audio skips on commercial DVD player, fine on PC

[navboy]

hey, new to ImgBurn and DVDFlick, relatively new to video on PC platform, confusing landscape of one conversion after the other just to move original video around, edit, compress for web, and burn to dvd.

 

My workflow: basic editing in QuickTime Pro, encode for web (have this part figured out), but also then burn a high quality copy of the movie to dvd to be playable in both computers and commercial dvd players - this last bit has me baffled.

I hate having to convert so many times - i assume everytime i do it i lose more quality.

 

Here are my current twp attempts, both result in the same problem - a dvd that plays fine on the computer, but only in certain media players (for example, no audio at all in Windows Media player, yet the dvd my friend created on his Mac with FinalCut Pro or something WILL play in WMP), and then has severe abrupt audio skips here and there on commercial dvd players:

 

1. Export to .mov container in DV format from QT Pro, input into DVDFlick, either burn to cd or create ISO image, burn ISO imagea to dvd -r TDK or Maxcell in ImgBurn.

 

2. Export to .avi container from QT Pro, input into DVDFlick, create ISO image, burn ISO image to dvd -r TDK or Maxcell in ImgBurn.

 

Now that i've read your forums, i've already ordered a spindle of Verbatim since Office Depot didn't carry them, but still, i've burned a lot of audio and existing vob content to these Maxcell dvd -r's and apart from the occasional coaster, they all play in my commercial player.

 

I realize the problem may well be outside of ImgBurn or DVDFlick - i could even just use some basic advice on which format to export to from QT Pro that would make the best conversion into DVDFLick and then to ImgBurn (i'm assuming there's no way to go directly from QT Pro to ImgBurn, seems like you already have to have either an ISO or the VOB structure, and QT Pro doesn't export either of those).

[spinningwheel]

Wouldn't this be better asked at the QT Pro website since it does not look like an ImgBurn problem. ImgBurn burns whatever data you give it and yours is 'hindered' prior to ImgBurn getting the data.

[blutach]

I hate having to convert so many times - i assume everytime i do it i lose more quality.

True. Use a single conversion - try AVIDemux or SUPER.

 

Post a log. Chances are your playback issues are because you are not using top quality media.

 

Regards

[navboy]

I hate having to convert so many times - i assume everytime i do it i lose more quality.

True. Use a single conversion - try AVIDemux or SUPER.

 

Post a log. Chances are your playback issues are because you are not using top quality media.

 

Regards

 

I've heard SUPER mentioned before, maybe i should check it out. I've also heard good things about MPEG Streamclip - does it convert directly from QT Pro to VOB or is SUPER or the other one you mentioned a better choice?

 

Nod, i posted to QT forums as well to approach from both ends of the problem. My media shows up as 2nd tier as id'd by mfg id. Verbatim is on the way, but this media has worked in general for me for a long time. Here is a log from a burn where the dvd plays fine in certain media players on my pc, does not have audio in WMP, and has badly skipping audio on commercial dvd players.

 

; //****************************************\\

; ImgBurn Version 2.4.4.0 - Log

; Saturday, 02 May 2009, 15:45:03

; \\****************************************//

;

;

I 15:29:34 ImgBurn Version 2.4.4.0 started!

I 15:29:34 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 3)

I 15:29:34 Total Physical Memory: 3,669,484 KB - Available: 3,027,740 KB

I 15:29:34 Initialising SPTI...

I 15:29:34 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 15:29:34 Found 1 DVD-ROM and 1 DVD

[mmalves]

I 15:30:14 Destination Device: [3:1:0] LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1P KL0N (E:) (ATA)

I 15:30:14 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: CMC MAG. AM3) (Speeds: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 12x, 16x)

I 15:30:14 Write Speed: MAX

Update your burner's firmware (remove any disc and close the tray before updating then reboot the computer after updating is finished). Try burning at 8x or 12x for best results.

 

I don't know about your sources but CMC MAG is pure crap, it could only be 2nd tier from the bottom

[navboy]

I 15:30:14 Destination Device: [3:1:0] LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1P KL0N (E:) (ATA)

I 15:30:14 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: CMC MAG. AM3) (Speeds: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 12x, 16x)

I 15:30:14 Write Speed: MAX

Update your burner's firmware (remove any disc and close the tray before updating then reboot the computer after updating is finished). Try burning at 8x or 12x for best results.

 

I don't know about your sources but CMC MAG is pure crap, it could only be 2nd tier from the bottom

 

Will update firmware next step - thanks for the link.

