can a burned disc cause problems with player?

first off, thanks for being an excellent support team. i've used your forum many times in helping me with my back-ups, though this is the first time i've actually joined the forum. you always seem eager to please and willing to share your expertly advice. with that said, i apologize if this is a common question. i tried using the search but couldn't seem to find a thread pertaining to it.

my question is this: Can a burned dvd cause problems with a dvd player?

i've burned over 150 back-ups in the past with no problems until i made a back-up of the film Zorro the Gay Blade (go ahead and laugh), and after playing it on my cheap apex-wannabe player, my player stopped working. it wouldn't play any burned discs and didn't want to play any other dvds i put in (these being original/non-burned dvds). i put the machine away and chalked it up to being a cheap player. but just recently i tried the machine again, using a dvd from each company (universal, columbia, anchor bay, etc..) and found that it does indeed work but only certain studio dvds and absolutely no burns.

i know it seems easy to blame it on the cheap player but even so, i feel like the burned dvd did something to it. as if it rearranged the permissions or something. i do know that i've heard of instances where someone's player would read "wrong region" (when it WAS the correct region) until they played a certain studio's dvd in their collection (i think it was warner bros.) and then their player would work properly again. as if the Warner Bros disc defaulted the players settings back to normal.

has anybody had a problem like this? my player is a Symphonic if that helps. i know that for some players you can get them to play all regions. i used to have one but this plyaer has not been tampered with.

again, i'm real sorry if my question is too long or redundant. if so, tell me and i'll refrain from doing so next time.
thank you again.

 

ok... first off... very nice and edu-ma-cated way of expressing yourself.. not like some other ppl that come on to demand help.. not a problem..

now to my reply...

i havent had any issues like that.. i'm not sure if that is possible but i do have a few questions..

1. what kind of media are you using? what brand? is this quality media? such as verbatims, TY's...

reason behind that is.. if u're using low end media.. it wont matter if its the player itself. if you're using any memorex or just cmc dvds. then thats why.. it doesnt work out that well and that may indeed be hurting your player. the retail dvds, as you may or may not know.. those are pressed disc.. so those should have no issue. but again.. cheap media is not good for your burner.. your player.. or just anybody in general.

2. how long have you had these dvds? when were they backed up?

again... back to the cheap media.. they dont last very long. they give you issues.

3. and i doubt its this.. but i need to ask to cover bases..
do these have sticker labels? did you print out labels and then stick them on the disc? after a while the glue that holds them.. with the heat.. starts "melting" it.. so they become loose. and of course make it hard for it to play. then they do put stress on ur laser.. which may end up hurting it.

ok.

i think thats it .. i know you may have a mac and thats why you posted it here.. or just by mistake.. but i will see if i can get a mod to move this to correct forum. as you explained it is your first post. there is a section for just media..

there you may get a better response.. there is not a huge flow of ppl that go thru the mac section..

i'm actually one of the only one, that i see anyway.. that try to be around this one.. there is macburner, londor. macman, and media guru...

(and i'm sorry if i did forget anybody)

creaky or even kivory666 i'm sure will have some input on this..

 

as will i AFTER i get some feedback on the kind/brand of media used, and also the answers to the other questions that thelox714 brought up, THEN i will tinker around a bit and see if i can find any relevant info to help tommyross~ welcome to AD by the way, we SHALL get through this...

docTY~

 

Thanks guys for the speedy replies. It's always nice to wake up to some answers. Now for my answers:

1: The DVD in question was TDK. The media I'm using is usually TDK or Maxell. There are a few (100) that have been burned with Verbatim. I assumed that Sony would be the high-end and the brands that i've never heard of (SORNY?) would be the low-end, making the ones that i usually use, mid-grade media. I honestly thought that judging by the price, Verbatim was lower-end media. Please let me know which ones i should be using. I'm not familiar with a couple you mentioned though: TY and CMC.

2: All discs that I back-up are usually viewed within 1-2 days of burning them so as to check them for quality. Though for that particular dvd (Zorro), i did wait about 2 weeks to watch it. It was one of the few instances where I've waited a while to view the back-up.

3: I never use sticker labels for obvious reasons but I feel i should mention that the Maxells I use sometimes are the all-white labeled kind. Is this a "pre-stickered" DVD? The only reason i ask is because I believe they sell Maxell without the all white label.
Again, Zorro was burned on a TDK and not one of these Maxells.

And now to make things a little more confusing (or hopefully for you guys, intriguing). I didn't mention this earlier just because I wanted to think about it some more, but this same dvd (TDK/Zorro) was played in my cousin's Cyberhome (low-end) player and it caused it to throw stagnant subtitles on the screen. Meaning that after playing for about 10 mins, one line of dialogue would be subtitled (without using the subtitle function) and then stay on the screen until you scanned (fwd/backwd) the film to get them to dissappear. 10 mins later it would happen again. I will say this though, it WASN'T while i was playing the Zorro dvd. It was after i played it, got bored with it, and started a new film that I started having the subtitle problems and this new film (LOST WEEKEND) was burned on one of those all-white MAXELLs. Again, i played Zorro/TDK without problems, got bored after 10 minutes, put in LOST WEEKEND/WHITE MAXELL and then had problems. It was then that i noticed the coincidence of Zorro being used in both player's instances.

