Burning Movies to CDs Causes Artifacts

[vtarpara]

Hey all, I have rather extensive Divx collection with about 10 3.11SBC rips, 45 Divx 4 rips (2CD each) and 15 Divx 5 rips(2CD each). I eventually switch to Divx4 from SBC because SBC would cause these random artifacts of blockyness and color distortion every once in a while for like a sec in a few spots of movies. Since Divx4 ive had zero problems with my final file and pixelation unless that is if the the files after being cut are burned onto CD.

I noticed the problem 3 weeks ago when i was watching a scene from Willow from my CD. for like a random second, part of the screen goes crazy with pixels and color blurring (not the whole screen, just part of the image). Luckily i had the original copies still on my hard drive of both CD 1 and CD 2. Neither of the files had the said artifact problem, only the CD copy. The same goes for Rush Hour 2 and a few others.

At First I thought it was because i overburn some of my titles, but i assumed if the file is readable, its fully accurate copy (aka DIGITAL) however with these artifacts only occurring on the burned copies, the effect seems to make the copy more of an ANALOG problem if u know what i mean. So I reburned the movies using the slowest setting on my burner. The result was that the problem scene was fine, but now the problem, slightly minor, showed up a few minutes before the initial problem scene. Maybe its my media, maybe its just fucking Los Angeles with all its dust, but its still buggin the hell out of me.

I know that others are having the problem too (split second blocking and motion bluring) but i dont know what i should do to fix it. Any input would be helpful.

I use a Liteon 24xCDRW
NERO 5.5x in ISO mode with LiteON Smartburn Enabled & "Verify Written Data" checked. For me Verification always FAILS with the result being that the file is "accessible" but "different"
I also use IMATION 16X media (those 100pack spindles from Best Buy)


Thanks
:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

[soujir0u]

Hmm... I've had problems with some of my files too. Some of my DivX4 files have messed up colors, probably due to the fact that I used an abnormal resolution (352x264), but they were fine before I burned them to CD.

[personal]

hello there
did you ever try to copy the files from the cd to your hd and playing back that copy?
if the problem all of the sudden disappears is the cdrom playback that causes these problems and not the media itself.
i suggest you give it a try.

[vtarpara]

Thanks for the suggestion, but ure point is very unlikely because according to what u say, artifacts occur because the cdrom cannot send the data fast enough, meaning that the artifacts are random in occurence. The artifacts i get are are ALWAYS in the same places regardless of whether i play through the entire CD or just skip to the scene. Plus it happens on both my 16X LiteON DVD and 24x10x40 LiteOn CDRW, however, I'll see if u are correct in the morning, Im really sleepy right now, and have class tommorow morning

Maybe its the shitty IMATION Media?

[LotionBoy]

Imation media is definetely shitty. They're the only brand of CD that I've ever seen flake (quite literally. The blue layer just stated flaking off). But, you say that you're getting the problem in the same area. if that area has extrememly high bitrates for some reason, that could be the problem. Try playing it off the hard drive. If you're still having problems, try burning with Nero and using the verify compilation option. This reads the data off the CD after it is burnt and compares is to the original file. This will allow you to check if you're getting errors in the burning process.

LotionBoy

[Taric25]

If verification always fails you in nero, then you definately need to try a new media. I don't know if they have Sam's Club in California, but in Illinois, I get 2 50 packs of Verbatim DataLifePlus colors 16x 80min CD-Rs from that wholesale house for $40. Each colored CD-R comes in a matching superslim case.

www.cdmediaworld.com
The CD-R drive writes onto a special compact disc that has a gold layer instead of the familiar silvery aluminum layer inside audio compact discs. However, the disc can be only written once. When information is recorded onto the disc, a layer of organic dye is altered and can never be changed.
The basic phthalocyanine (gold) formulation is patented by Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals (MTC) of Japan, and is licensed to other phthalocyanine media manufacturers.These discs are generally referred to as "high speed" discs, and will usually work better at 2x writing speed. Discs which are darker green on the bottom use cyanine as the recording dye. Gold discs use phthalocyanine dye. The more common blue discs usually use Azo dye.

www.cdmediaworld.com
The green CD-R, the cheapest of the three, uses the Cyanine pigment. By itself, the pigment is blue in color, but together with the gold reflective layer, the bottom appears green. However, cyanine's ability to maintain reflectivity is poor giving it a life span of about 10 years. It also delivers the weakest reflection contrasts and thus can cause read errors when run on old CD-ROM drives.
Lately cyanine formula has been altered which results in a much higher life span (20 to 50 years). The gold reflection layer has also been replaced by a silver reflection layer this make the color of the bottom appear blue. The blue media is made of Azo pigments. Like cyanine, it is blue in color but unlike the green CD-R it uses a silver reflection layer which gives the blue color. Manufacturers claim blue CD-R's are as durable as golden ones.


