is it my samsung M301 or my media?

[-i-]

OK, I am getting an odd issue here, and can't figure out if it is my Samsung M301 DVD player, or my media, Meritline.

When watching a flick, about 3/4 of the way into it, I will get a random alias, then I will get slight pauses. After time, the pauses and aliasing will increase in occurances and have less time inbetween the occurances, often getting to the point where the DVD "locks".

What is weird, is that the aliasing and pauses are NOT on the disk or the encode (I often use ReMPEG2). If I let some time pass, and go back to the spot of errors, it plays back fine.

I guess the best analogy is that the player acts like a PC that is over-heating...

any ideas?

[TRILIGHT]

Seems like a lot of people have reported inconsistent results when playing authored DVD's on this player. I would lean towards a problem with the player not always reading the disc correctly. Especially considering you say those points will play fine sometimes and not at others.

[Commander XJL]

Its your cheap Meritline disks, not your player. Your having the same playback problems others are having with those disks and other cheap media. Just read the forum about it. Burn the same files to a name brand DVDR and you'll find out I'm right.

[-i-]

well, I played the meritlines in my PC, and they play fine...

your probably right though.

What's causing the issue though?? Aside from the media being crap?

It's weird how the problem occures after awhile, and progressively gets worse...

But in arguement, I have read that samsung DVD players have that issue too, stuttering and what not. Any recommends on a **good**, fault free DVD-r / DVD-rw playback set-top??

[TRILIGHT]

Since your disc plays on the PC, you can obviously see that your media is ok. I forgot to say where I got information on your Samsung player. If you check the hardware info at VCDHELP.COM you'll see that other users of that player have reported inconsistent results when trying to play DVDR or DVD+R discs on them.

What you have to remember is that many of the DVD players out there were designed long before there were any specs for the DVD-R and DVD+R formats. In fact, neither is really a standard as of yet. That being said, unless your player actually claims to be fully compatible, there is always the chance that you will have a problem. You can greatly minimize the chance of one by getting a good player though. Everyone has their own favorite. I can only speak about my two players. I have a Sony DVP-NS700P and a Panasonic DVD-RV26 and neither of them seem to have any problems playing my DVD-R or DVD-RW media. Take your disc to the local Best Buy or something and see which players it plays fine on. Nothing like a real world test. :)

As for why your playback gets progressively worse, it could be any number of things, really. More than likely, your player is doing the best it can to read correctly and is making adjustments as it goes trying to give you the best playback. Also, keep in mind that the disc spins at different speeds at different parts of access so that could also be a contributing factor to your problems being worse towards the beginning or end of a disc.

[Commander XJL]

jesus h christ on a popsicle stick, his media is obviously ok because it plays back on a pc but not a standalone? As far as playing worse as the DVD gets towards the end READ THE FOCKING FORUM TRILIGHT that is what these disks do for everyone! And yes these disks will screw up at one point then at another time play fine at that same spot! READ THE FORUM!!!! Please go away before you do any more damage.

[TRILIGHT]

Grow up, Commando. I guess I'm just the luckiest person in the world to have the only SUPER DVR-104 and SUPER Sony and Panasonic DVD players on the planet that work great with generic media! Damn, I'm one fortunate SOB! :D

[Commander XJL]

yes you are from what I'm reading, and I am jealous

[SiC]

It's really hard to say which is the problem since both problems are legit. But I'm leaning more towards the media being the problem. Cheap medias (just about all media) will play on the PC and many of them will not play on a standalones without stuttering or freezing.

On the other hand it could also be the player too. After the disc starts to stutter & freeze, pop the disc out of the standalone and touch it. Is it hot? I've run into players that run hot and once it gets to a certain temp, it starts to stutter & freeze with DVD-R/RWs. Once you let it cool off, it plays fine.

[TRILIGHT]

These are some of the comments from owners of this player and the reason I said it was the player. (Pay attention to the MEDIA some of these people use, "Commander")
"Inconsistant playback of DVD-R. One day will work fine other times not. Otherwise, no problems except slow loading." - Jeremy Snavely

"Well, results are real inconsistent with this player. My dad has one of these, and it's making me irritated. I have a HP100i DVD+RW, and am getting different results every time. The first video I made (Ulead VideoStudio 5DVD to ISO image to RecordNow) works fine on Memorex DVD+RW media, but the next movie I tried would not recognize at all, even though my own set top (Pioneer DV333) plays it fine. I tried switching to Verbatim DVD+RWs, again with no luck. This player is really sketchy (see other's reviews below as well). The Pioneer DV333 I'm using at my house plays everything fantastically." - Sonicjay

"This player DOES NOT play correctly authored DVD-R's. DOES NOT support 320kbit mp3. DOES NOT play x(S)VCD'S. The test DVD-R(s) were correctly tested on several Apex, Pioneer, and JVC models with out problems. Used Pioneer media." - dude
These are just the problems reported about DVD authored media. There are many other inconsistent reports concerning it's ability to handle the different types of VCD's.

The reason I suggested my Sony DVP-NS700P aside from my own personal experience? Comments like this...

"I went through a few dvd players before i found one that plays dvd-r perfectly. the NS-700p is a great dvd player with plenty of built-in features." - king53a

"Probably one of the most solid DVD players I have used. My only complaint is lack of SVCD support. However, the ability to play high bit rate XVCD's helps overcome this for me. Easily played CD-R/RW and DVD-R/RW/DVD+R/RW. I am very happy with this player." - Mike

"DVD-R burned with Pioneer DVR-A03 with Ulead DVD Movie Factory works fine" - Alain dDes Rosiers

"Tried it witha Pioneer dvd-rw and it worked wonderfully. I have also tried it with several brands of cd-r and dvd-r and it worked great." - Janet
No offense to what you had to say, SiC. I've seen overheating problems before. "Commando" just thinks that generic media are the evil scourge of the earth because they don't work for him. I was just providing facts as to my honest, unbiased opinion of why I felt it might be the player.