Hi there and thank you for helping me out. Recently i have tried learning to burn DVD's with some moderate success. I am using CloneDVD and on a recent 103 minute movie with chapters 1 - 24. After burning this DVD i started to watch it and noticed that chapters 15 - 18 were choppy. There is plenty of room on the DVD+R (meaning 120 min minus the 103 for the movie). Can anyone help me as to why the quality wasnt that great after burning this movie. I am trying to burn at "maximum" using CloneDVD, would it make a difference to cut that to the absolute lowest speed such as 1x. I have cut out all the extras and only perserved the menu and the movie, totaling roughly 4.2 GB in full. Can anyone help me as to understand why this is happening. Should i change the media type, slow down the burn, or would a Disc Copy (from a DVD-ROM straight to DVD-R drive) be a better burn. any help would be appreciated. Thank you. MS Windows XP Pro SP1 2 GB Memory 3.2 GHz Processor Radeon 9800 Pro 2 HDD Wester Digital 120GB ea. PX-708A DVD Burner (with current 1.08 Firmware) Using Memorex 4X DVD+R Running CloneDVD 2.4.5.4 with AnyDVD 4.0.2.3 Thank you so much, - Chris
Hi Chris, It sounds like faulty media. When burning DVD's media is extremely important - Memorex is an excellent example as DVD media goes, 90% of Memorex is sub-standard as far as DVD backups are concerned, figures as high as 50% coasters have been reported (One member bought a stack of 50 and got 23 good burns.), not what I would call an impressive record. Memorex made a name for itself with their magnetic tapes (VHS and audio cassettes) and have been living off it ever since. There are 4 different companies that manufacture Memorex DVD's BTW and product quality varies widely as you might imagine. Only 10% of the Memorex out there, those discs manufactured by Mitsubishi in the 25 pack spindle are any good. It's easy to see now why the quality of a big-named company can’t be trusted - “ Who’s making your Memorex tonight ?” Is it just Memorex ? No ! I just used Memorex as an example, Princo, Orange Pack, Great AZO and most "store" discs aren’t all that suitable as a DVD backup media – that’s why we are specific in the type of media we are recommending. 1. * Cheap media freezes, skips, pixelats and may refuse to be recognized by both burners and players :-( Besides "Freezing", "skips" many times you’ll get a “Cyclic Redundancy error” or an "I/O error". This message can mean that your discs are scratched or dirty, it can also mean that your burner won’t accept your “cheap” media :-( Another problem which, “Pops up” is a “*Power Calibration Error”. This can stop you right in your tracks and most often is caused by, Yep, you guessed it, inexpensive media. *A “Power Calibration Error” can also be attributed to the Optical Components of a DVD Writer, though this isn’t usually the case. Trying to shut down your software and ejecting your DVD then restarting your program and re-inserting the same media recently cleaned has been known to help in some cases. Orange Pack, Princo, Great AZO and 90% of Memorex plus many others are just not that good for DVD burning. Those same discs however, are quite good for your MP3 music, picture archives, Spread sheets and Data..Even DataSafe G04’s made by Ritek have been reported as an inferior quality media and are evoking that “Oh no, I shouldn’t have gotten those.” What we are suggesting is to download this DVD Identifier to find out who manufactured your DVD and if it's a decent quality. http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/ Once you have your disc identified, click the "More information" icon and see what information you're given. if you're not sure of the quality, come on back and we'll check it out for you - 2. A good grade, Hi-quality media is needed for DVD reproduction ! RiData, Sony, TDK, "Branded" Ritek G04's or "Branded" Verbatim Data Life, Verbatim DataLife plus, Taiyo Yuden's and generally, almost any discs manufactured by Mitsubishi are excellent bets. Among the better discs we're looking for, any media boasting "Advanced Metal AZO" - BUT it must say "METAL" AZO !, this indicates a superior dye and dye application on a good composite disc, while they are sometimes a bit "pricey" they are just the type of media we're looking for to do our DVD backups, Prices online from Meritline.com OR Newegg.com have gotten Ritek G04 starting at about a $ .45 (USD) a disc – For DVD backups, purchasing inexpensive media or even average media is a gamble, some people win BUT the majority lose, they lose varying amounts true but, they still lose :-( Using good grade media can guarantee you one thing to an absolute certainty; it surely cannot hurt. In an effort to clear the air, when I speak of "Cheap" or "Inexpensive" media, I'm not referring to the price you pay at the counter - I'm referring to poor quality control used during manufacturing and the quality of the dye, dye application or composite type used. I'm not saying it won't burn - Some may burn, some may not. It's quality is inconsistent, meaning it's not dependable. When I say "Branded" that means that when you pick up a disc in your hand, it says "Ritek" or "RiData" on the disc itself. The monetary cost of the media we recommend many times is cheaper than what you are purchasing now. We like to verify our information prior to recommending things. There are certain things we look at. For instance, when their dye and dye application are listed as unknown, this almost guarantees us they are using whatever they can get at a cheap price. Companies that use quality materials like to BRAG about it, naming names and staying with quality manufacturers who produce their media. Using DVD identifier and MediaMatch can help you find out a lot about what you're using. Purchasing your DVD media online can insure that you're getting quality merchandise at a good price. Shopping wisely will save you time, aggravation and money. Cheers, Pete
Wow.... didnt know media was so big in backing up. Thank you so much for the information. never would have guessed. thank a million. - Chris
Hey Sandal. By the way, are you using CloneDVD 2 by Elaborate Bytes? If not, check it out...I have rarely had a bad burn with that program. The only times I have had pixellation and video skipping is when my hard drive was fragmented. Make sure you defrag your hard drive regularly. I can't stress how important this is. Also, I have found that my burns go better when I move all directories involved in the burn to my primary ("C") drive. I hope this helps!
