DVD pixelation on backups

[rip_1956]

I made backups of a few of my dvd's to take on vacation, didn't want to take the originals on the road. I noticed that about half of them displayed occasional pixelation and image 'stuttering' , usually towards the end of the movie. It occurs on both dvd-r and dvd+r .

Is this common on dvd backups? These dvd's were made with DVD shrink and Nero v6. I re-authored the dvd so that I only backed up the main movie portion, cutting down on the compression it had to do.

The burner is a LiteOn SOHW-832s with a recent firmware upgrade. The system is an AMD 2000XP on an Asus mobo, 512mb ram. WinXP Pro is loaded and kept up to date.

I'm not very well-versed on video technology, so maybe there are tweaks I could make.

So, is this pixelation normal or do I have a problem?

[Sterling_Aug]

Try burning slower until the problems go away.

[mobo57]

Common problem with "backed up" videos. Results of compression of the files.
When you re-author, take out as much video as possible, such as credits and lead in. Also, use deep analysis, takes longer but it does give somewhat better results. You can also try dvd rebuilder. It will take MUCH longer than dvd shrink on your system (think 5+ hours), but sometimes gives better results.
Nero Recode is also a good tool. Best bet is to try different ones and see what works best for your system configs. I avoid compression below 70% if at all possible. This seems to be the mark where it all starts to go down the drain quickly in quality and reliability.
Finally, make sure you turn off all anti virii, adware scanners, etc while compressing. These can cause problems like what you described.

[rip_1956]

mobo57,
I usually just grab the main movie portion, as most of my dvd's come up with about 50 - 65% compression required to bu the entire dvd. Don't need any of the extras.

Just for fun, I played some of my backups on the dvd player on my PC. Flawless. No errors whatsoever.

My TV dvd player is an older Panasonic which does not play back photo cd's like almost all newer players do. No mp3's either.

I suppose that it just cannot handle recordable dvd's.

Maybe I should just get a newer set top dvd player. :confused:

[mobo57]

A newer dvd player would be a good start. A lot of the older ones have fits with burned media. Was this the same dvd player you used on the vacation? One thing I discovered is that going from player to player can be a journey of unknowns regarding dvd's I have produced. Most of what I copy and burn is not copyrighted but is usually made by a professional outfit and a lot of times they come on DVD9 disks. For compatibility I compress them to DVD5 disks before I have them sent out. Most times that I have the problems you described is when we have had to really compress the file to fit on the DVD5.
As I said, try DvdRebuilder and see if it works better for you. Get it here:http://dvd-rb.dvd2go.org/
Unfortunately you'll have to set it up to run overnight, but you may get a better result without having to drop some of your hard earned cash.

And as a caveat, we are posting about backing up non-copyrighted material here, ok? Sorry, the lawyer side coming out in me.:rolleyes:

[rip_1956]

Originally posted by mobo57
... And as a caveat, we are posting about backing up non-copyrighted material here, ok? Sorry, the lawyer side coming out in me.:rolleyes:

Just curious, what is the current thinking about backing up (copyrighted) dvds that someone legally purchased? What if that person wanted to bu a favorite or expensive dvd to safeguard their purchase? With kids in the house, sometimes things get damaged.

[mobo57]

Generally, in the US, under the Fair Use Doctrine, you are allowed to back up (called archive copy) media as long as you own the original and you can use one or the other, but not both at the same time. The only problem is you are NOT allowed to circumvent the content scrambling software, ie using DVD Decrypter or such without permission from the copyright holder or without a license for the css. Confusing?? That was the ruling in the 321Studios suit that ran them out of business. The court ruled that while you are allowed to make a copy of the media, you are not necessarily allowed to make a "perfect" copy. From a practical basis, this means you can port a feed from your set top DVD player to your PC capture card, then save this as your archive copy.
As a side note, there was an article in our morning paper about the US Attorney General touting to teens about the evils of illegal copying of movies.
It's a difficult situation for all, you have to respect the frustration of those who put their sweat and cash into developing a product, just to see it become a big "free" distribution on some torrent. But you also have to feel for people like us who don't break copyright laws, but just want to protect our own investment.
I quess as long as there are people who want something for free, regardless of their rationaliztions, the rest of us who respect the laws will have to pay the price.