Most likley cause(s) of DVD incompatability?

[des10rpc]

Hopefully somebody can point in the right direction here........

I have been lucky enough to produce many DVD's with no playback issues. Latest production however has produced some stalling /freezing / pixelating when played on another DVD player (no further details of problem or player spec available as yet).

I'm putting this down to a compatability issue with the DVD player.......question is, what is the most likely problem to allow me to prioritise a remedy.

Current setup as follows:
Capture: Pinnacle DV500
Edit: Adobe Premiere 6
Author: DVD Lab
Burn: DVD Decrypter to burn
Drive: NEC 1300
Media: Verbatim DVD-R 5

I'm guessing that drive and/or media are the most likely culprits so have upgraded firmware.....will this make any difference? Worthwhile trying different media or do I need consider changing setup / drive to achieve better compatability? 'm starting to produce DVD's for more people and would like to avoid these problems as much as possible.

Any advice greatly appreciated before I end up spending cash on the wrong solution.

Thanks
Des

[GeorgeW]

What video bitrate did you use this time? and what type of audio?

Some DVD Players choke on video+audio bitrates higher than 8000kbps (I like to encode to about 7000kbps video+audio).

The problem could be cause by higher bitrates (even VBR encoding sometimes "spikes" over the stated MAX bitrate).

Some things to consider:
-check your bitrates (use either Dolby Digital or mpeg-audio for PAL).
-Burn at slower speeds
-Don't apply sticky labels to your dvd

[Captain Satellite]

Add media to that list.

[des10rpc]

Thanks for thoughts....

1) Have been using vbr average of 6,000 and max of 8,000......will try with max pegged down to 7,000.

2) I burn only at 2x (seems to be maximum that NEC 1300 can handle without falling over)

3) What is issue with stickers? I have printer which can print to DVD but have struggled to find decent quality printable DVD's hence labels being used.

4) Media - Is this less/more likley to be issue than items 1-3 or is the whole thing still trial & error (if you don't know the specific brand of player)?

Appreciate your time / expertise.
thanks
Des

ps - this site / forum has been an absolute gem for learning the ropes. Thanks All.

[Krispy Kritter]

First I would find out the brand/model of the standalone in question. Then check the database to see what media is compatible with that player.

And I have also encountered the label issue. A little WD40 gets the label off in minutes...then the disc plays fine. go figure

[nic2k4]

It could be that the media you used is not compatible with the NEC's burn strategy for the 2x speed. This is why Nero doesn't make all speeds available sometimes. I had a disc that was recorded at 2x, it played choppy and froze at 20 min. Upgraded the burner firmware, the 1x and 2x speeds weren't available anymore for that media. I burned a new disc at 4x and it played fine. I ran Kprobe on both discs, the 2x disc had PIF errors in the 250 range and didn't go to the end. The 4x disc's PIF errors didn't exceed 18, this was one of the cleanest burn I'd seen.

[des10rpc]

Thanks All.......still waiting to find out full details of the problem but believe now that the issue may be intermittent (indicates possible label problem after all perhaps?).

Regardless, once I get more details will redo discs using your various suggestions. Thanks again for all interest.

Off to buy myself some printable DVD's!

Des