Burnt DVD Studders on TV but not PC

[Jamma24]

When I convert and burn using convertXtoDVD the dvd usually turns out great but every now and then (1 out of 4) it burns a DVD thats studders every 2 seconds through out the entire movie. When I take the original,covert and burn it again it once again happens! The strange thing is that it plays just fine on the PC dvd player. Is it the file or the movie or the player?

Signed, The coaster Maker

[redwudz]

I would suspect either the player or the DVD media you are using. Have you tried different media? That's the easiest thing to change. Some media, burners, players don't work well together.

The computer may be less demanding for playback. ConvertX doesn't usually have any problem producing compliant video.

And welcome to our forums.

[Jamma24]

the player doesn't say on it that it supports dvd-r or any thing such. The movies that studder all studder with the same consistancy, every 2 seconds. The audio does not skip or studder which seems strange. Thank you for your help and your welcome to the form.

[Jamma24]

The media is not consistant. It varies from movie to movie.Every media type has worked and not worked so I cant narrow it down there.All I know is the movies that dont work, dont work no matter how many times I retry the proccess.

[guns1inger]

It sounds like format conversion - PAL to NTSC can do this if not done properly, as can NTSC 29.97 to PAL.

Do you format convert ?

[Jamma24]

I have convertXtoDVD set to NTSC but I do not know if conversion is nessasary.How can i tell if the media is avi. or wmv. Wouldn't this program do it properly anyway if it were needed?
thanks in advance,

The Coaster Maker

[guns1inger]

Open the avi in g-spot or media info and look at the framerates.

Most converters do format conversion the simply way - create or subtract frames to fill the gaps. If you look at your conversion log in ConvertXtoDVD and find a high number of duplicated or dropped frames, then this is what is happening. It is possible to convert PAL to NTSC using pulldown, but I don't think ConvertXtoDVD does this yet. I know none of the other programs do it, and ConvertXtoDVD is the only one to correctly apply pulldown for NTSC 23.976 to 29.97 output.

If this is your problem, then only real solution if to get a player that can play back PAL material, and change ConvertXtoDVD's format setting to Auto.

[theewizard]

I think you need to check the offending source & the completed DVD out puts ( vob ) with gspot or video inspector

find out what is common to all the ones that do this

excess bit rate, wrong reported frame rate , the codec of the source video, I think you will find something in common

[Jamma24]

The bad DVD's all have high dropped frames 300-800 dropped frames. How do I fix this if this is indeed the problem?

[Jamma24]

Sorry that last message was incorrect. The movies with the dropped frames(only one to date) shows to be a little jerky. The movies with the duplicate frames are the ones that are wasting disks as they are not watchable. Constant studdering through out.

Thanks

[guns1inger]

It sounds like PAL to NTSC 29.970. In order to get from 25 fps to 29.97 frame, almost 5 frames per second need to be duplicated. Not pretty.

There are a few options, but none are simple

1. Only use NTSC source so you don't have to convert

2. Get a player that can play PAL and NTSC (and preferably a multi-format TV as well) so you don't have to convert

3. Learn how to do it manually. This entails resizing to a 720 x 480 frame (FitCD and avisynth), encoding at 25 fps @ 720 x 480 (HCEnc/CCE/ProCoder etc - no duplicate frames), then using DGPulldown to add pulldown flags to take the display to 29.97 on playback.

Honestly, there is no pretty way to convert PAL to NTSC. Option 3 provides the best results as far as software conversion goes, but it takes time and you need to learn some new software. Once you get the hang of it, it will only take a few minutes to set up an encode and get it running. The quality will usually be better as well, as you can add filters if necessary.

Options 1 and 2 are the simpler solutions in the long run. I am fortunate that format has never been an issue. The majority of players and TVs sold here play back both formats natively, so I rarely need to convert anything.

Before going too far down any path, confirm this is the situation by opening the source files for some of these movies in g-spot and checking the framerates. Even ConvertXtoDVD will tell you if the source is PAL.

[theewizard]

this seems to be a currupted source problem

I have converted many 25fps pal avis , using only convertX and not have recurring problems at the percentage you are incurring

you difinetly need to compare the gspot readings of several good source videos with those of several bad source videos

perhaps one of the avisynth or virtualdubmod can be used to fix the offending source before conversion

option 3 above will provide the best finished results in most cases
but even that can messup if the source has problems, like bad frames

[Jamma24]

Thank you everyone for our help! The problem seems to be pal to ntsc conversion. I ve gone back and checked and all bad disks are Pal format originally. Rather than try and convert manually which seems very confusing I think i'll stick to just ntsc formats. Unless maybe my dvd player can handle pal format....?

Thanks again, The Coaster Maker

[guns1inger]

What is your DVD player (make and model) ?