Intermittent Pixelating and Picture Freezing Problem

[sprint1one]

Help!

I have successfully archived most of my DVDs over the last few months using DVD Shrink and DVDXCopy. In the last last few weeks, I have encountered several minor technical difficulties with several of my archive copies. When I play them back on my JVC and Sony progressive scan players the picture will either freeze or will “pixelate” (break up/dissipate), or won’t "boot" because it isn't recognized by the player. For some reason, I do not encounter any of these “problems” when I play these "problem" DVDs on my cheap $50 Apex non-progressive scan DVD player.

Any thoughts or comments on how I can further try to isolate what is causing the problem? Why will my Apex player play these DVDs and the other players won't? I don’t believe I am having a problem with my burner, but I can’t think of how else to try to isolate the problem. (The PC is connected to a UPS, so stable power shouldn't be--I hope--an issue. I'm running XP Pro, 2.3+ Ghz P4, 512 Mb ram and no applications are running in the background.)

[Tommyknocker]

Have you switched media recently?

[sprint1one]

Tommyknocker,

I generally only use name brand media such as Phillips, TDK, 3M/Imation, Sony and Memorex. I may have recently switched to Memorex because I have had good burns on this media in the past. If it is a media problem, can you explain what is causing the problems in laymans terms (i.e., picture pixelating and freezing). Is there any way to check the media before burning a coaster? Also, if the media is the problem, why will my cheapo $50 Apex play the problem disks without any difficulties, but my JVC and Sony progressive scan players won't?

Thank you for your insight.

[Gees]

Different players have different results with different media.

I'll never know why, but it seems often the cheapest players play the widest range of discs problem-free.

First place to check for some detective work :c) are the databases on the left.

Look up the problem Players in DVD Players. See which type/brand discs work best for other owners.

Look up you current discs in DVD Media. Read comments on successes/failures there.

You can use both those resources when considering your next purchase of discs.

Happy hunting. Good luck. :c)

[northcat_8]

It sounds like a media issue to me.

If they will play but get blocky or sticky...that's media, especially if they play fine in a different player.

I know I say this in just about every post where media is an issue, but go to www.shop3tech.com and purchase some Authentic Ritek 1x - 4x (Ritek Bundled) discs. They are the RitekG04 discs and you shouldn't have any problems.

I bought a 5 pack of Memorex when I first bought my burner, I made my first backup on Memorex and had similar issues to what you are experiencing. Someone told me that Ritek is the one, I bought some and never looked back...and haven't had any problems since. In addition to backing up my dvd's, I also do original DVD video like weddings, highlight videos, vacations, etc, etc. I only burn on Ritek and I have never had a complaint about a DVD not playing and I've sold over 700 DVD's to almost 700 different people.

Just my opinion...but Ritek has never failed me.

[Bodene]

In another thread, someone complained of the exact same issue. Several people, including me, thought he needed different media. But when they replaced their APEX with another brand, the problem was solved.

Moral to the story: Avoid APEX

[ddlooping]

Bodene, in this case, the Apex is the player capable of playing the backups.

My vote goes to: bad media.
(these JVC and Sony players might be more picky about what you feed them)

[verchad]

I have a panasonic dmr-hs2 and use it to make most of my dvd-r's. I recently have had the pixelating problems with some of my discs on different players. It seems to be that some players don't like some types of media. My problems have come with more of the off branded stuff. Some of the discs that have problems on my panasonic, apex, and or koss units do not seem to be much trouble for my pc dvd-r/rw drive to play (cendyne/pioneer 104). I have read somewhere a theory that it could have something to do with the laser power/strength? I don't know, but as soon as I finish with my last cheap dvd-r I'll only start buying stuff with a good reputation.

[i am x]

Help!

I have successfully archived most of my DVDs over the last few months using DVD Shrink and DVDXCopy. In the last last few weeks, I have encountered several minor technical difficulties with several of my archive copies. When I play them back on my JVC and Sony progressive scan players the picture will either freeze or will “pixelate” (break up/dissipate), or won’t "boot" because it isn't recognized by the player. For some reason, I do not encounter any of these “problems” when I play these "problem" DVDs on my cheap $50 Apex non-progressive scan DVD player.

Any thoughts or comments on how I can further try to isolate what is causing the problem? Why will my Apex player play these DVDs and the other players won't? I don’t believe I am having a problem with my burner, but I can’t think of how else to try to isolate the problem. (The PC is connected to a UPS, so stable power shouldn't be--I hope--an issue. I'm running XP Pro, 2.3+ Ghz P4, 512 Mb ram and no applications are running in the background.)

If they're playing on your Apex, but not on the other 2 players, then I'd guess that the problem is not the players. It's highly unlikely that both your progressive scan players are going out at the same time. Apex's play anything. I also have a 50 dollar Apex, and the only thing it won't play is +R discs. It plays anything else I put in it. Have you changed ANYTHING as far as the way you've backed up your discs? If you've changed the type of discs you buy, the speed you burn them at, the software you use to burn them, the SETTINGS you have on the software.....ANY of that can cause a different burn on a disc. Also, here's another guess. I have XP HOME, and recently, for no reason whatsoever, I wasn't able to burn DVD's with TMPEG DVD Author. It REFUSED to burn them. Now mind you, nothing as far as I could remember had changed....that is, except for the fact that XP CONTINUOUSLY bugs you about new bug fix downloads, I believe most of them are security patches and whatnot, and it is pretty automated. You simply click on the info bubble, and they automatically download and self install. New ones pop up for you to download and install every few days. Well, these things were the only changes that had been made to my system in 3 weeks. So I got on this board, and read that someone was having a similar problem, and they did a system restore to a previous date, and the problem went away. So guess what? I DID A SYSTEM RESTORE TO A TIME ABOUT 2 WEEKS EARLIER, AND POOF, I WAS ABLE TO BURN DVD'S WITH TMPEG DVD AUTHOR AGAIN. My advice to you........DO A SYSTEM RESTORE, IF ALL ELSE FAILS. Set it to a time about a week or so before your problems began. If you truly didn't do anything else to cause the discs to magically stop working, then I wouldn't be surprised if a system restore does the trick. After you do the system restore, BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT WHICH OF THOSE AUTOMATIC SECURITY PATCH UPDATES YOU LET XP INSTALL! To this day, I don't know which one was the culprit, but I simply don't accept ANY of those auto downloads anymore. I burn ALL the time, and I don't have time to worry about which incoming programs are going to f$*k up my DVD back up capabilities.

[Gurm]

Memorex sometimes makes crap discs.

In the store, you have a few choices for good media.

Fuji - is generally quite good. I use them all the time with no problems.
Imation - has been good for me, I don't use them that often though.
Verbatim - was EXCELLENT, but has since switched sources for the media.

Basically, there's LOTS of crap media out there. Order some Ritek.

- Gurm