Since a lot of people seem to have problems getting backups to play on their standalone, I thought it would be nice to have a single thread to collect a list of common (or even uncommon) solutions. I'm sure I won't cover everything, but if you post additional information that should be included I'll edit this post so we can try to keep it all together. Not only should this be helpful for newbies, but also (hopefully) a useful thread for some of our veterans who are no doubt getting sore fingers from typing the same answers over and over. ;-) Part 1: Generic Solutions 1. Use Good Media Many (most?) playback problems can be directly traced to the media you use. As the saying goes, garbage in - garbage out. Unfortunately, without some research or a lot of trial and error it can be hard to determine what media is good and what's not. Ritek G04, Taiyo Yuden (often referred to as just TY), and Verbatim (make sure they say AZO) are all reliable media. The Riteks are probably more common than the others because of their combination of reasonable price and good quality, but I've found some great deals on Verbatims from time to time. If you're going to use cheap media anyway, you may want to try leaving free space at the end of the disc (if that's the only place you have problems) and/or burning at a lower speed. 2. Use The Best Media For Your Player Even a standalone that will play both -R and +R may do better with one or the other. If you use good media and still have problems, you might want to switch from -R to +R or vice versa. Likewise, some players just prefer some media over others, even when they're the same format. When in doubt, try doing searching the forums for your specific player. Somebody else may have already come up with the answer. 3. Leave Your Computer Alone While Burning Sometimes you can get bad burns if you're computer is working on other things while burning. The higher the burn speed, the more likely this is to be a problem since a higher percentage of the computer's time is required to keep the write buffer full. Personally, I only do 2x-4x burns, depending on the media I have at any given moment, and I don't have any problems running Emule, Outlook, and Mozilla at the same time while I'm burning, but I still stay away from doing things like decompressing archives or accessing databases during my burns. 4. Use The Correct Settings To Burn Which burning program you use is a matter of personal preference, but whichever one you pick, make sure you use the correct settings for compatibility with standalone players. If you're using Nero 5.5.x you should probably upgrade to Nero 6 or you may run into problem,s depending on the exact version and what standalone you are playing them in. Here are some links that should help you figure out the right settings. Some of them are written specifically for DVD Shrink, but the settings should be the same regardless of what program you use to prepare your DVD files. Nero Settings: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/burning_dvd_with_nero.cfm http://dvdshrink.info/nero-video.php http://dvdshrink.info/nero-udf-iso.php http://www.chrismccann.co.uk/nero.htm RecordNow Max Settings: http://www.chrismccann.co.uk/recordnowmax.htm BurnAtOnce Settings: http://dvdshrink.info/burnatonce.php 4. Windows Never underestimate Windows' ability to cause problems for itself. There is no all purpose solution for Windows problems, but there are some easy things to consider. If you've just started having problems after previous successful burns, look at any software (including Windows updates) you've installed since your last good burn. Just because a piece of software doesn't have anything to do with burning doesn't mean it can't cause problems. Also, try to minimize the number of processes running in Windows at any given time. Besides boosting your PC's performance, it will help you avoid software conflicts. Part 2: Doesn't Play In Standalone But Plays Fine On PC 1. Does Your Player Support Your Media? Make sure your player supports the type of media (-R or +R) you're using. Most newer players support both formats, but some older players support only one or the other (or sometimes neither). Start by checking the owner's manual for your player. Another good resource is the database at DVDRHelp.com: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers Keep in mind that the database entries are user submitted and not verified by anyone, so there's no guarantee that the person who submitted a given entry knew what they were talking about. Having said that, the information is usually reliable, especially if the same facts are submitted by multiple people. If you're burning to +R media but your player doesn't support +R you may also be able to use a technique called bitsetting to make the disc compatible with your player. Bitsetting fools a player into thinking that the disc is actually a pre-recorded