Movie freezes after authoring compliant DVD files

[mltwitz]

I am trying to burn a DVD authored to harddrive (VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS files) using a brand new internal Sony DVD writer at 16x speed. I am using 4.7 GB Fujifilm DVD-R blanks (rated for 16x recording speed). . When I watch the DVD on stand alone players the movie keeps freezing in certain places and then picks up again but it seems to have skiped a few seconds while it was frozen. When I watch the .vob file on the computer it plays just fine, so a problem must occur during burning. For burning I have tried DVD Shrink 3.2 and Sony DVD Architect 4.0, both caused similar problems. I haven't done enough testing yet, but it seems as I use slower recording speeds (12x) less of these problems occur. Does it sound to you like a hardware problem (PC or DVD writer), software (writer driver, burn software) or blank media?

My system:
Windows XP SP2
Intel Core(TM) 2 CPU
6600 @ 2.4GHz
2 GB RAM

[Pinstripes23]

What kind of Sony burner do you have? Cuz I got one and it is very reliable when burning to DVDr's.

Try using imgburn instead. And if that fails it is most likely you media. I usually use taiyo yuden as my media.

[mltwitz]

It"s Sony DVD RW DRU-830A

[navi310]

The problem could be with the media & the writing speed.

I have SONY DRU-810A burner & use only Verbatim 16x DVD+R or -R discs.
At first I was burning them at full 16x speed but on some burns I noticed skipping problems at the end of the disc. So I switched to 4x speed & never had the problem again.

Try burning at 4x because lowering from 16x to 12x doesn't really matter.

[buttzilla]

First place I would lower the burn speed. Keep it below 8x I prefer 6x thats just me. Second it could be the standalone dvd. If it's an older model a lot of them cant handle writable dvd's to well. Fuji media is not that high quality. Try verbatim or taiyo yuden. Your dvd player could also need the use of a cleaning disk for the laser.

[mltwitz]

I will try reducing the speed, but the fact that I have to do this ticks me off. I bought the Sony writer for it's burn speed in the first place, because I have to burn a lot of DVDs and want to save time. What's the use of having a 16x burner if I can really only get acceptable results if I slow it down to half or a third of it's full speed?

Anyway, thanks for the advice.

[FulciLives]

Burn at 6x speed.

That is the FASTEST speed you can burn at where the burn is a constant speed from start to finish. Once you go faster than 6x the burner does this stupid thing I hate (some people call it "ramping") where it will start at one speed ... then slow down before it jumps up to the next higher speed ... and it does that through out the burning process until it gets up to 16x speed.

So 6x speed is really the fastest recording speed that is "safe". You could go with 4x speed but since your burner is "capable" of 16x speed and since you are using 16x media ... might as well go 6x. I would only go 4x if you are using 8x media (which does still exist).

As for the burning software ... as mentioned use ImgBurn ... and if possible I would create an ISO image first and then burn from that ... instead of burning direct from the VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS folders.

That should solve your problem BUT some blank DVD discs are better than others. In other words even if you do all of the above you may still have quality issues if the brand of blank DVD disc you are using is shit. Unfortunately most are shit. In the future stick with the 16x Verbatim DVD discs or the 16x (or even 8x) Taiyo Yuden DVD discs.

Verbatim is often on sale at either BEST BUY or OfficeMax. As for Taiyo Yuden the best place to buy that is from the following website:

http://www.rima.com/

When using Taiyo Yuden I prefer the 8x DVD-R discs to the 16x DVD-R discs but either way they are good. The 8x DVD-R Taiyo Yuden discs do cost a bit less but they also seem to burn better at 4x whereas you can go 6x with the 16x Taiyo Yuden discs.

One last point to make ... try to stick with DVD-R media. If you do go with DVD+R media make sure you change it to DVD-ROM using a process called "bitsetting". Please note that your DVD burner must support bitsetting and not all do. If your DVD burner does NOT support bitsetting of DVD+R discs then you are better off using only DVD-R discs.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

I will try reducing the speed, but the fact that I have to do this ticks me off. I bought the Sony writer for it's burn speed in the first place, because I have to burn a lot of DVDs and want to save time. What's the use of having a 16x burner if I can really only get acceptable results if I slow it down to half or a third of it's full speed?

