Can't seem to find a DVD brand/format that is bulletproof and works on everyones DVD players! I Have exhausted the possibilities at the local retailers in order to find that 'universal' blank DVD. Perhaps its my program or burner? They are a bit hit and miss... I have even had customers come back and tell me that there copies now jump or stick now. (after 9 months of owning them) I think its when they get a new DVD player that they are coming into dramas. Any help?

Captureyourspecialday.com (can't afford a real website.com)

What program are you using to author / burn?

Since switching to Taiyo Yuden DVDs, and burning everything from Toast at 4x we have had no problems. Slower write speed = less chance of errors usually.

if it's sticking / skipping, it sounds like it could be a data rate problem...I don't know too much about this, but I know if you search around this forum people have said that encoding your video too high could cause this problem.

I have used the Taiyo Yuden http://www.rima.com/prod/1774-100.html for years, on occasion will have a bad burn, but very seldom, and I burn at 18X (discs are rated at 16x or so but actually burn faster).

I would look at a new burner if I were you, as I agree with Katie on that point. When you start getting lots of bad discs it's time for a new burner. Some burners don't last more than a few months depending on how much you burn with them. They wear out. Some will last for years, you just never know.

If you follow Katie's and my advice and buy the Yuden's, you can then know the problem with bad discs is likely your burner or a software issue. These are considered the best blank media you can buy.

If you have issues going on with your PC while burning it could also cause issues.

I agree with all above. I've been using TY watershield since they came out and have burned hundreds and hundreds and haven't had a single bad burn. My burner is now 3 or 4 years old (Pioneer 121 IIRC) and while it's not the most modern technology it's a solid as a rock. Burning at 4X just cause I'm old school.
I'd look into a new burner and give the TY discs (now under the JVC corporation) and see how that works out.

I use TY Premium or Watershield (or Disc Makers Hydro-shield, which are just rebranded TY) or Disc Makers Ultra. I've made thousands upon thousands of disks on my automated duplicator over the past five years and have never had a single complaint.

I always burn at 1/2 the rated disk speed (for example, if it's a 16x disk, I burn at 8x) and I always use the verify function.

If you are consistantly having problems, I'd suspect the drive first, then perhaps the media. Honestly, I'm leery of any media you can buy at "a local retailer".

Anyway, the best advice I can give is to *never* burn at the highest rated speed.

I used to have this problem when I burned a disc directly from the time line. Now I create a video ts file and burn from that. Since I have started doing this, I no longer have a problem. I am using
Pinnacle Studio 12.

Hi Paul

Silly question maybe but are you sure some DVD +R's haven't got mixed up in your normal disks. +R disks are notorious for refusing to play in some players!!! Just make sure it's a -R disk!! I use maybe 100 blanks a month and never have had any issues with either Laser or LG disks here!!

Chris

When our audio cassette biz started years ago, we managed to secure the contract for supplying the background music for most of the retail store chains in Australia. We did all the mastering too, regular weekly biz, thankfully we never noticed the 1980s recession.

But when CDs came along we HAD to get into the CD replication biz to keep the contract as the stores changed over.

As the orders increased, the rep speed became a huge deal to maintain the quality. Getting industry info and testing we found if you burn too fast, the red laser doesn't have time to burn 'square edges' on the pits, 1:1 speed and it can skip and it's just too slow anyway.

We found the best burn speed was X4 and I've found the best DVD-R copies of our current videos to be at the same speed. Faster rated DVDs and CDs are just the result of competition.

Cheers.

I was also wondering if you are using - or + discs. I have been using the run of the mill Memorex minus DVD's from Sams Club for years and I have never had a DVD returned as unreadable. Of course I test them on two DVD players before I give them to a customer.

Years ago I had a DVD recorder that used + DVD discs and it was horrible. Probably 75% of the discs I tried to burn in it would not work.

we are using the -R discs. I will slow the burn to see if that helps. After it burns and then says that there are no errors are we saying that their might still be? I am using a Pioneer BluRay burner that is 8 months old. I am using the burning utility supplied with Pinnacle. I will give it a test run the next set of discs I do. thanks

Hi Paul

I might be wrong of course, but I'm pretty sure that Pioneer burners were biased towards +R disks for some reason....I tried experimenting with +R's a long time ago and they always played in Pioneer DVD players but little else. If you still have an issue with the disks, a generic burner is so cheap nowdays I would get a replacement and see if it solves the problem... I have a Samsung in one machine and LG's in the other two and never any issues and each burner cost me around $20!! I always burn my 16X DVD's at 16X and also haven't had an issue.

What you can also try is author the DVD in your Pinnacle software so you end up with the usual Audio_TS and Video_TS folders and then just write those to the DVD in Windows...Win 7 has a neat wizard that will do it right from the folder for you. On my older machines on XP Pro I use Nero and also no problems and no issues. I would also test the project once it has written to the TS folders and make sure the video and audio play correctly on your computer....by doing it step-by-step you can see if the DVD compile might be causing the problem, or the burning software, or the actual burner.

Nowdays it shouldn't be necessary to have to burn at slow speeds unless you have a very old machine!!!

Chris

I just sent out my first batch of -dvdr discs, all of them not readable, just heard from customer yesterday. I never have used -dvdr because they are reputed, I thought to be the least compatible. I bought them by mistake.

