Is it the Player or the Authoring Process or Media......or...?

[DVD Maniac]

I am following the instructions given in this forum for achieving best results when having to transcode. I am using the DVD Decrypter > DVD2AVI > TMPG > iFoedit Remux method with mixed results (the usual blocky frames problem that most of you seem to experience). I am trying to troubleshoot where the problem is but this seems improssible as I get inconsistent results ie -

1. Play the disc on my burner (Phillips DVDRW228) - No problems
2. Play the disc on my set top player (Pioneer DV717) - Some blocky frames
3. Put the disc back in my burner and play the part where the set top produced the blocky frames - No problem
4. Put the disc back in the set top - Plays the previously "bad" part OK now but finds a problem further on

AAAAARGHH!

What is going on here! Its just impossible to know whether its the media/player/authoring process at fault. I am beggining to suspect that my pioneer just does not like DVD+RW media (the compatability tables say it supports all formats)

If anyone has had the same experience or can offer some guidance to a very frustrated forum member it would be most appreciated.

[Doom9]

ruling out the media is rather simple, buy some major brand DVDs (Verbatim, Pioneer, etc) and burn at 1x. Though blocky can mean a lot of things.. there's blockyness due to too much compression, and then there's blocks which are caused by read errors (and they look alot uglier, shouldn't be hard to discern between the two).

[DVD Maniac]

I have been experiencing the same problems on branded TDK and Phillips media (with the same movie) so i guess that rules the media out.

Doesn't the ripper report read errors if they occur? DVD Decrypter reads these movies fine - so this cannot be the problem - right?

I have been following the Doom9 guides to the letter and still this annoying blocky frames (which I forgot to mention often freeze up my player completely requiring it to be switched off to reset).

The most bizzare aspect is the apparent randomness of when it occurs. Why does sticking the disc back in the dvd writer and then back in the player result in the previous problem area playing fine? I could understand it if TMPG were failing to encode properly at a particular point and then seeing that error as a repeatable problem when the disc is played.

[Doom9]

I completely missed that you're using DVD+RW.
Do the disks always work on the Philips player?
As you may know the DVD-R and DVD+R camps aren't really fully compatible with each other, if I'm not mistaken players produced by the +R camp mostly like their own discs and vice versa. There's even some problems with the Pioneer burner reading +R/W discs.

If you rip the discs make sure you rip them on your DVD-ROM drive, burners will amost all the time be able to rip the discs they burned before so that isn't a good test. If DVD Decrypter reports not errors when you rip the discs in your DVD-ROM then you can rule out a burning problem and the problem has to lie in media/player compatibility issues (unfortunately sometimes players behave erratically, I've tried many cheap media types, sometimes the player would play them without problems but it couldn't be ripped without errors, then using the same brand for another project suddenly the player wouldn't play it properly but it was rippable).

[rmtaibo]

...Or you're exceeding the max bitrate limit of DVD Standards.
If this is your case, you can't appreciate this on your PC, but in your standalone is not the same history.
Take a look at the Video Bitrate with BitrateViewer from:
http://www.tecoltd.com
Open it and take a look of the bitrates along the movie time.
If you find that the Current Bitrate exceeds 9400 Kbps, the movie will hang about 1 second (every time when this limit is exceeded).

The most common case was exposed by Doom9.
But if the movie plays smoothly in a PC with different "+RW compatible" DVD-ROM drives and not in a Standalone, maybe this is your problem...

I got this problem with Rempeg2 sometimes. For example in "TRAFFIC" I got 3 peaks with 11000 Kbps or more. No problem when played on PC but the Standalone hangs when I played this movie.
The Solution is: Check your Video encoder settings.
(In Rempeg2 check the "Limit Max Bitrate" option)

[DVD Maniac]

Tnanks to you both for your suggestions I Have answered in BOLD

{Do the disks always work on the Philips player?
As you may know the DVD-R and DVD+R camps aren't really fully compatible with each other, if I'm not mistaken players produced by the +R camp mostly like their own discs and vice versa. There's even some problems with the Pioneer burner reading +R/W discs}

YES, THEY ALWAYS WORK ON THE PHILLIPS BURNER. SO THIS MIGHT INDEED BE A FORMAT ISSUE

[If you rip the discs make sure you rip them on your DVD-ROM drive, burners will amost all the time be able to rip the discs they burned before so that isn't a good test. If DVD Decrypter reports not errors when you rip the discs in your DVD-ROM then you can rule out a burning problem and the problem has to lie in media/player compatibility issues (unfortunately sometimes players behave erratically, I've tried many cheap media types, sometimes the player would play them without problems but it couldn't be ripped without errors, then using the same brand for another project suddenly the player wouldn't play it properly but it was rippable).]

I ALWAYS USE MY DVD-ROM DRIVE TO RIP THE FILES SO IT APPEARS WE ARE LOOKING AT COMPATIBILITY OR THE AUTHORING PROCESS

{...Or you're exceeding the max bitrate limit of DVD Standards.
If this is your case, you can't appreciate this on your PC, but in your standalone is not the same history.
Take a look at the Video Bitrate with BitrateViewer from:
http://www.tecoltd.com
Open it and take a look of the bitrates along the movie time.
If you find that the Current Bitrate exceeds 9400 Kbps, the movie will hang about 1 second (every time when this limit is exceeded).

The most common case was exposed by Doom9.
But if the movie plays smoothly in a PC with different "+RW compatible" DVD-ROM drives and not in a Standalone, maybe this is your problem...

I got this problem with Rempeg2 sometimes. For example in "TRAFFIC" I got 3 peaks with 11000 Kbps or more. No problem when played on PC but the Standalone hangs when I played this movie.
The Solution is: Check your Video encoder settings.
(In Rempeg2 check the "Limit Max Bitrate" option)}

I PUT MIS- BEHAIVING BURNT DISCS THROUGH BITRATE VIEWER AND THE PEAK BIT RATE WAS ALWAYS WELL BELOW THE 9600 THRESHOLD (3500- 5000). THIS RAISES ANOTHER POINT REGARDING THE WAY THAT REMPEG AND TMPG MANAGE BIT RATES WHEN TRANSCODING. AM I CORRECT IN ASSUMING THAT IF I USE THE AUTOMATIC SETTING IN TMPG THAT THE AVERAGE BIT RATE IS SET FROM THE .D2V PROJECT CREATED BY DVD2AVI? THE DOOM9 GUIDE IS CONFUSING ON THIS POINT AS IT SAYS TO "SET THE AVERAGE BITRATE AS BEFORE" - WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? I ASSUME THIS TO BE THE CASE AS IN TMPG THE BITRATE ENTRY BOX IS GREYED OUT WITH A NUMBER ALREADY ENTERED. HOW DOES THIS DIFFER TO THE REMPEG PROCESS WHERE YOU SET THE "RESULTING AVERAGE BITRATE" MANUALLY ON THE SLIDER. NOW I AM MORE CONFUSED!