Split DVD with DVDFab Platinum doesn't play on set top box

I used DVDFab Platinum 4.1.0.2 to split a movie over two DVD5 blanks but the copy will not play on my Sony player. It does however play on the PC dvd player. I first split the source DVD and wrote the content to the hard drive where folders were created for both discs. I then used the 'Write' feature to write the respective discs to blanks using the created Disc 1 & 2 folders as sources.

I also tried using DVD Shrink to write the same split folders to a blank but neither method produced a disc that could be played on my set top box. They can only be played on the PC DVD player.

Is there an explanation for this? Should I split it directly to a blank DVD instead of saving the files to the hard drive?

 

This likelihood depends on a number of possibilities. But the most common prospect is that the burned disc is incompatible with your player. You're not using a rewritable media are you?

 

here is my standard answer to your problem:

there are plenty of reasons why certain dvds won't play in other players:

1. burning speeds: burn at 4x so there will be less writing errors (rule of thumb is to burn at half the rated speed of the disk--8X disk burn at 4x).
2. read manual for your stand alone player and use the disks that will play in your player. If your player is less than 2 yrs old then it should play the + or - R disks! I said SHOULD that's why you read the manual.
3. try booktyping your drive to DVd-ROM so it will make your +R disks more compatible to players. Read this:
http://k-probe.com/bitsetting-booktype-faq.php
4. make sure that there are no finger prints or scratches on your disk that make it hard for the player to read the disk!
5. use good quality media (rule of thumb....buy the ones that are Made in Japan.)I strictly use Taiyo Yuden! But, Verbatim is a top notch disk and is the only exception to this rule....some Verbatims are made in Taiwan and they are top notch!
6. and don't burn too close to the outer edge of the disk ..... which will make the disk unreadable! but using good media you will be able to burn close to the edge better than lesser quality media. Just in case I only burn no closer than 4400MB, so if you can set your programs to that, all the better!

follow these little tips of the trade and you'll have better success! good luck.

also read this:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Why-DVDRW-is-superior-to-DVD-RW/
why the +R media is better than the -R media

 

Thanks for the responses but I guess I should have mentioned that when I rip just the main title (without menus and bonus features), it has no problems playing on my set top box. There's something about splitting the movie that prevents it from playing on anything other than my PC DVD drive. I don't think it's an issue of media because I use Taiyo Yuden media exclusively. Nor do I think it's a burn speed issue.

I guess I could try reducing the size of disk 1 so it does not go past 4400MB but I think I've ripped other main titles and compressed them (using Shrink) with a capacity close to that with no issues.

This is the first time I've tried preserving menus. Usually I just copy the main title and forget the extra stuff. I just wanted to see how efficient Platinum was at doing the job.

Stay tuned because I may be coming back to see if there are any other suggestions if the ones offered don't have any effect.

 

I don't use DVDFab Platinum to break up a DVD into 2 DVDs! I use DVDRebuilder Pro w/CCE to get the best quality when the process goes below the 80% range on compression! So I don't have to split a DVD into 2!

If you're using TYs then it's definitely not the media and now you know it has to be what the programs is doing! It could make it unreadable to any player but the computer that was written from!

 

Does DVDRebuilder allow you to preserve menus if you want? It's not all that critial but if I find that even splitting the Main Title by using Fab Platinum (which I haven't done yet), results in something that is unplayable, I may need to go with another product.

DVDFab Platinum is a very user friendly and intuitive application. But if I want to split a movie for the purpose of preserving 100% quality and the result is something I can't play, I might have to go back to using DVD Decrypter (or DVDFab Platinum) to rip and Shrink to split the Main Title if I cannot preserve menus and bonuses.

DVDFab Platinum displays a notice telling you to switch to the second disc at the end, whereas DVD Shrink just goes to a black screen at the point of the split. That's not a deal breaker mind you, it's just that being able to use one appliction like Platinum to rip and burn made things convenient. When you add the capability of preserving the menus and splitting easily, that made the choice a simple one.

 

From what I saw after just skimming the DVD Rebuilder page, I would still have to rip a DVD using something like decrypter or platinum or whatever. After that, I would used Rebuilder then Shrink. So Rebuilder does not have the means to rip, re-encode and burn like Platinum?

 

DVDRebuilder can take the DVD files right from the DVD (but you will need a program like AnyDVD to get past the encryptions) and then encode them (make the DVD smaller to fit onto a DVD5) and even use ImgBurn to burn directly to disk! All in one shot if you set it correctly!!!

Also you have it wrong! You don't use DVDRebuilder THEN DVDShrink! there is no need for DVDShrink if you are using DVDRebuilder!

 

I'm not getting anywhere with DVDFab Platinum other than ripping. Splitting either results in a failed write error or a disc that won't play.

If I use DVDRebuilder to keep all files including the menus, how much compression can I expect to see? From what I could see when I was using Fab Platinum to split a DVD9, after leaving menus and extras, only a little bit of room was left for the actual movie on a DVD5 blank. The majority of the movie was on the second disc. There must be an awful lot of compression going on to keep everything on one disc.

