Help! My homemade DVD's don't work on normal players...

[Lozi]

Hello dear friends,

I still don't know what is causing this problem:
I burn dvd's which run perfectly on my two dvd players on the computer. The problem starts when I try to make them run on common dvd players. Three friends of mine tried it out on their machines and it allways gets either stuck or starts stuttering.

Does anyone know if it depends on the players, the disc, the editing program or anything else?!?

I realy need my works to play propperly everywhere!

Thanks!

Lozi.

[Sifaga]

Rules

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

[dxj40c]

Your dvd player is probably over 3 years old. The older players (some) don't work very well on recordable media (especially DVD+).

Take one of your homemade movies to the electronics store and try it out on the demo players they usually have sitting around. I think you will be able to find one that works much better than what you have.

[FOO]

Get an abnormal player

[petar]

Does anyone know if it depends on the players, the disc, the editing program or anything else?!?

Depends on all that you just mentioned. PCs play anything. Standalones are more picky.
It could be the discs you use. It could be the burning tool. It could be the bitrate (too high bitrate will choke a standalone), it could be the audio (incompatible stream will "stutter" the video, as you put it).

Try things one by one. Backup a commercial disc (where you know the streams are DVD compliant) and try a different burning tool. If that doesn't work, try a different disc. And so on...

[Lozi]

Thanks for the detailed answer.

Maybe you'd like to explain me what you mean by the 'bitrate' for example? This factor sounds interesting and I'm unfamiliar with it.

So far I didn't manage to backup a commercial dvd. I only have a few simple authoring programs (which don't seem to make it too easy a task) and I have the Easy Media creator which failed at least one attempt that I did so far.

Also - the fact that I can only burn 4.7G (which is much too little) makes it less attractive actualy.

Anyway, many thanks and I hope you can give me more info.

L.

[Everclear]

What Software are you using to burn your disc's with

[Lozi]

So far I worked only with Pinnacle studio 9.0

[Everclear]

Try using Stomp Recordnow Max to burn your disc's

[handyguy]

What writer, media, operating system, computer do you have?

[ricky1756]

get one of those abbie normal players, like on young frankenstein

[richdvd]

Maybe you'd like to explain me what you mean by the 'bitrate' for example? This factor sounds interesting and I'm unfamiliar with it.

Bitrate or Bit Rate is the average number of bits that one second of video or audio data will consume. Higher bitrate means bigger file size and generally better video or audio quality while lower bitrate means lower file size but worse video or audio quality. Some bitrate examples in common video and audio files:
MP3 about 128 kbps (kilobits per second)
VCD about 1374 kbps
DVD about 4500 kbps
DV about 25 Mbps (megabits per second).

[Everclear]

Here let me put it a different way if your standalone has played or can play disc's that have been backed-up its the software that you are burning them with that is not compatable with your standalone

[christaltips]

I had problems with standalone DVD player not playing discs I had created on my computer, which played them perfectly.

I used TMPGEnc to encode (sort of changing the format) of my downloaded XviDs and then TMPGEnc Author to convert my MPEG-2s (which had been created after encoding the original files) into DVD files (.IFO, .BUP, .VOB). I then used the DVD burner software which was bundled with TMPGEnc Author. When the discs had been created I had compatibility issues, they worked on some DVD players but not all of them, yet worked on every computer. Someone recommended I used DVD Shrink, another program which would author and burn my DVDs. I tried this and imported my DVD files, which had been created using TMPGEnc Author before hand. Unfortunately, I had an error as the DVD was being burnt, so decided to use the 'successfully created DVD folder' (created with DVD Shrink) and burn using Nero. I chose the DVD-Video option, after having several coasters with the UDF option. After it had burnt, I found that on standalone DVD players which had originally been unable to even load the menus, they worked perfectly.

Therefore, I recommend DVD Shrink. GL! :P

[lordsmurf]

Need more details.

[andyp1]

the fact that I can only burn 4.7G (which is much too little) makes it less attractive actualy.

