Problems burning DVDs with LiteOn 811s

[tomstevens26]

Hey everyone. Please bear with me...this is a bit long!

I sure hope someone here can help! I recently installed a LiteOn 811s and have yet to backup a DVD movie successfully. What I mean by successfully is a movie that doesn't skip, or garble, or freeze, or even jump back to the standalone DVD player menu of "Insert Disc". Let me explain what I've done so far...

I have tried the following programs to rip the source DVD:
DVD Shrink
DVD Decrypter

I have burned the DVDs (everything from 1x up to 8x) with:
Nero 6
CloneDVD
Alcohol 120%
DVD Decrypter
CopyToDVD

I have used 4 different forms of media:
Memorex 4x DVD+R
Memorex 4x DVD-R
DVD+R (unknown brand that came with the drive)
DVD+RW (unknown brand that came with the drive)

I've tried ripping with DVD Decrypter, then converting it to an ISO file, and buring it that way rather than burning the VIDEO_TS folder.

I have even went so far as to install this drive in another PC with the same outcome.

Also, the ripped movies play just fine on the hard drive when playing them through PowerDVD. So the ripping process seems to work.

DVDs that I backup are still acting unpredictable. For example, my most recent backup (House of 1000 Corpses) would play fine on my 16x DVD writer in another PC. On my Toshiba standalone player it would play fine until the next to last chapter. On my RCA standalone player it would mess up about halfway into the movie. I would think a bad burn would produce the same problems regardless of what unit it is playing in...correct? It would even mess up when trying to play it both on the LiteOn DVD burner and the LiteOn 16x DVDROM in another PC. In both cases, PowerDVD would pop up a message suggesting that I clean the DVD as "problems are preventing playback."

Also, the DVDs don't start messing up at the same point. For example, I tried backing up The Hulk. When I first put it in my Toshiba standalone player, the trailers played fine, then you get to the main menu. Everything appeared to work. Just to see if it worked again, I ejected the disc, reloaded it, and sure enough, it started skipping at the trailers, and jumped to main menu. When I tried to play the movie, and skip from chapter to chapter, it would skip to the chapter, but then start stuttering. The picture would then freeze but you could see the timer/counter jump 10, 15, 20, etc... seconds ahead, until it reached the end of the menu.

Given all of this, I'm really starting to suspect the drive is bad. Thursday, I built the PC that this drive was in. I used this drive to install the OS and all of my applications and did not have a problem. I've even burned a couple of data CDRs that verified the data after backup and performed correctly when I copied that data to another PC. So, can the drive read correctly, and burn CDs correctly, but have a hardware problem when burning DVDs?

So, what should I do? Does it sound like a bad drive to you guys? I just don't understand how it can be a bad drive when it comes to burning DVDs, yet every other function works. It also boggles my mind that if the discs were bad, then the point at which they start screwing up would be the same in all players. I've pulled it and have it sitting on my desk, ready to RMA. I'm at my wits end with thing and would really appreciate any help!!

Thanks for any advice!!
Tom

[northcat_8]

Do the DVD's play fine from the HD after compression? Using Daemon Tools you can play a DVD from an ISO file, compression sometimes screws up the DVD structure.

the DVDs don't mess up at the same point. For example, When I first put it in my Toshiba standalone player, the trailers played fine, then you get to the main menu. Everything appeared to work. Just to see if it worked again, I ejected the disc, reloaded it, and sure enough, it started skipping at the trailers, and jumped to main menu. When I tried to play the movie, and skip from chapter to chapter, it would skip to the chapter, but then start stuttering.

That sounds to me like bad media. If you burnt it and it played correctly the first time then evidently it burned correctly. Now taking it out and reloading it and it not working right...that's a bit confusing but if I had to render an opinion I would say that is bad media. The only other thing it could be is maybe there is some dirt in your DVD tray and it is scratching the disc. If you take it out and put it back in does it skip in the same spots or different spots?

Here's something for you to try...burn a DVD to a RW disc then rip it with DVD Decrypter in file mode, once on your HD in it's VIDEO_TS folder play the movie from the folder and see if it's alright, if it is...then the burner is not the problem. If there is a problem many time Decrypter will not rip the file and you'll get an error during the rip. I would try ripping the "HULK" that you burned and are having problems with.

I'm not familiar with the Liteon burner, it could very well be your drive but it doesn't sound like it to me, if it were the drive instead of the media it would skip in the same spots but yours don't, that means the video is on the disc, you are just having trouble reading it...that sounds like media to me.

Use RitekG04 media...

[countryboy]

I agree with northcat_8. It looks like it is media problem. I also own a Liteon burner, though it is 411, not 811. Those burners are already known to be extremely picky about media, especially when you want to write video to it. I think you have to find the right combination of burning software and media that fits best your burner and standalone player. Some of my personal experience: Nero 6 worked almost OK, but there were "gaps" in audio during first 20-25 secs of the movie. When I tried to burn ISO file to DVD+R, everything worked well - but it won't play in my standalone player. After some time I found out that I should use MCC or TY media for best results and burn with RecordNow. It does not mean that it is the same in every case, but with Liteon burners it may be quite narrow path. Try to find yours.
There are some forums whre people discuss Liteon problems. You may find a list of recommended media there.

Countryboy