 

DVDRebuilder is a true encoder.... it breaks down the audio and video to it's components and then "REBUILDS" them to fit onto a smaller disk (DVD5). Compressed Domain Transcoding is used by many popular DVD backup programs. It's much simpler than encoding. Rather than recalculate all the information required by an encoder, a compressed domain transcoder simply removes information from the original video stream. This results in a loss of detail, and is generally considered inferior to using an encoder to compress video. However, the relatively high speed, low cost, and ease of use associated with compressed domain transcoders like DVD Shrink and CloneDVD has made them popular.

this is why DVDRebuilder Pro has much better quality than the Compression Domain Transcoding programs!

 

So with all this re-encoding there is no compression going on? To be able to deconstruct the data and encode it again I would think would take quite a bit of time. How long does a "rebuild" take?

 

Holy crap!!! No wonder apps like shrink are more popular. I use a box that's soley dedicated to DVDs. It's probably barely 2GHz. Since I just use it for ripping and burning it didn't matter. I couldn't sit there and wait almost half a day to re-encode a DVD. I mean we're not getting any younger.

 

By the way, here's the lastest DVDFab Platinum log after I don't know how many failed write attempts. In this latest one, I used the 'Customize' mode to select where I wanted to break the main movie. But I also wanted to keep all the menus and bonuses. Even the FBI warning. I was just conducting an experiment to see if I could get the program to work. After that, I'll get fancy and leave things out. I wanted an exact dupe but split over two DVD-5s.

The original DVD is 'Sneakers'. I used 'Customize' twice to save the data to separate folders on the hard drive. One folder for each 'Customize' session. It was done twice for each intentioned DVD-5 blank. I used 'Write Data' to copy the data from the Video_TS folder to the USB Nec DVD burner. I selected 8x as the write speed and SAO as the write type from within the options in DVDFab. I'm using Verbatim 16x DVD-Rs.

3/18/2008 10:15:12 AM info ******************** Report session closed *********************
3/18/2008 10:03:34 AM error Write error at 321456 (16) - Code 05 21 02 [Illegal request, Invalid address for Write]
3/18/2008 9:48:34 AM info Lead-in burning time (mS) 35
3/18/2008 9:47:57 AM info Write started 2202080 sectors to write
3/18/2008 9:47:57 AM info Init success: DVD-R DAO
3/18/2008 9:47:57 AM info Writing speed requested x8.0, effective x6.0
3/18/2008 9:47:57 AM info Available write speed: 16x, 12x, 8x, 6x, 4x, 2x
3/18/2008 9:47:57 AM info Media ID: MCC 03RG20
3/18/2008 9:47:57 AM info Media type: DVD-R
3/18/2008 9:47:55 AM info Scanned files #22, folder #2 - total size 4508727296 b. (4.2 Gb.)
3/18/2008 9:47:55 AM info Inserted media type : DVD-R
3/18/2008 9:47:55 AM info Write started
3/18/2008 9:47:53 AM info New media inserted. Burning layer is ready to write
3/18/2008 9:47:52 AM info Compatible media types : DVD-R, DVD-RW Seq., DVD-RW RO, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD-R, CD-RW, DL DVD+R, DL DVD-R
3/18/2008 9:47:52 AM info New Drive selected : 0:0:0 - _NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW 3.06 (Usb)
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info Current Drive selected : 1:0:0 - SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-332B T410 [F] (Ide)
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info Using Patin-Couffin driver Version 1.37, Internal revision 37 - Async. Access mode
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info User default language : 1033 (0x0409h) - English (United States)
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info System default language : 1033 (0x0409h) - English (United States)
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info DLL Version 2.1.7.338
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info DLL D:\DVD Apps\DVDFab Platinum 4\vso_hwe.dll
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info Version 4, 1, 0, 2
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info ExeName : "D:\DVD Apps\DVDFab Platinum 4\DVDFabPlatinum.exe"
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info OS : Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
3/18/2008 9:46:47 AM info ******************** Report session started ********************

Any clue what the problem is?

 

Thanks for the responses but I have decided to stop wasting my time making coasters with this program. Using this app has been a classic definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. There are definitely holes in DVDFab Platinum that need to be resolved. Besides ripping the main movie or the entire DVD, none of the other modes work. Splitting, Custom or Write are all a crap shoot. It's just way too unreliable. If a program can get corrupted that easily, it's not worth using.

I'm going to back to what I know works. That's using DVDFab Decrypter and DVD Shrink. If I want to keep bonus features, I'll just put that stuff on a separate DVD and have it play as a continuous stream. I'll just blow off the menus.

Hopefully someone will post a definitive solution to the Error=116 problem. But slowing down the burn speed didn't work. Changing the write type from packet to SAO didn't work. Perhaps if I started with a fresh install of XP and a fresh install of Platinum with no other DVD ripping and burning apps I might have a place to start so I can figure out where the problam lies. Right now it's too much of a hassle.

 

I have been, but none of those suggestions worked either.