Strange Problem...

[mr-mojo-risin]

I have a Pioneer A03 and have been following all the good guides from, vcdhelp, doom9 and Derrow. Guides are all great and easy enough to follow but I'm having some problems.

I've burned some movies (DVD5 non-encrypted) with InstantCD/DVD (disc 2 disc) with no problem at all. They all play fine on my Pioneer 636D and my PS2. The problems begin when I use SmartRipper for encrypted movies (still talking about DVD5). Anything I burn using for example the InstantCD/DVD guide by Derrow from my hard disc does not play on my standalone player or my PS2 (ends up a coaster). Anything I burn with Nero 5.5.6.4. using the guide by Derrow from my hard disc will play on my standalone player but not on my PS2. I've heard a few other burning programs would solve this problem?

Now for DVD9:
I used the instructions for audio/subs ripping with IfoEdit by Derrow and it seemed pretty simple and all worked fine. Tested VOBs using PowerDVD and all seemed ok until I burned the disc. Yet more coasters and expensive coasters at that. This happened with both Nero and InstantCD/DVD. I've now tried several movies (back to DVD5) and 2 out of 5 turn out ok but the others are coasters.

I feel like I'm missing soemthing here? I've read loads of posts on various forums regarding software trouble, cheap DVD-Rs, etc... I think I've covered every possibility but you never know. Any help from anyone at all would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if any mods think this post should be in the Newbies section but I've been ripping DVDs to VCD, SVCD and DivX for years now. I'm new to DVD 2 DVD-R but I don't think this belongs in the Newbies section.

Happy to be a member of such a valuable source of information. :confused:

[Derrow]

It looks like, there are some files missing or some start-sectors are wrong.

I noticed that PowerDVD 4.0 is not good for testing, if the DVD-RW will play in settop player. PowerDVD is too much tolerant.
If an extra (title-set) is missing, PowerDVD simply plays the first title set. But every standalon player will fail playing this DVD-RW.

[vwo]

I would suggest that you use Prassi Primo DVD...
... secondly, make sure that the "VIDEO_TS" and "AUDIO_TS" folders are in cap's (not lower case) - Smart-ripper has this nasty habit of writing all file names in lower case - the "ripped" files will play with WinDVD, but will not play in 90% of the standalones...

if you have been following the instructions correctly, and the file names are in cap's, then I would think there might be a couple of possible problems (at least) - check the DMA setting of the A03, try burning at 1X, and maybe do a disc defrag on your hard-drive.

good luck

[mr-mojo-risin]

Thanks for replying. Knew about the CAPS on VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. Have tried ripping with both SmartRipper and DVD Decryptor and everything appears to rip just fine. Can't even burn Friday region 2 and it's DVD5 also burned Gleaming The Cube region 2 and played but breaks up all over the menus. Starting to wish I never bothered buying a DVD writer now. The DMA is set to on and i'm only burning at 1x because i'm using unbranded media. it's not the media at fault either as i've tried Pioneer media at both 1x and 2x. Computer is up to spec also. Have latest versions of everything and latest firmware. Pain in the arse but at least two out of five movies I burn works ok. Not a great result and hopefully i'll get to the bottom of it soon. Sometimes the writer does not detect the media and sometimes it locks up so maybe the writer is faulty. Thanks for the help anyway.