 

As i say, Verbatim are ordered and on the way. The "2nd tier" came from http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm and since they only really divide it into three tiers, it is 2nd tier from the top and bottom, heh. These are what Office Depot sells as Maxcell disks in spindles of 50. In my Panasonic standalone burner, they've been adequate - i've never noticed any problems. Maybe it's something about the Plextor burner in my PC - firmware update will be an interesting test.

 

The log shows the burn rate was around 9x to 10x, smack dab in the middle of our 8x/12x recommendation, so are you saying nonetheless to manually set it to 8x or 12x?

[mmalves]

Yes, burn at 8x or 12x for best results. Notice in that log that it was set to burn at MAX speed (16x in your case), but didn't reach that speed because there was too little amount of data.

[blutach]

NoMoreCoasters (now called digitalfaq) used to have 4 tiers and CMC were on the bottom forever. I can't bring myself to believe they are in tier 2. Tier 200 maybe. Get ridda them. If you got an unopened spindle, give them away as a present!

 

Regards

[spinningwheel]

[navboy]

Correction, that log was from a stack of TDK's at Office Depot, i have no former experience with them. The Maxell's are still in the same 2nd tier on that page though (Prodisc or something like that).

 

Anyway, new firmware, hardset burn speed to 8x, audio skips in exactly the same spots as before on commercial player, but no problem on PC, except in WMP, where no audio at all. So, now i'm back to trying to find the missing link between Quicktime Pro and something ImgBurn can burn, like an ISO image or a VOB structure. I guess DVDFlick's compressor/transcoder might be the weak link here.

 

Thanks for the help on firmware updates, every little bit helps. I checked MPEG STreamclip out, it doesn't go in the direction i need MOV->VOB, it goes the other direction. I'll see if SUPER does, but i don't recall it doing that when i checked it out a few years back. Never thought it'd be so hard to get a basic workflow going, just gotta keep searching, i guess. No joy in QuickTime forums, seems like most everyone is interested in how to get content off of a dvd and into Quicktime, not the other way around.

[mmalves]

Try ConvertXtoDVD.

[navboy]

Try ConvertXtoDVD.

 

total bust there, looked okay on PC, but stuttered horribly on commercial player (video) and no audio at all, but played okay on PC.

 

SUPER is close but not quite - could not read directly from flattened QuickTime movie (rather, it read the video stream but not any of the jpg credits images at beginning and end of movie), but once i used a QT Pro produced AVI, then Super's Automode did a fantastic job, but squashed it to 4:3 rather than preserving 16:9, plus i don't seem to have anything that will take just a lone VOB file and author the dvd with it, since Super only creates the VOB. Still had the extra conversion in there as wel.

 

This is all outside the direct context of ImgBurn at thsi point, but i never got an activation email back from DVDFlick forums, can't find forums for SUPER, and so anyone has any other ideas on how to input a Quicktime movie and output the VIDEO_TS folder with all the files, i'm still looking for a solution. I'm caught in a catch 22 - Quicktime won't export directly to VOB and VIDEO_TS structure, so i have to do an intermediate export and use that somehow, or i have to find software that will read a flattened QuickTime movie and do the conversion from there, but i can't seem to find any solution for either of these. Any suggestions greatly appreciated,

[mmalves]

Use Media Player Classic Homecinema to open the VIDEO_TS.IFO file created by ConvertXtoDVD, does it play OK? You can also try with PowerDVD/WinDVD to open the VIDEO_TS folder.

[navboy]

Use Media Player Classic Homecinema to open the VIDEO_TS.IFO file created by ConvertXtoDVD, does it play OK? You can also try with PowerDVD/WinDVD to open the VIDEO_TS folder.

 

In general, all of my players played the burned dvd well, it's on the commercial dvd player where the problem arises. However, i did notice that if i use a variety of players (including Media Player Classic), they tend to play the main .vob file fine, but when it is played by first opening the VIDEO_TS.IFO as you suggest, then clicking on the menu item, some of them experience video stutter here and there, kind of like the commercial player does. I don't understand why this would be.

 

I also tried using the TS_VIDEO structure generated by ConvertXtoDVD, then swapping out the malfunctioning VOB file with the nice one created by SUPER - once again, all appears fine on the PC, but not on the commercial player. Not sure if there are specific ties between the various files and the main vob that would cause problems when swapping out the main vob like that, but it would be one way to use SUPER to do good conversion of an AVI export from Quicktime, then do some sort of authoring with the resulting VOB file, since neither ConvertXtoDVD nor DVDFlick seem to want to take VOB as input and simply build the needed TS_VIDEO files to go with it and add a menu, etc.