Menu Music Choppy

[benbar]

I've looked everywhere for a solution to this problem, but have come up with nothing. I hope someone can help, because it's the last piece of the puzzle before I can start burning a lot of videos collected over the past several months.

I'm using DVD Lab Pro to set up DVDs for burning. I have no problem with almost the whole process, except for one thing. I can't burn a DVD without choppy menu music. What bugs me is that the menu music is created the same way as the elementary audio stream used in the film, and I don't experience any problem there. In fact, the menu music is extracted from the film elementary stream soundtrack.

Another thing I don't understand is the entire DVD, including menu music, plays fine on my PC using WinDVD. This is true whether I play it from a folder on my hard drive, or directly from the burned DVD. But when I take that same DVD and put it in my standalone DVD player, the menu music is choppy and "broken". The film plays fine, sound, music and all. The standalone player I'm using is a Panasonic DVD Recorder model DMR-EZ47V. I've read through the manual for some clue, but haven't found any. I've tried changing settings in the player audio section, but no luck.

I have only one case where someone told me a DVD I created played fine on their player, although the choppy music problem showed up on mine before I gave it to him.

It sounds like a problem with the player, but I'm wondering if there's a software solution. Maybe something like encoding the sound differently. Also, why would the menu play badly, but the film sound fine -- even though both are from the same source?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[mats.hogberg]

Try both lpcm, AC3 and MP2 audio for your menu. Use the one (if any) that works. What audio codec are you using now?

/Mats

[benbar]

I've tried all the ones you mention already. I get the same result every time. Consequently, I'm not using any until I find one that works.

The music files I've tried come from various sources. Which tells me it's not just the format that's a problem. For example, I've used music downloaded from the internet, as well as transcoded sound files using different (software) methods. The one that really gets me is the most recent test, where the soundtrack was used as the source for the menu music. It's the theme song from the film soundtrack. Plays badly on the menu, and fine in the film.

What I'm thinking is something is done differently to the music in the menu versus music in the soundtrack when the DVD is created using Nero 7 Ultra recode. But then the menu music plays fine on my PC, but does not play on my standalone DVD player. Therefore, something changes between the PC and DVD player. I'm hoping there's a software solution or player setting that will correct this.

[lordsmurf]

Menu bitrate might be set too high.

[benbar]

Using MediaInfo on the menu file VTS_01_0.VOB, I see the overall bitrate is 3346 Kbps: 2963 in video and 320 in audio. The first VOB of the main movie shows overall rate at 5213 Kbps, with 4792 in video and 320 in audio. Therefore, the audio in menu and film use the same bitrate. One plays, the other does not.

[benbar]

Just got off the phone with Panasonic. They're sending a firmware update for my recorder. In 7 to 10 business days I'll find out if it solves the problem.