So basically, Imation uses a really cheap dye called Cyanine (manufactured by CMC Magnetics Corporation or Taiyo Yuden Company Limited) which looks green once put onto a CD, while Verbatim uses a dye called Azo (manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation) which looks dark blue.

The reason I personally use Verbatim discs is because I make Playstion backup copies and Gold CD-Rs (like Mitsui) aren't good for that CD reader when it expecting to read black (actually really dark blue) CDs, and Azo is pretty much just as good as Phthalocyanine.

[vtarpara]

Well I got time to copy the movie from the CD back to my harddrive and tested the artifact scene. The file is permanently changed(Damn it! all my movies suffer b/c of IMATION). My guess is that if i burn this file again back to another CD I'd get more digital degradation. I knew Imations were SHITTY but i had no idea it would do this to files, especially delicate movie files.

I'll try to get pictures of what my artifacts look like, but im sure u guys know massive artifacts when u see one.

Now the question is what to do with 100 blank Imations.

Personally ive like Kodak Media in the past, but now they use the cyanine dye as well. I hear Verbatim is very good, but usally expensive compared to some. TDK is usually good too, but ill experiment around. My Memorex media never gave me this problem LOL!

I'll keep everyone posted on whether new media solved the problem.

Kudos to everyone.

[vtarpara]

Well I got time to copy the movie from the CD back to my harddrive and tested the artifact scene. The file is permanently changed(Damn it! all my movies suffer b/c of IMATION). My guess is that if i burn this file again back to another CD I'd get more digital degradation. I knew Imations were SHITTY but i had no idea it would do this to files, especially delicate movie files.

I'll try to get pictures of what my artifacts look like, but im sure u guys know massive artifacts when u see one.

Now the question is what to do with 100 blank Imations.

Personally ive like Kodak Media in the past, but now they use the cyanine dye as well. I hear Verbatim is very good, but usally expensive compared to some. TDK is usually good too, but ill experiment around. My Memorex media never gave me this problem LOL!

I'll keep everyone posted on whether new media solved the problem.

Kudos to everyone.

[ungeraynrand]

That's entirely IMPOSSIBLE. With divx either the movie plays, and hence, the file is intact and perfect, or it doesn't play. There are no in betweens. If a single byte is wrong, it won't play. period "."

[vtarpara]

Lets try to be a little more productive regarding that last statement. I am by no means a newbie. I'll get you clips and pics soon. If anyone has used nero, u'll know that sometimes files are still accessible but CAN be different upon verification. This is exactly the case with my copies. Also its probably a bit-level error, which happens all the time in storage devices from RAM to harddrives to tape drives.

[LotionBoy]

avi can still play as long as all the headers are intact (AFAIK). So if you have a couple bits that have been changed inside a frame block, you'll get data errors but the stream will still be playable, because it can still read every frame.
It's a real bitch if it's your media doing that. shudder, Imation. It could, however, be some sort of interation between your burner and the media, if you are using buffer underrun technology. The Imation media may not be dealing well with either a slowdown in burn technology or with the laser pausing. It could be that the Imation media just errors out at these spots. Another thing, what is the Imation media spec'ed at. Are you burning over its spec'ed speed? If you are burning too fast for the media, try slowing the burner down. If you aren't, try doing a really slow burn at like 4x with nothing else running (so there are no buffer underruns) and see it that fixes the problem. If that doesn't, try a different brand of CD-Rs. See if that fixed the problem. Repeat all the steps above (slower burn, etc) until it is fixed. If that doesn't fix the problem. Try a different IDE cable (are you using an IDE cable that is longer than the spec allows? ). If that doesn't fix it, try a different IDE controller on the motherboard. If that doesn't fix it, try sacrificing small animals. :-) Hope this helps.

LotionBoy

[vtarpara]

yeah the LiteON has smartburn technology that is like a souped up burnproof. basically i set nero to 24X w/ smartburn and the imations is 16x. the drive detects the safest and fastest method of burning by testing the media(dont ask how) and on average based on my time to complete burn, its seems like a 20x - 16x variable burn. I reburned a second copy that i mentioned in the earlier posts at 8x/smartburn (the slowest it can go for CDRs). At this speed im pretty sure the smartburn really doesnt even do anything because my computer delivers a steady data stream to the burn. The artifacts were less severe but i think its more of a random thing rather than a direct speed vs. quality issue.

I should be able to get ahold of different media tommorow after my midterms. Maybe ill try using some CDRWs and disable smartburn.

ANYONE USING IMATION SPIDLES PLZ SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES PLEASE. Im sure some of you may think u have perfect burns but honestly how many times do u watch a movie after its off ure harddrive. I found out the hard way.

Also note, It seems that more errors occur towards the end of the file or outer regions of the CD, not completely accurate but thats what ive seen.