DVD Shrink/DVD Decrypter users help...

[gmorris]

Is there anyone here using DVD Shrink &/or DVD Decrypter? I'm having a problem that I can't seem to figure out.

I'm backing up my DVD collection using these programs. I can do this just fine, no problems there.

The problem I'm having is playing back the DVD-R's disc that I've backed up the movies to.

I've got a ~5 year old Marantz DV-3100, that when the DVD-R disc is played on it, the video freezes up for a second or two, then restarts. Sometimes the video locks up and never restarts, the only thing I can do here is turn off the player.

This freezing problem does not happen with all the movies, just some of them.

The real confusing part is I have a ~3 year old Sharp DVD player on the other TV, and the Sharp DVD player plays ALL the discs 100% perfect. When a disc fails on the Marantz, I'll take it to the Sharp, play the scene that failed, and the Sharp plays it just fine.

I see a few possible causes here. 1) the Marantz player is just not capable of playing the DVD-R disc because of its age. 2) the blank discs I'm using are bad (but they still play on the Sharp) 3) the back up process, using Shrink &/or Decrypter is not working properly (again, all discs play on the Sharp)

At this point, I think it is the DVD player that is the problem. SO, this weekend I went out and picked up a JVC DVD player for $59, that specifically said it will play DVD-R discs. Same problem. Some discs, at certain points, would freeze up. I then took the disc to the Sharp player and it worked fine. So I returned the JVC and got my money back.

So I ask you, fellow Polkies, does anyone have any idea what is going wrong? Also, can anyone recommend a DVD player, that you are using DVD-R discs with?

Thanks,
GM

[PolkThug]

No problem with Denon 910 or Denon 2200.

[Spawndn72]

I forget the model number, but it works fine on my Pioneer.

[gmorris]

One other thing I forgot to mention was the discs themselves. I got two 40 packs to Teon DVD-R disc from Staples. They were on sale....

Since the two of you have no problems, I am beginning to suspect that these cheapo discs are the problem.

What kind of disc (brand name) are you fellas using?

[PolkThug]

TDK, Philips.

[gmorris]

Do you think it could be the crappy discs??

I'm going to post this same question over at the DVD Decrypter forum. I don't know if any of you have ever visited that forum, but most of those guys are total A-holes, but maybe they will be in a good mood and have a suggestion.

[Spawndn72]

I use Imation disk and have never had a problem with them. It could be the disk. It could just be finicky machines. To be honest I am rather new to the whole DVD copying thing.

[gmorris]

Me too.

When I do the backup on the computer, everything seems fine. I always get the message that says, .....Completed sucessfully.....

[PolkThug]

If you're using DVDShrink for the ripper, what are you using for the burner?

[gmorris]

Originally posted by PolkThug
If you're using DVDShrink for the ripper, what are you using for the burner?

I use DVDShrink for the rip as much as I can. But, sometimes it won't work and I have to use DVD Decrytper to rip. I then always use Nero to burn.

Sometimes I have DVDShrink automatically use Nero to burn, sometimes I manually use Nero to burn, but either way, I always use Nero to burn.

[Spawndn72]

I have been using decrypter to burn. Seems to work great for me.

[Sami]

Have you tried burning them with the lowest possible speed? If not, try it. You are having burn errors on the disc that the Marantz can't solve but the Sharp can. Usually higher end players are not that good on playing burned discs while the cheap ones play them much better.

I play mine now with a HTPC so no problems there anymore.

[gmorris]

Originally posted by Spawndn72
I have been using decrypter to burn. Seems to work great for me.

I thought about the possibility that Nero may be screwing up, and by using Decrypter to burn, it may help. But, the files that are written to the disc are the same, .VOB & .IFO ect..... so I don't know if this would matter.

I'm kind of hoping it is the discs, that way I don't need to buy a new DVD player. I think I'm going to try an experiment. I'll go get some reputable name brand discs, and re-copy some of the movies with the worst lockup problems. I'll then try to watch the movie on the new disc. If it works, it would seem the problem is the discs. This would suck because I'd have to do everything all over again.

[gmorris]

Originally posted by Sami
Have you tried burning them with the lowest possible speed? If not, try it. You are having burn errors on the disc that the Marantz can't solve but the Sharp can. Usually higher end players are not that good on playing burned discs while the cheap ones play them much better.

