problems with DVDs skipping/not copying properly

[tandt2k2]

I have a fairly new refurbished eMachine that my brother gave to me with an HP lightscribe DVD burner that was only bought in August. I cannot get our HP drive to make working back-ups of my DVDS anymore after about two months of use. The DVDs are now coming out with skips in them that cause the picture and sound to hang when played on my RCA player I just bought two weeks ago that is rated for +-R as well as RWs. It will play my older DVD backups that worked when I first got the drive.

I regularly air-dust my drives once a week (we have a long haired cat and a short haired dog that both shed) and use a DVD disc cleaner at least once a month (sometimes every two weeks if it seems discs are working at a worse rate). I have never done a firmware update and I use EasyDVDclone (a sister company of easy dvd shrink that they recommended when easy dvd shrink was not working for me). I've been using EasyDVDclone for nearly a year on my old eMachine that was also refurbished and came with it's DVD drive (type unknown but I can look it up).

Is there anything to be done to fix this skipping issue with my dvds? It has been happening to every disc I've made back-ups of in the past month... and I know the nexxtech discs I have been using worked before. As well as TDK, and Memorex. The drive states it can read at a 16x speed so we never get anything above 16x (usually we prefer 8X - seems to work better). The DVDs I've attempted copying vary in production companys but I do try to avoid sony because I've had the most trouble with them. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Especially if there is a way I can make it so I can back-up my entire film collection. I collect DVDs and CDs as a hobby and would prefer to watch copies to preserve my store-boughts. Hope I gave enough information, let me know if I haven't.

[redwudz]

Before you give up on the burner, you might try RipIt4Me>DVD Shrink>ImgBurn. In particular ImgBurn may help. There is also a version of DVD Shrink that uses ImgBurn automatically to burn. You can get it from this site: http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=63869

And you can also try some different DVD media. It can change by batch with some brands. Just because it worked in the past doesn't guarantee that it is still the same. Media is the easiest thing to change and the most common cause of read/burn problems with DVDs.

[tandt2k2]

Okay, I tried getting ripit4me, as well as the other two programs it recommended, but this did not work. It ran all the way through but my player said there were no playback features. The player is suppose to work for -R (which I've been using) and it does work with half the discs of same brand/ same spindle but not the other. I have also tried a firmware update for my drive that I found available by going to HP's website. Is there something I might be doing wrong?

[GKar]

Try playing the dvd's on your computer and see if they skip with Media Player Classic or something similar or on another dvd player.

[handyguy]

Try writing at 2x & write faster from there.

[tandt2k2]

I wrote the disc at 4x, did not see a slower write speed on DVD shrink than that.

Disc wouldn't work on two different DVD players as well as the computer. "No playback feature" for error message on DVD player (magnavox). Wouldn't read at all on RCA or computer.

Something definitely got written though, by looking at the bottom of the disc.

[tandt2k2]

Do scratches on a disc have anything to do with the quality of the output disc? We had some discs with deep scratches or a lot of scratches that don't seem to want to copy well at all, but other times when they are badly scratched, they will work. Is there any more reason to why this might be the case? And so far we only got dvdshrink to work for us (paired with ripit4me) if we do full movie. Do you have to open every folder? And can we uncheck languages and such that are unwanted on the backup screen for dvd shrink? So far everything has been hit or miss whether or not it'll work, using the same pack of media for all of them... Anything we might be doing wrong or could be suggested is greatly welcomed. Thank you.

[GKar]

Scratches on the disk you are copying or on the blank you are copying to? Ripit4me uses FixVTS (if you added it) which usually tells you if the source was read with a problem and will allow you to re-rip the bad VTS (s). If you ripped with ripit4me (with fixvts installed) and you received no error and you burn an unreadble disk:

1) burners are around $30
2) 100 blank Verbatims or Taiyo Yudens are around $30

Your choice or both

[tandt2k2]

Thanks GKar. You've been very helpful.

Looks like we're going to have to buy a new burner... can you recommend a site better than newegg.com. What DVD player, burner and multimedia at a cheap rate do you recommend? My family of three is in the process of moving and don't have much money for "luxuries" as some put it.

If you don't mind, which ones do you prefer as well (considering we figure the discs you mention are your preferred brand)?

Thank you again for everyone who has helped us with our technological problems.

[tandt2k2]

GKar,

Oh, and the skipping issue has been discs that are scratched we're trying to duplicate. Not the discs we are copying to.

It has varied greatly on what skips most or why. Very hit or miss (hurts our minds since some are pristine store bought condition - no hairs, no dust, no finger prints - and even some of those haven't worked. Which makes us wonder if the disc itself can't copy due new copy-right protection, or if it's just our burner is garbage (which has been our latest conclusion after the failure of Little Miss Sunshine over four times and each time it said it completed successfully, but won't play on ANYTHING - computer included).

It seems once in a blue moon we get something that works perfectly. Especially considering these are discs watched on an old player. We are also running into discs that won't even play on the computer though the program says they were copied successfully.

[redwudz]

I like Pioneer, but I've had no problems with Benq or Sony burners or many others. HP branded drives, on the other hand, seem to be problematic.

Just my opinion, but Newegg is about good as any supplier. No complaints from me. I generally use a separate DVD ROM for reading, but with the low price of burners, probably better just reading with a burner.

And I would definitely recommend TY (Taiyo Yuden) brand DVD media. You may have to mail order it, but you really can't get much better and the price is competitive with lesser brands at present.

[pinetop]

Are using the computer while its burning a DVD?

This has caused pauses and skips when the DVD is played for alot of people. I always let my computers perform one task, burning a perfect DVD.

[tandt2k2]

Pinetop-
We only let the computer concentrate on the DVD process. Nothing else. Didn't want to overload the system.

redwudz-
Thanks. My friend recommended Newegg too. It really does seem to be an HP issue for this computer, especially with the drive being fairly new and us using two DVD-rom drives for everything.