Actually Jeff -R discs are looked at as being the far more compatible than +R and have been for a long time. I used to try to burn +R when I first started doing DVDs and never had any sucess with either burning or getting them to play universally. I made the switch to -Rs and haven't burned but 2 coasters since and both were my own fault. Thousands upon thousands of discs. All -R not one client has ever said they don't work. Of course 10 years from now it might be a different story but I guess I worry about it then. (maybe)

O|O
\--/

Paul:
Since we are both using Pinnacale and I had the same problem at one point, I would strongly suggest that you create an image then burn from that instead of burniing from the timeline if this is what you are doing. I have not had a problem since. This is something that you can do within Pinnacale itself.

Well Don, I stand corrected. But I can also add that my friend Jeff uses only +DVDR and he produces thousands, and I do mean many thousands of discs yearly using his arrays of duplicators (he does a lot of bigger jobs) and we have always used the same discs. He's the one that got me on the + from day one.

Actually, DVD+r discs have an edge now for compatibility with more set top DVD players. It use to be that DVD-r disc had fewer problems but if you set the book type for DVD+r discs to DVD-ROM. This will make the player think that is is a pressed disc. From my experience of distributing over two thousand discs (lots of dance and stage shows), I would say if you use a good program to burn your discs, don't burn at max speed and use a quality burner you shouldn't have any problems with either one.

As for disc manufacturers, I usually only use two, the TY Watershield (love the way these look, super professional) or Verbatim. If I have to do a DL for some reason I only will use Verbatim.

I would also recommend creating an image of the disc and testing it witha DVD-RW or +RW. Then use a program to write the image. The most reliable program with the best controls to burn the image that I've found is ImageBurn. It's free and works great. It allow you to set the location of the layer break for DL's and has some other nice features.

-Garrett

TY disc +1

Never have any single problem reported by customers. The print out is beautiful.

I've been using TDK now for quite a few years without problems but I have to spray them to 'fix' the print. Am I to assume the TY Watershield discs don't need spraying with fixative?

Do they come in silk/satin finish as well as glossy (not a fan of glossy)

Pete

I just sent out my first batch of -dvdr discs, all of them not readable, just heard from customer yesterday.

I started in 2005 with -dvd with nothing but playback problems (dvd's were build with adobe encore) then switched to +dvd and all was fine, currently I use verbatim +dvd with good success, the only mayor issue I had was with a medion (german manufacurer of cheap electronics) dvd player at a customer and the dvd would lock up the player after a few minutes, I tried every possible option like other brands, +dvd, -dvd, buring at very slow speed, nothing helped. Then I redid the project in encore and instead of a bitrate of 7200kbs (which I always use) I transcoded into a 6000kbs file and after that it played flawless on that medion player.

I never use high bitrates (like around 8000kbs) for my dvd's as my experience is that this is the main reason dvd's tend to skip on (often older) players that can't keep up.

Hi Noa

Although I have had nothing but issue with +R's I must admit I always use the default DVD preset in Sony Vegas which encodes the MPEG2 file also at pretty close to 6000kbps and never higher!!

Maybe the encode bitrate makes a big difference??? I did have a Soniq Protable DVD player once that refused to play DVD -R discs ..the video was fine but the audio was very choppy...however it played commercial discs without any problems.

Chris

It's strange but looks like -dvd or +dvd playback issues are almost region specific, I have had smaller hiccups in playback in the past on some dvd players, usually philips or playstation players, in those cases switching to a -dvd always helped. I can say that for the past years at least 98% of my clients had no playback issue with +dvd.

I've had this issue with discs burned direct from Sony Vegas Pro (it doesn't give you the option of changing the book type to DVD-ROM, which as Garrett Low says is the key to solving the issue).

I used DVD+ discs in Vegas Pro and although they would play in two different Panasonic DVD player and a Sony Playstation they would not play in a Sony Blu-Ray player. Very strange since Sony were behind the original DVD+ spec when it was in competition with DVD-.

If I used DVD- discs in Vegas Pro these would play fine on all 4 machines.

Vegas has an addon program called DVD Architect Pro for authoring the disc once you've rendered the project but that does not appear to give you the option of changing the book type to DVD-ROM either.

So I burn the project to disc in the normal way using eith a DVD- or DVD+ disc as it doersn't matter at this point.

Then I use Nero to create DVD-ROM discs from the DVD+ or DVD- disc. Problem solved.

In Nero you go from Start Smart to the Rip and Burn Tab and then select the Copy Disc option. Then select the Image / Project / Copy Tab. Then select the Copy Entire DVD option. Click on Options within that and then again select Options from the popout dialogue box. From its drop down menu select DVD-ROM.

I've explained the steps in detail because if you just click through for copying a disc you won't find the Book Type menu :- (

So now you can issue all your DVDs as DVD-ROM and have maximum compatibility!

Pete

My suggestion is go with TY disc. They have the best compatibility compared to other brands like Ridata. Then I use ImgBurn to burn the disk. It's been a few years and I never have one single incident any customers told me their disc can't be played.

I think that bad discs have to do more with the way that your software writes the lead in when burning direct from your time line.