Stuttering playback

[gabier]

Hello ,

I have very often "stuttering" problems when playing back my DVD's.

By "stuttering" I mean that after about one hour of playback, I can notice the playback stops for a fraction of a second from time to time. Then as the playback continues, the stops are longer and longer, and finally the playback stops completely and nothing works anymore (going back to the menu, unloading the DVD, ...)
If I unload it for a while (about 10 mn) the playback goes well for a while, then it starts again to stutter and stops more rapidly.
I have 2 players, a Philips one and a Yamaha one. Yesterday, when the DVD was blocked, I changed the scarf cable from my TV to my Philips player and put it on the Yamaha, and tried to start playback rightaway, going to the chapter where it had stopped (I wanted to known the end of the story!). But after about 15' it started to stutter again.
I saw the end of the movie on my computer upstairs. I have never any problem on my computer.
At the beginning I suspected the quality of the DVD itself, I tested it with Nero DVD Info Speed, there was no error. I read the "faulty" DVD with DVDShrink and reburnt it, without any notice of error.
The DVDs are Verbatim 16x Advanced AZO+ and I always burn in 4x.
The movies come from DVB-T, they are processed by VideoRedo, then encoded by Nero Vision, and burnt with ImgBurn.
The problem is that the same DVD can play on the same player once OK and once not.
Could it be that my burner does not burn perfectly, so that when the disk warms up it becomes less readable ?
I am really stucked with this problem .
Any idea would be appreciated about what it could come from or what tests I could make to find out where the problem is.

Gab
I really am stucked with th[/list]

[steptoe]

Stuttering, especially as you get to the end of a movie or the edge of the disc is usually down to poor quality media, the closer you get to the edge of the edge is where cheaper media suffers

I would suggest trying different burning software, but as you use what I use in IMGBurn, I can't really. Burning at x4 should be fine, as advised by the guys that use IMGBurn and test it all the time

Is there a firmware upgrade for your DVD burner, as this media when searching Google appears to be fairly new, so your drives firmware may not fully support it. Sometimes upgrading firmware can solve problems with media

Can you try other media, as searching through media some are saying these are Taiyo Yuden dyes, others are saying its an MCC dye, which can cause problems for some people. But if they are 'official' Verbatim media not some re-packed alleged Verbatim you should have no problem swith stuttering

If you have just recently started using this media, the first place I would try is a firmware upgrade (if there is one), your standalone players may not like this media, it happens. It can also happen that it will play perfect in one but not another, even the same model


Other than that, all I can suggest is try different encoding software, try ConvertXToDVD, I use it and it does a very good job of keeping audio in synch if converting from divx or xvid to DVD and will easily handle HDTV to DVD, I'm not sure about DVB-T to DVD as I don't have access to that, but looking quickly on Google it appears to be basically MPEG2, so I assume is similiar to HDTV, and ConvertXToDVD seem sto be able to convert virtually any video format I give it without complaining

There is no harm in giving it a try, and try to convert the DVB-T output to DVD first, then I assume you are editing it in VideoRedo and finally burning it with IMGBurn

[gabier]

Thank you Steptoe for your detailed answer. I am going to search for upgrades and buy other media to have a try.

But I am doubtful concerning the edge of the media. This particular movie was compressed using DVDShrink before burning and the size of the files is 4,31 GB so that it is not quite full.

Additionaly can it be a media problem, or a media/player discordance problem, where the same disk behaves poorly once and is OK another time ? Yesterday night, it was awfull (I described this in my other post) and this morning I played back again the same disk on both players one after the other, and it played back from beginning to end without any blocking.
After all can't it be simply that my players are dirty or something similar ?

Gab

[Krispy Kritter]

Verbatim is a good brand of media, but everyone has a bad batch now and again.

The only other thing to catch my eye is your burn speed. Results vary by media and burner, but it is usually recommended to burn media at its rated speed (hardware permitting) and to ensure your burner firmware is up to date, especially when using new media.

[gabier]

Verbatim is a good brand of media, but everyone has a bad batch now and again.

The only other thing to catch my eye is your burn speed. Results vary by media and burner, but it is usually recommended to burn media at its rated speed (hardware permitting) and to ensure your burner firmware is up to date, especially when using new media.

OK a bad batch may happen. But again is it possible that a bad disk (which is nevertheless verified extensively and OK by ImgBurn after burning) is played back awfully one day, up to the point it is impossible to watch it until the end, and be perfect without any problem the day after ?

