DVD burning problem

[kira13]

I made 3 coasters in a row using build 544 (I believe; it might have been 540, the first one I downloaded, but I think I had already upgraded to 544 by the time this happened). I'm not sure what happened; the DVDs are readable, to a point; there are 5 VOB files listed, as would be expected for a reasonably full single-layer DVD, but they *can't* all be there. There is a noticeable ring on the writable side of the DVD where it stopped writing, and this ring is less than half of the DVD. It plays in both software and hardware players, but (not surprisingly) stops about 3/4 of the way thru the 1st of the 2 CSI episodes on the disk. (I believe all 3 disks are the same.) I think in each case the DVD burning screen of TVS was still on screen when I returned to check on the disk, with no output screen but with the DVD tray open.

I don't remember at this point which steps I tried different each time I tried to rewrite it with VRD TVS, but ultimately, I wound up writing it with Imgburn from either an ISO file or the VIDEO_TS folder (I forget which now). I have since written all my disks with Imgburn.

I still have a decent amount of disks (and it's relatively cheap to get more), and it occurred to me that this is beta software and I should be trying to solve the problem, not just switching to something else that works. (Although I do intend to use Imgburn for any and all dual-layer disks I make; that was what I originally downloaded it for, because it gives me control over the layer break.)

I guess my question is, do you know of any similar burning problems that have been solved as of build 546 (i.e. what are the chances my problem has just gone away on its own), and if not, what should I be looking out for the next time I try to burn a disk with VRD TVS that can help to find the problem (if it happens again)? Come to think of it, I *have* burned 4 episodes per disk of The Daily Show for a friend onto DVD-RWs (there are 4 of those that I keep re-using) with VRD TVS, and I haven't had very many problems there; I think I've had to reburn only twice out of 8-12 burns. I've just been afraid to try non-RW media again.

I'm sorry that I can no longer troubleshoot the original problem; besides my faulty memory, I've already deleted the source files and any edited files I was using. (Had to, to make room to transfer more files from my TiVos, so we could save more shows....) Now that I've pretty much caught up (had a year's worth of saved stuff on the S3 that couldn't be moved to the computer until recently), I have more space on the computer and time to spend troubleshooting.

Would there be anything in the VRD log file that might help? I know which 2 CSI episodes are supposed to be on these disks, so I might be able to find them if the log goes back that far (and across builds).

[phd]

There were several improvements made to authoring and burning in V546.
http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showthread.php?t=5363

You should try it.

[kira13]

Okay, I'll keep on the lookout in case there are any issues, but hopefully there won't be! Good to hear.

[DanR]

kira13, Beta build 547 was just uploaded and has some additional burning fixes.

[kira13]

Thanks, Dan. Just downloaded it. You're fixing things faster than I'm editing them now. :)

I have most of a season of "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" that I recorded for a friend that I still need to edit and write to DVD, so I will start writing those completely in TVS. I think my problems have all been with HD files from my S3 TiVo, though; these are SD from my S2. So if it works, I can't be sure that my problem is fixed, but I'll eventually have more HD episodes to write.

[kira13]

Drat it all, it did it again. Seems to have gotten most or all the way thru one episode of two. I put in a DVD-RW and tried again, but it couldn't erase the RW at that point in the process, so it failed right away. I told it to write to an image instead.

The log stops right after the authoring completed, with this line:

2007-12-02 03:42:21 DVDBurner started with: "/s:D:\Kira\Videos\VideoReDo\DVD_Volume.dvd" /b:0 "/n:SUPERHERO_1" /v /d /e /x

Is there something I can try to get to the bottom of this?

(My .iso file just finished. The output window says that 1 video resync frame was removed and 1 video resync frame was added, if that's any help. Oh, and these files were SD from the old TiVo, so now I know that it's not just the files from the newer HD one.)

[kira13]

Here is the rest of the log from the output as .iso image. I apologize in advance if it's unnecessary, but figured I'd better copy and paste it while I could still find it, since I'm about to edit some more stuff.

