[daydream]

I am having problems with a batch of Dual Layer DVDs that were burned on a LaCie.

What I am asking is the LaCie a lesser model than I thought or did I in the process of building and burning the DVDs do something else that was wrong.

If I did the right bit rate and I burned to the drive and tested it and from there burned to the DVD the only three things that I am coming up with is the following:

1. I burned the DVDs at 8X to me this did not seem and still does not seem to be an issues that I have heard have from others. So could this be the culprit.

2. That I used the LaCie and not the Pioneer or Plextor both, which are good yet I still, thought that the LaCie was going a good route.

3. That I used Roxio Toast to burn the DVD and that it was the problem again I thought and still think that Toast is a good application on the Mac OS X side.

I have yet to see a lot of postings on dual layer burners as of yet so are we the first generation of testers of the burners. I do need some answers on this and I need some sort of direction as I am in uncharted territory here.

Another thought that has just come in is that the DVD Players could be an issue. As I am using a newer form of media and the areas that they are going to for showing the movie is all around the world in different cities.

So I had a call from one of the places in North Hollywood that was showing it and it stopped and they could not make it go forward (a mistake that I made in that I should have placed makers on the DVD instead of having it just have one button). When they switched out the DVD player from a Phillips to a Sony it worked.

So could the newer Dual Layers have some form of problem with older models of DVD Players?

[csimon2]

First, what exactly is the problem you are having? You wrote a long list without really describing the main issue at hand it seems. Is the problem with mounting them in a mac, or with standalone DVD players?

As far as LaCie, they are a quality brand and I doubt they manufacture their own drive mechanisms. Most likely, the actual drive inside the LaCie case is a Pioneer or other major name brand. You should be able to find out through Apple System Profiler.

I also seriously doubt the 8x burning speed is causing the problems. Was the media originally rated 8x? Or are you using 4x media at a faster speed? That could be a problem.

Really don't think Toast is causing the issue(s). If it burned successfully in Toast, without any errors, then by all likelyhood, you can trust that it was produced fine.

DL DVD burners are still in their infancy yet. There aren't any DVD-R DL burners on the market even. Also, I would suspect that there would be a compatibility issue with older DVD players. I know I have seen some DVD-/+R discs that wouldn't mount in an older DVD player, simply because the drive in the DVD player couldn't read that type of disc. Although, most newer players don't experience this problem. And another issue you could be having is with the media itself. There are some brands of media out there that just suck and don't play well with others. If you bought some really, really cheap brand of media, then that could be the issue itself.

Per the issue of the disc stopping playback in the middle, that is very likely a case of the disc coming to the end of the first layer and needing to switch to the second, but for some reason it couldn't. This could be because of the media, but most likely it is the player if the same disc was able to play fine on another player. Also, if the disc were scratched in a way to make it difficult to playback successfully, that is obviously another possible reason. Some DVD players are complete crap when it comes to being able to read over scratches on a disc.

[daydream]

I believe it is the format of the unit as it is newer technology and that it was that way for the first wave of DVD-Rs when they came out they did not work many players however when the players began to be replaced by newer ones then it went away. So we see here the same sort of problem arising from the lack of older players.

Here is a post from Ralph LaBarge who has written a book on DVDs I think to be precise.


"DVD +R DL discs should not be used to distribute final version of a project unless you can control the end-user's playback system. I recently completed a compatibility test of DVD+R DL media, and the results are not very good. While there are some players that can play DVD+R DL media perfectly, there are many players that wont play the media at all, and even more players that can not read data properly from layer 1 of the media.

I think DVD+R DL is a great technology for testing dual layer projects, but right now it is not something I would use as a final delivery medium."

Ralph LaBarge
Alpha DVD


So even he makes a case for the newer technology versus the older players. Thank you for your ideas and comments.