Personally, especially after writing what i just wrote, I'm starting to think it's the all-white Maxells that i'm using and not the TDK Zorro. I believe they are tripping the systems to not work properly.

As i menioned before, i've had a modified player in the past that would play all regions. When I first got said machine, it wasn't set properly and the region on it would change with each power-up. One day it would play German, then next day domestic, the next day Asia...until i called the guys and asked what's up. After proving i was legit, they gave me the code for it so i could set the region. When i went to do this i noticed it was set at Region 56, which made no sense to anyone, including the dealers and their techs. I set the region to 0 and it went on to work properly until it finally died. Again, this is a player i had in the past and is NOT one of the ones giving me problems now.

The reasons i even mention this scenario is because that is how i feel my player works now. After going through much of my collection, it seems to only play whatever it wants. It doens't play certain studios like I thought. It might play one Anchor Bay disc but not any other Anchor Bays. It plays disc 2 of The Two Towers Extended but it wont' play disc 1.

I'm sure i just opened a whole other can of worms but I felt i shoud mention the other player's ( cousin's CYBERHOME) problems as i feel they are connected. I just didn't want there to be too many questions within questions when i posted the first time. I do know this, now i'm worried that if these blank dvds are causing problems for my players, are they causing damage to my mac? I never play films on my mac, i only use it to burn them. Please tell me which brands you recommend and I will use only them and no other.

As for future posts, your "edu-ma-cated" comment got me to use proper typing skills this time but i'm afraid i don't understand the procedure for [bold]bold[/bold] and italicizing. unless of course what i just tried, works, In which case, i'm sure I look pretty stupid.

Thank you again. I promise next time that it will be short. Seriously.

 

Welcome to the site, tommyross. Glad you have found it as informative as the rest of us. Reading your last response, a couple things come to mind.

1. TY refers to Taiyo Yuden, a Japanese company that make superior blank DVDs. I am on my second set of 100 from www.supermediastore.com and have yet to have the disk cause a coaster (errors of my own I cannot blame on the disks). CMC refers to the type of ink that is used on the underside of the disk. It is a magnetic type and is generally not a high quality type of disk. I generally use the color of the disk to determine quality at a glance and rely on disks with a dark blue to purple coler as opposed to the greenish or almost silver kind.

If you are a Mac user (I'm guessing since you posted in this forum and thelox mentioned it alsot) look into getting Toast 7 and you can use the disk info to find out the media code on your disks. This will tell you who makes them. You can check the code at http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia by typing the code into the search. An example is my Taiyos read a media code of TYG01, which tells me that they are authentic TY disks rated at 4x -Rs. I have a program that does the same, but I can't remember what it is...I will let you know when I get home from work.

Next, on the same site, check the model of your DVD player http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers and see if anyone else has had problems playing backups. I myself have always treated electronics as something you get what you pay for on. Why buy four $25 DVD players, when you can get one for $100 bucks that will last forever. That site will also help you look at some models that other people have bought that are good for playing anything you throw at it.

Long story short...Check your player, check your media and see what your coming up with. Hope I was able to help at least a little.

 

found the media inspector.. finallyl

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17154

 

another question.. and i know most ppl in here wont know the process on mac..

but tommyross..

what process are u using?

mac the ripper.. dvd2oneX, toast 6, toast 7, popcorn?

in MTR i always do full disc then use popcorn or toast 7 to just pick out the main movie. minus the subs.

you can use dvd2oneX after MTR to compress.. and keep the subs.

it may offer some input to find out if its the issue with the actual ripping and process of dvd..

as creaky stated.. his does it because he's doing something in dvd shrink which is actually the combination of MTR and DVD2OneX.. more or less..

and dont worry about the long posts.. its better to have more info that little info or not enough..

 

Thanx LOX. I was digging around on versiontracker and couldn't find anything and didn't remember what the program was called. Unfortunately I am at work right now and stuck on a Windows box.

Lox also brings up a good point about the process you use. I have heard the MTR has trouble if you try to do anything but a full disk extraction. I usually use MTR, then switch over to DVD2ONEX and only choose the English 6 ch audio track if I do a full disk shrink (on DVD over 4.37 gigs) or just the audio and no subs if I do movie only. Toast 7 has Popcorn built in, but the compression options are not as advanced as DVD2ONEx as far as picking out just what you want. I never used Popcorn by itself so I can't help you there.