---------
2007-12-02 13:02:33 Output complete. Input file: *Joiner*
Output file: D:\Kira\Videos\VideoReDo\DVD_Volume.dvd
Mode: Frame Accurate
-Longest GOP Found: 15
-DVD Compliant GOPS: 10485
-DVD Non-compliant GOPS: 0
-# of GOPS shortened: 0
Video output frames: 156985
Audio output frames: 163690
Processing time (secs): 552
Processed frames/sec: 283.92
Actual Video Bitrate: 4.62 Mbps
* Video resync frames removed: 1
* Video resync frames added: 1

2007-12-02 13:04:10 DVD Creating log: D:\Kira\Videos\VideoReDo\DVD_Volume.dvd
*** DVDLIB Verification Log ***
12 - 2 - 2007 -- 3:35:42


************************
* *
* VTS Verification *
* *
************************


<<< VTS Number 1 >>>
Number of Titles: 2


Title 01 - Type - ES or PES
Segment 1, Video File X:\VRD_DVDTEMP\Vid1AB8.tmp
Frame size: 720 X 480
Frame rate 4 [1--23.976, 2--24, 4--29.97, 3--25, 5--30]
Aspect Ratio: 43 [43--4:3, 169--16:9]
Chroma: 1 [1--4:2:0, 2--4:2:2, 3--4:4:4]
GOP 1, size - 106803
GOP 2, size - 275002
GOP 3, size - 253242
Segment 1, Audio File X:\VRD_DVDTEMP\Aud1AB9.tmp
Audio type AC3_Mot, Sampling 48000, Bitrate 256000
Segment 1, Subtitle File : None



Title 02 - Type - ES or PES
Segment 1, Video File X:\VRD_DVDTEMP\Vid2F85.tmp
Frame size: 720 X 480
Frame rate 4 [1--23.976, 2--24, 4--29.97, 3--25, 5--30]
Aspect Ratio: 43 [43--4:3, 169--16:9]
Chroma: 1 [1--4:2:0, 2--4:2:2, 3--4:4:4]
GOP 1, size - 82960
GOP 2, size - 277106
GOP 3, size - 290466
Segment 1, Audio File X:\VRD_DVDTEMP\Aud2F86.tmp
Audio type AC3_Mot, Sampling 48000, Bitrate 256000
Segment 1, Subtitle File : None




Number of Menus: 1


Menu 01 - Type - Still
Menu Image File C:\Users\Kira\AppData\Roaming\VideoReDo-TVSuite\DVB1A29.tmp
Picture size - 720 x 480
Menu Audio File - None
Menu Sub-Picture File C:\Users\Kira\AppData\Roaming\VideoReDo-TVSuite\DVH1A2A.tmp
Picture size - 720 x 480

************************
* *
* Status Messages *
* *
************************
Start building Video Title Set ( VTS ) ... - 2001
Title 1
Start building VOB streams - 2210
[INFO] - No subtitle stream is provided - 3739
Muxing elementary streams is in process ... - 2220
Initializing audio packets ... - 3005
Initializing AC3 (MOT) audio packet ... - 3030
Verifying Closed Caption file is in process ... - 3750
Muxing is in process ... - 2300
Audio packetizing ends - 3025
Creating PGC for the title is in process ... - 2500
Title 2
Start building VOB streams - 2210
[INFO] - No subtitle stream is provided - 3739
Muxing elementary streams is in process ... - 2220
Initializing audio packets ... - 3005
Initializing AC3 (MOT) audio packet ... - 3030
Verifying Closed Caption file is in process ... - 3750
Muxing is in process ... - 2300
Audio packetizing ends - 3025
Creating PGC for the title is in process ... - 2500
Creating still menu is in process ... - 2700
Start encoding bitmap ... - 2750
Reading bitmap is in process ... - 2740
[INFO] - No audio stream is provided - 3019
Building VTS IFO stream is in process ... - 2800
Start building Video Manager (VMG) ... - 2005
Creating still menu is in process ... - 2700
Start encoding bitmap ... - 2750
Reading bitmap is in process ... - 2740
[INFO] - No audio stream is provided - 3019
Building VMG IFO stream is in process ... - 2850

*** Post Verification ***

No error was found in the post verification process
---------

Also, for what it's worth, my DVD burner is a Lite-On SHM-165H6S with firmware HS0E and SmartBurn enabled, but no HyperTuning or odd booktype setting. My media is Office Depot branded Ritek G05. It's cheap media, but it seems to work fine with ImgBurn and Nero. (Edited to add that it's DVD-R.)

[Dan203]

In ImgBurn can you check the settings and see what protocol it's using? (i.e. STPI, ASPI or STPD) Our burner uses STPI and I'm just curious if ImgBurn is set to use something else and that's what's making the difference.

Also can you check the vendor and make sure the firmware on your drive is upgraded to the newest firmware available?

