DVD Confidence Factor

[JimH]

I'm a "lurker" and after reading many posts here, figure this is where I can hear from others who may have similar concerns or who have overcome them. Here goes: I've been using PSG for a couple years, made about 8-10 shows and recently became PSP user at my 2nd anniversary. I am slowly mastering technique and REALLY enjoy using these great products. They are fun and and an outlet for whatever creative juices I may posess. My concern is that every show (DVD) I've made doesn't run reliably or consistantly on either my computer or on my DVD player/TV . I get both predictible and random spots in a show where there is jitter or pause or stop; sometimes I can't even get back to the menu and the show freezes up. This is much less with the computer than with the DVD player/TV. I have run these same DVD's on my daughters DVD player and see much the same thing. As a result, I am reluctant to go beyond making shows for my own (albiet frustrating) "enjoyment". How can some PSG/PSP users actually sell or make shows for an audience when, from my experience, the end product is sooo unpredictable? My computer is a Dell Dimension 8400, 3.2GB Pentium 4 processor with 512 MB Ram and a 2005 Sony DVD/CD rewriteable disk drive. Even if ya'll can't offer suggestions I'd like to hear from PSG or PSP users who can say unequivocally they have NEVER had DVD reading problems. From where I sit, the problem appears universal. Say it isn't so; I would appreciate ANY comments or suggestions. Thanks: JimH

[nannybear Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi Jim,

I haven't had any problems other than ones I created myself by not ticking the right thing in the DVD Menu panel. I have 2 Gigs of Ram. I turn off all other programs and the screensaver and burn to a DVD+RW (rewritable). When that burns and plays properly, I have made sure I spelt everything correctly on the menu and the show, I burn DVD's by copying from that one. Saves on making coasters. Sometimes it is the show itself ( there are some threads on this ) that is causing the problem and the burning process. Sometimes one slide can be the culprit. Check out the Troubleshooting sections for more information. Hope that helps! Cheers Jan

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

The two most common cause for "jitter" or "pixelation" (blocky)
on DVD playback is the player can not keep up with the data
rate needed to keep the TV happy. The most common causes
for that are either poor quality media or using the adhesive
labels on the DVD (they work fine for CD, however, there have
been too many reports from people having issues after putting
the labels on). Generally what I do is build an ISO file rather
than burn direct in Proshow, then use the free imgburn utility
to actually do the burn. I use the premium Taiyo Yuden 8x
disks that I usually burn at 4x and have not had any issues
with people not being able to read them or acting "funny" on
playback. There is some real junk media out there and if it
can't be read fast enough, you get the jumps, flickers and
blocky images. Note that there can be a number of other
reasons, but these are by far the most common issues that
people seem to run into.

mikey

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Hi Jim

Welcome to the forum.

I'm not as careful as Jan, or maybe I'm just lucky.

While I'm burning DVD's, I also surf and have other applications open . (I do have a Core 2 Duo which helps this) My DVD's seem to play OK on over 90% of players. I have had the occasional old player that does not seem to be compatable with non-commercial discs. They seem to date pre writable discs. The one thing I do is burn at half the rated burn speed of the discs. If they are x16, I burn at x8.

Mikey seems to be the expert on DVD media, I'm sure he will have some advice that may improve your 'burning' for you.

EDIT He is already there while I'm typing.

Brian

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

I'm no expert (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express )
on the media, I have just found a brand that
has worked reliably for me for some time now (and this is
consistent with other comments I have seen in other groups).
Check out video help at http://www.videohelp.com/ lots
of good info there - also across the top bar is a "DVD Media"
button you can click and see what reports others have had
about various brands of media (multiple pages of reports).

mikey

[JimH]

What a great group- Within 20 minutes have 4 replies! and all are helpful.
Mickey, I've heard of the Taiyo Yuden DVD's before but have been using Memorex and Sony both +R and -R from Best Buy. I'm definately going to try the Taiyo Yuden's. Do you find +R or -R work best for you? I'm not aware of them being available at local retail stores- would you care to recommend a source?

