DVD Freezing/sticking when played on DVD Player

[CliveM]

Hi - I've been using Video Studio for some years now, currently on VS Pro X3 and MF7SE. I use a Sony video camera shooting in high def and producing .m2ts files. I normally create projects which end up on Blu-Ray discs, but as not everyone has a Blu-Ray player, I also sometimes create DVDs. When I first switched to shooting in high def in 2011, I sought some advice from the forum and Ken kindly provided an extremely useful post on 19 Jan 2011 which set out how to create an HD Blu-Ray file and disc and also an SD file and DVD. Summarized, Ken's advice was:
For HD: Select Share, Create Video File, Blu-Ray, H264 1920x1080, checking "SmartRender Off". Then use this file in MF7SE to create a Blu-Ray disc and this generally works fine for me;
For SD: With same project on VS X3 timeline, select Share, Create Video File, DVD, PAL DVD (16:9 Dolby 5.1), then use this file in MF7SE to create an SD DVD. This has tended to work fine, but my last few projects (including current one of recent Mexican trip) have given me real grief - the resulting DVD plays for a while when inserted into our Panasonic DVD/Blu-Ray machine, then freezes/sticks (not always in the same place) and eventually returns to the start; very annoying to say the least. Current project runs to about 53 minutes, so default bit rate of 8000 kbps should be fine, though interestingly, on a previous project (which was only about 30 minutes), reducing to 6000 kbps solved the problem - no idea why. Haven't tried producing a Blu-Ray of the Mexican trip yet.
I'm using Verbatim DVD-R 16x discs, which have always been fine before and burning on the in-built Matshita BD-MLT optical drive in my Sony Vaio pc. I wonder if this might be the problem - my laptop is now 5 years old and ready to be changed for a new one. Oh, the other thing is that when burning a disc from MF7SE, the only drop-down burn speed option is "Maximum", can't find any settings to burn at say 8x, not sure if that's available and I'm missing a trick somewhere.
Anyway, that's my problem, so any thoughts, guidance or advice gratefully received.
Many thanks, Clive

[lata]

Hi Clive
When burning a DVD I would first burn a disc image, an Iso file, I assume MF7SE has that option.
Now use VLC Media Player to play the file, it will play as though playing a disc. If that plays OK use a disc image burner to burn the ISO to disc.
You can use Windows to do that, simply right click the iso - Open with Windows disc image burner.
If the problem still exists then it is not a problem with Video Studio burn to disc process.

In addition
Using 8000kbps should be ok as the video is less than 60 minutes although I would also use a Constant bit rate rather than variable.
Take care that interlacing for Mpeg2 should be Upper field, same as original MTS files.
Converting the HD MTS file to Mpeg2 can cause some quality issues, go to preferences and set Resample option to Best, that should improve render quality.

[CliveM]

Thanks for your prompt reply Trevor, much appreciated. This is turning into one of those projects that just wants to fight you every milimetre of the way! Hadn't used VLC Media Player before, but downloaded the free version and what a useful little bit of kit it is, so thanks for the tip. Anyway, I set up a short 7 minute preview range for the project to cut down on rendering time and created a rendered file for DVD, SmartRender On, Constant 8000 kbps and Upper Field First, ran this in VLSMP and sure enough it still froze on 5:02, same as original. Checked the original MTS clips, which looked fine, couldn't see any bad or corrupt footage, but just for good measure I cropped out the bit where it froze and re-inserted into the timeline, re-rendered the seven minute sector and this time it plays fine in VLSMP. So, onto the next stage, which is to create an ISO image in MF7SE and my pc keeps coming up with a message "Out of Memory". As mentioned in my original post on this subject, my Sony Vaio is now five years old and due to be changed in coming months, but it still has sufficient hard drive capacity for the job, an i5 processor and 6Gb of RAM. Indeed, when I ran the Task Manager while MF7SE was trying to create the ISO file, it was showing a memory usage of only about 43%, so the "Out of Memory" message looks like it's erroneous. Not sure where to go from here - can you suggest another way of creating an ISO? Or maybe it's time for me to upgrade from Video Studio X3 to whatever the latest version is? Anyway, any further help and advice gratefully received. Thanks, Clive

[lata]

Hi Clive

Corel have been selling CVSX9 at a discounted price, about £12, advertised via the program.
When you close X3 do you get any offers, look out for them. Most times we just close that annoying advert.
I have seen three, 10%, 50% and 85% discounts.

