Choppy DVD Playback

[WhiteKnightMac]

Please Help, it's driving me mad!

Trying to burn a video file 720p <4Gb onto a standard Verbatim DVD(+RW) using Toast Titanium 15.

The video file runs fine from the HDD before burning so I know its not the source file.

So far I have tried:

• Slow burning speed (x2)
• Encoding to PAL and NTSC (source file is NTSC 30pfs)
• Internal and External DVD drives
• Single file per disc for 0% compression.
• Different burning software (Burn)

Is there anything else I could try?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Encoding to PAL and NTSC implies you may be trying to make a 720p DVD. I believe DVD is limited to SD resolutions. If you want to make an HD video disc that plays back in disc players, I believe you have to burn a Blu Ray disc.

Of course, you can burn even a 1080p or 4K video file on a data DVD, but the second bullet makes me assume you are trying to make a regular DVD disc that can play a HD video file. I don't believe that can work. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about DVD being constrained to SD video.

Now, perhaps you mean that you have a 720p source file and you are trying to make an SD DVD from it??? If that's the case, I don't see anything in the clues shared that seems questionable except perhaps bullet 4, as I believe 0% compression would yield a gigantic file. Video files burned onto disc are usually heavily compressed.

I presume Toast is showing you error messages. If so, share them and that may offer some clues. OR is Toast seeming to successfully burn the disc with no error messages? If the latter,

• Try a different brand of blank DVD?
• Try playback on a different DVD player?

 

[kohlson]

Use Toast to create the file onto the HDD instead of media. Does that file play OK? If not, then perhaps the file is being over compressed. It may be what your telling (so to speak) Toast to do is: fit this onto a DVD, no matter how much you have to compress it.

 

[ColdCase]

Does the video have lots of movement or is it relatively steady shots? You are going to see some stutter on slow pans regardless I think unless you burn HD. Oh, you can burn short HD video to a standard DVD, but you need a HDDVD player to view it.

Make the file like kohison suggests and see how it plays. If it plays fine, then perhaps your DVD player is having issues playing the compressed for DVD video. Try some other players and media.

 

[WhiteKnightMac]

Thank you for all your replies,

By the looks of your suggestions I'm guessing that using a video file that is of HD quality and trying to burn it to a standard DVD is impossible, Toast does offer HDDVD burning but only allows about 30 mins of footage.

Just to clarify, the videos are not being compressed to fit into the DVD, the file sizes are less then the DVD capacity.

My guess now is that the source file will need to be re-encoded to a lower resolution first before being burnt to disc. I'll try your suggestion 'Kohlson', by burning the file to the HDD first just so see if its an encoding error first.

I've tried multipal players and it is choppy on all of them, including the computer its been created on.

'HobeSoundDarryl', i'm not getting any errors at all and the disc verifies fine.

'ColdCase', the video playback is less choppy when not reencoding from NTSC to PAL however there is still some stuttering as the file still undergoes some encoding before being burn to the disc.

 

[ColdCase]

Thank you for all your replies,

By the looks of your suggestions I'm guessing that using a video file that is of HD quality and trying to burn it to a standard DVD is impossible, Toast does offer HDDVD burning but only allows about 30 mins of footage.

Just to clarify, the videos are not being compressed to fit into the DVD, the file sizes are less then the DVD capacity.

Its not impossible so burn a HD media source to a standard DVD, I do it all the time. There is much reduction in video quality, however, rarely any stutter unless you are really squeezing the bit rate. I use FCP, Compressor, DVDSP.

30 minutes of 720p HD video is about all that will fit on a standard 4.7 GB DVD without compromising quality.

Its been awhile since I've done anything serious with DVDs, I have a standard workflow I just follow without thinking. What container/encode is your HD media in? Its logical to assume that a 4GB video will fit on a standard DVD, but that may not be the case as the media needs to be converted to DVD VOB format (format and encoding compatible with DVD players) and "authored" before the DVD image is burned. These are steps built into toast.

What Kohlson suggests will help determine if its an conversion, authoring or burning issue. You need to play that disk image you create with a DVD player app.

Oh, if your media is a DVD image, it would have needed to be ripped before converting, authored and burned.

Lots of options and variables. Lots of places DRM can interfere.

