Dennis, Most likely your player won't play +R's and almost positive that RW is out of the question. Players of that era only did -R media, +R was barely being introduced in 2002. You're a little short on the RAM side and that could explain why any playing on your PC seem "jerky" or "blocky". Hopefully you have upgraded your OS system to 2000 OR XP. If that's the case go to msconfig and startup, click "disable all", Apply, OK then OK to reboot. If your system is of the caveman era then again, msconfig, startup, uncheck all except Systray, Explorer (and I think )my computer (?) I forget BUT if you've been in PC's for that long - you know the base one I want left. All else we'll start when we need them. We want all of your resources free to play with DVD's. Right now I'm betting that you're sooooo short on memory it's why your playback's suck. Then run your player and see the difference Try that – and report back (Pop, nothing much wrong with anything made by Ricoh, they're good guys -) Cheers, Pete
Pete, Okay I have followed your tutorial on shrink AND DVDDecrypter and burned a backup of a movie on DVD. For starters, I have no problems at all playing movies on my PC, and apparently I have no problems burning anything to the disk. The problems I am having on my movie backups are my stand alone set top GoVideo player of about 2 years ago. Mostly all of my movies play extremely well on my PC with no problems. My pixelation, video skip and my voice sync are on my set top player and while I have never taken the time to see if my PC will play the "sections" that my set top player will not, I am betting that it will and as far as picture quality is concerned, I can not complain about neither. Just wish my stand alone DVD would play my backups. I did not really play the entire movie I made with shrink and crypter but it does play extremely nice on my PC with no visible problems. At the start of burning, DVDDcrypter gave me a message: "DeviceIOControl (FSCTL_Unlock_Volume) Failed. Unable to unlock Volume for exclusive Access" And again this message popped up while finishing the DVD. First time I clicked "ignore" and second time "cancel" and the log noted nothing wrong in any of the events. I am interested in what your thoughts are do to next, and thanks for taking the time to help me solve this mystery. Dennis
Dennis, I got it - Sorry I had it all turned around - My suggesion would then be to try your backups on another player, a friends OR in a bind, head to an electronics store, one that has several DVD plaeyer on display. Tell the sales clerk that you wish to see which one would be good on which to play your own DVD's. Usually they'll allow you to try your discs. I believe you'll find your discs will be fine. Older players also had trouble playing anything that has been burner while playing "pressed discs fine. Original discs were pressed while your discs are burned. A trial on other players is mandatory before losing sleep about "Dodgy" discs. Of course always stay with your good media BUT for those crappy discs you have gathering dust, here are some little "Tricks" to achive a fair to good burns with them. Always remembering that they may lose their memory within a short span of time - "Uncle" ScubaPete's Last Ditch Suggestions to help you work your way through your "Really Cheap and I wish I hadn't bought this stuff." DVD Discs. HOT TIPS for your POOR MEDIA: !. This is a bit "wacky" BUT it has worked for some pple. Rebooting your PC (cleaning out all the memory) allows some discs to be seen better - As I said, it can't hurt and it's worth a try - 2. Here's a good fix. Compress your DVD to somewhere around 4.3GB instead of the recommended 4360MB. I.e., Go into DVD Shrink, "Edit", "Preferences" then set the "DVD Target Size" to "Custom" and enter 4300MB as the size. Reducing the amount of Data to be burned it keeps your burning away from the disc's edges where the dye on poor quality DVD discs tends to be uneven and may even be brittle and flaking. 3. You may reduce the number of errors and "artifacts" (the "freezing", "skipping" and other picture abnormalities) when burning poor media by burning at a reduced speed. It has been my experience that burning at 2.4X will succeed where faster burns will not. Don't be surprised if you have to burn at 1X. Some discs you're lucky to have it burn DVD Video at all. It will take longer but what the heck, you're saving money with those "Cheap" discs, who cares about time when you're saving $$$$ (Lol). Since you're compressing more it might be wise to burn just the movie, the less you burn the better the quality sooo, movie only, please. 4. The "Magic cleaning" technique: Try cleaning your DVD discs. Yea, I know they're new and clean but do it anyway. Do it a few seconds before inserting it into your DVD tray, use a disc cleaner, eyeglass cleaning solution or 99% Isopropyl Alcohol and a soft cotton cloth and rub-a-dub, dub. As soon as you're finished, "Pop" it into your DVD tray and fire up your program. You would be surprised how many times your disc is now "seen" Let me know again how you made out - Pete
Thanks Pete. Actually, you DID teach me someting about configuring Shrink and DVD Dycrypter that I did not know. Actually, I did not even have dycrypter,nor had I used it in conjunction with Shrink. While I had used shrink "once or twice" I had never even been in the preferences section and investigated. As for the problems I have, I may just purchase on of those cheap DVD players you mentioned earlier, if I can find one locally and (or) try it out first, it would appear that all things point to just my player being an antique at just 2 years old. Shame, but if my backups actually "play" correctly with a 40. machine instead of a 300 dollar machine, it does not say too much for the nice things in life. Dennis
Best ones ive tried so far are Dvd Shrink and Nero or Clone Dvd2 and Any Dvd is even faster than shrink 30 minutes to do whole dvd and quality is nice too 1 click tried it slow and not enough options. Dvd Cloner forget about it Crap
Where can I find Verbatim +RW Advanced Metal AZO Dye disks? I realize they are going to be more expensive. I'm trying to find some and at the best possible price. In the stores or on the internet? Please help! Thank you!