I play mine now with a HTPC so no problems there anymore.


Very good point. I've burned all the discs so far at the 8X speed. I guess I'll have to try burning at the lowest (I think 2X) speed.

[tryrrthg]

Originally posted by Sami
Have you tried burning them with the lowest possible speed? If not, try it. You are having burn errors on the disc that the Marantz can't solve but the Sharp can. Usually higher end players are not that good on playing burned discs while the cheap ones play them much better.

I play mine now with a HTPC so no problems there anymore.
I would think it would be the other way around. The Marantz is picking up the burn errors where the cheapo player just ignors them. This sometimes happens on my CD-R's. My good CD player will read some errors but it will play fine in my car.

[Sami]

Originally posted by tryrrthg
I would think it would be the other way around. The Marantz is picking up the burn errors where the cheapo player just ignors them.
Yes, and that makes the cheap player play the movie better. Handles, either ignores or is able to read. That Marantz, like my Denon, would just get stuck there which would take the fun out of movie watching. Some discs play better than others, and usually the errors occur at last minutes of the movie (this has to do with the disc layout).

Use Nero to check the errors on the disc. There is something in the tools section for this.

[Spawndn72]

After doing some clinical, logical thinking on this matter, I have come to the conclusion that all of us have been looking at this problem from the wrong angle.

What is needed here is more and better gear. What I suggest is that you go out and buy the most expensive thing on your wish list. Your backups still may not play, but I garuntee that you will be happier than you are right now.

[faster100]

Its not the disk, IMO.. i bought some good disks and also some staples deals a few months ago.. they all work fine on my tosh 4900 and cheapo walmart pioneer.... Its the player most likely.. they all may say they play dvd-r's but they may not... on a side note, are you useing dvd plus R or dvd minus R ? I use the dvd+r and they all work in all my players...

[gmorris]

I'm using minus R discs.

I think the most logical solution is the burn errors suggestion. I'll try slower burning.

[jcaut]

I agree. Burn errors are the real problem, not so much your player. Slowing down should help. Disc quality will also make a difference, as some writers produce better results with certain brands of discs. Buying blank discs can be tricky, since a particular brand-- like Maxell, just for example-- might be discs manufactured by Taiyo Yunden (good) one time, and the next time you might get CMC Magnetics (not so good) discs in the package. Nero info tool can usually read the manufacturer code off the blank disc. It seems that it's not so much the quality of the actual disc as how compatible it is with your writer. I've used a NEC drive and a LiteOn, and neither one seemed to be too finicky. My friend has an LG drive that only works well with certain blanks.

Jason

[gmorris]

Here is an update from last nights findings:

I re-ripped & burned a movie. I used DVDShrink to rip to the hard drive, then manually used Nero to burn. I set Nero to burn at the slowest speed, which was 4X, no option slower than 4X existed. I also checked off the option to "verify data after burn" or whatever it said.

The little message window in Nero said "Burn completed sucessfully at 4X", which was good, but then the verification process failed. It gave some reason as to why it failed, but I don't remember what it said exactly.

Another question, short of taking all the movies I've backed up and watching the entire thing, is there any way I can verify if there are errors on the disc?

[Sami]

Originally posted by gmorris
The little message window in Nero said "Burn completed sucessfully at 4X", which was good, but then the verification process failed.
I wouldn't worry about that. I have never gotten Nero to verify the disc without errors. Does Decrypter let you burn with 2x? My old burner did 1x burns but unfortunately my new one only does 2x and up.
Originally posted by gmorris
Another question, short of taking all the movies I've backed up and watching the entire thing, is there any way I can verify if there are errors on the disc?
Nero has tools to verify burn errors on the disc, I forgot which tool it is. You should be able to find it from the tools section.

If you burned a full 4.3GB disc, watch the last few chapters, if there are errors they should be there. If the last chapters play fine then the rest of the disc should be fine too.

[gmorris]

Originally posted by Sami
I wouldn't worry about that. I have never gotten Nero to verify the disc without errors. Does Decrypter let you burn with 2x? My old burner did 1x burns but unfortunately my new one only does 2x and up.