Otherwise try looking at Corel Guide Messages, when I ran X4 there were all offers showing there.
Certainly if you see the 85% discount don’t hesitate.

[CliveM]

Thanks Trevor for your further reply. Yes, I've seen the promo ad's when closing VSX3 and in "Messages" I do have one offering 85% discount, so upgrade for £12, though not sure if still valid. Before upgrading though, I would ideally like to complete current Mexican project - I've done a lot of clip editing in X3 and certainly wouldn't want to have to repeat editing from scratch in X9, which may have to do. Anyway, still painfully grinding my way through current project, one step forward, followed by one step back! Ended up cutting the 55 min film into two approx 27 min halves, to speed up rendering. Got the first half successfully through to DVD disc - hurrah! Process being: create rendered mpeg in VS, then use MovieFactory to create an ISO, view this in VLC Media Player, then use Roxio to burn the image to disc. Success. Repeat for second half of the film and, while I'm able to view the whole mpeg successfully in Media Player (no sticking or freezing), when I use MovieFactory to create an ISO, it runs for a while, then comes up with the error message "The is an internal error in the DVD engine". I've searched the forum on this and can't seem to find a definitive solution to the problem - what's the latest view on dealing with this please? Or should I just bite the bullet and upgrade to X9 and load up the VSP created in X3 - presumably this will work? Thanks again and look forward to any comments/advice. Regards, Clive

[lata]

Hi Clive

Go for the 85% discount now before they disappear.
You can download all files using the Web Installer, simply choose to download only.
Files will be saved to a folder on the desktop unless you stipulate another location.
Install when you like, either running the web installer or manually installation by accessing the installation files Setup.exe.

X9 can be installed along with X3, you can only run one program at a time.
You can still complete the editing using X3, create the Mpeg2 file, then use X9 to complete the burn to iso then disc.


For £12 buy now

[CliveM]

Hi Trevor – well I think I’m finally sorted - this has been a real stinker of a project! In the end there were a total of three separate problems. Firstly, it turns out there was dust in my laptop which was clogging the ventilation slots and as it’s been quite warm over the last week, the machine was over-heating when processing the big video files and so on a number of occasions it just blobbed and shut down – but of course it’s one of those where you don’t know at the time if it’s a programme or pc issue. Secondly, I eventually discovered there was a short corrupt sector in one of the video clips; no idea what caused it and barely noticeable in playback in VS, but enough it seems to have caused problems when creating an ISO. Chopping it out has solved the problem. Thirdly and the biggest issue was the fact that I’d shot in HD, but the first draft I’ve been working on over the last week was to go onto DVD. In the past (as per my original post), rendering in X3 to DVD format has worked ok, but on this occasion, it resulted in the disc freezing/sticking, which of course was the subject of my original post, last Saturday. Since then I’ve worked my way through various different formats in X3, all of which caused problems somewhere along the line, either in VSX3, or else MovieFactory. I conclude that the “Error in DVD Engine” error message actually means: “You’re trying to stick a round peg in a square hole”, ie the rendered mpeg file isn’t compatible with the media. Anyway, I took your advice and downloaded X9 (for the offer price of £12 – bargain!) and as the newer version has more formatting options, an mpeg rendered as 720x480, 16:9, 30p, has worked perfectly and allowed the creation of an ISO and then fully functional disc. Yippee! Hopefully I’ll have no further problems when I come to tart the project up with menu etc and then produce finished articles on DVD and Blu-Ray. Well, at least I hope I don’t have any further problems! Anyway, thanks again for your help and advice along the way, very much appreciated. Cheers, Clive

[lata]

Hi Clive

Thanks for the feedback and glad you have sorted your problems.

you mention 30fps, that will be NTSC, as you are in the UK your program should be set for Pal at 25 fps.
Go to Preferences (F6) there is an option to select the TV standard as Pal.
That should change the default templates to use 25 fps.

I do assume that your original video are using Pal 25fps?

all the best

[CliveM]

Funnily enough, I picked up that default in "Settings" was set to NTSC after posting my message yesterday, so now changed to PAL and will use the 25 fps in future. Thanks Trevor, Clive