DVD Player Differences

I'm wondering if someone reading this group can give me a hint about
fixing a technical DVD issue.

I have become interested in a particular TV series, which played for 5
seasons. I have captured, converted, authored 3 seasons to DVD, putting
4 episodes on each DVD.

The first 2 seasons all play fine.
Beginning with the first two DVDs of the 3rd season, the menu comes up,
I choose an episode, the initial video begins to play, without sound.
Then, about 7 seconds into the episode, it stalls, and eventually comes
back with an error message - "Cannot play this format".
If, when I notice the stall beginning, I press the >>> button, it gets
past that stall point, and the rest of the episode plays normally.
That behaviour occurs with my Pioneer Blu-ray player.

With my wife's cheaper Panasonic player, I get no problems at all, and
the audio begins immediately.

All of these DVDs have been created by identical processing.
I use SuperC to convert the videos to DVD format.
I use DVD-Lab to create menus and the rest of the authoring process.
I use CopyToDVD to burn on Taiyo Yuden blanks.

How do I begin to diagnose this issue?

Dave S.

"Dave S." <MNandDOS@gomail.com> wrote:
> I'm wondering if someone reading this group can give me a hint about
> fixing a technical DVD issue.
>
> I have become interested in a particular TV series, which played for 5
>
> seasons. I have captured, converted, authored 3 seasons to DVD,
> putting
> 4 episodes on each DVD.
>
> The first 2 seasons all play fine.
> Beginning with the first two DVDs of the 3rd season, the menu comes
> up,
> I choose an episode, the initial video begins to play, without sound.
> Then, about 7 seconds into the episode, it stalls, and eventually
> comes
> back with an error message - "Cannot play this format".
> If, when I notice the stall beginning, I press the >>> button, it gets
>
> past that stall point, and the rest of the episode plays normally.
> That behaviour occurs with my Pioneer Blu-ray player.
>
> With my wife's cheaper Panasonic player, I get no problems at all, and
>
> the audio begins immediately.
>
> All of these DVDs have been created by identical processing.
> I use SuperC to convert the videos to DVD format.
> I use DVD-Lab to create menus and the rest of the authoring process.
> I use CopyToDVD to burn on Taiyo Yuden blanks.
>
> How do I begin to diagnose this issue?
>
> Dave S.

Possibly marginally readable disks caused by defective or poor media.
Try reading the questionable disk(s) on a computer and see if they play
properly. If so, make a copy onto better media at a slower burnee write
speed to create a fresh, playable copy.

Smarty

Smarty wrote:
> "Dave S." <MNandDOS@gomail.com> wrote:
>> I'm wondering if someone reading this group can give me a hint about
>> fixing a technical DVD issue.
>>
>> I have become interested in a particular TV series, which played for 5
>>
>> seasons. I have captured, converted, authored 3 seasons to DVD,
>> putting
>> 4 episodes on each DVD.
>>
>> The first 2 seasons all play fine.
>> Beginning with the first two DVDs of the 3rd season, the menu comes
>> up,
>> I choose an episode, the initial video begins to play, without sound.
>> Then, about 7 seconds into the episode, it stalls, and eventually
>> comes
>> back with an error message - "Cannot play this format".
>> If, when I notice the stall beginning, I press the >>> button, it gets
>>
>> past that stall point, and the rest of the episode plays normally.
>> That behaviour occurs with my Pioneer Blu-ray player.
>>
>> With my wife's cheaper Panasonic player, I get no problems at all, and
>>
>> the audio begins immediately.
>>
>> All of these DVDs have been created by identical processing.
>> I use SuperC to convert the videos to DVD format.
>> I use DVD-Lab to create menus and the rest of the authoring process.
>> I use CopyToDVD to burn on Taiyo Yuden blanks.
>>
>> How do I begin to diagnose this issue?
>>
>> Dave S.
>
> Possibly marginally readable disks caused by defective or poor media.
> Try reading the questionable disk(s) on a computer and see if they play
> properly. If so, make a copy onto better media at a slower burnee write
> speed to create a fresh, playable copy.
>
> Smarty

Thanks for your response.

