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DVD Replication nightmare.
I am having an issue with my a DVD I just had replicated. I hope the people on this forum can help.
This DVD was created with:
EditStudio 5 for video editing
DVD Lab Pro for authoring
Plextor dual layer burner
Verbatim DVD +R DL mediaThe burnt copy plays fine is set top players.
I sent it off to replication and the replicated copied have an error. The error occurs once in the entire disc in the same spot on all disc’s.
Depending on the player the visual result is different.
Some players just show some odd pixels or a green block or two. Some players have green and purple blocks covering the entire screen and one just skips the section like a bad edit.
The replication company is trying to blame this on the Authoring software.
here is the email I received from them
My bosses and I (who I’ve copied on this email) have gotten together and are responding to the DVD problem. We’ve been doing research and came up with 3 items that lead us to this being an authoring problem. The 3 items include: speaking with an authoring person, having encountered this problem in the past, and researching your authoring program.First, I’ve spoke with an authoring guy who has been authoring DVD’s for the past 7 years. His first impression was that at the point where some of the players are experiencing the problem there could be a bit rate spike. When there is a spike in the bit rate, problems occur such as skipping, blocks, and/or vertical lines. It’s almost like when a computer is trying to process too many things at once, it skips, bleeps, etc..
Second, we have been in business for over 10 years now. This is the second time we’ve encountered this type of problem. The first time we encountered this problem was almost a year ago. My client used an inexpensive authoring program not intended for replication. The problems we are starting to incur are people buying inexpensive, non-professional authoring software.
Third, I spoke to the professional authoring person about DVDlab pro. He explained to me that DVDlab pro is a starter authoring program not intended for professional use. While doing more research, we found DVDlab’s web site and went to the faq page.
https://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dvdlabfaq.html
The following were copied and pasted from your authoring programs web site.
It is strongly recommended that professionals who are getting paid for their commercial work use a commercial grade software. There are few industry standards for making DVD’s such as Sonic Scenarist or Apple DVD Studio Pro. While nobody will stop you from using our low-cost solutions for commercial projects, it is not advisable. Once you invest a lot of money and time into making your commercial project, it doesn’t make sense to suddenly go “low-cost” on the last, but equally important step such as authoring DVD.
A very honest answer is that we can’t guarantee 100% playability unless we do test all players ever build on all kinds of files, which is not possible. At this moment our own estimation would be a 98% players compatibility (PRO version), where we put a “safe” margin of 2% of players that may have problem playing the authored DVD’s for whatever reason. Please note, it is an estimation, not guarantee. We are trying to improve this ratio constantly. If you find a player that has an obvious problem playing the authored disk (excluding disk related defects and problems) please
let us know the type and model.
The fact that your authoring program is stating that it’s not intended for commercial use and that they cannot guarantee playability is just another item that reflects that it’s an authoring problem, not a replication problem. Also, the fact that there were so many problems when trying to burn(NOTE the issues they are referring to are from a bad Dual Layer burner) the DVD-9 tells us the person doing the authoring is not a professional. Also, remember that Beyond Purl was a DVD-5 and not a DVD-9. From speaking to the professionals and doing web searches, it’s a whole different ballgame.
I have run a bitrate scan on the mpg file for this segment of the video the max before the error is 6200~ at the point of the error it is about 5600~.
I need to convince the replication company that this is a error either in the glass master or in the replicated copy.
Any suggestions?
Am I missing something and could this be on our end somehow?
Thanks in advance
Alan
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22 Replies
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Did you use AC3 audio? Did you give them a second build?
If you still having trouples I’d go here:
https://www.dvdverification.com/
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Another thing…How did you deliver this to replication?
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Yes, the audio was AC3 format.
The data was sent on a burnt DVD +R DL. We have this disc back in our posession and it plays fine on DVD’s that produce errors with the replicated disc.
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Try sending the disc on DLT instead…never submit a DL disc for a DVD-9 project. Where are you located?
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I do not have the option of making a DLT.
Michigan.
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I’d say these would be your only options:
Give them another build – the first one could have errors
Deliver on DLT
Redo the project in Encore or DVDSP
Call Trai – see link above -
I absolutely would not even consider EVER mastering a DVD-9 project on a DVD+/-R DL. That said, when the replicator’s Eclipse recorder is importing your source data, if your disc throws an error, the replicator should not go forward creating the glass master. Mastering from DVD-R sometimes causes errors to creep into the replicated discs, and the replicator needs to be extra careful to watch out for this.
The fact that the replicator is trying to blame the authoring software is an indication of a cover-up, and they may be trying to hide their own defective manufacturing.
Try copying the DVD to the hard drive on a PC. If the copy fails, that is a pretty good indication that the DVD contain PO (parity outer) errors. That usually results from bad molding or a damaged glass master. You might want to have the replicated DVDs analyzed to determine what kind of errors are present. Also the replicator’s reports from the Eclipse recorder may indicate where the problem is.
Did you get a check disc before the job was run? You shouldn’t approve starting a replication run until you obtain a check disc and check it thoroughly. You would have seen this problem on the check disc.
Next time use a DLT to master a DVD-9 project. That is a bulletproof method of getting the data to the replicator.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
Copying the data to the HD did not tell me anything. The two drives in my computer are able to read the disc without error. The issue shown up on set top players. (my wife just told me that the laptop has issues so I’ll try that tonight)
The replication company has come back with an offer. They have offered to have one of the other “plants” that they work with test the master vs a replicated disc using their “datarius system”. They claim that this plant will give an unbiased test because they compete with the plant that created the discs.
Does this seem fair?
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Hi Alan
What if the two are the same? Do you have to pay for another replication? Look into other options.
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Hi Alan,
You’re layer break isn’t occuring on properly flagged cell, or on a cell, even (known as the split-cell error; players don’t like it, for sure). Now, it’s a question of whether your replicator honored your formatting. But it’s most likely your formatter didn’t honor your intentions, or you didn’t have any, i.e., account for the layer break in your project.
The replicators “independent” test won’t check for what the problem is, so you’re about to get another “we’re not at fault” statement. And Bill is absolutely correct on this as Eclipse and DCA Image Analysis software do not support dealing with Images on DVD+R DL discs; so mastering with it is a crap shoot (for other more detailed reasons, as well).
I’d love to get involved in this one, but will stay in my corner until I’m officially invited.
Sorry you’re having issues at the plant,
Trai Forrester
TFDVD Research Labs
https://www.dvdverification.com
800-231-2297
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