Good point there - I picked up this "CloneDVDv2" and it really sucks - I wouldn't recommend this one to someone I disliked - http://www.clonedvd.net/download.html DO NOT BUY THIS CRAPPY PROGRAM ! Always make sure it's "made by elby" Pete _X_X_X_X_X_[small] The “old man” Pete (ö¿ô) Compaq 8000, Pent IV CPU 2.84GHz, 1024MB RAM, 520GB HD. Pioneer 107, 8X R/W , Nec R/W ND-1300A, JLMS DVD ROM. 128MB GeForce4 TI 4200, O/S XP[/small]
I couldn't agree with you more Pete... the CloneDVD program not made by Elby is complete garbage. I am so surprised that so few people talk about the wonders of CloneDVD 2 on this forum (and also the Doom9 forum). The results are stunning even at 70% compression. For anything needing more compression, I use DVD-RB .64a combined with Cinema Craft Encoder Basic 2.69. I really can't tell the difference between the original and the RB/CCE burn. Amazing!
(Heh, Heh there spamlover, that's a scary nic you have there, not a good topic on this forum - come to me if someone "Jumps" you on it, OK ? Cheers, Pete
thank you for all the information . . i am currently using Elby CloneDVD2 2.4.5.4.... i'll check out other programs too, but need to get some new media to check that out. thanks again for all the info.
sandalboy, Hey there "Good Guy" DO NOT CHECK OUT THE OTHER CLONEDVD2 ! That proggy sucks, Big time ! If you like trying out different programs, here's my list for you to try: ScubaPete's Program burning recipes: HINT: KEEP YOUR RECIPES SEPARATE - Keeping each set of programs and their settings separated is very important. Too many choices cause confusion and lead to coasters :-( With all the tools you have, don't confuse which order you should use when using which programs. As a matter of fact, I believe you should print out a recipe for each set of Programs you use for burning - and their separate settings - ScubaPete's Basic Cooking Recipes FOR DVD-5's and DVD-9's 1. DVD Shrink (ver. 3.2) ISO mode + DVD Decrypter, ISO write mode (FREE) 2. DVD Shrink (ver 3.2) + Nero (ver 6, Ultra Edition) 3. DVD Shrink (ver 3.2) + CopyToDVD 4. AnyDVD or DVD43 + DVD2One + CopyToDVD 5. AnyDVD or DVD43 + CloneDVD2 (elby) 6. AnyDVD or DVD43 + Nero Recode 2 For DVD-5's ONLY 7. DVD Decrypter in the ISO read mode + DVD Decrypter in the ISO write mode 8. AnyDVD or DVD43 + Nero Express (copy Disc to Disc) FOR DVD-5's and DVD-9's 9. DVD XCopy Xpress (Pre RF versions) (ver. 2.5.1, 3.0, 3.2.1) + Gone321 10. DVD XCopy Original (ver 1.5.0, 1.5.2) - (Pre RF versions) 11. DVD XCopy Platinum (RF using the "321RIP" patch) 12. DVD Decrypter (File Mode) + DVDCopy2 (InterVideo - fast w/ excellent quality) 13. DVD Decrypter + dvd Santa 14. AnyDVD + dvd Santa 15. AnyDVD + CloneDVD (.net not elby) (Little or no compression, it's a poor proggy, DO NOT PURCHASE) Cheers, enjoy, Pete
I've also been having the problem with the backup dvd's getting choppy in the last 20 minutes or so. I followed your advice and downloaded dvd identifier, and it identified my media as RitekG05. Those should be rather reliable correct? I'm burning with an NEC DVD-RW ND-2500A with the updated firmware. The strange thing is that the dvd only becomes choppy when I watch them in standalone dvd players on my TV (tried with many machines, all the same), but when I watch them with WinDVD 6 on my computer it runs fine. I burn the dvd's with DVD Shrink 3.2 and Nero 6 Ultra. What am I doing wrong? Or is there something wrong with my DVD players? Or should I set the burn speeds lower?
sandalboy Three near perfect suggestions. The cause of playback stutter is caused most often by as Pete and Spamlover so clearly stated. 1) Crappy media (Really important) 2) Burn speed (that depends a lot on your hardware) but slower is often better. 3) fragmented hard disk, the most overlooked cause of bad burns, remember your hard disk is feeding the file to your burner and if it stutters, your burn skips. _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."[/small]