 

with popcorn.. you either just do all the features..

or just the movie, once you chose movie only.. it will ask you what audio tracks you want to keep. but you wont get the option of the subtitles.

i guess popcorn considers that as a special feature or something..

i have pretty every piece of software..

dvd2OneX, toast 6, popcorn, toast 7, MTR, dvd back up, osex...

few others... so if you should have any questions on any of them.. i should be able to help you

edit: @AtrophyG4

yeah.. that was one fun search.. took me a while but i got it.. i'm on pee cee now but i have it at home..

 

Hey guys. Thanks again for all the replies and all the help. I've learned a lot thanks to your passion for this kind of stuff. I love it when people are totat freaks about something and you guys seem to really love what you do. So again, cheers.

As for the software that I use for my Mac, I do indeed use MTR and then i use DVD2OneX for any comressing that I do. I use MTR's full disc extraction every time. In fact, I once did a title only extraction and it wouldn't work in all my players (only 1 out of 3). And I use DVD2OneX exactly how you specified with one audio option whether I do Full Disc or Movie Only. I then use Toast 7 to burn them. Works perfectly everytime.

I will look into the media inspector too. Sounds fun. And of course I will look into the videohelp.com site you gave. I'm sure I will learn a lot there also. Lookin forward to it.

As for owning a cheap dvd player, I got the Cyberhome so as not to wear out my Sony. You're absolutly right about getting what you pay for.

thanks again!

 

@tommyross

well, my reply will be ONLY media based, as i DO NOT OWN A MAC and have NO clue what programs you guys use to burn/processes/etc..and secondly, i do not own a cyberhome either~

so, here it goes on the Media bit:

regarding what AtrophyG4 stated, it's 1/2 correct:

the first part is correct, Taiyo Yuden is the manufacturer for media and is ONLY produced IN JAPAN~ i also have had GREAT success with my THOUSANDS of TYs from supermediastore.com, but, in the 2nd part, CMC does NOT refer to the "ink", it is ACTUALLY the DYE that is used to make certain media...

Taiyo Yuden uses AZO dye in their process of manufacturing media, while CMC MAG-the manufacturer (which is short for CMC Magnetics Corp.) uses some other subpar dye in their process, and is generally associated= crap~ TDK is also notorious for using CMC MAG coded media in their own brand of media, that is why i NEVER recommend TDK to anyone looking for GOOD QUALITY MEDIA~

lastly, using the "color" on the underbelly of the disc is NEVER a guaranteed way to determine the quality of the disc, while i WILL agree that the darker purple (Ritek discs) are of good quality as well as the Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim (lighter purple underside) are GREAT QUALITY... the "Green" or "silver" ones...don't even bother, Atrophy is CORRECT about those~ using a dvd identifyer program is only the BEGINNING of verifying a discs' quality..it's a great start, but, to AUTHENTICATE real media, you need to take it a step further and give me the inner hub laser inscribed coding on Taiyo Yudens/Verbatims for me to tell you if you got the REAL DEAL or fake/knock off Taiyo Yudens~

the Maxell in question i ASSUME is a white inkjet printable disc, the printable discs are NOT the same as applying a "label" (sticker) onto a disc. while you MAY have gotten a "Bad batch" of Maxells, the media ID coding when run through a dvd identifyer will help in determining THAT issue, but Maxells are generally pretty good.

i go more in depth about Taiyo Yudens here:

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/1/245601#1374100

and lastly, DITCH the TDKs...for the people that know me, i DESPISE TDK media, even more so than the Memorex CMC MAG manufactured media...so, yes, im BIASED in this comment, but, i'm only looking out for YOUR best interest...stick with the good stuff as per my signature for media and you will be just fine...

the other guys can help w/ your setup/processes used using a Mac, since i do not own one and have NO experience with a Mac, can't offer you anything substantial in that regards...

good luck~

docTY~

 

thank you very much for that input... kivory..

 

anytime, i don't discriminate between the PC users and the MAC users, we ALL have to use the SAME media either way it's just the burning applications and processes are different

just use GOOD QUALITY media and regardless if on a MAC or IBM compatible, media choice DOES make a difference in the end result.

burn on my friend...

docTY~

 

Thanks for the clarification, kivory. As much as I try to help, its obvious I still have a lot to learn. Thats what makes these communities so great. You get a group of people with varient levels of knowledge so when the vets get tired they can kick back and let the newbs handle it and then just clear up any grey areas in the aftermath. Good luck tommy and let us know how your future burns come out.

 

@atrophyg4

anytime, i really respect your outlook on things here @ AD~

we all learn something here @AD, i started out just like everyone else and just kept learning and learning and through experience with my fair share of burning errors and my excessive ways when it comes to buying media, i learned from my mistakes as others have; been corrected MANY times myself, but it's a good thing

keep up the great job your doing here, i'm sure MANY others have already benefit-ed from your knowledge and i personally appreciate your great efforts nicely done...

have a good one~

docTY~