Flawless copy's most of the time realistic?

[LT9000]

Hello, I am new to the world of DVD burning (although I have been audio CD burning for a while.) I learned to do this in a few days by reading this forum. I am using DVD Decrypter, and DVD Shrink, with an external LG super-multi drive attached via USB 2.0 to a Dell P4 w/ 512 ram, burned on DVD-R’s. I usually burn at 4x after closing all other programs and then I leave the PC alone.

It’s going pretty well so far, but there is one problem I want to ask about.

All of the 4 or 5 movies I have copied so far have a “digital break-up” type glitch (pixilation I believe) that lasts about a second or 2, which occurs about once every 30 - 45 minutes on average. (It is true that some of the DVD’s have some scratches/imperfections on them or are only in fair condition.)

A few related questions:

Does anyone out there get glitch-free copy’s most of the time (and if so, are your source DVD’s in near perfect condition?), or are these imperfections just the present state of the technology right now?

What is usually the main culprit that causes these video copy glitches? (For ex. the rip, drive problems, media, etc.)

What can I do to ensure the best chance of a “flawless” copy? (For example software settings, burn speed, media, etc.) I’m not sure what else I need to be doing for better copy’s.

Thanks in advance for any input.

[guns1inger]

First, when you rip the dvd using DVD Decrypter, does it encounter andy read errors ? And after ripping, do these glitches appear if you play the disc back from your HDD ? DVD rippers read the disc as data files, and if they don't produce read errors then they have read everything successfully, regardless of any imperfections you may see on the disc surface.

If the answer to these is no, then problem is most likely the quality (or lack) of your media, or your burner and it's connection to the PC.

Usually, poor media shows up by break up in the last 10 - 15 minutes of a film - the part situated at the outer edge of the disc. It is unusual, but not unheard of, for it to appear as regular break up throughout the disc. Two simple tests can be done - first is to turn the disc over and look at the burn surface - does it has even colour across the whole surface of splodges and patches ? If it is even with not spots or patches, then move to step two. Step two is DVD Info Pro or Nero Speed Disk and a read scan of the disc. Does it come back clean ?

What media do you use ?

The other suspect is an external burner. Not a big fan of them myself, but I know a lot of people here are using them successfully.

[LT9000]

"First, when you rip the dvd using DVD Decrypter, does it encounter andy read errors ?"

Where will I check this on DVD Decrypter? I haven't noticed it saying anything like that unless I missed something.

"And after ripping, do these glitches appear if you play the disc back from your HDD ?"

Excellent idea, although I know from audio ripping that the glithes if any are usually present on the HDD as well as the CD. But I will try that and see.

What is an easy way to watch a video file rip from my HDD BTW, will Power DVD do it?

"Usually, poor media shows up by break up in the last 10 - 15 minutes of a film"

I think I'm having some glitches before then at times. Seems like half way or 2/3 through most times. Not necessarily at the very end.

"turn the disc over and look at the burn surface - does it has even colour across the whole surface of splodges and patches ?"

I looked at a few and only one is suspect as far as I can tell. The rest seem even.

"Step two is DVD Info Pro or Nero Speed Disk and a read scan of the disc. Does it come back clean ? "

I'll check that first chance I get probly Wednesday afternoon and post the results here as quick as I can.

"What media do you use ?"

I used "ilo tetchnologies", but just today bought Sony DVD+R's manufactured in Japan. Since I am having problems I thought I'd try a name brand in +R format this time.

Thanks for the detailed response. Your posts were some of the most informative ones I learned from in the very beginning. Now I'm talking to the man himself.

[/quote]

[trhouse]

I had very similar results when using poor quality media. I bought some fake TYG02 media last year. A 50 pack. They stutter and breakup typically 2/3's of the way though.

When tested using DVD Info Pro, the speed test shows glitches as the speed drops at these points. The error check with DVD Info Pro showed no read errors. I then made an exact copy of the fake disk to genuine TYG01 media. The genuine Taiyo Yuden copy made from the fake played perfectly.

