DVD playback stutters, freezes

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DVD playback stutters, freezes

I made a DVD from old family movies as a Christmas present for my siblings. I used iDVD to make the disk image, converted it to an ISO file on the Mac using OS X's Disk Utility, and burned it on my PC. (My Mac doesn't have a Superdrive, so I used Nero to burn the ISO image on my PC, and did a bit verification when it was done to make sure the burn was good.)

It plays fine on the Mac, but on a consumer DVD player, the disc plays for maybe 20 minutes, then the video starts to stutter, and eventually the DVD player makes clicking noises and stops playing. The same disc will play longer in a PC, but it eventually stops there, too. The slide show part of the disc doesn't play at all on the DVD player, and plays poorly on a PC (a recent Dell laptop).

This is a real bummer for me - I worked a long time to make the video as good as I could get it from 50 year old films, and on the Mac it seemed to play perfectly.

So, is the issue with iDVD (and I need to start over with a PC-based authoring package like Nero or Easy Media Creator)? Or is it something else?

Any suggestions are appreciated - I really would like to get these films moved onto DVDs my family can watch (instead of using them as coasters).

Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Dec 18, 2005 3:33 AM

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Answer 1

bgarlock

Level 1

8 points

Dec 18, 2005 6:31 AM in response to Buckeye106

I have a very similar issue, so I decided to tag on to this thread. My movies preview fine, but after the DVD is burned, the very beginning and end of the movie are very choppy, and sometimes will crash DVD player, and in a "consumer" model DVD player, it will freeze.

This is a DL DVD, and my HW supports it just fine. It is reproduceable everytime. For a work around, I simply start another chapter, and the DVD plays fine, until the last 10 min. or so of the DVD, where it stutters, and eventually quits.

Oh, and I am using Verbatim DL media.

Well, hopefully someone has some insight into this problem, since I really need to get this DVD out for a present!

Regards,

Bruce

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Answer 2

bgarlock

Level 1

8 points

Jan 2, 2006 6:38 PM in response to Buckeye106

Any luck finding an answer to this one?

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Answer 3

Jan 5, 2006 8:22 AM in response to bgarlock

Which quality are you burning at? When I used Best Performance on a recent 30min movie, I ended up with sections of video where the DVD player stuttered slightly or the audio stopped etc. This seemed to happen particularly in places where there was a lot going on in the iMovie timeline(transition or title with music plus soundtrack)

I tried burning it at Best Quality instead and it smoothed the glitches out. If you're already using that, then it might be worth perhaps trying to simplify the iMovie template - say apply a single non-visible effect to reduce the number of clips being processed or export the audio track so it's a single track going back in?

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Answer 4

bgarlock

Level 1

8 points

Jan 9, 2006 4:58 AM in response to Applespider

Great suggestions. I burned using the 'default' quality, which I think is Best Quality, but will try Best Performance to see if that makes a difference. And yes, there was a transition when I noticed that stuuter, so these are all good suggestions - Thanks!

- Bruce

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Answer 5

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Jan 9, 2006 9:11 AM in response to Applespider

'Best Performance' uses fixed bit-rate compression that may produce a playback datarate that some consumer DVD players many not be happy with.

'Best Quality' uses variable bit-rate compression.

The media brand can also come into play in situations like this as can higher speed burn rates.

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Answer 6

bgarlock

Level 1

8 points

Jan 12, 2006 8:53 AM in response to F Shippey

Maybe it has something to do with the DL media. Since DL media is still so new, maybe this is most of the problem. I can't wait for DL media to come down in price.

Thanks for the info - very helpful.

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Answer 7

Feb 21, 2006 6:29 AM in response to Buckeye106

It plays fine on the Mac, but on a consumer DVD
player, the disc plays for maybe 20 minutes, then the
video starts to stutter, and eventually the DVD
player makes clicking noises and stops playing. The
same disc will play longer in a PC, but it eventually
stops there, too. The slide show part of the disc
doesn't play at all on the DVD player, and plays
poorly on a PC (a recent Dell laptop).

Hi There,
DVD playback stutters, freezes after about 20 minutes. I scoured the net for answers to this dilema and spoke to the highest technicians at apple who couldn't help me.
Through much frustration and many bad burnt discs I asked them to replace the DVD burner in my new G5 - Voila it stopped.
The answer is replace the burner in your Mac.
Hope you fine this the answer to your problem

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Answer 8

Mar 25, 2006 1:48 PM in response to Buckeye106

I'm finding the same thing with iDVD 6 but with a twist. Playback is fine on the computer, but then stutters badly when I use my consumer Samsung DVD player. Interestingly, it does not stutter when played on my little portable DVD player, so that suggests that it is not a writing/burning problem,

Anyone else had this experience?

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Answer 9

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Mar 25, 2006 2:26 PM in response to mistermish

Playback is fine on the computer, but then
stutters badly when I use my consumer Samsung DVD
player. Interestingly, it does not stutter when
played on my little portable DVD player, so that
suggests that it is not a writing/burning problem,

Nope ... it just means that your portable DVD player is better than your Samsung DVD player at handling burn errors.

Burn errors are related to media and/or burn rate. Computer players have much better error correction (you wouldn't want to loose your computer data, would you?) while consumer DVD players are designed for commercial, stamped DVDs with low error rates.

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