Write to DVD erratic

[Trevor Lawrence]

Previously posted on another NG. Maybe this is the better place
_________________________________________________

I have had troubles with writing DVDs that play on my DVD player. Ulead
Movie Factory Suite 3.5 just gave up completely - it would not write a DVD
at all.

I then tried Nero with an erased DVD, and it worked!! It wrote a DVD which
played on the PC AND on the DVD player. Only about half of the DVD was used
for a movie of 92 minutes. (2.39GB out of 4.38GB) Bit rate was 3382.

So I retried with another erased DVD. This time I changed the menus a bit
and altered the bit rate to 6300 to improve the quality to the maximum
possible - not that it was bad on the previous try. Amount required was
shown as 4.30GB out 4.38GB

After 90 minutes of operation Nero completed the write and ejected the DVD.
It played on the PC fine, BUT NOT ON THE DVD PLAYER.

What am I doing wrong ?

1. Should I leave the bit rate alone? (Are DVD players set to only use
certain bit rates?)
2. Is there some special way of erasing the DVD so that it rewrites
successfully for both uses (PC and DVD player)?
3. Is there some special option of writing the DVD so that it plays on the
DVD player?

I am about to try again. This time I will erase using Nero and start the
write operation again while I go to the shops (which may take about 90
minutes.)

But somehow I doubt it.

I used to believe that if one does the same thing as has been done before,
one would get the same result, whether the right or wrong result.

Now I believe that if you repeat an action, you MAY get the result that you
did before, but the probability is that you won't.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

One question I'd ask is how many times have the DVD-RWs in question been
used? I normally use DVD-Rs exclusively, I've previously found that erasing
and rewriting them does nothing for my standalone DVD player.

I have no experience with Nero or uLead, I use PowerDirector, WinDVD Creator
and Roxio. I've also never changed the bitrate... I trust the software to
do everything. I'd say 99.9% of my DVDs are successful. When the drive has
been used for about a year (and that's about 500+ DVDs) I tend to discard
them and get a new one. I know I'm hard on them and the moment I start to
hear strange noises, it's time to retire it.

 

[Trevor Lawrence]

One question I'd ask is how many times have the DVD-RWs in question been
used? I normally use DVD-Rs exclusively, I've previously found that
erasing and rewriting them does nothing for my standalone DVD player.

I have no experience with Nero or uLead, I use PowerDirector, WinDVD
Creator and Roxio. I've also never changed the bitrate... I trust the
software to do everything. I'd say 99.9% of my DVDs are successful. When
the drive has been used for about a year (and that's about 500+ DVDs) I
tend to discard them and get a new one. I know I'm hard on them and the
moment I start to hear strange noises, it's time to retire it.

Thanks, Cari

These particular DVDs have not been overused - about 10 times max.

The reason I use DVD+RWs (NOT DVD-RWs, although I have used these in the
past) is so that when a failure occurs, I can erase it and start again,
without having to use fresh media.

While DVDS are coming down in price, my failure rate has been so high that I
would have gone through as many DVDs as I have had failures. This has been
more than 10, because I am not reusing the **same** physical DVD after every
failure: I switch them a bit.

My failure rate would be equal to your success rate, ie about 99.9 %
failure. Perhaps I am being a but harsh - it may only be about 10 to 20%.
Bur they have been successive failures - nothing has worked for a year or
two.

But once I get a success, I doubt that I will reuse that particular DVD.

I have now succeeded twice in a row with Nero. This occurred when I left the
bit rate at long play (3382) Although I would like to edit some of this
movie - there are a few bad takes - Nero doesn't allow this. So unless I get
keen and use Ulead or WMM to edit the avi file (I think they will) I will
now move on to burn more of the moves stored on AVI tapes for the last 2
years.

BTW, I assume that you mean that you discard the DVDs after 500 times - not
the drive itself. I would be happy to use DVD+R or DVD-R exclusively if I
could get the 99% success rate that you get

 

[Scrat]

DVD writing is one of the squirrelliest things I've ever been involved with
on computers (of course, not including when Tutenkhamen had us upgrade his
tomb) and it appears that ALL MEDIA IS NOT CREATED EQUAL. Those who are
totally logged-in can tell you not only what brands work but what
manufacturing sites are favored. Check out the forum at slysoft.com. The
dudes who spend the most time ripping dvds appear to be the media
propeller-heads.

\s