Burning questions - coasters, speed etc.

[countryboy]

Hi everybody,

I have some questions to people with knowledge and experience in amateur digital video. I am not an absolute beginner - I started (but only with DivX) about 2 years ago, so at least I will be able to understand answers, if there are any. Only lately I started to burn DVD+R. If it helps, my specs are in my profile.

1. Coasters.
I bought a burner (LiteOn LDW 401S +R/W) to make backups of some DVDs and to transfer my favourite movies from VHS. I knew it was more difficult than making DivX and burning it, but I never guessed it is a nightmare. And it started to be quite expensive...
I know (at least in basic) how to prepare files for DVD, so I thought that Nero 6 (I use the latest update) will burn it just right. But NO! At least half of my burns are bad. Not very bad, but there are picture freezes and audio dropouts. But let alone audio (I think I don't have this problem in the latest Nero update); I do not know what to do with video. I always use DVD+Rs that are supported by my burner - someone posted the list of with a manufacturer code s extracted from burner's firmware, the same that mine is equipped with. Mainly I use Ricoh media. Still I have bad burns. You can easily find errors playing it fast (e.g. x32) in software player. I guess it's Nero, because I also tried the following: make an image (with Nero), mount an image drive and play the movie (fast forward again) from it. And it happens that it also freezes! Virtual coaster - is this a good name for it?
But may be I am wrong? May be it is media? Or something else I just missed?

2. Speed
After some time I tried different burning software - RecordNow Max 4.6 from Sonic. It came with LiteOn burner. And it helped, but not 100%. I waste less money with it but still when I test burns it happens that playback stumbles or freezes. So I thought that reducing burning speed may help. But I do not know how to reduce it! RecordNow Max gives you choice of speed, so I set it on MIN. And then it burns full DVD+R in 14 minutes. I do not think it is x1 speed. Anybody knows how to reduce speed?

3. +R or may be -R
Being already tired with all this, I started to think that may be I should find another solution (using a real heavy hammer is one of my ideas; probably it would not solve problems, but what a relief!), like switching to DVD-R. So, my next question: is burning of DVD-R any easier than +R? Does it give more consistent results? It may be interesting, because LiteOn came up with it's next burner, LDW 411S, both +R and -R... I am sure some of you know what's behind it.
I also posted a question in Hardware section of this forum: does Onkyo DR90 play DVD-Rs. It does not play DVD+R and it plays DVD+R with book type changed to DVD-ROM, but I never had an opportunity to test DVD-R. May be someone who reads it here and knows about it will answer.

4. And one more question, though not so important. When I remove commercials from captured movie and burn it to DVD+R, sometimes playback freezes for, say, half a second where the cut was done. I remove commercials with TMPGEnc, which does not allow to cut "in the wrong place". What is wrong? The playback doesn't stop for long, but it would be good to know how to avoid it.

I apologize for such a long post, but I wanted to describe problems in details. I hope that some answers will come and help not only me, because I am sure I am not alone with all this.

Greetings to all who read -

Countryboy

[northcat_8]

Coasters -

In my opinion the absolute best way to avoid coasters is to create an ISO file of the DVD before you burn it, load it into Daemon Tools (www.doom9.net) and play it in PowerDVD or WinDVD before you burn it to check the movie. If the movie plays fine there but comes out bad then either you are bad in your burn process or you have bad media. I would also suggest you switch to Ritek media. My burns have always come out good and they are compatible in every thing from Apex to PS2. I always burn at 4x although backing up Matrix Reloaded and Old School last night I noticed that it showed that it was burning at 4.2 in any event it took just under 12 minutes to burn each DVD.

If you created and image file with nero and it had the glitches in it then it would appear that nero is the problem. I personally do not use Nero to burn, I use DVD Decrypter, there are several people on here that do use Nero and are very happy with it. They would be able to answer DVD burning with Nero questions better than I.

Speed -

You are not backing up DVD's so it's kind of difficult to say. If you have the DVD in the VIDEO_TS folder I would suggest using IMGtools (www.doom9.net) to create an image file of the folder and I would burn using DVD Decrypter. You shouldn't need to reduce speed to burn correctly. IF you get better burns at slower speeds then I would buy better media.

+R or -R -

I'm on the -R side of this one. I have a Pioneer DVR-105 and any problems that I have had have been my own fault. I don't know if the -R is any easier or any more compatible. But I will say this, I also do original video work like 3D animation, wedding video, sports highlight video, etc, etc. And using my Pioneer, RitekG04 media and burning with Decrypter at 4x, I've never had a DVD come back because it wouldn't play and I've sold well over 500 DVD's over the past couple of years and not one complaint.

The glitch in the video is from you cutting the video but not rejoining it. You need to re-render the video to get the pause out of it...I think. I know when I put together a video if I just have consecutive clips they will hang as the program goes from the end of one to start the other. If I go ahead and render the 2 clips together with something like adobe premiere then I don't get the glitch.

I don't know how much I helped, if at all. But that's my opinion anyway.

[countryboy]

northcat_8,

thank you for reply. And yes, you did help me. Every bit of information is valuable, and your info is backed up with your practical knowledge.
There are different opinions about Nero. Some people like it, some say that it is full of bugs. I don't know, I can only judge by results. I was trying with Nero because it has some options that look promising, but the main part of it - Burning ROM - doesn't work for me. I'll try with DVD Decrypter.
And you were right about cutting: I followed your suggestion and joined parts after removing the commercials - and it looks better, no glitch.
Thanks again -

Countryboy

[countryboy]

OK, may be my initial post was too long to read. But may be someone knows about how to reduce write speed? I think that I may get better results with lower write speed, but it is kind of locked in both Nero and RecordNow. Is there any kind of software tool to reduce write speed? Another reason for this is my standalone Onkyo DR90. I received couple of x1 burned DVD-R for testing - and it works.
I'll appreciate help.

Countryboy