Can you explain why marginal disks would always fail at the 7 second
mark into an episode, for 4 episodes on each disk, and then never again
during the episode(s)?

You either missed the part where I said I was using Taiyo Yuden disks,
or you are not familiar with that name. They are the best available,
made in Japan.

Dave S.

"Dave S." <MNandDOS@gomail.com> wrote in message
news:gva0hj$g7o$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> Smarty wrote:
>> "Dave S." <MNandDOS@gomail.com> wrote:
>>> I'm wondering if someone reading this group can give me a hint about
>>> fixing a technical DVD issue.
>>>
>>> I have become interested in a particular TV series, which played for 5
>>>
>>> seasons. I have captured, converted, authored 3 seasons to DVD,
>>> putting 4 episodes on each DVD.
>>>
>>> The first 2 seasons all play fine.
>>> Beginning with the first two DVDs of the 3rd season, the menu comes
>>> up, I choose an episode, the initial video begins to play, without
>>> sound. Then, about 7 seconds into the episode, it stalls, and eventually
>>> comes back with an error message - "Cannot play this format".
>>> If, when I notice the stall beginning, I press the >>> button, it gets
>>>
>>> past that stall point, and the rest of the episode plays normally.
>>> That behaviour occurs with my Pioneer Blu-ray player.
>>>
>>> With my wife's cheaper Panasonic player, I get no problems at all, and
>>>
>>> the audio begins immediately.
>>>
>>> All of these DVDs have been created by identical processing.
>>> I use SuperC to convert the videos to DVD format.
>>> I use DVD-Lab to create menus and the rest of the authoring process.
>>> I use CopyToDVD to burn on Taiyo Yuden blanks.
>>>
>>> How do I begin to diagnose this issue?
>>>
>>> Dave S.
>>
>> Possibly marginally readable disks caused by defective or poor media.
>> Try reading the questionable disk(s) on a computer and see if they play
>> properly. If so, make a copy onto better media at a slower burnee write
>> speed to create a fresh, playable copy.
>>
>> Smarty
>
> Thanks for your response.
>
> Can you explain why marginal disks would always fail at the 7 second mark
> into an episode, for 4 episodes on each disk, and then never again during
> the episode(s)?
>
> You either missed the part where I said I was using Taiyo Yuden disks, or
> you are not familiar with that name. They are the best available, made in
> Japan.
>
> Dave S.




Dave,

I actually saw the point regarding Taiyo Yuden and am aware of their
superiority. I've burned literally thousands here myself. I am also aware
that a lot of counterfeit crap is sold as Taiyo Yuden, and there are media
failures which thus arise even though the brand name disks are supposedly
being used. Others have encountered this very issue and have asked for help
in this newsgroup and other forums. Do a Goggle search with "counterfeit
Taiyo Uden" and be prepared to do plenty of reading........

You did not state and it certainly was not clear from your prior posts that
the stalling occurred for each of 4 episodes per disk, but only that it
occurred 7 seconds into an episode. The odd behavior for all 4 episodes per
disk certainly makes the defective media theory seem far less likely.

I would not overlook the possibility of some bug in the Pioneer BluRay
player firmware, and would suggest you see if any updates have been released
by Pioneer to deal with such an issue. You could categorically determine
whether the burned disks or the Pioneer player is at fault by taking a bad
disk to Best Buy and trying it on a few different players. You will quickly
see if the disk itself is at fault or not.

If the disk misbehaves on other players, I would try using a different
burning program, perhaps the excellent freeware program ImgBurn. This would
allow you to isolate where in your authoring process the error is being
created. I have used DVD-Lab quite a bit and not seen this specific issue,
but it has been literally a couple years since I have done so.