 

[lostless]

Frame rate differences. PAL is 25fps vs NTSC 30. Every 4th or so frame will get repeated, hence the noticiable chop. Toast is not made to make a smooth PAL TO NTSC conversions.

 

[Dave Braine]

Encoding to PAL and NTSC implies you may be trying to make a 720p DVD.

PAL/NTSC has nothing to do with trying to make a 720p DVD.
https://www.sjbproductions.com/web_pages/tip_video/ntsc_pal.htm

 

[ColdCase]

The OP did mention the source was NTSC 30pfs... he was trying PAL and NTSC settings, I think, and getting the same chop.

 

[WhiteKnightMac]

The OP did mention the source was NTSC 30pfs... he was trying PAL and NTSC settings, I think, and getting the same chop.

Yes, the source is 30fps.

Having watched the burn videos I have noticed that it is not a constant chop.

The video is jumpy only on scenes where there is a lot of movement from the camera i.e zoom or panning, scenes where the background is static and just people talking 'look' fine. This makes me think it could be an problem with my processor not keeping up?

 

[ColdCase]

Did you create an image file on the hard drive and view it yet? It may be the computer but more likely artifacts from the video conversion/compression to DVD. You said it was choppy on a DVD player?

There is much more to it than this, but it takes more bits per second to keep up with moving video than for static. What gets transferred as a video is playing is only what changes from frame to frame, if there is a lot of movement, like in a pan, all the pixels in the video frame get transferred, and you need a big pipe for that, especially HD. For still frames, basically not much is transferred, and you don't need a big pipe.

Not real numbers but, as an example, if a scene needs 80 bps to display smoothly with the resolution you want but the video pipe only supports 40, you will get chop. The solution is to reduce the resolution, i.e. the number of pixels in the video to the point where 40 bps will play smoothly. This is typically done with compression, which is a broad topic. DVDs is not a large pipe. Bitrates should be limited to about 9Mb/s maximum for compatibility. Now if the player has to deal with disk errors (burn anomalies) it may not be able to decode fast enough. Hence the suggestion to try a different media as one my not have as many errors than another.

Does your video, by chance, have several sound tracks or subtitles?

Some info here: https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

Stuttering in slow pans is notorious for showing flaws or illustrating how difficult it is to transcode/compress when trying to shoehorn video into too small a small box.

 

[WhiteKnightMac]

I've lowered the resolution to 480p so this is now SD for DVD playback, the frame rate now reads:
23.976 (NTSC film) <--- This was the original source FPS not the 30fps that i stated earlier.

I've tried to burn to disc again using the 'fit-to-disc' option unticked in the software to prevent further compression.

The file now plays as a green screen even though the converted file plays fine before burning.

I'm running out of ideas...

I am wondering though that the source file which is 23.976 is being encoded to either PAL(24) or NTSC(30) which is causing the stuttering when burning the HD version of the file. Does anyone know how to skip the encoding fps change in the Toast software?

 

[Ulenspiegel]

@WhiteKnightMac
Try another software (like Handbrake) and Verbatim DVD-R or DVD+R. (RWs tend to play up).
Good luck.
(I gave up on Toast a while ago).

 

[WhiteKnightMac]

@WhiteKnightMac
Try another software (like Handbrake) and Verbatim DVD-R or DVD+R. (RWs tend to play up).
Good luck.
(I gave up on Toast a while ago).

I'm going to try your suggestion, it could be the RWs that the software doesn't like.

I've tried 'Burn' too but that seams to have the same issue as Toast does. Any other DVD burning software someone could recommend?

 

[ColdCase]

Green screens are typically caused an issue the player has reading the disk. If the audio is fine (they are on a different tracks) then it is some characteristic of the video file making it incompatible. Could be the player has a tough time reading the RW, they are notorious for causing green screens and other anomalies, especially when not fresh, with many players. The cheap and dirty troubleshooting method years ago was to try different media. I've been using Verbatim DVD-R 94854 almost exclusively since many of us found them extremely reliable and player friendly.

 

[WhiteKnightMac]

Burn the same file using some Windows software and the playback was perfect. Must be some issue with Mac burning to DVD+RW. I'll try and get some DVD-R and give them a go.