Backup DVD Freezing At End Because Of Size

[medlinwsp2m]

I recently discovered by researching this sight that 4.7Gb DVD's will really only hold or be readable when compressed below 4.3Gb. I was having the problem of my backed up DVD's freezing near the end of the movie when played on my stand alone player which is a older model Magnavox DVD611. I have recently started learning about the back up process and use DVDShrink to decrypt and compress my backups and Nero 6.6 to burn. The media that I use is very low grade Memorex DVD+R 8X and I understand that this could be part of my problem. I have ordered some Taiyo Yuden and eagerly await their arrival. I thought I had solved my problem by using the custom ratio in DVDShrink to decrease my file size below 4.3Gb because the first backup I did that way did not freeze after a second try. However, the second backup of a different movie that I tried was a little longer and I thought that as long as I decreased to under 4.3 that it would work. Well...I burned about 6 coasters and finally ended up having to shrink it to about 3.6Gb before it would stop freezing at the end. My question is, is there any way to determine what size I have to shrink it to prevent the freezing at the end of the movie? I don't want to have to burn 6 coasters before I reach the correct size. Thanks for any help, advice or suggestions.

[FulciLives]

Taiyo Yuden DVD media is very high quality ... the best in fact.

So you shouldn't have any end-of-disc trouble.

However to be safe I would still restrict the size to 4400MB instead of using the MAX size that a DVD can hold. Trust me at 4400MB you are still very close to the MAX.

Some poorly made DVD media can give playback problems if you fill too much but generally keeping it just at or under 4.0GB is fine even for the worst of DVD media. If you had to go less than that (lower than 4.0GB) to get a playable DVD then either your media is VERY bad or the DVD player itself is not that great. It is possible that an older model DVD player might have trouble even with quality media if you go too close to the outer edge (i.e., fill it up too much).

Yet as I said Taiyo Yuden is very good so I would try 4400MB and see how that goes. If that causes issues with your DVD player then you know it is the DVD player itself. You can either choose to get a new DVD player or keep trying difference sizes. Try 4300MB then 4200MB then 4100MB etc.

Also you probably don't really want to burn with NERO if you can help it.

A good freeware combo is ImgTools (make sure it is the classic version you use) along with ImgBurn (for the burning phase).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[cyflyer]

under 4.0GB is fine even for the worst of DVD media

not necessarily so. i found that most bad media will go bad way before that point. some of the crappiest crappies will go bad right from the begining. there is no exact defining line, so don't look for it. stick with the good stuff and you'll be safe right to full capacity.

[medlinwsp2m]

Well I finally received my Taiyo Yuden media and burned a backup of one of the DVD's that I was having a problem with freezing. I can watch the movie all of the way through with no problem. The problem now is that when the movie nears the end, if I try to advance to the next chapter it completely stops and returns to the blue screen like I have just put the movie in before it starts the playback process. I have no problem advancing to scenes until it reaches like the next to last chapter of the movie. Does anyone have a solution to this? Thanks!

[SLK001]

I routinely burn DVD-Rs to 4,705,000,000 bytes in length (but using quality media). I have never had playing issues with any of my disks.

A good rule-of-thumb is "crappy media gives crappy results".

[wallacem4141]

If you are still looking for a solution..i think i might have one. Well, i was experincing the same problem with my DVD-r (1-16x) disks. I noticed when shrinking file below 4gigs and droping the disk writing speed in Nero to 6x worked. Currently i use DVDshrink and Nero 7.

[guns1inger]

I have no problem advancing to scenes until it reaches like the next to last chapter of the movie. Does anyone have a solution to this? Thanks!

The problem is the way your player is handling the re-authored disc when skipping from the last chapter stop to nothingness. Not much you can do about it.