek G03 dye based discs in general
TDK

These work but can be awkward / batch sensitive:

Choice Media 1x White top
Traxdata (CMC discs can be nasty)
Zero Defex
Bulkpaq

I don't touch with a barge-pole

Vivastar (unrecognised by the player)
Bulkpaq Purple (no good past 4Gb mark in my experience)

Hope this helps.

[Makke]

I Just finished my testing and something weird happened... Both films I copied (which have previously failed) seem to work fine. I just updated software versions to the latest and no problemo! Anyway I will try some other media next time.

Thanks everyone!

-Makke-