[ This article was first published in the December, 2007, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]
Johnathan Edghill Prada, from Caracas, Venezuela, writes:
I have a problem burning final DVDs from DVD Studio Pro. My projects looks fine in the simulate windows and it burn fine to the disk but when I play it in the DVD player (both in my computer or in the home player) the DVDs “freeze” around 05:30. Sometimes is 6:15, sometimes 5:30.
I was thinking that it was a bit-rate issue but changing it does not seem to fix anything.
Can you tell me where to get assistance in this issue.
Larry replies: Johnathan, thanks for writing. Since you have already tried changing disks and burning in both Toast and DVD Studio Pro, in spite of your guess, I stil think the problem is actually with your compression bit-rates. You probably didn’t change your bit rates enough.
The clue for me was that your DVDs were freezing in about the same spot each time, even when you’ve burned multiple times to multiple disks.
Although video can be compressed in a variety of settings, faster bit rates are not better. What happens is that there’s so much data coming off the DVD that the set-top box or the computer can’t handle it and things freeze.
For my SD DVDs, I set my bit rates to an average rate of 5.5 mbps and a maximum bit rate of 7.2. Then, if I need to squeeze on more video, I lower the average rate, but don’t touch the maximum rate.
My guess is that your bit-rates are close to the 9 mbps rate, which is too much for most equipment.
UPDATE – Dec. 27, 2007
Jeff Coleman writes:
This may not be a bit rate issue. I started this thread awhile back and haven’t gotten to the bottom of it either. I think it’s a DVDSP 4.2 on an Intel Mac vs. DVDSP 4.1 thing and not a bit-rate thing as I’m using the same mpeg file for both compiles. You can read it here.
