Three Strikes and I'm out - Unable to copy a 3rd DVD

[Mr.Disk]

Hello:

I've burned one DVD +RW and made a copy - both sucessfully play on my Panasonic DVD player. Then I tried to make a third copy, and can't get anything to work. The third copy will start then stop then stutter, but the DVD player doesn't like it. I'll immediately put in the original DVD, and works fine.

Is this just the nature of the beast; works sometimes and not others? Would it be better to burn everything to DVD - R?

Does anything in the original render/authoring process ("Do not convert complient MPEG Files", "Uncheck Smart Render before burning") impact the compatability of the finished product?

Summary of what I've done:

1. Burned first DVD on DVD +RW - works fine

2. Copied first DVD to another DVD +RW using Nero Express Disk Image (copied the DVD content to a file on the hardrive, then burned this file back to the blank DVD). This second DVD also plays fine in DVD player.

3. I've tried making another DVD copy, but nothing seems to work. I've tried copying the disk using the image file. No luck. I've tried copying and burning the video and audio folders. No luck.

Thanks in advance!

[THoff]

Some DVD players don't play rewriteable media at all, or have intermittent problems with it.

I have a Toshiba TV/VCR/DVD combo in my office that reads +RW media, but it occasionally has problems reading the disks and will then pause before continuing (sometimes skipping ahead in the video). It hasn't been a huge problem because I use +RW media to verify how my DVDs look on a TV -- the same disks play fine on computers, as do the DVD-R disks that I burn if I'm happy with the +RW preview.

You may want to try another brand of rewritable media to see if you have better luck with that. Also, the VideoHelp.com site has a database of DVD players and compatible media -- it might be worth checking out.

[Terry Stetler]

Believe it or not, but in my experience the "name brand" players are often the most in-compatable with re-writeable media.

I've had better luck with the cheap Chinese decks than with decks costing >$200. Apex, Norcent, Cyberhome....many of them costing $40 or so but they will play most anything round with a hole in the middle.

One problem that plagues all decks though is the inability to play recordable media at the max DVD bitrates. Most will skip or not play at all. The way around this is simple enough: keep the bitrate below 7000-8000 kbps, with the exact number depending on the deck.

This isn't as much of a limitation as it may seem since most commercial DVD's are recorded at between 4800 and 6500 kbps VBR. You just have to crank up the quality settings, preferrably by turning on the MPEG Advanced menu and learning MPEG Settings 101

Key settings:

Quality (near max)
DC component (detault = 8, best is 11)
Half-PEL mostion search

[Vector]

Very nice reply, Terry. I have discovered that how fast I burn the DVD makes a difference as well. I have an 8x burner and 8x media. Burns great, plays in other computers. Works in less than 20% of the DVD movie players I've tried.

If instead I burn at 2.4x it works in nearly every player I've tried.

Is this the same principal you were talking about? Or is bitrate not related to burn speed?

[Mr.Disk]

All:

Thanks for the info!

Isn't the bitrate speed related to the creation of the video file compared to the physical burning of the completed video file to the disc? I've been using a 6k VBR, with the Mpeg quality cranked up to 100%.

Interesting thought about burning at a slower speed - My computer isn't the fastest on the block and metering down the burn speed might help.

Sounds like when making copies for family/friends I should use the DVD- format once I'm happy with how a "test" DVD looks on the TV.

Thanks[/quote]

[THoff]

Yes, the bitrate and burn speed are separate entities.

By slowing down the burn speed, you are giving the dye more time to undergo the phase change that is necessary to change the reflectivity of the data layer. With more than 10MB/s being written to disk at typical DVD writing speeds, that's at least 80 million laser pulses that have to be precisely timed every second. I'm still amazed all this stuff actually works as well as it does...

[Mr.Disk]

Yep, worked like a charm. Burned to a DVD -R using a write speed of 4x vs. the 8x and my DVD player didn't have any problems.

Thanks again!