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

In general, I thought I had seen people had good results with
the Sony and Memorex, but have not used them myself.
Personally, I have had the best results with the -R, but, from
what I have seen appears to depend on day of the week, phase
of the moon and possibly the color of your car

Where I have been getting mine is here:
http://www.meritline.com/taiyo-yuden-8x ... table.html
(those are the white printable ones that you can print the top using
inkjet printers like the Epson R-340. These should be the same without
the white printable top and a few cents cheaper
http://www.meritline.com/taiyo-yuden-8x ... ermal.html

As is usual, any time I point them out to someone else, they have
their "Free ground shipping" thing in place, but when I need another
couple of hundred is shipping free ???? Nooooooo

You can find them in stores, however, I think they are often with
a different brand label on them (there are actually only a couple
of media manufacturers out there). There are some utilities that
will tell you who the mfgr is based on the ID code on the disk. There
are also often different qualities of the disks - I notice TY has both
their "value line" and their "premium". I have only used the premium
and have never had a problem with the ones I have burned (that was
not my fault )

mikey

[nannybear Profile Private messageWebsite]

I am using the Verbatim Lightscribe DVD +R and love them and the burner that scribes them.....cheers Jan

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

Jim,

Wish there was a universal, correct answer for all our sakes but there doesn't appear to be. Some other threads that might shed some light:

http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewt ... atim#22777

http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewt ... atim#22196

http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewt ... atim#20569

http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewt ... atim#13259

Dick

[JimH]

Dick- Thanks to you and others that have responded. Based on what Mikey and others and some linked articles and your links to posts have suggested, I'm going to try an order of TY disks. I'll burn them slow, say, 4X and try to create an ISO file from PSG then burn to the TY DVD via IMGBurn. Those are the nuggets gleaned from the various responses. It'll be a couple weeks before I burn as per above and I'll post the results. Thanks again! JimH

[racoscarelli]

I concure with all that has been said thus far regarding DVD confidence.


Here are some of my thoughts:
There a many factors involved when burning a final show to DVD; brand of media, brand of burner, speed of burning, software used to burn and of course, what it is being played on, computer or DVD player.

Here are my good luck techniques:
I use name brand DVD -R,
Burn my PSG show to ISO first,
Use Nero to burn fianl DVD.

I do not turn anything off during my creation of the PSG ISO image, nor when burning the final DVD (lucky I think).

Have I encountered problems, yes, but not often. I find that really cheap, under $80.00 DVD players are maybes (the older the player the less likely it will play home burnt DVDs). Additionally, you need to know if the player will play a -R or a +R etc., some do not. I also find that DVD players can read the data faster than many desktop pcs and more than many laptops (would help during playback to turn stuff off on the pc before playing the DVD).

All in all, it is getting better, almost on a monthly basis.

Well tha's my two cents worth.

Rick

[SSteve]

I am far from being up to all these guys but just for general information.When I started 4 or 5 years ago making family slide shows I had 4 DVD players in my house 2 played the others no.being a poor boy in my computer room I have TV set up the DVD did not play so I went to Wall World and bought a 35 dollar unit.It plays everything.Since then some of my grand kids could not play the cd's I was making for them.So I bought all of them the 35 dollar unit all has played very well.I tried the DVD disc I ended up making shows to long so I went back to CD's and keep my shows about 20 to 30 min.I to use CD+ RW to make my shows then when I have them like I want them I burn to the CD +R.I have made about 30 or so shows and made 16 to 20 copies of each.And I still don't know any thing its a shame to be so dense.Oh yes I have used mostly memorex and Sony and some Maxell all worked well for me only coaters I get is when I screwed up.
Steve

[HunnyB Profile Private message]

The problem I seem to have MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE is
when I go to "create a DVD" from within Producer, it will start
to come up - say it's finding the DVD menu.....then stall and won't go
any further. I have to "re-start" producer and try again. I can mess up
2 or 3 DVDs when this happens.
UMMMMM, I wonder, can I just use the same DVD?????????
Or has something been written on it already when this happens?
I use Sony DVD+.
I may try the Taiyo Yuden DVDs.

HunnyB

[nannybear Profile Private messageWebsite]

I use a rewritable until I get the finished product I want. Then just copy that DVD. Saves me having a bunch of coasters for the deck! Cheers Jan

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

I like Jan's idea of the R/W until you have it right (although I
don't usually do it that way). Considering the number of
posts I have seen about people having issues writing DVD's
from Proshow (this has been an ongoing problem), I *NEVER*
write the DVD from Producer. I always create an ISO first
then go from there using (usually) the free imgburn utility.

Here is some more info I wrote a while back on ISO creation
and why I like it better:
http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewtopic.php?t=4328

There have been other discussions in the past also, that is just
what I had handy.


mikey