diverj - I get the same problem...freezing and pixelation on my Toshiba player for TV. Its about 2 years old. Its not the media or ripping/burn process. Its the player. I have a cheap $25 Apex player in the bedroom and the same DVD plays flawlessly on the Apex and pixelates and freezes on the $180 Toshiba. Go figure. :|
1 Click DVD Copy is a piece of shit,don't invest in it because if u need help they won't.I wanted a refund and the stop answering my emails,did u get a refund?
If the Verbatim says "DataLife PLUS" then you've got the right stuff - Check Newegg.com and Mertline.com Cheers,
I assume the verbatim disks you mentioned have advanced metal azo dye. Thanks ScubaPete, I'll check it out and appreciate your help. Have a great day! Luckydude 8)
smiley369, This thread isn't the place to Bitch and Moan. If you're not here to help, go to the Safety Valvue and bitch to yourself there - You need to stop posting all over just because you can't operate a program - We're not here to listen to you cry. Be a good baby and go to your room it's ~ ~> that way ~ ~>
Update: I decided since the CyberHome DVD Players were so cheap, I would pick up one at the local Wally World and voila! It would appear that all of my backups that I could not play before because of skips, pixelation etc has been solved. Pete, thanks for the tip, I wondered in the past if it was my DVD player, but it was only 2 years old and NOT a cheapo either. I am not the type person to purchase the cheapest item on the market, and would never have thought a cheap player would be better than an expensive one, but the picture I get is in a word wonderful. Thanks Pete.
Dennis, I went over all my posts to you and see that I didn't suggest Cyber-Home to you - Funny because I do in fact suggest a player to many and I recommend a Cyber-Home (I have one also) because it does play everything Because the technology changes so quickly many players 1 and ½ yrs old or more are many times the culprit. I'm glad you were able to divine the answer and sorry I didn't suggest it to you sooner. You're doing well now and that's what matters – and now that you're doing well, that doesn't mean it's time for you to up and Ski-dattle - this is a give and take kind of a deal - we had fun helping you, now, the next time, you get to have some fun yourself It's people like you who make this site work - You've seen how we work and you've seen that we had fun doing it - Now it's your turn, stop back when you're free and help someone else - You'll have fun and, a chance to learn some more, (teaching is a learning experience too you know) the people you help will appreciate it and it will make you feel better Then you'll have a chance to "Welcome" them into our little Club Take a few minutes and check out our opening page. We've got a ton"O"stuff here at aD – Checkout other forums, we have the "Safety Valve" a forum about anything – from "What's bugging you," "Where members come from" OR the best joke you've heard – OR, check out our forums on Digital Camcorders, Photography, Home Theater components, Games, p2p topics or even Cellular phones. We hope to see you around when you're NOT having problems to solve - You'll find us hanging out, over there by the water cooler, under the potted palm, chewing the fat and trying to help the next Newbie with the weight of the burning world upon their shoulders - We'll be lQQking for you ~ ~> Sea ya soon, Pete :b)
For what its worth.I'm a little ashamed to admit it but I have 5 burners and use the last version of dvdxcopy which I repurchased from the Canadian site without a problem and with no problem so far with multiple activations.I have a Toshiba 5112, a IO 16x =/- dual layer,2 lite-on dual layer burners and 2 Pacific Digitals 8x (NEC 1300a) according to device manager.I have used media mostly from meritline namely the Ritek 04 and the Great Azo media 8x 2 23 centa a shot.Most of the burn problems and I have done a couple thousand were from media incompatibility which were corrected for the most part by firmware updates on all the burners except the Toshiba which has not posted a legal update for a year.I also have 2 Emerson stand alone burners from WalMart that have performed pretty well and use the Azo disks on them although with some lots I will geat an incompatibility message occasionally about half way down the spindle. I have also used various sale media from Staples without much problem including Teon and their own branded media although they will not always burn at the listed speed depending upon the media and the brand.Teon and Staples media will not work with the Emersons.The only problems that I have encountered has been with some Canadian and A&E dvds which I have had to use DVD rescue with varying amounts of success.Apparently the staff at 1 click copy state that some of the newer films have bad sectors that thwart dvdxcopy but not their software.One workaround that I have done has been to copy a movie in real time to the Emerson stand alone using one of the commercially available copyguard deeaters that you can eith order off the web or purchase at eith Circuit City or Best Buys for about a 100 us dollars
