DVDs freeze on playback in standalone DVD player & on PC

[simongarrod]

I have created DVDs of some film captured on the DV camcorder and they all just seem to freeze at different points during playback. The captured files on the PC are mpeg (and I also tried them as AVI), and they are OK, but when put through DVD authoring, the resulting film freezes. I have tried Power Producer, which came with the DVD writer, and Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator. I have also tried using a Samsung USB DVD Burner with the same results. I have tried burning at the slowest possible speed (1X even).

To get round this, I tried just copying the MPEG files onto DVDs, and this seemed OK but my standalone Player would only play 38 minutes out of 74 minutes on the first file and 28 out of 44 on the second file. I then split the MPEG into smaller chunks, and they seemed to play the whole files, but I still got some freezing.

I am hoping to make lots of copies of my MPEG as it is a school musical and the copies are to raise money for charity. I have loads of orders, and cant fulfill them, which is embarrassing!

I have tried Datawrite DVD-R and Memorex DVD+R media so far and it doesnt seem to make much difference.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[redwudz]

Have you tried TMPGEnc DVD Author? What are your MPEG-2 specifications? Is the framerate, framesize, audio format all within DVD spec? What's the bitrate of the encoded MPEG? Too high can cause problems with a few players.

Authoring doesn't (Or shouldn't) change the MPEG-2 video, it just creates the DVD format.

[harley2ride]

Try some verbatim or taiyo yuden dvd's....

[simongarrod]

Hi, thanks for the replies.
I have not tried TPMGEnc DVD Author - I will look into that. Being a bit of a simpleton, I am not sure how to tell what properties the mpeg files have - is there an easy way of telling They should be set up for PAL for the UK, and the audio setting on the camcorder is 12Bit.

As for the media, I have just got some Ritek G04 so will try them, as they have a reputation for compatibility.

[TBoneit]

Lots of luck with the ritek. Look for Made in Japan, Verbatim or I've also had good luck with Sony media.

It sounds like either your media or your player and the most likely cuplrit is your blank disc.

Cheers

If it's worth doing it's worth doing properly

[simongarrod]

Thanks guys, problems now sorted!

I tried TPMGEnc DVD Author and found it to work with my Datawrite & Memorex DVDs, but none of the Riteks! I have bought more Datawrites, and am close to completing my orders for the DVD.

Simon