Hey Carlin, thanks for all that info. Based on some of what you said, I was spurred on to make some experiments.
First off was the data rate experiment. I halved the data throughput in the Toast setup dialogue, but to no avail. All I got was a more obviously compressed DVD that still skipped.
I tried going directly from AE to Toast, as opposed to constructing a project in Final Cut Express HD. I made a movie from an AE project, DVD'd it, and to no avail.
I tried messing with iDVD, but it seems to lack options I want, like widescreen, should I decide I wanna give prospective clients/employers a choice of either 16:9 or 4:3 letterbox.
I do not know how I can be sure that those receiving my DVD will see it play properly. And I need this to be the case. Playing back the disc in their presence on a personal player is one thing. But unless they use my web site, they'll require a disc that they can look at before they decide that they wanna call me in for an interview.
I do not want to spend money on a new burner or any new software, like DVD Studio Pro. That's a hell of an investment that would really sting should it not work.
I thought of sending a VHS cassette as a backup, but that's a pain, what with all the bulky cassettes and all the labels I'll have to create.
I suppose I could give my movie project to a service bureau of some kind, but I have a feeling that such places would consider a job as small as mine a bother. (Not to mention that there's no guarantee I'd be able to get DVDs out in a hurry, should a prospective client need one immediately, as I will have to get to one that's opened late and can knock one out for me on the fly. I could make bunches of copies, but there's a gamble there, as my work evolves over unpredictable time frames.)
In short, I may just have to continue to make DVDs that may not play well and just hope for the best.
1. I dunno how you do it, but I just make DVDs in Toast - no fiddling with settings or anything, and it almost always plays fine. However, I DO stay away from 16:9 or anything else - plain QT, DV codec. I just drop the QT file in Toast and let it do everything (encode and all).
2. If I had an issue, it is almost always the media I use. I have used el cheapo no-name DVD_RW that works once or twice and then no more, but still works.
3. Come to think of it, I DID have a skipping issue, and my use of Toast simplified the things to tweak (there weren't much). The reason for the skipping was because I was burning at 4x - did burns at 1x and that fixed it.
4. In conclusion, maybe you should just stick with Toast - its good enough for a whole bunch of things.
BTW, Toast is nice because it is a great tester, thanks to its reduced tweakability. Just yesterday, I had problems burning a DVD in DVDSP and I received an "unacceptable media" error message or something like that. I burned the same disk in Toast and got a perfectly fine DVD - this eliminated my hypothesis that DVDSP was rejecting the media brand I was using.
One more thing - you said you reduced the bitrate in Toast - how did you do that? There is no such setting in the Toast I use.
On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 4:26 PM, <kyakoub...@adelphia.net> wrote:
> Hey Carlin, thanks for all that info. Based on some of what you said, I > was spurred on to make some experiments.
> First off was the data rate experiment. I halved the data throughput in > the Toast setup dialogue, but to no avail. All I got was a more obviously > compressed DVD that still skipped.
> I tried going directly from AE to Toast, as opposed to constructing a > project in Final Cut Express HD. I made a movie from an AE project, DVD'd > it, and to no avail.
> I tried messing with iDVD, but it seems to lack options I want, like > widescreen, should I decide I wanna give prospective clients/employers a > choice of either 16:9 or 4:3 letterbox.
> I do not know how I can be sure that those receiving my DVD will see it > play properly. And I need this to be the case. Playing back the disc in > their presence on a personal player is one thing. But unless they use my web > site, they'll require a disc that they can look at before they decide that > they wanna call me in for an interview.
> I do not want to spend money on a new burner or any new software, like DVD > Studio Pro. That's a hell of an investment that would really sting should it > not work.
> I thought of sending a VHS cassette as a backup, but that's a pain, what > with all the bulky cassettes and all the labels I'll have to create.
> I suppose I could give my movie project to a service bureau of some kind, > but I have a feeling that such places would consider a job as small as mine > a bother. (Not to mention that there's no guarantee I'd be able to get DVDs > out in a hurry, should a prospective client need one immediately, as I will > have to get to one that's opened late and can knock one out for me on the > fly. I could make bunches of copies, but there's a gamble there, as my work > evolves over unpredictable time frames.)
> In short, I may just have to continue to make DVDs that may not play well > and just hope for the best.
A couple other ideas come to mind that you might look at.
Are the DVDs really skipping then? or are you actually seeing a problem that might be in your source file? Could be several problems. Are you doing any 24 frame per second video? you might be having a problem with the "pull down" I think is the term.
You might also have a fielding problem. If you have interlaced video, there are times where the even field should be first, or the odd field. If you get them in the wrong order, you get some strange looking motion.
Also in the mix, is if you are creating your project as Progressive, and then somewhere in the chain its getting changed into Interlaced, or vice versa. There's a lot of room for a problem to sneak in.
More theory anyway!
Carlin
Carlin Comm BlueStar Productions Professional Photography and HD Video Production to fit YOUR Budget! http://www.seattle-hotshotz.com 316 West Olympic Place, #3 Seattle, WA 98119 206-283-2176
On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 1:26 AM, <kyakoub...@adelphia.net> wrote: > Hey Carlin, thanks for all that info. Based on some of what you said, I was spurred on to make some experiments.
> First off was the data rate experiment. I halved the data throughput in the Toast setup dialogue, but to no avail. All I got was a more obviously compressed DVD that still skipped.
> I tried going directly from AE to Toast, as opposed to constructing a project in Final Cut Express HD. I made a movie from an AE project, DVD'd it, and to no avail.
> I tried messing with iDVD, but it seems to lack options I want, like widescreen, should I decide I wanna give prospective clients/employers a choice of either 16:9 or 4:3 letterbox.
> I do not know how I can be sure that those receiving my DVD will see it play properly. And I need this to be the case. Playing back the disc in their presence on a personal player is one thing. But unless they use my web site, they'll require a disc that they can look at before they decide that they wanna call me in for an interview.
> I do not want to spend money on a new burner or any new software, like DVD Studio Pro. That's a hell of an investment that would really sting should it not work.
> I thought of sending a VHS cassette as a backup, but that's a pain, what with all the bulky cassettes and all the labels I'll have to create.
> I suppose I could give my movie project to a service bureau of some kind, but I have a feeling that such places would consider a job as small as mine a bother. (Not to mention that there's no guarantee I'd be able to get DVDs out in a hurry, should a prospective client need one immediately, as I will have to get to one that's opened late and can knock one out for me on the fly. I could make bunches of copies, but there's a gamble there, as my work evolves over unpredictable time frames.)
> In short, I may just have to continue to make DVDs that may not play well and just hope for the best.
> Keith
-- ---- Carlin Comm BlueStar Productions Professional Photography and HD Video Production to fit YOUR Budget! http://www.seattle-hotshotz.com 316 West Olympic Place, #3 Seattle, WA 98119 206-283-2176