There's just no pleasing some people !

[dwight55]

Lozi, . . . I am sure somewhere you have lurked and read about different media causing problems, . . . it does. So does labeling the discs in some cases. One other thing too, . . . some DVD players are just plain picky. I have one of those. I have found, though, if I use good media, . . . do not label, . . . I get along real good. Steer clear of the super cheap media is the first thing. Next, make sure your player is compatible with the format you have chosen. My player won't play a +R or a +RW by its design, . . . but it does all the commercial stuff and so far, . . . all but one of my -R discs.
Regardless of what the tecchie rats say, . . . DVD is not an exact science by any means, . . . and will most likely be replaced by something else long before it is ever "perfected".
Anyway, . . . may God bless,
Dwight

[Lozi]

Thanks for all these tips!

It just still is an unprecise sceince as one of you mentioned. For instance - I hear many talk about Nero while I had bad experience working with it on two different computers - last couple of times it crashed my new and beloved working station, after which I decided I don't even want to try it anymore.

I am also confused because some of you recommended certain relatively unknown media's while others say Id better concentrate on the more expensive ones, which sounds logical and coincides with my experience making normal cd's.

So far I tried both TDK and Philips using + and - and all are causing the same problems with normal players. However - another dvd I produced seems to work just fine. I'm quite disappointed and don't know anymore if it was such a good idea to get myself this hardware I so longed for.

Any well thought suggestions are still welcome.

[dwight55]

By the way, . . . I forgot to say that the media I have the best luck with is from WalMart, . . . and is labeled Memorex 4X. Others have bad mouthed it in this forum, . . . but it works for me. :P
May God bless,
Dwight

[FOO]

May God bless

Could you skip that ? It offends people with a brain

[ZippyP.]

. . and is labeled Memorex 4X. Others have bad mouthed it in this forum, . .

Memorex +R gets good reviews, it's the -R that's crappy. Look it up in the DVD Media section.

[ZippyP.]

I'm quite disappointed and don't know anymore if it was such a good idea to get myself this hardware I so longed for.

Any well thought suggestions are still welcome.

Thought/suggestion...since you're so discouraged I recommend that you give your DVD burner and extra disks to me. I will do you a favour and take them of your hands for a nominal fee.

[ZippyP.]

Regardless of what the tecchie rats say, . . . DVD is not an exact science by any means, . . .

I don't know any rats that said that DVD-R was an exact science. If anybody said that then they are a rat.

[Lozi]

Great!

I'm one step further, because of this wonderful remark about the Kb's per second! It was at 1500 and now its on 224. The commercial ones go just as fast as 192.

So - this new dvd I made works somewhat better: All the tracks now play separately ok, BUT: The next things are going wrong:

1st - Although I linked it good on the menu, the first chapter is always skipped. It starts always from the 2nd one! If I rewind it it plays perfectly, but I can never skip the dvd straight to it.

2ndly - Almost always between the chapters, when there are fade-outs and blackscreens (usualy also titles) it gets stuck.

I did do something a bit crazy (maybe) which is - I used the normal title-editor to make subtitles during two whole chapters. It doesn't seem to affect them while its playing but I can think of no reason why it should get stuck between the chapters.

Any clues?

NB Again: The authoring program I use is 'Pinnacle Studio 9.0' - and these dvd's work perfectly ok on my computer. The problem is still just on common players.

Still - Help!

[andyp1]

Lozi

You need one of these

http://www.1783.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=28&osCsid=ced8e4d855c6c575f7d9bbe93b13b750

[ricky1756]

I bought 2 of them, 1 for my car, works great.

[Lozi]

Dear people,

I'm still a bit hopeless here - right now I have finaly a dvd in which all the chapters are running ok, but only separately.

Between the chapters the player starts to stutter, and the first chapter is allways skipped.

What do you think is going wrong? I tried two different types of media, both + and - already. I don't want to spill so much money trying.