artifacts(?), distortion, etc

[rwillis]

I am very new at this and even after reading the FAQ sticky I don't know the cause of my problem: simply put, when I make a VCD from a dvd in dvd2svcd and burn it in nero, and then watch it on my standalone there is distortion (I don't know the proper term for it), tearing, green strips, etc. and it gets progressively worse throughout the movie. On my pc in powerdvd movies will freeze (while the audio continues) occasionally. What am I doing wrong?
Sorry if this has been posted a trillion times, but I looked and didn't see anything right away...

Thanks

[Nick]

The most common cause of the problems you describe is a bad burn.

Try the burning method described in Q61 of the FAQ.
It uses "Virtual CD drive" software that allows you to play a bin/cue image file as if it were an actual disc. Before burning the disk, play it in a software player first. If this plays OK but the burned disk doesn't, there's your answer.

Slowing down the burn often helps. Failing that, try different CDR media.

If, however, the glitches are present when you play from the virtual drive, something has gone wrong in the encode. If this is the case, please post more info on your encode. The stickies here give you some guidance on how to construct a good post to troubleshoot encoding problems.

[rwillis]

oh good idea... I played through the bincue and there weren't any glitches. I don't know what to do then, because I always burn at 4x (slowest), so that can't be it. I haven't tried different CD's but does CD-R/CD-RW make any difference? (my dvd player will read both)

Thanks for your help

[Nick]

Shouldn't do as far as I can tell.

But with VCD and SVCD, if I remember correctly, some error correction data is dispensed with to get more on the disc, thus a 800MB image will burn on to an 80 min/700MB CDR.

If your PC will play the image files but not the burned disc it strikes me as either bad media or bad burner.

Could you stick the image file on a USB stick or something and burn a disc on another machine - a friend's PC or perhaps one at your place of work?