Bad Copy?

[agent222]

An acquaintance made a "back up" of an DVD I had made. But after he played the "back up" on his system, which is a 61" TV (I believe that is the size,) and, a Blu Ray DVD player, he complained to me that the "back up" was unwatchable.
He remarked that "the pixels (from the video) were too far apart" so the picture was blurry, and, that the sound track was so far out of sync that it was unintelligible.

I watched my original, on what is admittedly a less sophisticated system, but experienced none of those problems.

Now, as I understand it, generally speaking, a "back up" is as good as an original, no matter what type of system it's played back on.

So, that leads me to believe that the problem possibly is in one of these areas,
1) the software used to back the "back up"
2) the media used to make the "back up"
or, 3) the equipment used to make the "back up"

What I'm asking our beloved moderator, and, the group, am I right in my understanding about "back ups" and, if so, am I right in suspecting one of the three areas I listed as the problem?

[jman98]

Your acquaintance is what we call a "dumb ass". Anyone who says "the pixels were too far apart" qualifies as a dumb ass. That's just idiotically wrong.

Most likely you have 2 causes for the problems.
1) Your media. Why didn't you tell us what brand and type of disc you burned to?
2) His player. His player may not like your brand of media. It may not like DVD+R and you used DVD-R or vice-versa. You may have used +/-RW discs and it doesn't like them. It may not like DL discs if you used them. Many BluRay players are incredibly fussy about what they will play.
You may even have used good media and done everything right and it's his problem. It may even be that his crap player requires you to bit set the discs (I hate that) if you used DVD+R.

It would have been good to know how you made the backup, but probably that's not the issue if it plays OK on your DVD player.

[agent222]

I'm afraid I don't know what brand,format of media, my acquaintance used to make the "back up," nor, do I know what software he used, or, even the make and model of his BluRay player.

But, even if I don't have those details, your questions to my posting, Jman, leads me to believe that I was right in thinking that it was the "back up," not my original. Presuming all things being equal, my original would have played fine in his system. Something went wrong in creating the "back up."

[jman98]

My bad. You did state that you didn't make the backup. I just read your post quickly and neglected to pay attention to that.

There's really nothing you can do since you didn't do it. Yes, the problem is surely not with your original, but since you know nothing about what he did, what he used, or even his player, it's your acquaintance's problem to fix, not yours.

[agent222]

Yes, that is what I thought. Again, what I was looking for was confirmation that all things being equal, a "back up" should be equal in quality to an original. Since my acquaintance said his "back up" was not, obviously something WAS NOT equal. Something on his end was messed up.

my thanks, jman for that confirmation.

[lordsmurf]

Your acquaintance is what we call a "dumb ass".

So true.

You find these all over the place -- in your family, in the office, etc.

[classfour]

It'd be the last "backup" he received from me.

Some people just can't figure how to take responsibility for their own actions....

[manono]

Again, what I was looking for was confirmation that all things being equal, a "back up" should be equal in quality to an original.

No, the backup will never be equal in quality to the source (unless it's a simple 1:1 copy). Since I agree with the others that your friend is incompetent, then the chances are good that he's not very experienced in backing up DVDs, and probably didn't do as good a job as someone with more knowledge and experience might.

Having said that, watching your original homemade DVD on your TV wouldn't provide the same experience as watching it on his system. There's at least a fair chance your original isn't all that good. If I were you, and if it were possible, I'd take your copy over to his house and play it on his much better TV set and see if your DVD and his backup of your DVD are noticeably different in quality.

[Nelson37]

It took that many posts to get the right answer?

Using two different people, with two different systems, in an attempt to evaluate whether or not two different disks are identical in quality, is just silly.

When testing a possible variable, there needs to be NO OTHER VARIABLES. Otherwise, you're just guessing, and wasting your time. Please re-read your own statement "All things being equal". I don't think there is one that goes "with almost everything being different to start with ..."

You might have a bad copy, or a very good one. Your disk could be bad quality, or very good. Your friends TV might have a bad picture, or a very good one. Your friends DVD player might give bad quality, or very good. Your friend's eyesight might be bad, or very good. Your friend might just be trying to piss you off.

If the viewer's large TV is a projection model, the time of day that he watched it becomes a major factor. In bright lighting, some TV's can show a gridlike pattern which might appear to be caused by excessive pixel seperation.

[classfour]

Nelson: Couldn't the "friend" have just mucked the whole thing up?

I believe we all did when starting out on DVD backups.

[Nelson37]

Sure, that would be one possibility.

What I was trying to point out is that at this point, it is simply a guess. An actual answer based on fact is usually better.