Final DVD has video corruption where flash transitions are

[John Rofrano]

If it’s only 5 minutes, try changing your MPEG2 encoding bit-rate to CBR 8,000,000. That will give you the best encoding quality that DVD has to offer.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Gilles Gagnon]

Thanks so much for your answer John. I’ll give this a try and post my findings.

Sorry about what appeared to be a double-post. The forum software had generated an error on my first attempt and I didn’t think it had posted my question.

[Gilles Gagnon]

Update…

Hi John and anyone else willing to help.

I re-rendered the mpg with CBR of 8,000,000 and re-burned/authored the DVD with no changes, same result.

As described, wherever I have used white hard-flash transitions in the video (which are very effective for the fast-paced video), there is a “glitch” in the video as seen from the DVD (all is well if I play the MPG on my pc).

This “glitch” is a fraction of a second and resembles what one would see when switching channels on an old TV with a rotary dial. The fraction of a second when the TV is “in between channels”. The end result is that the transition is ruined. I can not present this to my client.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[John Rofrano]

Have you watched this on another DVD player? If you said the MPEG2 file is fine (i.e., you went through it frame by frame and this glitch does not exist) then it is either introduced during the burn or playback. To check the burn, play the DVD back on your PC. If the glitch is not present then the only thing left for it to be is the DVD player.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Gilles Gagnon]

Hi John,
First, thanks for sticking with me with this one.

second, you may have solved my dilemma. I tried the burned DVD on my PC (Windows Media player) and it’s flawless. So this brings much relief. THANK YOU! Now, I’m just hoping that indeed the prob is isolated to my DVD player.

Unfortunately, I don’t have another DVD player in the house to try and will not be able to try another for a couple of days.

Q. How can the DVD be the culprit in not handling these transitions properly? Have you witnessed this before?

Thanks again.

[John Rofrano]

> Q. How can the DVD be the culprit in not handling these transitions properly? Have you witnessed this before?

Media quality and burn rate. What type and brand of DVD’s are you using? Some work better in players than others. DVD-R tend to be more compatible than DVD+R. As for brands, I only use Taiyo Yuden and not the value line. I like TYG02 (8x) DVD-R. Verbatim is good as well. Stay away from brands like Memorex and Fuji. DVD media is not the place to skimp. Also try burning at a slower speed. I assume that the flash transition requires a very high bitrate and so burning slower gives more time to allow the laser to affect the disc.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Mike Kujbida]

Gilles, the only thing that comes to mind is the fact that the hard flash is pure white meaning an RGB value of 255-255-255 and there’s a chance that your DVD player’s electronics can’t handle that extreme value over a short time period.
DV is best limited to 235-235-235 for pure white.
Unfortunately there’s no way to reduce the value of the white in the flash so here’s an alternative.
Use a basic fade for the transition between the two events.
Place a solid white (at 235-235-235) of the same length above your transition and do a fade in/out on it.
Experiment with the different fade types to get what you’re looking for.
The effect should be the same and this way you get to control the luminance level.

[Gilles Gagnon]

Thanks John, great advice and I would say your knowledge and expertise has resolved this problem.

I was able to dig up an older DVD player from the basement. Tried 5 of the DVDs I had burned and it refused to recognize any of them! (worked great with a commercial DVD)

So as you say, it must be the media. I’m using HP DVD-R 8X discs, burning at 6x (lowest available option).

I’ll get better media, the ones you recommended from now on. In the meantime, I’ll tell the client to play it on a laptop/PC.

Thanks immensely for taking the time to help me out.

PS> we also share the love of music. I’d love to hear your music…do you have it online somewhere?

[Gilles Gagnon]

Thanks Mike,

I didn’t know that DVDs have difficulties handling the 255-255-255 RGB. I will definitely try this on my next project to see if it makes a diff.

I’ll definitely try better media as John suggested above. No more skimping if it’s going to save me days of aggravation.

Thanks again for this valuable info.

[Mike Kujbida]

Gilles, normally DVD shouldn’t have problems dealing with pure white but, as I said, my suspicion is that the short nature of it may have been enough to mess things up.
BTW, the two brands John recommended are what I use as well with Taiyo-Yuden being my preference.