Hope something here is helpful,

Smarty

"Dave S." <MNandDOS@gomail.com> wrote in message
news:gv9h7k$tl0$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> I'm wondering if someone reading this group can give me a hint about
> fixing a technical DVD issue.
>
> I have become interested in a particular TV series, which played for 5
> seasons. I have captured, converted, authored 3 seasons to DVD, putting 4
> episodes on each DVD.
>
> The first 2 seasons all play fine.
> Beginning with the first two DVDs of the 3rd season, the menu comes up, I
> choose an episode, the initial video begins to play, without sound. Then,
> about 7 seconds into the episode, it stalls, and eventually comes back
> with an error message - "Cannot play this format".
> If, when I notice the stall beginning, I press the >>> button, it gets
> past that stall point, and the rest of the episode plays normally.
> That behaviour occurs with my Pioneer Blu-ray player.
>
> With my wife's cheaper Panasonic player, I get no problems at all, and the
> audio begins immediately.
>
> All of these DVDs have been created by identical processing.
> I use SuperC to convert the videos to DVD format.
> I use DVD-Lab to create menus and the rest of the authoring process.
> I use CopyToDVD to burn on Taiyo Yuden blanks.
>
> How do I begin to diagnose this issue?
>
> Dave S.


I would assume that you authored the DVD with each episode
as a Title of the DVD.

You might try extracting a title with www.VideoReDo.com
TVSuite and see how the resulting .mpg plays. Take note of
the statistics VideoReDo displays after it makes the .mpg.

Do all the titles on the DVD and compare the statistics.
Check to see if they have the same corrections applied, or
if there are any major differences.

Try it on another of the DVDs and see if the corrections fit
a pattern or are the same.

While you are at it, check to see if the remuxing of the Title
has corrected the problem, it should have.

You can have VideoReDo output as ES files, for DVDLab,
if you want to re-author the DVD using your old project
resources.

Luck;
Ken

Ken Maltby wrote:
> "Dave S." <MNandDOS@gomail.com> wrote in message
> news:gv9h7k$tl0$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>> I'm wondering if someone reading this group can give me a hint about
>> fixing a technical DVD issue.
>>
>> I have become interested in a particular TV series, which played for 5
>> seasons. I have captured, converted, authored 3 seasons to DVD, putting 4
>> episodes on each DVD.
>>
>> The first 2 seasons all play fine.
>> Beginning with the first two DVDs of the 3rd season, the menu comes up, I
>> choose an episode, the initial video begins to play, without sound. Then,
>> about 7 seconds into the episode, it stalls, and eventually comes back
>> with an error message - "Cannot play this format".
>> If, when I notice the stall beginning, I press the >>> button, it gets
>> past that stall point, and the rest of the episode plays normally.
>> That behaviour occurs with my Pioneer Blu-ray player.
>>
>> With my wife's cheaper Panasonic player, I get no problems at all, and the
>> audio begins immediately.
>>
>> All of these DVDs have been created by identical processing.
>> I use SuperC to convert the videos to DVD format.
>> I use DVD-Lab to create menus and the rest of the authoring process.
>> I use CopyToDVD to burn on Taiyo Yuden blanks.
>>
>> How do I begin to diagnose this issue?
>>
>> Dave S.
>
>
> I would assume that you authored the DVD with each episode
> as a Title of the DVD.
Yes

> You might try extracting a title with www.VideoReDo.com
> TVSuite and see how the resulting .mpg plays. Take note of
> the statistics VideoReDo displays after it makes the .mpg.

I still have the authored folder on my hard drive. I opened the .VOB
files with VRDTVSuite. First one opens and plays fine. Second and third
ones start out ok, but then gives me an error, suggesting I try
QuickStream Fix.

I'm guessing that's my problem.
I used to always do a Quickstream Fix before converting with Super C.
I got lazy on these.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Dave S.