A DVD is a DVD is a DVD, right?....I guess not...

[Don Tolson]

I thought I'd just pass along my notes on the trail of 'DVD Creation' from 8mm and DV tapes to others who may be embarking on this endeavour.

I have a modest collection (about 20) 8mm and DV HI-8 tapes that I'm trying to convert to DVD for retention of family memories, etc. I was expecting that once I had produced a DVD, that it would be playable in any of the commercially available DVD players, but I'm finding this is not necessarily the case.

After many futile attempts with Pinnacle Studio 9 (which I guess, does not like my HP 762C PC), I have found that the DVD's it produces are readable by a) the PC that wrote the DVDs and b) a 3 year old Toshiba DVD-player. Not my laptop, nor friends or relatives DVD players will play these consistently -- they are either not recognized or have stutters and jerky playback. My new Toshiba RD-XS32 DVD Recorder thinks these disks are 'permanently damaged'.

OK, so on to Adobe Premiere Elements. Much better response time and overall working environment on my PC, and the DVD's produced are readable by a) the PC that wrote them; b) the Toshiba DVD-player; and c) my laptop. Most are readable on the Toshiba DVD Recorder, except for one.
By the way, before you ask, ALL of the above is being done to Memorex DVD-R's.

Latest iteration I'm testing -- connect the DVD Player's output to the DVD Recorder input and have the material directly transfered from one disk to another, but written by the DVD Recorder. So far, the test DVD produced here is readable by everything in my house. I have to take it over to my parents and friends to see if it works over there. The only downside, is that I lose all the menus and scene selection stuff I built onto the original disks. But at least I think I've saved all the video...

I'm beginning to think that the DVD-Video 'standard' ain't so 'standard', or that maybe there's something slightly flaky with the generic DVD Burner in my PC.

I'll keep you posted.

[Don Tolson]

Latest findings:

a) Took all the DVD's over to a friend's house. They all play perfectly on a cheapo 'Citizen' DVD player, but only 3 will play on their older Panasonic DVD Player -- and the ones that play are different from the ones that play on my Toshiba DVD recorder!

b) So far, the only 'common element' is that the short test DVD I burned on the DVD Recorder plays on everything I've ever put it on.

c) My wife is convinced I need to get a new DVD burner on the PC 8O, but I still want to do some more tests.

Anyone got any ideas how I can get the finished movies from my PC to my DVD recording for burning, without burning a DVD as a transfer media? I guess I could 'output to DV tape', but that would limit me to 90 mins. Would it be faster to output to DV tape than 'rendering' to DVD (MPEG) format?

[Crocuta]

Hi Don,

The problem is that there isn't one DVD standard; there are several. The original DVD-ROM standard that commercial DVDs come in can generally be read by all DVD players, but that doesn't help you since you can't buy a DVD-ROM writer for your computer.

The three other standards are DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD-RAM. The last hasn't been very popular, so there's little point worrying about it. Of the other two, DVD-R will work in about 90% of the DVD players out there and DVD+R will work in about 70% of the players out there. Both will generally work in the vast majority of newer players.

Another thing that make this all complicated is that the specific media you use can affect player compatibility. If you're not getting compatible recordings, before you buy a new writer or player, try using a couple of different brands of DVD media.

[Don Tolson]

Thanks, Crocuta. I know about the differences between -R +R and -RAM, and I've been only using -R for all my tests. My understanding is the same as yours, in that most DVD players should be able to handle -R.

My concern is with the variation in reading capability for the same discs on the same media between machines. And the fact that, using the same media, I can get a disc written on the DVD Recorder to be read by any DVD player I've put it in.

It makes me think that there is some difference at the 'digital' level as to what is being written on the disks.

[Don Tolson]

Another update on creating DVD's on the Toshiba DVD Recorder. I think I have a solution to that problem -- Both my PC and the Toshiba RD-XS32 have firewire ports, so, according to Adobe Premiere Elements and the Toshiba Users Guide, I should be able to connect the two via firewire and have the PC send the finished .AVI directly to the Toshiba for recording on the DVD -- either to the harddrive first, then to DVD; or directly to DVD.

I'll give both a try. The only problem is that I'll need a 200 ft. (60m) firewire cable, since the Recorder is in the Den, while the PC is in the downstairs office! Wireless firewire, anyone???

The only downside to this is that I won't be able to use the DVD menus / scene selection stuff provided by Premiere Elements, but at least the video will be saved onto DVD's.

I'll keep you posted!