I'm not sure. I do not believe Decrypter lets you choose burn speed at all, it just kind of goes by itself.

Nero has tools to verify burn errors on the disc, I forgot which tool it is. You should be able to find it from the tools section.

If you burned a full 4.3GB disc, watch the last few chapters, if there are errors they should be there. If the last chapters play fine then the rest of the disc should be fine too.

I guess I'll try checking the last few chapters, but the discs I've watched so far, that contained errors, had errors all thru the disc. For example, I was watching "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". The first 30 or so minutes were fine, then from about 30-40 minutes, the video would freeze up for about 1 or 2 seconds, then continue for a moment, then freeze & continue, on and on for about 10 minutes. Then it all just stopped, and the rest of the movie played just perfect.

[Sami]

Originally posted by gmorris
I'm not sure. I do not believe Decrypter lets you choose burn speed at all, it just kind of goes by itself.
The one that I have lets me choose the speed. See the last picture on this page:

http://dvddecrypter.com/index.php?act=screenshots

Bottom right, 'Write Speed'. It could be though that your writer doesn't support anything under 4x.

[gmorris]

Originally posted by Sami
The one that I have lets me choose the speed. See the last picture on this page:

http://dvddecrypter.com/index.php?act=screenshots

Bottom right, 'Write Speed'. It could be though that your writer doesn't support anything under 4x.

I can't view that site here at work, blocked.....:rolleyes:

I guess I'll look tonight, and see if I can use Decrypter to burn slower than 4X.

Thanks for the input thus far, this is just making me sick.

[jarros]

My first thought was the burn speed. I know that's an issue with some CD players with CD's burned over 12x.

Have you been able to try other brands of DVD's yet? Your DVD burner might not like the DVD's. Get a single pack of something high quality. I've had no problems at all with Memorex DVD's. Sure, it'll cost you a few bucks, but it'll tell you if that's the problem or not.

[gmorris]

Originally posted by jarros
My first thought was the burn speed. I know that's an issue with some CD players with CD's burned over 12x.

Have you been able to try other brands of DVD's yet? Your DVD burner might not like the DVD's. Get a single pack of something high quality. I've had no problems at all with Memorex DVD's. Sure, it'll cost you a few bucks, but it'll tell you if that's the problem or not.


Another excellent idea. Thank you.

I have not yet tried any other brand of discs, but I surely will give this a try.

At this point, the only surefire solution I've come up with is to just use the stupid old Sharp DVD player that has worked so well up to this point. I'm sick of this.

[PolkThug]

I burn all my DVD's at 4x or less, not a single bad disk yet.

[gmorris]

Originally posted by PolkThug
I burn all my DVD's at 4x or less, not a single bad disk yet.

I'm going to watch the disc that I burned at 4X when I get home tonight.

Nero will not let me go slower than 4X, but I'm going to look at DVD Decrypter to see if I can get it to go slower.

Thanks to everyone again for all the help & suggestions. I'll keep posting as I figure more thing out with this issue. I'm going to go puke now......

[gmorris]

Time for this mornings update:

Last night I watched the movie that I reburned, at 4X speed. It actually played perfectly!! Problem solved!! The culprit was the burn errors/burn speed scenario. Thanks to all who figured this out.

Also, I did a test with DVD Decrypter. I ripped about 2 minutes of a disc, so I could play around with burning it with Decrypter. If you create a .ISO image, then use Decrypter to burn, you can select all different burn speeds, so I selected 1X. BUT, when you pop the blank DVD-R into the drive, Decrypter analyzes it, and displays info about the disc in the window. One important line of info said "Burn Speeds Supported: 4X, 6X & 8X". So, I take this to mean, that even if I select 1X, the process will only burn at the slowest speed the disc is capable of being burned to. (this did actually happen with the 2 minute segment I tested) So, hopefully burning at 4X will be sufficient.

The discs I currently have are 8X speed, so maybe that is why they will only go down to 4X. I think the next time I buy discs, I'll get 4X discs (or slower, if they exist) and see if a slower speed becomes availble.

[pjdami]

Although it has already been said, I want to share my experience; burn speed at 4X has solved this same problem for me with my Denon 2200. I like to use TDK disks. At 8X my Toshiba seems to have no problems but the Denon would freeze up about 20 minutes into the movie. Talk about aggravating.

