I did something that I generally try to avoid; namely, change several variables simultaneously and then try to figure out which one is the problem.
I recently bought a Panasonic LF-D521 burner and used the bundled software, MyDVD, to burn my first -RW. The DVD-RW is of the cheap variety that I got from CompUSA. Their brand at $14.95 for 5 (not a bad price). The reason I bought the new burner is because my Panasonic 321 doesn’t burn -RWs and I got tired of coasters, or sometimes inconsistent results with the burn-once -Rs. The -RW allows for a trial-burn to see if everything's okay prior to burning the -R.
What I produced on my first try was a -RW that plays great using the software on my computer (WinDVD4) and on a high-end set-top unit (Panasonic E-20 player/recorder). However, I also own a cheap player (Audiovox) that I use for convenience away from my home entertainment unit, and the movie on the -RW freezes every few minutes. The timing of the freezes doesn’t show a pattern, but is somewhat reproduceable. In other words, sometimes it’ll go for 10 minutes without freezing, and then may freeze once, then 20 seconds later, then again in 6 seconds, then go for another 8 minutes. I can note where the freezes occur (using the time display), rewind, and they will occur at the same places again. So the places where the video freezes IS reproduceable. In every case, the freeze thaws after a second or two, so it’s not a case where I need to restart the video or anything. It’s just annoying.
Now, is my problem:
1. Cheap media? If I used a higher quality -RW blank would the freezes go away?
2. An -RW problem. If I burn to a -R will everything be okay?
3. A software problem. Maybe MyDVD encodes the movie in some weird way that one of my players doesn’t like.
4. A cheap player. Since the disc plays okay on everything but the cheap player, maybe it’s the player and not the disc. HOWEVER, this is the first freezing problem I’ve had with this player after watching 100s of DVDs (mostly not “home made”).
The answers to the above questions will determine how I rectify the problem. Of course, using the highest quality media in the best players is probably the best advice for the economically unchallenged, but kind of defeats the purpose of trial-burning to a -RW prior to burning the -R. Also, I plan to distribute my masterpieces to friends/family that have a plethora of player brands. I’d like to have some assurance that I won’t be distributing flawed DVDs.
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Can your player play the -RWs? Since it does play them "somewhat" I would suspect the -RW disk (especially since you say that it freezes in the same position on the disk). You might want to invest in a better brand of -RW disk. Or, you could just "guts it out" and jump directly to a good -R disk
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Originally Posted by SLK001
What I'm really trying to avoid is gaining a confidence that the finalized DVDs are okay because they play on my high-end player, then have them be unuseable on lower-quality players. Also, since I'm doing a lot of DVDing these days, I'd like to use the least expensive media that is reliable.
Thanks for your input. -
The freezing sure sounds like the player to me -- have you looked up that particular model on the database here (look at the left) to see if it plays the type of media you're trying?
My older Pioneer freezes in a similar manner on DVDR -- the same disk plays on dozens of other players (and five or six different brand types) so I'm confident I burn disks correctly. Indeed, I can't find a modern (made in the last year or so) player my disks don't play on.
You can do the same thing -- go to Best Buy and try your disks out on many different players. It will give you confidence you're doing the right thing."Like a knife, he cuts through life, like every day's his last" -- Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang -
Yeah, I suspect that you both may be right, based on my logic. Probably the cheap -RW disks are good enough for the error handling capabilities of a high-end player, but inadequate for my Audiovox. I may do the “Best Buy experiment” while my wife is shopping for dresses or something. With enough data, problems will likely continue in one of the areas mentioned in the topic line so that I will have enough clues to figure out which area is causing the problems.
I posted here because occasionally I find someone with the same problem under the same circumstances (e.g., “I have an Audiovox and it always freezes with cheap -RWs” or “Sonic software encodes discs that will only play on very robust players”). It’s always good to find a shortcut to a solution or to get some fresh input.
Thanks for your help.
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