Concerning the burn speed, are you sure it is better to burn at 16X if the disk is 16X ? I had been said that the rated speed makes only the ability to be burnt at that speed, but for a good burn, the lower the better. Is this not true ?

Concerning the firmwares, according to Dell, which is the OEM seller of my Philips burner, there is no firmware update for this burner. And I called Philips for my standalone player, they have no firmware update either. So no hope in this direction.

Gabier

[Krispy Kritter]

1) If you are referring to a single player, yes it is possible. It could be a heat related or other issue with a bad/failing player. I've also had this occur if you have labels on your discs. You can also use dvdinfo pro to verify discs after burning (I'm not familiar with how ImgBurn verifies discs.

2) Lower is not always better. Some burners/media have problems properly burning at slower speeds.

When you are troubleshooting problems such as these, it is a matter of trial and error. The easiest thing to change is the media. Not only do you need to find a media that your PC/burner can handle without issue (which is pretty simple with newer hardware), but you also have to find a brand/type of media that your standalone is happy with (more challenging sometimes...especially with older players). You can try looking up your player in the DVD Players section and see which media others have had success using.

[gabier]

When you are troubleshooting problems such as these, it is a matter of trial and error.

You are right, I am going to find out where it comes from by trial and error. I have already scanned the "bad" disks with Nero CD-DVD Speed, and all the dots are green ...

I will turn to the player, maybe it gets too hot because it is in a furniture with other audio and video stuff.

The problem is that now I become a bit paranoiac. I suspect my media makes to be fakes and my burner to be a bad one.

Anyway thank you for helping.

Gabier

[InXess]

You player software or codecs may be damaged. Check your drive transfer speed but this type of behavior is usually associated with Windows side rather then hardware.
Another possibility is corrupted MPEG file.

[gabier]

You player software or codecs may be damaged. Check your drive transfer speed but this type of behavior is usually associated with Windows side rather then hardware.
Another possibility is corrupted MPEG file.

By "player" I meant my standalone player.
I do not think the files are faulty or corrupted, because the problems are not systematic. It can be good one day and bad another day. With a faulty file, I probably would have the problem every time.

Gabier

[sanlyn]

The problem is voltage on the line on which your DVD players are hooked to AC. I doubt it's bad media, bad codecs, bad maryjane, or any of the suggestions offered above. As your DVD disc plays toward the edge, the surface of the disc moves faster. One effect of this is that your players draw more power. The biggest clue is that your stutter doesn't start until you are well into a disc by an hour or so. On DVD's whose video uses smaller bitrates, the problem may not occur or won't occur until even later in the disc.

Don't spend any $$$ on power "cleaner" gizmo's (you should especially avoid over-hyped Monster products in this category, which are really just $200 extension cords), they won't help. Either use fewer components on the particular AC circuit, or if you must spend $$ then have a pro come to your premise and install an extra AC circuit so that you don't have so much gear hooked up onto the same power source.

It's no surprise that your PC plays all DVD's easily. A PC's DVD drive doesn't consume the power of a full-fledged player or recorder.

The number of components on the AC circuit would include your players, TV, stereo, and any lamps, clocks, toasters, refrigerators, etc., that use the same line out of your main AC circuit box. You can test this by (1) If you don't have a lot of heavy-duty stuff installed in a different location in your house, try the using the player on that circuit. Or (2) Take your player to someone's house where the problem doesn't exist and try your player there.

I don't think any of the earlier suggestions are valid. If they were, your DVD's would have the same problems when played on your PC. My parents In Tennessee had a voltage problem, and so did a friend of mine in upstate NY. In Tennessee, problem was solved by moving the player to another circuit. In NY, solved by installing a new AC circuit dedicated specifically to the owner's a/v setup.

Another acquaintance had stutter and sez it was because of very poor ventilation. That would make sense, too. Bad media? If it works on your PC, it's not bad media.

[samijubal]

As your DVD disc plays toward the edge, the surface of the disc moves faster.

You've got that backwards. The disc is spinning the fastest at the beginning and slows as the laser moves towards the outside. A spindle motor uses very little power. The current draw difference of the motor between the beginning and end of the disc is insignificant.

[stars]

Hi maybe this can be the case....

I had an old burner (well not so old) that have max 8x in write speed...
When i burned dvd that were made for up to 16x, they worked well in the computer
put not in my stand alone DVD player... the problems occured in the middel to the end
of the movie...
To get around this problem I only used DVD with max 8x speed....