DVD-ROM instead of a DVD+R. It can't be done with all burners, and I can't comment on how well it actually works since my burner doesn't support it. More information can be found at the official DVD+RW Alliance website: http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Article.asp?mid=0&sid=2&aid=42 http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Article.asp?mid=-1&sid=-2&aid=44&hl=bitsetting Part 3: Picture Problems 1. The picture is blocky If you had to recompress the movie to fit on your blank you may get this problem in parts. If you made a full disk backup you may want to try backing up just the movie. If the backup is alread movie only you may want to remove the end credits or split it across 2 discs. If the movie hasn't been recompressed this is probably a media problem. See the first section on Generic Solutions. 2. The Disk Stops, Skips, Or The Picture Looks "Scrambled" Sometimes This is normally a media problem. See the first section on Generic Solutions. Part 4: I've Checked All Of This But It Still Doesn't Work Try searching the forums. There aren't too many things we haven't run into before. If that doesn't help, post a question. That's what we're here for. ;-) Obviously this is an incomplete document right now. There's certainly a lot that could be added and maybe some things that should be ccorrected. If you have any suggestions for additional information, other/better links, or corrections either post them here or send me a PM. I plan to keep updating this indefinitely to make things easier for everybody. If you have specific problems you need help with, please create a separate thread so this stays on topic. _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Learn AviSynth The Easy Way: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/avisynth_tutorial.cfm Afterdawn Guides: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/ Afterdawn Rules: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487[/small]
Here's MY problem. I used to be able to produce my own DVDs + - R RW or whatever. I do not backup pre recorded DVDs, but rather I have LOADS of DV film of my children. RIGHT I thought, I'll write them to DVD. WRONG. There isn't a SINGLE STANDALONE PLAYER OUT THERE that will play my discs. Sometimes they will run for 5 mins, 10 mins, stutter and run, drop off and crash, you name it I have seen it!! Do my discs work in any PC capable of running a software player, well yes perfectly! I can jump, skip, search, title everything! As I am dealing with MY OWN captured footage, "aha I thought", "this'll doubtless be a LOT simpler than trying to backup a protected DVD movie!" OH HOW WRONG I WAS? Previously (when I was only "dabbling" with DVD writing tests) ie 3 or 4 minutes of test footage and NO MENUS, things were fine. It SEEMS that the more footage I add, the worse (progressively) it gets. Scenes that are halfway and towards the END of the disc just REFUSE to play, (or they give a nice "freeze frame" crash for me to power out of!) I just don't understand the difference between PC and STANDALONE. Frustrating is too small a word! My hard disc is LOADED with footage I am too frightened to remove! I cannot reliably back it up! I recently bought a new DVD writer + and -. It was supposed to be faster, but I just wanted + AND - capability. I continue to write at 1x speed too, and I will do UNTIL I can get some success at this speed. I use the following spec: 1.4 mHz AMD Athlon, Radeon 7200, 1 gig memory, Emprex DVD RW+-, (previously a Pioneer Drive) (-R/RW only), Premiere for edits, DVD Movie Factory for authoring. Please let me know if I have given scant information. I simply do not know which way to turn. I also have a DVD which (miraculously) DOES WORK, but from 2 years ago! I have tried MORE than 20 (twenty) times to duplicate it, and it DOES play on all major standalones. It is a family disc, not copy protected, and I have NEVER sucessfully reproduced it again for STANDALONE! I even took out (extracted) the VOBs, and replaced them all in a new menu etc in DVD workshop, and RE-BURNED. Plays for approx first few scenes and then jumps, jitters, staggers and crashes. Hopefully someone with some know-how can help me. Do I need a faster PC, better motherboard, better drive? Have used Packard Bell DVD-R (these are the FEW that WORK!) also STRAND DVD-R, IMATION DVD+R and one UNBRANDED set of ten. Thanks for listening (sorry for length...)
Help with playback of .bin/.cue files. I've tried using Daemon Tools, Alcohol and UltraISO to mount a movie .bin/.cue file. It's able to mount successfully, but when I try to play the file I get an unspecified error. I've tried using Windows Media Player 9, Real Player, and WinDVD to play the mpeg file. All get the same error. I don't want to burn the file, just play it. This has now happened on a few movie files, so I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!