[Don Tolson]

OK, here's the latest in the seemingly never-ending saga. Hooked up the DVR to the PC via Firewire, but as there is no driver available on the PC for the DVR, the PC doesn't recognize it as a device, so there's no way to tell Adobe Premiere to send the AVI out to the DVR.

Oh well... emailed off to Toshiba a request for info regarding a PC driver for the DVR. I'm not really expecting a response, but we'll see.

/drt

[Don Tolson]

...and NOW we find out that the Toshiba DVR is probably defective!! We tried , for the first time, to run a commercial DVD movie through it last night. About 3/4 of the way through (about an hour) the movie stopped dead, then showed us the Toshiba equivalent of the BSOD and then told us the disk was damaged.

Took out the DVD, hooked up the old Toshiba DVD Player, and resumed the movie with no problems.

I've got a call out to the Toshiba service centre to see what they can do for us. Sheesh! Well at least it makes me feel better that there was something actually WRONG with one of the components involved here. I was really beginning to go crazy with all the variations!

[Crocuta]

Hey Don, I haven't checked back in this thread for a few days, but you've sure been busy! After all of this (did you really find a 200 ft firewire cable?), it turns out to have been a defective player all along. Who would have thought? Good luck with the service center (never had experience with Toshiba in that way). I hope it all comes together once it's fixed.

[Don Tolson]

No, I couldn't find a 200 ft. firewire cable. :lol: I suspect it may have a 'maximum cable length' limit anyway.

I still have the problem of my DVD-R's not working on my parent's DVD player, but it's a cheapo VCR-combo which they've never used. Maybe it just needs a good dusting!

[RWC_Zippy]

I still have the problem of my DVD-R's not working on my parent's DVD player, but it's a cheapo VCR-combo which they've never used. Maybe it just needs a good dusting!

I think that this is pretty common. My Dad's JVC player will play any DVD you throw at it whereas my Pioneer will not play my cheap-o Ritek DVD-Rs but has no issues with my Memorex DVD-/+Rs

I went throught like, a half-dozen discs to figure this out! Go figure... :roll:

[Don Tolson]

I wish that we were now at the stage that CD ROMs have become -- where you can essentially burn to almost any generic disk and expect it to work in your CD player. Oh well.

My difficulty right now is that Dad's DVD player won't read ANYTHING I throw at it, in terms of DVD-R's, but it will read Commercial DVD's. Hmmmm, maybe I'll have to 'borrow' it and see what can be done.

Thanks for the 'I've been there, too'. At least I'm not alone.

[RWC_Zippy]

Thanks for the 'I've been there, too'. At least I'm not alone.

Yup.... steep learning curve eh?

:lol:

happy movie making!

[Don Tolson]

Well, here we are a month later. Guess what? the Toshiba DVR (RD-XS32) has been 'in the shop' the entire time! Yup, they've tried everything -- replaced the RAM drive, replaced the mother board -- no change. It's now apparently with 'head office' to let them have a go at it.

My guess? We've discovered a design flaw in the hardware or the software, since they've now replaced all the major components that could be causing the problem. It'll be interesting to see what they come back with in terms of a repair, and the bill. :roll:

In the meantime, I did get a nice apologetic response to my query regarding a PC-firewire driver for the DVR. Unfortunately, it was a 'there are no plans at this time to develop this kind of driver." Guess they only intended the firewire port as a 'one-way' interface. Oh well....

[Don Tolson]

Well, almost another month later, I finally have the Toshiba DVD-Recorder back home. Turns out the DVD-RAM drive they put into the unit to replace the defective one was ALSO DEFECTIVE!

It still won't play all of the DVD's that my laptop, desktop and DVD Player will, but at least the number of non-playables has significantly reduced and it will now play a commercial DVD all the way through.

Still don't know why this is, maybe media related, maybe due to differences in alignment of the 'burn' units -- who knows.

Unfortunately, because I bought the unit through ebay, there was no warranty, so I ended up with a $580 CDN bill. Oh well, live and learn.

[Don Tolson]

It didn't last long. Within a couple of days of returning home, the RDXS-32 starting 'stuttering' (short pause, then continue) when playing commercial DVD's. Back to the service guys in Vancouver :roll:

Just got a call back from them yesterday. Two, actually. First one said "There's nothing wrong with the box. We've run it for a week and can't recreate your problem (insert snarky tone here)." Second one, about 1/2 hour later, from the techie, in a much more concilliatory tone, "Uhhh, we found the problem and now it won't accept ANY DVD's -- commercial or burned. It appears to be heat related, since this is the first time we've left the unit on with the covers installed."

Wonder how much this repair will cost. You can bet I'm drafting a letter to the Toshiba Service Manager, as you read....