I always burn with 4x speed and use good media so the fault wasnt related to that...

Now I have a 16x speed DVD burner and no problems...
It didnt work to upgrade the firmaware in the old one and its hard to find 8x media now a days...

stars...

[Krispy Kritter]

Typical hardware and media burning issues, would show up if you verify the disc with dvdinfo pro / nero cd speed or something similar. Since, these discs verify good, I suspect the pc/burner and media is not the issue. The only thing left would be the actual player. If it is new, I would exchange it.

I've seen similar issues on dvd discs that have labels on them. Adhesive labels cannot reliably be used on dvd media.

[sanlyn]

True, Krispy Kritter, that could be an issue. But I believe the post's comments included commercial DVD's as well as home-made. As far as home-made, I don't burn faster than 4x (Nero 5.9) and haven't had any problems anywhere. The power problem I dscribed, however, included all kinds of discs, retail and home-grown.

If the user is talking ONLY about discs he has created and burned himself, a number of causes could be involved: really high bitrates, burner software or hardware, etc. I'd try checking the AC power location first, as this would be the easiest to do. If it ain't the AC, then there's much troubleshooting to do.

[InXess]

If I unload it for a while (about 10 mn) the playback goes well for a while, then it starts again to stutter and stops more rapidly.

I have 2 players, a Philips one and a Yamaha one. I saw the end of the movie on my computer upstairs. I have never any problem on my computer.

The problem is that the same DVD can play on the same player once OK and once not.
Could it be that my burner does not burn perfectly, so that when the disk warms up it becomes less readable ?

3 issues here:
you unload it then it works fine for a while -> HEAT is a possible answer, (laser pickup issue)

2 players suffer while PC always works fine -> possibly older less compatible players with the media you use (media OR laser pickup)

burner issue? if that was true you'd have problems with PC playback as well which you NEVER had. you may run media quality scan with DVDInfoPro as well as check max read rate. New PC readers and writers are much better regarding compatibility then readers used in DVD players.

Have you tried your discs with a newer generation standalone (i.e. friend's). Do your players overheat (stacked, not enough cooling) ? Changing media may help (refer to manuals for recommended brands AND speeds - try "slower" media mainstream brand like Sony, Maxell -4x-8X) but if this is related to laser pickup (happened to me) just get a new player - too costly.

[sanlyn]

You folks really know how to do things the hard way.

[InXess]

It's no surprise that your PC plays all DVD's easily. A PC's DVD drive doesn't consume the power of a full-fledged player or recorder.

The number of components on the AC circuit would include your players, TV, stereo, and any lamps, clocks, toasters, refrigerators, etc., that use the same line out of your main AC circuit box. .

Hmm, FULL FLEDGED DVD players (? WTF is this?) use 10-30 W of power - this a range of a fluorescent bulb, power consumption is not a factor, period, unless you have interference (!) or sub-par feed from the grid (rare in a civilized world) or messed up house wiring. Forget muscle powered dynamo and hook it up to a real AC outlet .

[sanlyn]

As your DVD disc plays toward the edge, the surface of the disc moves faster.

You've got that backwards. The disc is spinning the fastest at the beginning and slows as the laser moves towards the outside.

Say, jamijubal, now that you mention it, you're right. Ordinarily the disc would move faster at the outside edge, assuming the inner section moves at a constant speed. But DVD players slow the spinning as the disc plays toward the outside. Hmm. But that doesn't answer the question about why, with several people I know who had this same problem, improving the source AC solved their problem. As for myself: I didn't have a DVD stutter problem, but I did have a problem with my living rooms lights blinking and dimming ever so slightly every time I turned on one of my a/v components (especially when turning on the TV or the power amp). Solution: electrician came in installed an extra circuit. Problem solved.

I just mentioned this post to my younger brother in Tennessee, who lives about 2 miles away from my dad. Brother says he had stutter, too. Solution: he installed an extra AC circuit and uses it exclusively for his a/v system. Stutter gone. I can't say my brother ever had bad DVD media, because he wouldn't know how to burn a DVD and doesn't even know what the term means.

So that maks a total of 5 people I know who had this stutter problem, and all of them solved it by finding cleaner AC. 8) The only other stutter I ever encountered on my setup was when I tried to play a DVD that had a greasy thumprint on it -- don't eat buttered popcorn before loading your discs, unlesws you wash up first.