why do cds or dvds stick or show squares or slow down when playing?

[wan2no]

Can somebody give me some reasons?
I have a video that is good one the pc and when i burn it all these different effects occur

[Baldrick]

Are you doing any conversion, like convert avi to dvd-video?

Or just burn the video as data cd/dvd? THen I would guess it's crappy media.

[wan2no]

i am doing mpeg to dvd-video

oh probably it is the dvds then but geez it seems like a real hit or miss when buy dvds becuz the dvds i have are tdk's dvd-r

So if it is a scratch which i think it is, isn't there a way around it?

[bendixG15]

................... THen I would guess it's crappy media.

Mine too.

[redwudz]

What program are you using to create the DVD? I would try what Baldrick suggested and try burning one of your MPEG files directly to DVD media as data and see how that looks. If your authoring program is re-encoding the MPEG, that can cause problems. Nero is well known to do that.

How long is the video? If you try to put more than a couple of hours on a DVD and you don't use the correct process, that can degrade the video.

Usually poor quality DVD media is more likely to cause skipping or pauses, not blocking. But I would try some different brands. Verbatim brands are usually available most anywhere and should be good quality.

[oldandinthe way]

It could be a crappy burner.

It could be crappy media. But other folks get better results with TDK than you do.

It could be a burner and media combination which is crap. Firmware upgrade might help but some burners are highly limited in the media they can reliably burn.

It could be a player which does not like your burns.

The easiest fix is using other media. It works for a lot of people who post on this forum.

If TDK is failing - HP, Imation and a lot of other brands which are made by the same company will probably also fail.

[wan2no]

if it is my burner what do I do besides throw it away. The burner was working very fine up until now. I had bought 3 different brands of dvds, which are tdk, maxidisc and jvc.

[redwudz]

Those may or may not be good media. But your description of the problem seems to relate more to media. But there could be other causes. As mentioned earlier, macro blocking can be from your encoding. Try using a program like DVD Shrink and a commercial disc and convert it to DVD-5 and see how it burns. That might tell you if it's the burner or the source media and your encoding methods.

Macro blocking is more often from too low a bitrate for your source. Usually bad media causes pauses in the playback instead.

If it does seem to relate to your burner, you might try a firmware upgrade. That is usually for newer or more brands of media to make them compatible for burns. Most times, it's easier to try different brands of media.

But I would review your methods and see if there is something in your encoding or authoring, or less likely, your burning program, that is causing all this. If all that fails, then consider replacing the burner. They are cheap at present, so the cost may be less than changing media brands at times.

[lordsmurf]

TDK = CMC = crap

[wan2no]

okay sorry to bug you all once again.

The problem seemed to be my burner. I went to a friend and got it burned and it is showing clean. However, another problem has arised. I have 2 dvd players: a portable and a stand alone dvd player. Now when i tested the dvd when i burnt them by the friend; it worked fine. I came home tested it on my portable and it worked fine; however, when I put the dvd in my standalone it is sticking, I mean it is not showing the squares and sticking, it is just sticking.

Now my standalone is a Toshiba that was bought back in '99 and my portable is a Coby which is '07 model and i can not remember what dvd player my friend has.

What does the problem sound like? Does it sound like the type of CD?

[Krispy Kritter]

The new problem also sounds like a media issue.

You basically have two choices in this situation. 1) Buy a quality media like Verbatim or Taio Yuden. These are known to have the fewest issues. 2) Experiment with different brands/types of media until you find one that works in all of your hardware. And you can't always just go by the name brand. I've seen instances where Sony -R 8x media works fine and then Sony -R 16x won't play at all.

On a side note, you can look up your players in the DVD Players section and see which brands/types of media other users have had success using (again you will have to find one that is common to both of your players). You should also verify all of your players support -R or +R media, whichever you are trying to use. I've always had good luck using -R media. If you are trying to use +R media, ensure you are bit setting to DVD ROM, if your burner supports it.

[TimA-C]

Also, try running your authored video through something like PVA Strumento or G-spot to check that you haven't got any big spikes in your bitrate. Some authoring packages do let them through and many stand-alone DVD players can't handle them. I had a client who had a number of DVDs of a school charity trip to Africa that had been put together by one of the parents, and they all behaved similar to yours. (The DVDs not the parents!) I ran one of them through PVA Strumento and it came back with a maximum bitrate of over 17,000kb/s. I re-encoded it and re-authored it and it was fine.

The other thing that sprung to mind reading your posts was what speeds are you writing at? I find that most of my equipment are happy with Verbatim 16X +Rs written at 12X except for my ageing Liteon 5006B DVD recorders which sometimes have hiccups. However, if I write at 8X then not only do the Liteons read them OK but some of the other players will read the disk and display the opening menu noticeably more quickly.

Hope this helps.

[wan2no]

thanks alot. you have all open my eyes to somethings i was definitely doing wrong. I appreciate it