[GreekGuy]

Hey all, dunno if anyone else experiences this, but when i burn a dvd it plays fine on my apple, but when i play it in a regular dvd player, it plays good up until about 30 mins, then it starts to skip more and more, until it is unviewable.

has anyone else experienced this?

any info?

thanks!

 

[MannyP Design]

What speed of DVR-R is it? I've had similar problems, come to find out it was due to using a DVD-R 1x disc rather than a 2x disc.

 

[GreekGuy]

ahh its 1x dvd-r's that i got fairly cheap on a spindle.
I should try a name brand and go from there.

what brand do you use?

 

[MannyP Design]

Actually, if you get 2x DVD-Rs by the spindle, it should matter. Leda is one brand I use, but I'm sure there are others that may be cheaper. Most times, if I need DVD-R 2x discs... I just get Apple's. It's quicker since I just head down to the local Mac shop. Don't bother with Verbatim... they're too expensive generally, despite the decent quality.

I now only use the 1x DVD spindle I have for data backup... until I finish the spindle. After that it'll only be 2x or more.

Someone on this board mentioned http://www.factorydirect.ca/ as a good place to check out bulk DVD-R media... just make sure it is indeed 2x DVD-Rs... I notice that they don't say on certain spindle packages, but do on others.

 

[Moscool]

My experience is that it has more to do with the DVD player than the medium. I was experiencing the same problems and I upgraded my player to something recent. Gone!

 

[MannyP Design]

My personal experience happened with a newer DVD player (>1 year old).

There's a reason Apple's DVD media is 2x speed.

 

[MannyP Design]

[ August 21, 2003, 08:57 PM: Message edited by: mannyp ]

 

[Neil Yates]

Try burning your DVD-Video content at 1x -R and see if it clears up the problem. I've seen this before, and burning at 1x usually cures it.

N.

 

[Klaatu]

After less than a week of having dvd-burning capability I learned 2 things:

1) You get what you pay for. Buy cheap media, expect uncertain results

2) Never burn at advertised speeds. If you buy 4x, burn at 2x. Buy 2x, burn at 1x. You can get a good burn at the set speed, but it's rarely 100%. Burnt at half-speed, you're guarenteed better results.

Since I'm using these discs as back-ups (erasing data after burning) I don't need the risk of permanantly losing this data.

 

[MannyP Design]

First and foremost, you should never burn or use a DVD-R at 1x speed if you intend to use it for video. Ever. DVD-R 1x discs (compared to 2x) have much more limited throughput rates which can cause problems during playback.

The only exception to this rule is if you use programs like DVD Studio Pro that allow you to adjust the bitrate of your video -- anywhere between 1.0 and 9.8 Mbps. This would allow you to target the optimal rate that 1x DVD-R could work at... but not without the cost of video quality. Otherwise, if you use programs like iDVD and such (which only allow for 2 types of bitrate encoding for DVD video) can cause potential problems.

As mentioned before... name brands are probably a sure bet. I've been leaning towards Apple's 2x DVD-R media since I've yet to burn a disc that won't play properly on a DVD player or Mac -- and a lot of pros suggest the same. I haven't tested Apple's new 4x discs yet so I can't comment on it's relability.

That aside... there's nothing wrong with using a 1x DVD-R for data backup and such. They're much cheaper, it just takes longer.

 

[GreekGuy]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll try with newer name brand media and burn at a lower rate than specified.
it sorta makes sense.. when i play back its' ok until near the second half of the dvd. .which is more towards the outer edge which means it has to spin at a different speed.. more surface area.

Anyway, will let you guys know how it goes!

thanks