Anyway, thanks for the advice.

Unfortunately the fact of "underburning" is a reality if you want a quality burn. This even applies to CD-R discs. Many burners and discs say they support up to 32x or sometimes even faster but that generally is not a good idea. I normally burn CD-R media at 10x speed.

A full single layer DVD disc will burn in about 10 minutes at 6x speed. That really is not that bad speed wise. Remember that when you burn at 16x speed the disc does not burn at 16x speed from start to finish. It starts at one speed and slowly gets faster during the burn. In the end I think a 16x burned DVD is only like 6 minutes at the fastest and maybe not even that fast. So 6x at 10 minutes is not the end of the world.

Also note that newer DVD burners are needed from time-to-time because only the newer models can usually deal well with newer DVD media (the blank discs). This is because after a while the companies stop doing firmware updates on older DVD burners.

So the fact that you have a new burner means that it should handle ANY of the QUALITY media that is out there without any burning issues. Just make sure you burn no faster than 6x and use a quality program to do the burning (i.e., ImgBurn). The program used to do the burning can actually make a big difference so do not underestimate this.

In the end it may take a bit longer to burn and yes you have to be damn picky about what kind of discs you use yet the end result is a DVD disc that works and works well. After all ... that is what it is all about!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[mltwitz]

Thank you all, this really helped in understanding the issue!

[Scott2031]

I am having the same issue with my Sony DRU-830A. I am going to try and get an NEC today instead and see if that fixes my problem. I even went to PIO mode at 4x with Roxio and it (took 1 hour to burn the DVD). I still had a skip about 1 Hr into the movie on a standalone DVD player. The lenses are clean so I have no idea what is going on. I bought brand new verified media (Staples 16x / Imation). Tried burning with image burn - same thing. Setup for the DVD burner is good (master on secondary IDE). And it is recognized in my Dell computers bios setup.

[mltwitz]

I followed the advice of the posters above and that solved my problem:

1) Use verbatim DVD-R
2) Use ImgBurn instead of Sony DVD-Architect to burn
3) Use a lower burn speed (6x)

I also think DVD-Architect is notorious for having conflicts with certain DVD drives/drivers, therefore it's better to author to you hard drive and then use another program like ImgBurn or DVD Shrink to burn.

[FulciLives]

I followed the advice of the posters above and that solved my problem:

1) Use verbatim DVD-R
2) Use ImgBurn instead of Sony DVD-Architect to burn
3) Use a lower burn speed (6x)

I also think DVD-Architect is notorious for having conflicts with certain DVD drives/drivers, therefore it's better to author to you hard drive and then use another program like ImgBurn or DVD Shrink to burn.

Glad you got it all working

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Scott2031]

I found my problem. The Staples DVD media I was using and also the Playo DVD media is defective. I switched to Memorex (in the gold package) and now it looks great. The only place I get a skip is where the original video has a problem. Thanks for your assistance.

[guns1inger]

memorex isn't exactly top shelf either, so be wary.

[jasonarnone]

DUDES

I went through the trouble of registering just so I could thank you all for this thread. This is the third year in a row that I've made movies that had a skipping problem using DVD architect. I took your advice and used imgburn and the results are now perfect.

RESPECT!
peace, JA

[jman98]

jasonarnone - Here's a verbatim copy from a post I made yesterday to another new member. It applies just as well to you too.

Glad you got help. Now I have a suggestion for you. Rather than just be like 95% of the new users here who get their one question answered and then go away for years or forever, why don't you consider sticking around? If you do nothing else but just read the forums on a regular basis you will learn a lot. What drives me crazy is when I see people who joined in like 2003 or earlier who ask insanely elementary questions that let us know that they don't understand anything about what they are asking about. Look we all had to start somewhere and we were all newbies at one time. I remember telling one guy that if he had bothered to pay attention to the forums since he joined 4 years ago, he would have known how to do exactly what he asked about instead of 4 years later being as ignorant as the day he joined. If you, like so many, go away and only come back when you have a problem, that's your choice, but if you think you may want to learn more and get better at what you are doing, I encourage you to stick around and just read the forums that interest you from time to time.