Hi 52346, With the exception of the Great AZO that you're using I say, if it works, burn on . . . I have tested the Great AZO and have had "memory" issues in as short as 3months - meaning that the discs were unplayable in that a short a time. I also had a 13% failure of discs (coasters) using those discs. Running them through DVD Identifier explained why. They were made by pple unknown. 9 different companies for just the one disc - unbelievable - Other than that, continue on - Cheers, Pete
Thanks Pete. I'll go back and check my AZO dvds for deterioration.I used your instructions that you posted for burning dvds using dvd shrink and decrypter and was amazed at the results.The only variance was that I had to select automatic fit instead of a numeric size for the disc space and I also was running dvd43free the latest version in the background.I used a copy of one of the new movies that have the bad sectors? thrown in to make them uncopyable that would not copy on dvdxcopy and the complete process from start to finish which was copying the whole disk with all the extras was about 32 minutes.,I was amazed.I might be overly critical but I think that there might have been a small loss of resolution of the free ware vs dvdxcopy. I tried running dvd43free in background when making a copy of the same movie and while it apparently ripped the whole movie instead of stopping at 4 seconds it still would not burn the disk afterwards, same for dvd xrescue.Regarding specs for my machines in the last post I am using a Systemax from Tigerdirect P4 2.4 Mhz,an HP 1.3 MHz, an HP 2.4Mhz and a Compaq 2.0MHz. The burners are according to device manager Lite-on dvdrw SOHW 1633s,DVDRW IDE 16x(Thats the new IO burner) and a NEC DVD RW ND 1300a (The Pacific Digital burners)Thanks so much for your informative post.Is there any way anyone knows of to work around the bad sector problem with the new films using DVDXCOPY?
One last point. I have found that my little APEX 1100 will play just about anything including xvcd that my more expensive brand name players will not.I found that out when I downloaded a favorite tv series in xvcd and couldnt play it on most of the name brand players
cjl52346, At one time, a year ago or so, I would have agreed BUT since last August and the advent of the quality controls on DVD Shrink, there is no doubt that Shrink produces a better quality backup especially when using Maximum Smoothness OR Maximum Sharpness. Though those settings take a bit longer for me at least, it's more than worth it. Some pple rate quality over quickness Being on the Beta testing team for DVD Shrink it was interesting to watch the gap close and then watch Shrink pull slowly ahead until the gap between them couldn't be denied. I consider that feature a PLUS. Setting the figure at 4360MB allows a bit of "wiggle" room so that the burn doesn't go to the edge of the disc where the dye on even some of the better discs is a bit "dodgy". Yea, that's the one you have to pay for - Sorry, I don't think too much of it - If you want your programs to work I suggest you use AnyDVD. At this time it is the only proggy available that can rip 100% of all the encryptions INCLUDING the newer Settec ALPHA-DVD and it's variations. As for other truly FREE rippers, the new release of DVD Decrypter (Jan.4, 2005) will take care of all those encryptions with the faulty files (ARccOS encryptions) EXCEPT the Settec ALPHA-DVD. So true. I have a Cyber-Home that will play a Mushroom Pizza if the cheese isn't too thick. The older players, over 1 1/2 yrs old (the more expensive ones), are really picky. Try using 4X, -R discs - you'll have a better chance of them working. The reason ? When those players were built, those were the discs that were available. Since we cannot do a flash-firmware upgrade, we can't teach them all about the newer discs Remembering that DVD XCopy is 1 1/2 years out of date, you'll have to face the fact that it's time of usefulness is very close at hand. Having said that (I know you were aware of it BUT it was more for the pple reading this thread) we can use AnyDVD for a "patch" this time. You'll still have to use AnyDVD But since you're not that concerned with quality, you might wish to look into 1Click CopyDVD as a truly, 1-click program giving you the exact same quality as XCopy AND they are updating it all the time. Here are the reverent links: AnyDVD - http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html DVD Decrypter - http://www.dvddecrypter.com/ 1ClickDVDCopy - http://www.1clickdvdcopy.com/ Cheers, Pete
