Commercial DVD's possible this way?

[insaprsr]

I have a 45 minute video that I've been selling on vhs for a few years, just a couple a month, probably not enough to go to a commercial shop to do what I want to do, be able to offer it on DVD as well as vhs. I have already converted the orginal master to an avi, and then made a dvd (pretty much as described below) for myself which I use as a master to grind out the occasional vhs for customers, and that's fine; but I don't want to have problems with DVD player compatibility issues if I begin selling
this on DVD. If I do the following, am I going to have the best possible compatibility with peoples' DVD players, or should I be doing more, or (and/or) am I going to have problems with some customers just not being able to play the DVD no matter what?
Everthing is for the North American NTSC market: avi to TEMPGnc Plus 2.5 to TEMPGEnc DVD Author (no tricky stuff, just full screen and chapters) to a standard DVD-R media like maxell 4.7 8x burned with a tdk dvdrw880n at 8x (would I be smarter to burn at 4x)?

[hech54]

1) Look into buying Taiyo Yuden blank media.
2) Taiyo Yuden media is EXELLENT but equally important is that it comes "naked" with no writing on it whatsoever...looks a bit more professional than sending someone a DVD with Maxell or TDK on it....the same ones they see in a store.
I've been using TDA and even Ulead Movie Factory 2 for my DVD's....then selling them occasionally...compatibility will never (or hardly ever) be foolproof or guaranteed.
Just my 2 cents.

[Capmaster]

Good advice Hech I'm a TY fan too

[Richard_G]

I sold 56 copies of one of my projects and had 1 come back as unplayable (but they were trying to play it on a PS2). I saved an iso of the DVD on hard drive and just burned from that as a copy was required. I did a lot of research and it seems that -R media is more compatible than +R, so went for that. At the time, Ritek G04 seemed to be the one to go for so I used those. More recently, G04 went down the pan and I don't feel confident in using Ritek again in case the G05 does the same.

I've got another project coming up so have been doing some testing and I will be using Taiyo Yuden next time too. I haven't had a duff one yet (and I've recently bought a Sony DVD/VHS combo which seems to be about as picky as you can get). I'll be buying the plain white inkjet printables so I can use the Epson R200 which I intend buying at the same time.

[hech54]

Good advice Hech I'm a TY fan too

I learned from the best...

[Gurm]

The issue is that you WILL get a few people here and there that can't play your discs. You'll get that regardless of whether it's +R or -R. It's just a fact of life - offer prompt replacement (most people who can't play +R will have good luck with -R so keep a few on hand...) and/or refund (people with shitty PS2's can't view ANYTHING burnt), and suck it up as part of doing business.

[insaprsr]

Thanks, all, for the suggestions! Yes, I'll definitely get the media you've recommended! One more thing-- I'd like to put a label, such as a Data Becker White or Memorex high gloss, using the available larger-sized hole, so I can home-print it. Have tried it and works fine on my own players, but would that increase compatibility problems?

[Sabro]

PS2's, atleast the new generations read both -/+ burnt disc as mine does fine with them.

However, they do tend to be picky with cheap media...go with the TY's as suggested or another quality brand and that will certainly cut down on the compat issues.

Sabro

[hech54]

Sticky labels have been discussed here at great length...from what I've read...more problems than benefits.

[insaprsr]

OK, for maximum compatibility hold the labels, use TY DVD-R. Can Do! Any other suggestions?

[insaprsr]

For example, if the TY media is 4x, would it make sense to burn at 2x?

[Richard_G]

Not sure. It always used to be the case that a slower burn gave better results but there was a thread on here recently where someone found slower burns were worse. Possibly something to do with overheating the dye layer. I've alway stuck with what the media is intended for, burn 4x at 4x, 8x at 8x, etc.

General consensus seems to be that labels are a definite no-no. Some people have had no problems but others have had major ones. It could be a good way of making your disks a lot less compatible. For that reason, I figure the price of an Epson R200 (under £80 in the UK) that will let me print straight onto the disks to be money well spent. A professional looking job that won't affect playability.

[bugster]

OK, for maximum compatibility hold the labels, use TY DVD-R. Can Do! Any other suggestions?

Personally I would go with Richard_G's suggetstion of a cheap disk printer like the R200 and Inkjet printable TY's.

[insaprsr]

Will definitely not use labels.
Wondering now what the difference would be between burning from ts folder using the burn tool within TEMPGnc DVD Author, or making an ISO file and then I guess I'd have to burn with another tool. Any difference in quality or nuisance between the two?

[insaprsr]

Whoops, found that TMPGEnc DVD Author also has a built in tool to burn an ISO file to a DVD.
But the question remains, is there anything better or worse about burning a dvd from an ISO or a ts folder?

[hech54]

I haven't found any difference other than DVDDecrypter burns ISO's and it's free....so it is more of a convenience "thing" in my mind.

[zworg2]

PS2's, atleast the new generations read both -/+ burnt disc as mine does fine with them.

my PS2 was bought as soon as it was released here (UK) and i have had no problems with the burnt +R that i have tried in it.

[MpegEncoder]

Whoops, found that TMPGEnc DVD Author also has a built in tool to burn an ISO file to a DVD.
But the question remains, is there anything better or worse about burning a dvd from an ISO or a ts folder?

The disk must be made properly to be a DVD-Video. DVD Author knows how to do that, as do many other programs like Nero, mkisofs, etc.

It's more subtle than just creating an ISO image without the proper underling data structures (UDF). If you do it wrong, you'll have compatiblity problems.

[Gurm]

Ok, earlier PS2's (versions 4 and under in the US and Japan) have LOUSY lasers. Anything newer is fine.

As for burning, burn at 4x. If it's 8x media... still burn at 4x. But no need to go slower than that.

[MpegEncoder]

As for burning, burn at 4x. If it's 8x media... still burn at 4x. But no need to go slower than that.

No need to go that slow. This "don't burn at full speed" stuff is nonsense. I have always burnt disks (CD's and DVD's) at full speed and have never had any problems. If you have problems, there's probably something wrong with your system.

[Gurm]

*ahem*

Do a kprobe of a disc sometime.

I _can_ burn at 8x. The burns are much BETTER at 4x. That's just how it is. It's not an urban legend - the scans show it.

That's just my two cents - your mileage may vary. And frankly, I like not having to walk away from the machine while it's burning.

And if you've always burnt CD's at full speed, CLEARLY you've never used one of your burnt CD's in a Playstation. Playstations just ignore discs burned faster than a certain speed, and they stutter on anything burned faster than 8x, at times.

There ARE cases where it's warranted. As for current DVD speeds - many non-SATA systems can't deliver sustained throughput for 8x, 12, 16x DVD burns. They just can't. 4x is safe.

[GeorgeW]

just something to consider regarding the burn speed...

if your burner switches speeds during the burn, some folks have reported issues when the speed changes (like a "glitch" at the spot that the burn speed changes). Take a look at the bottom of your 8x or 16x burned dvd (one with more than 3gb). See if there are any differences in the color -- where the color changes might be where the burn speed changed..

Of course, too many variables at play (disc type, burner, software, encoded bitrates, set-top dvd player, etc...).

What works for some, might not work for all...