Dan

[zaphod7501]

Just to poke my nose in the middle here but there seem to be some unique problems with RW disks. There is probably an error map that fills up with reuse of the disks. When it fills up, you can't write any more to the disk, regardless of the reported free space, until you do a full erase (rather than a quick erase).

I discovered this with CD-RW disks (documented) and I assume it is true with DVD RW also. (some guesswork and extrapolation on my part there) I always do a full erase after 3-5 quick ones on RW disks.

FWIW, DVDDecrypter (basis of ImgBurn) defaults to SPTI but gives you a choice.

[Dan203]

I recently added some code to the burner which should detect when a DVD requires a full erase and performs one of those, instead of the usual quick erase, before burning. So that shouldn't be an issue.

I'm also looking into the possibility of adding those other options (i.e. ASPI and STPD) to our burner as well in hopes that maybe alternate options will allow greater compatibility with certain user configurations.

Dan

[kira13]

Dan, ImgBurn is using SPTI, and my firmware is the latest official firmware for that drive (although I've seen some unofficial firmware out there for it, I haven't been brave enough to try that).

zaphod7501, I may have not been clear enough in my other post. I was writing to a DVD-R initially; that's the one that failed partway thru. When it failed, the TVS DVD burner was still sitting there waiting for a new disk so it could try again. That's when I popped the -RW in there, hoping to try that, but my suspicion is that it couldn't erase one at that stage.

Side note: I like the fact that the DVD burner didn't simply quit after it failed. Also, I had it set to erase the VIDEO_TS folder after successfully making a DVD (or ISO file when I use that setting), and it knew it had failed and didn't erase the file and was all set to try again. I also like that switching to burning a file is still an option if the physical media burn failed. It would have been frustrating to have to start over from scratch, even if "scratch" is simply re-loading the DVD project.

Anyway, as far as DVD-RWs go, I haven't had many problems with them. I routinely burn "The Daily Show" for a friend who canceled his cable service; I put 4 episodes (one week's worth, when they're showing regularly) onto an -RW and have TVS erase it during the process. (I have 4 such "Daily Show" -RWs and I just keep reburning them.) I've had maybe 2 of those not finish the write, but I simply restarted the burning process and it finished the 2nd try in both cases. And I believe that burning those -RWs worked even after burning to DVD-R failed the first time, although I can't be sure. (I can, however, burn one now to test.)

[Dan203]

kira check your PMs.

Dan

[kira13]

Thanks, Dan.

I was right about the -RWs; the one I set up when typing my previous post finished with no issues.

[stevehiner]

I've had a similar issue with my +R discs on occaions. They play fine in my PC and in my parent's DVD player but have trouble with my Xbox 360. Seems like it only happens to about 20% of the discs and it seems like it started with version 546 or 547.

I've noticed that the DVD burn window doesn't exit when the burn is done. The log file will end with the line about staring the DVD burner. If I close the dvd burn window then VRD will display the gold complete dialog and will add the verify info to the log file.

I'm not sure if the two issues are related or not. I know I've had discs that worked fine where the DVD burner didn't close on it's own. I'm not sure if I've had discs fail where the DVD burner did close. I'm going to have to keep better track of which ones fail and what the circumstances are. Up to this point VRD has been so reliable that I haven't been as careful as I normally would be with a beta version.

[stevehiner]

Interesting update. Yesterday morning Microsoft released the fall update for the Xbox 360 firmware and now I have no problems with the DVDs that weren't working. I know there were a bunch of codec updates so they must have tweaked the DVD codecs too.

There's still the issue of the dvd burning software not closing at the end of the process but as long as it doesn't hurt the disc I guess it's not a big deal.

[Dan203]

I just added a bunch of logging to the DVD burner which will be in the next release. I'm hoping this will help aid us in finding what's causing the burner not to close and/or crash when complete as we're unable to reproduce the problem on any of our test systems.

Dan

[Dan203]

FYI the newly posted 548 build contains a fix which I hope will eliminate the "Unsupported operation" error and crashes some of you are having at the end of the burning process. It also contains a new option in the Shift+Tools->Options menu called "Burn Protocol". This will allow you to set the burner to use SPTD or ASPI instead of the default SPTI protocol to help eliminate compatibility problems.

However please note that we recommend that you only change this option if you are having trouble with burning such as incomplete disks or verification failures. Also note that to use the SPTD protocol you must first install the SPTD driver (http://www.duplexsecure.com/downloads/"), which requires a reboot of your system to work properly. (The ASPI layer is installed automatically, so you don't need anything extra for that, but it's kind of slow so I don't recommend using it unless you have to)

Dan