So yes 4X seems to help but dammit I "upgraded" to a Plextor 8X for a reason!

Paul

[gmorris]

I did find a DVD-R disc last night, that says "4X/1X" on it. My father-in-law uses these to burn TV shows from his DVR. The discs are JVC brand. I think I'm going to search out other discs that seemingly will support a 1X burn.

[rscamer]

I also had the same type of problems and it turned out to be programs runing in the back ground. stuff like nortons and drag to disc etc even some dvd playback software. I solved this by getting a hard drive with only a operating system and my burning programs on it I have never had a problem with any of my or my friends players since denon ,pioneer, toshiba.

[gmorris]

Originally posted by rscamer
I also had the same type of problems and it turned out to be programs runing in the back ground. stuff like nortons and drag to disc etc even some dvd playback software. I solved this by getting a hard drive with only a operating system and my burning programs on it I have never had a problem with any of my or my friends players since denon ,pioneer, toshiba.

You know what, that's a great idea.

Is it possible to temporarily "turn off" all the programs that run in the background? My computer is not connected to the Internet at all times. I still use a dialup connection, so when I want to get on the web, I physically plug in the phone line, and log on. So, if I could turn off stuff like Norton, it wouldn't hurt anything, would it?

[Sami]

Originally posted by gmorris
You know what, that's a great idea.

Is it possible to temporarily "turn off" all the programs that run in the background? My computer is not connected to the Internet at all times. I still use a dialup connection, so when I want to get on the web, I physically plug in the phone line, and log on. So, if I could turn off stuff like Norton, it wouldn't hurt anything, would it?
No, it won't hurt. Also I would recommend turning off all the unnecessary Windows services. Not for burning but for overall performance.

[gmorris]

Originally posted by Sami
No, it won't hurt. Also I would recommend turning off all the unnecessary Windows services. Not for burning but for overall performance.

How would I do that?:confused:

[Sami]

Originally posted by gmorris
How would I do that?:confused:
Command prompt -> type in 'services.msc'

There used to be a good description of what does what by Black Viper but the site seems to be down. Indexing service, Security Center are the first things I turn off on a fresh install. Here is another website:

http://www.jasonn.com/turning_off_unnecessary_services_on_windows_xp

And don't forget to turn off services by 3rd party vendors:

Command Prompt -> 'msconfig' -> Startup

Turn off the services that are installed by RealPLayer and the likes that open at startup, unless you of course need them to start. Microsoft Office is another useless startup that slows down your computer, just use it from the start menu.

[jcaut]

Greg,
I see that Sami beat me to this, but since I already have it typed out, I'll post it anyway.

If you're using Windows XP, go to Control Panel-- Administrative Tools--Services, and you'll find a rather large list of services. Clicking the "standard" tab, at the bottom will usually make it easier to read. It will also show whether they're running or not and whether they start automatically, start manually, or are disabled. If you right-click on one and choose "properties" you can change the startup settings.

That's HOW to change them. The trick is knowing which ones you need and which ones can be disabled. The page I was going to link you to (blackviper) doesn't seem to be there anymore. I found THIS ONE (http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm#Services) using Google.

My Mom just bought a new Dell computer and I helped her set it up. It was a budget system with only 256Mb of RAM, and I promise you, when we first turned it on it had so much cr@P running on it that it would just barely do anything. After I went through and cleaned off all the trial versions of everything, the tours, etc.. Now it works pretty well.

You also need to get a feel for how many programs are loading at startup. First check Start-Programs-Startup, and see what shortcuts are there. If it's stuff you don't need to run all the time, you can delete the shortcut.

You can go to Start-Run- type "msconfig"--Enter and choose the startup tab. If there is stuff checked on the "Startup" tab that you recognize and don't need to have running all the time, you can uncheck them. That keeps those things from loading at startup. This is pretty safe, as you can go back and re-check them later if needed. I think that on most WinXP machines there's not anything there that is essential for Windows to run, unlike the older Windows versions.


Jason

[gmorris]

Thanks Jason & Sami for that info.

I'm not very good with stuff like that. I guess I'll re-read those descriptions, and look at it when I get home tonight. I'm just afraid I'll goof something up.