Lowering bitrate on a DVD-R?

[hscottm]

This is my second 'no easy answer found by searching here' question.

I downloaded all the files needed to burn my first DVD - of a live concert (not a commercial release - something traded amongst live music folks) - with a VIDEO_TS folder, and .VOB, .IFO, etc files. So I burned it on my Dual G4 Mac, but my Panasonic A-310 player doesnt seem to like it. This machine is OLD (2nd gen, bought Xmas 98). The compatibility charts have mixed reviews about its ability to play DVD-Rs, and also some notes about limited burning speeds, bitrates, etc. No surprise due to its age.

When I put this DVD-R in my 310, it plays fine for the first minute or so, but then seems to break up constantly and be almost unintelligible on the audio and video sides. I am trying to troubleshoot, and have seen similar results on a similarly old Panasonic player. The disc plays fine on my Mac G4 DVD-ROM drive. However, I would rather not have to connect my laptop up every time I want to watch a DVD-R. Further, I plan on downloading and burning more DVDs like this, and wont be buying a new player anytime soon.

Thus I would like to try to lower the bitrate (and also double check that I burned in 1x speed) to see if my player will deal with it. This is, as I said, more of a diagnostic thing to figure out whether playing DVD-Rs is hopeless on this player. But it could end up being a necessary step in future burns I do for myself.

It wasnt clear how I might use ffmpegx to do this (or if ffmpegx is really the best solution). It seemed most of the lower bitrate stuff has talked about taking raw video files - but I dont see raw video files in the VIDEO_TS folder I downloaded.

Any thoughts? The DVD-R doesnt seem to be full, but doesnt have tons of space left either.

[AntnyMD]

You've answered the question -- Your old DVD player basically doesnt like DVD-Rs .. or maybe it just doesn't like the DVD-R brand you're using. You can either upgrade your player, which these days won't set you back much, or you can test different brand media until you find the one your player likes.

[MikieV]

...and wont be buying a new player anytime soon...

With that as a given, I would focus on trying different brands of disc, to see if your player has a "favorite".

You also mentioned verifying the disc was burned at 1x - which could also be a problem. My old Sony player, since replaced by a JVC, didn't like VCDs burned at more than 1x or 2x - so you may see something similar with DVD-Rs on your player.

Have you checked the ffmpegX forum on this site? Have you checked the ffmpegX website? Have you searched for "transcoding" or "down-sampling" in this forum, or the ffmpegX one?

Not something I've ever done - but there has been discussion of it, in the past.

Mike

[hscottm]

I have seen the stuff on transcoding - but wasnt sure if that was the right approach. thanks.

Also - is there any way to tell what speed a disc was burned at? I'd rather not burn another disc at the same bitrate just to test whether the burn speed is what my player is allergic to.

[ZeroSix]

thats exactly what happens in my "newer" Pansonic when playing a disc it doesnt like.

Another suggestion is to find a media type that it likes, and always burn at 1x.

Sucks. :P

[hscottm]

thanks for suggestions. So what are suggestions on brands? And sources to buy them? The local 'electronics chains' only have the obvious mediocre brands (memorex, fuji, imation..).

I had seen reviews for my Panasonic 310 that said Pioneer and Apple discs worked fine - the disc I burned was Apple so I dont know what else to do.

I didnt know if there was some 'best brand' for Panasonic..

[ZeroSix]

See if you can find Verbatim... those and Apple are the best I have found, but they are higher than hell.