[guns1inger]

If DVD Decrypter hits read errors it will pop up a message and wait for a response, so you would know if you had any.

Power DVD is a very good choice for watching the disc from your HDD.

[ebenton]

It looks like everyone has pretty much figured out your pixellation issue. Let me get back to one of the original questions of this post, about getting flawless copies all or most fo the time.
If you use DVD Shrink and compress a lot of your movies by large percentages, you will see visible flaws, depending upon what type of TV you watch the movie. Macro-blocking would not be unusual in a highly-compressed move, noticeable especially in dark scenes.
If you have a DL burner, get some DL disks. (They're not nearly as expensive as they used to be. Verbatims are the best, generally.) Change your DVD Shrink settings to us a 9GB disk for burning, and it won't compress the movie.
You don't necessarily need to do this for all movies, just the ones that DVDShrink wants to compress significantly. If you don't care much about such details, then don't bother.

[guns1inger]

If you are burning to DL, don't use shrink at all. Unless the disc has Arcoss protection, use DVD Decrypter ISO->Read, ISO->Write.

If the quality of Shrink isn't high enough (and for me it often isn't), DVD Rebuilder can produce much better results, albeit at a cost of time.

[ebenton]

Hmmm. I have copied many movies to DL disks using DVD Shrink. Of course, DVD Shrink switches to Nero for burning, but Shrink has always done a good job of copying the movie without compressing when you tell it that you are using a 9 GB disk for the end result.
I run AnyDVD in the background, so Shrink doesn't care about ArCoss protection or anything else, because it thinks the disk is unencrypted.
Then again, maybe I'm just not picky enough about the final quality.

[LT9000]

ebenton,

I forgot to mention that I usually don’t compress, or not much (I just reauthor and record the movie.) Even then I am having the break up problem. I will probly try DL in the not too distant future, but I want to see if I can get this method right first. I will try some more of what has been suggested so far today.

Thanks for your input.

[LT9000]

Hey guys, I just ran Nero CD-DVD speed on a copy of a movie I made with a little break up. There was a graph with a green line starting at just under 3X going straight across and a yellow under that one which started at 3X and slowly and evenly dropped to just over 1X at the end. So what does that mean?

It didn’t say anything about errors.

If it helps, here is a txt file dump from Nero of info I can’t interpret very well:

Serial Number;Drive;Firmware;Transfer Rate - Average;Transfer Rate - Start;Transfer Rate - End;Random Seek Time;1/3 Seek Time;Full Seek Time;1 X CPU Usage;2 X CPU Usage;4 X CPU Usage;8 X CPU Usage;Burst rate;Spin Up Time;Spin Down Time;Load Time;Eject Time;Recognition Time
;HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8162B;0015;2.72x;2.54x;2.73x;180 ms;156 ms;246 ms;38 %;74 %;n/a;n/a;3717 KB/sec;1.79 sec;0.00 sec;1.24 sec;3.96 sec;8.07 sec

[trhouse]

DVDInfoPro has this test. It may be similar to the Nero one. Notice the little glitches about half way and near the end. That is where a fake TY disk had breakup and stuttering issues.



Here is a genuine TY disk

[LT9000]

That looks very much like Nero's test. I didn't have those sharp dips as you did in the first graph though. I'm now going to try some Sony media.

[blinky88]

I have been using Shrink to backup my DVDs to DVD-R\+R for over 2 years and have not experienced a problem or loss of quality of any description. I use Shrink to Rip, Re-author, Edit and Shrink then DVD Decrypter to burn. I burn at 4x regardless of the speed of the material I am using.

For compressions < 80% I choose the Smooth rather than the default sharp as that performs a double pass to improve quality. Sometimes I take a backup disc to my Sons house to view as he has a 10 ft. projector screen and the viewing is still as good as the original.