[Jimy Bleu]

Apparently this is a big problem everywhere with DVD’s, especially DVD-r’s. Lots of machines, even the newer ones, won’t play burned DVD’s.

I often learn things in videography from coming across a problem & either hiring a techie to solve the problem as well as give me a tutorial, or post a question on these forums & usually I get a great suggestion.

I knew that I wanted to be able to burn my DVD’s & have them play most everywhere. Experts were saying it is mostly impossible & that there will always be a problem, especially with the older DVD machines…….. But…….. I noticed that usually (NOT always) whenever I came across a bootleg DVD, not only did it play on just about every machine, the packaging looked just as good as the product they were imitating (labeling, cover art, texting, shrink wrap, bar coding, etc).

I knew that altho’ I’m not a bootlegger nor do I advocate it, I wanted the same success with their DVD’s. The answer?…….

FROM MY RESEARCH………….REPLICATING……

Replication is quite different from duplication.

The bootleggers make ONE good master, have it replicated (either they have the equipment or they send it out), then they either make their copies off of that one replication with the equipment, or take the replicated master & burn copies on a regular computer. Their burned copies play on most machines, new or old.

At a pro DVD production house, after they make the replicated master, they usually test it in at least 10-20 different DVD players to assure some sort of reliability.

This info may seem like old news to the experts here, but to folks like me, it was a revelation & one I didn’t witness until visiting a bootleg replication facility here in NYC.

I just couldn’t see spending months/years on a film project, doing all the broadcast safe/color correction, burning it, submitting it for distribution & the DVD not playing on the guy’s machine. With most people who you’re submitting it to, you don’t get a second chance & they don’t wanna hear excuses.

[Jimy Bleu]

Hi Mr Sareen,

Thanks for responding to my post.

Actually , I was using the bulk disks I picked up at the computer fair.

I tried a burn using the Apple recommended disk after a DVDSP4 tutorial & got much better results on my newer model DVD players.

I’m not sure, but lowering my bit rate (even beyond safe/conservative settings) & using Constant bit rate instead of Variable bit rate when using Apple’s Compressor may have been a factor as well in the successful burn.

I’ll be using DVDSP4 now. I just couldn’t get the hang of IDVD for some reason.

[Jimy Bleu]

Hopefully my successful resolution of this post will help someone else going through the same dilema & believe me, there are MANY as one look through the forums & net will confirm. Even Applecare themselves admit to a record number of calls regarding this very problem.

I had this problem with my Mac not booting up since the beginning of this year. It would take anywhere from 5 to 7 pushes of the button for there to finally see something on the monitors. It would not even go into sleep mode. When I called AppleCare, they took me through “zapping the P-Ram” & they made me order a new battery, but still I had the problem.

As I said, one of my studio tech guys disabled classic & tweaked the “energy saver” in the Mac & the problem went away. But 2 weeks ago, the problem reappeared. Again on the phone with AppleCare, we tried various techniques & the STILL again, I had the problem.

Recently I had 3 Mac/video techies I found by local ads come into my studio at different times to set up my SD video system & they each tried a different thing on the Mac to solve the start-up problem. Nothing worked. One of the tech guys said it was definitely the logic board that needed to be replaced. Another one said bring the computer into his Apple certified facility so he could find out what the problem was. I don’t have to tell you what the price & loss of time these options would have entailed.

Since the beginning of the year I have also been all over the net & to all of the major Mac/video sites researching this problem(DV Creators, Creative Cow, Videomaker, Mac World, Avid Community, Apple, etc). I have gotten some suggestions as to what this problem might be from faulty video card, motherboard, firmware conflict, monitor cables, etc).

Finally last week, I again hired the first studio techie from the beginning of the year for some audio work. When I told him I had the problem again, he immediately gave the computer a “target boot”. This determined that my computer had a faulty video card, since the computer was booting up successfully on his laptop. I ordered another card from Applecare through my warranty, installed the new card & SO FAR (knock on wood) the computer works fine.

The thing is, I pay this guy $20 an hour for audio tech work. The other 3 techies I paid from $75 to $150 an hour & NONE of them suggested doing a “target boot” to FIRST rule out if it is video card problem… Hhhmmm!!

My computer is a little more than a year old & had this problem. It seems to be some G5 problem that hopefully Mac has worked out or is investigating.

http://www.NewDivinity.com